New Mandala

6 responses so far ↓

• 1 Joy // Dec 8, 2008 at 6:43 pm

  I’ve just read ‘PAD’s real Forebears’. It’s so well-written and very moving.. How cruel, selfish, ruthless, shameless those murderers are, and now those very same murderes (or their likes ) are enjoying immese wealth and high prestige in Thai society> i don’t believe that there is such a thing as “karma’ but now I really wished ‘karma’ was real so that those who ordered the horrific murder and rape of unarmed protestors could suffer the same atrocities.
  I wish more Thais were able to access it, but I doubt if any PAD supporters would even bother to take a glimpse at it… The problem with many Thai people is not just fixed mindset, but also the inability to read English texts.. But perhaps even more than that is the refusal to accept that one can be wrong, that one has been programmed by a particular version of ‘truth’ that seeks to distort history for its own political gain..What an apt choice of word..’ki kwai’… but then ‘ki kwai’ is actually quite harmless and in the past the poor even benefit from it. Those murderers are much much much worse than “Ki-kwai”..

• 2 kwai jok foong // Dec 8, 2008 at 11:37 pm

  Many thanks for the plug!

• 3 udon thani expat // Dec 9, 2008 at 1:34 am

  when the minority wont to rule you will always have this amount
  of social problems

• 4 Sascha // Dec 9, 2008 at 9:36 pm

  This article is enlightening and resonates with what I’ve learned recently – including from the book “My name Lon”. I just got back from my first ever trip to Thailand (and Cambodia and Vietnam) and I’m appaled by the circumstances that force many young girls into prostitution. I’m a farang. But I did not come to “buy your country”. Quite the opposite: I want to put the money and skills I’ve gained in Europe to good use in Thailand by giving the poor and underprivileged a choice for their future. My idea was to join such causes as GAATW or WEAVE. What does the author of this article suggest?

• 5 Michael#2 // Dec 10, 2008 at 1:20 am

  There was a very small village in Issan, which surprised a government social worker, I met. They had generators, which lighted their house, and even had their first village child in university. Their local wats are lighted and education was emphasized. Lesser dropouts and increased awareness with television available too. They had piped water, which help decreased the infant mortality amongst them. Better hygiene and economic productivity followed. They even covered toilets with piped water and cholera outbreaks have stopped.

  The social worker friend was all praise for this village which self helped itself without any support from any government or non government organisation. It was all hard earned by the womenfolk.

  But at what price?

  It was the income from generations of the womenfolk who were sex workers. This christian welfare worker then asked the forum for an opinion. To stop these women, as a christian or to encourage them, as a social worker. She said that the light at the end of the tunnel was that with these amenities, and education, bought with blood money. The village. may one day, stop selling their daughters to the flesh trade. Her poignant question to the people present in forum was, “Will they go to hell?”

  The spiritual adviser, who is today, the bishop of Johor/Melaka said, “If there is a hell, then the government and people in power, who stopped legitimate funds from reaching these people, will be deeper in there.

• 6 Joy // Dec 13, 2008 at 3:34 pm

  Got to read the excellent article on prostitution in Thailand. Really appreciate the author’s attempt to do the in-dept analysis of the problem of prostitution in Thailand. It’s so true that a lot of middle-class (or upper) Thai men play a significantl role in perpetuating (if not actually causing) this problem, and make Thailand the way it is nowadays… Take the way many of these men treat women—nothing but sex objects–the things that they can purchase with cash and show off among friends to boost up the image of being a ‘virile’ man. Many of the so-called middle-class educated Thai men are incredibly sexist and so hypocrite when the issue of prostituion is concerned. (For the purpose of my term paper)I’m a regular visitor of a Thai forum whose members are largely middle-class, ‘educated’ men and I’m appalled by the way men there discuss about women. With such an entrenched sexist attitude and a very strong patriachal culture, i don’t think it’s easy for Thailand to alleviate the problem of prostitution.. Easy for these Thai men to put the blame on government or foreign or western tourists than review or change their own attitude towards women that contributes to the booming of the sex industry and the subordinate position of women in Thailand.. Sadly, many Thai women also internalized sexist attitudes that can only disempower them…

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