absolutelyBangkok archive · The Thai mind
Originally published Dec. 7, 2007
Sometimes you wonder as a foreigner in Thailand: Can I ever be a friend of the beautiful people here? Or am I doomed to be their fiend?
However good you master the Thai language, how Thai you may become: Aren’t foreigners doomed to stay on the outside of the Thai society?
As it is not even considered a possibility by most Thais that a non-Thai can become a Thai.
Some call this whole gap between locals and strangers a engrained defense mechanism rooted in an i nferiority complex of Thai society. Others call it the feeling of simple racial supremacy.
Take following example:
BangkokDan enjoys the privilege of Permanent Residency, which requires you at the airport to queue up at the always shorter waiting line for “Thai Nationals”.
Nearly every time I leave or enter the country some overly kindly smiling Thai draws my attention to the obvious fact that I do not look like a Thai and must therefore choose one of the long queues designed for “Foreigners”.
A simple explanation that I have to queue up with Thais, even though I’m an alien, clears the skies and leads to many “kho thoooot, kho thooot khaaa/krup!”
Then you have to show of with your meager Thai — to at least proof that you’re a kind of Thai.
But the whole point is this: Can a foreigner ever truly be welcomed into Thai society? Not to speak of ever becoming a Thai?
Not that the West offers shining examples of integration, but processes such as naturalization and assimilation go easier over there, don’t they.
Well, we aliens are still lucky in Thailand. Try paranoid Japan, one of the richest countries in the world that welcomes two or three refugees a year.
But then again, Thailand could and should do better. As it depends a whole lot on the liking of foreigners.
Each year Thailand’s authorities aim to haul in another million of more cash-rich tourists.
Or you never felt cheated when you had to pay 400 baht entering a national park while even rich Thais in a Mercedes have to fork out some baht?
At least here Thailand gave in this December and halved those substantially higher fees for foreigners in order to reduce that double pricing racism.
Or the constant neglects when an overloaded boat sinks again or a racing bus crashes.
With foreigners in it. What a waste of human potential.
Or the troubles in the South, political instability, persistent street sellers, bumpy-humpy walkways, fines for littering, life-threatening bird flu and SARS…
Who in the right mind still thinks about coming to Thailand for a holiday?
Double pricing, overzealous developments over nature and beauty, taxi scammers and other crooks — and not even the beer is cheap anymore.
What are the reasons that people are still coming here?
“Thailand has so much more to offer than its women,” we were recently enlightened by a letter in the Post’s Postbag.
The letter went on: “It’s down to Thailand as a whole to change this opinion.”
This opinion, it is to say, about the state of affair of Thailand’s tourism industry.
Probably written by a reader who travels back home and emails his local newspaper a letter.
A letter praising the ever smiling staff in local shops back home, the great climate, wonderful food and oh so helpful authorities.
From the absolutelyBangkok archive. Back to all stories