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Alan Stepney · Centurion Joined: 05 Nov 2004 Posts: 836 Location:

There are numerous points in that article with which I strongly disagree.
So many that it isnt worth bothering to detail them nor to argue with someone who, obviously, has distorted facts to suit their own prejudices.
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Mike · Site Admin Joined: 07 Sep 2004 Posts: 4341 Location:

here is something from another forum

"Please be very careful of Thailand. Behind every other smile is a vicious liar itching to rip you off-or worse-
I was poisoned at a the secluded Ao Prao resort on the N. East coast of Samet in January of 05 because I asked for a new cup of coffee. I threw up for about 24 hours straight, no other symptoms. If I knew then what I know now- that waiter would be rotting on the beach under a bush!

I've been in Thailand for about 16 months and have come to the conclusion that it is an extremely bigoted, racist culture. Every time I'm called " Farang," ( A mispronunciation of the Portuguese term for foreigner, ferrenghi,) I cringe as I know this is used in exactly the same way as, " N****r" is in the US for dark skinned people.
If you ask a Thai what the word means, they'll tell you, "Light Skin".
A seething hatred of " Farang" is rampant, in fact I believe it is taught in school.

As a woman I don't have any of the estimated few hundred thousand or so, two-faced " Bar-Girl" prostitutes sucking up to me or shall I say, lubricating my way, so I really feel the sting of discrimination in every outing from my house. Sitting at a traffic light - " Farang!" Walking into a store, someone will comment, " Farang!" However, it is NEVER said to your face.
Racism against lower income foreigners is actually legislated.
Burmese construction workers are not allowed to drive cars, own cell phones or be out after 8 PM.
( http://phuketgazette.net/news/index.asp?id=5528 )
Please, someone get the UN involved on this issue.

It took me a while to get it that blatant lying is the way here in Thai-Lie-Land , it's your responsibility to make sure people stay honest-if they get over on you, good for them. No one cares.
It seems to be especially OK, even admirable- to screw "Farang" over ....
My last house, a place I thought would be my home for a long time- I had to leave with one weeks notice as the real owner was coming back and the caretaker who'd leased to me had no right to do so. He sent a small gang of teenagers on scooters with toy (I think) guns to scare me out of any thoughts of suing.
I'm learning.
There's a new internet service offered through an " Air Card," like a cell phone for your computer. Having read rave reviews I went to a Tech Mall to purchase it. Nope.. You must have a work permit even though I have a perfectly legitimate visa.
This is purely to discriminate against foreigners...

To say that Thai people are stupid is a woefully inadequate description. Along with the unbelievable two-facedness of these people, they suffer from what I call, No Concept of Future, NCF.
It's apparent everywhere. See the man unloading his truck on the street, no thought at all to the cars passing at 45 mph just inches away from him. See the couple with their 3 year old clutching his 2 other siblings on a scooter...The man rips me off for 3000 Baht when he could've made 10's of 1000's if he's just been a honest worker

Now, I can turn heads with a minimal preparation and would sure like to meet a man near my own age but forget it, there are so many prostitutes here, I haven't had a date in a year now except with a 24 yo Thai-Liar man who took me to a three hour "Whiskey circle". What fun!!
Oh, there was that 54 yo English chap who thought he could slap my ass repeatedly and gouged the back of my neck in an effort to stick his tongue down my throat. Wonder where he got the idea this is OK within the first half an hour of a first date?
Yep, the foreign men here flocking here are no prize and are only coming here for the cheap, easy sex, so I guess it is no loss if they don't look at me twice..
Still it would be nice to at least SEE some foreign men that I think are good-looking. ( Well, OK there is that one..) There are attractive Thai men but they all seem to be either 20 or 60, chronic alcoholics and will expect you to clean up after their whiskey circles.

Inconsiderate doesn't begin to describe their so called "Manners."

It is 8 AM and I've been listening to the same Karaoke song since 6:30, emanating from a house 200 meters away at a volume so loud I cannot have a phone conversation within my own house. This young man has 6 stadium quality speakers located OUTSIDE his house for the neighborhood's enjoyment. One day, around noon, after listening to the same CD 4 or 5 times, I wandered over. He'd passed out, whiskey bottle still in hand, sitting upright in a chair on his front porch.
This goes on pretty much every day. Often, I'll be listening to 3-4, maybe 5 different stereos.
I cannot walk out of my home without soliciting giggles from the neighbors and overhearing the dreaded,
" Farang."

Thai-Liars giggle a lot and smile idiotically no matter what. I've read there are 50 or so distinct smiles. In a restaurant, the server brings you chicken instead of steak. If you are so rude as to confront them on the mistake, you get the "Cause I'm stupid, " smile.

I'm residing in Thai-Lie-land under an Investor visa which requires 3 million baht ( about $92,000) in a fixed bank account. ( Yes, I will get it back, sans 15% tax on 4% interest. I hope.)
I went to the bank the Friday before just before Christmas to withdraw other monies from a different account after a new law was enacted stipulating foreign funds were going to be subject to 30%, 1 year-withholding period. I'd decided that, after the coup fiasco, at 2 weeks of age, Thai-Lie-Land's government was too immature and reactionary to trust with my money.
It took me 3 hours. I was there 2 hours after closing and only finally got an international draft because I refused to leave.
I had the proper forms alright but the portion asking about import, export funds I had marked N/A as I am not going to run any kind of business. The bank manager should have corrected it when I first deposited the funds the previous year. A young woman at the main Siam Commercial Bank in Phuket Town asked me very personal questions about my money such as did I have receipts for purchases and unbelievably, just where did I, " Get the funds initially? Your amount of money, it's too much for a tourist .." she stated while on the phone with BOT( Bank of Thailand) This is AFTER the funds have been deposited for a year.
"Well, if you'd look at my passport,(although it really isn't any of your
business, ) "you'll see I have a " B" business visa. "
" Well where's your work permit, then?" As if she's an immigration official. "What are you using the money for?"
"Well, for drugs and prostitutes," I replied, "like every other foreigner." She was not amused.

(btw, as for Thai-lie-land's reputation for toughness on drugs- why, you can buy marijuana at the local "Bob Marley Reggae bar". Every beach has one but don't bother. It's cheap enough, but "low" is is a better description for the " high" induced. Like being hit on the head with a giant soft hammer. ( so I've heard. Snorrrrre. ....)

I don't have a work permit permit and am not allowed to work under the Investor Visa, as far as I know. (Like I need to earn a 3 dollars a day.) But, I really don't know anything as I wasn't told anything. Am I supposed to register my address? The discussion forums say to, but Immigration, in their ridiculous, Austin Powers parody, militaristic uniforms, tell you nothing.

I fully expect my application for the yearly renewal to be withheld next September (especially when this letter hits the blogs,) unless I repeat my performance with an expensive lawyer as I did with the "extension."
The initial investor's visa , 1200 Baht,( $36. )was granted for 90 days. It took another 20,000 ($611)to get it extended for 9 months, a full year. What a scam!
A woman at Phuket immigration actually recommended fraud. " You're beautiful, get married to a Thai man."
Oh yeah, and get murdered for my savings? No thanks.
The immigration laws are geared toward offering Thailand's number one commodity, sex, in the form of wives. I cannot believe how many lovely, young Thai women settle for the most unattractive foreign duds, two- three times their age, just because they have money.

A visit to Pattaya, the capital of this legalized prostitution, is an exercise is nausea control as the entire beach is lined with grossly overweight, bright pink European men accompanied by the delicate 100 lb women that are servicing them that day. One cannot help but picture the scene that will play out later that night in the thousands of hotel rooms. Ugh.
The women are often quite poor , from rural areas and may not even have " Thai" citizenship even though they were born within the country's boundaries.
To compound their plight, employers in Thailand are allowed blatant discrimination and the better jobs advertised in national newspapers often have for " Male Only..." Unbelievable.

Also, you cannot buy a vibrator. Nope, considered obscene. Though on a trip to the supposedly puritanical island nation of Singapore, I noticed that sex toy shoppes were everywhere, so I stocked up.
Pornography is illegal and pornographic websites are blocked by the morality division of the Police Department. Not kidding folks.
But there are 15 prostitutes on every single block.
Every business such as lawyers offices, restaurants, etc. run by foreigners have as employees, grossly incompetent Thai women that are the owner's girlfriends. I had a high dollar lawyer's office-manager give me totally erroneous information which caused a house sale to fall through. (This turned out to be good or else I'd be stuck with the house as the market is about to collapse due to the recent political developments. I have such good luck in these ways..)
The most expensive, nicest restaurants you have to chase down the server to get another drink...No one has a clue of what good service consists of. Oh, on and on and on...

You can forget about using the title Ms. It is beyond comprehension that you may not care to have your name dependent upon your marriage status, you know- like men?
When I got a driver's license, Mrs. was put on it and now I have to explain constantly I've never been married and cannot produce a marriage certificate or divorce papers.
Infuriating.

Oh, and getting that Thai driver's license....A real lesson in Thai-Lie hospitality.
It took no less than 5 visits to the driver's license bureau. The first day I arrived around 10 AM.
"No, come back tomorrow by 9:30. "
Next day, "No, come back by 9 AM."
Thai-Liars LOVE to cause " Farang" inconvenience.
Be aware now, you cannot wear shorts or tank tops or you will supposedly be refused service, so each day I made sure to wear a knee length skirt and a blouse with sleeves. There's even a sign, " Please dress polite"(sic)
Ok, 4th day. I get in on time and stand in a line for about 45 minutes and it is HOT, no AC, no fans not even a window open. I asked a young woman I'd hired to translate for me, (mandatory) "What is the sheet of paper everyone has?"
" Don't worry, you don't need it," she replied.
OK, I'm get to the front of line, finally. "Where's your application? " I'm asked. You must get an application before 9 AM.
Oh, I could have killed the translator. A stupid, stupid mistake? Nope, she gets yet another days work. See how it works?
So 5th day. The skirt is wrinkled and I have to go and do something dirty afterwards so I rebel. I wear long shorts that come down halfway to my knees. I stand in the same long line to summit the application, come very close to passing out from the heat and then in another line for 45 minutes for the physical tests and get to the written test which I pass only because the examining officer initially gave me the wrong book. If she hadn't, I would have missed about half of the questions.
I go to do the driving test for a motorcycle. The same examiner actually ridicules my shorts, in Thai, to all the others waiting, calling them "Hot Pants" while I'm on a motorcycle performing the test even though the Thai prostitutes-in-training/college-apprentice women are standing around their in micro-mini skirt uniforms they cannot even sit down in.
Such professionalism is THE hallmark of Thai-Lie-Land

So Thailand is the model of democracy in Asia. Mmmm. The Coup makers are being threatened with another coup. As for free speech...
Well, you cannot say anything derogatory about the King or his family. Often when I'm snidely called "Farang," I want to shout the fact that His Majesty, the King was born in Cambridge, USA !!! Would that be illegal?
In fact a Swiss man just got 10 years for painting graffiti on a picture of His Majesty while on a drunken spree last month in Chang Mai.
However, I do think His Majesty, The King and every member of his family are the only Thais that have any honor.

Thai-Liars are all about appearance. They may live in a tin shack but will have the latest model car and it will be shiny clean. Their clothing too is always neat in appearance yet they'll eat 2 inches off the sidewalk and think nothing of inserting viral infected fingers way up into their nostrils. They like to blow their nose onto the ground, too. Let me describe how Thai men blow their noses. They close one nostril off and blow as hard as they can, the contents of their remaining nostril ejaculating all over the ground. Sweet.

Another annoying habit - removing your shoes before entering a dwelling.
There are plenty of businesses that this is expected too but I pass on those. No way I'm going to expose my feet to the tens of dozens of other feet that have walked on the floor before me. Yuck.
Haven't Thais heard of fungus? That's the stuff all over the front of their house. What a filthy habit. And any professional housekeeper will agree that oils from the feet make a floor trap dirt. Remember, Thais are all about appearance, substance is non-existent.

They routinely throw garbage from their cars and will burn plastic refuse in front of your home if the wind is blowing away from theirs. Trash and constuction debris is everywhere. Often, in broad daylight, you'll see someone dumping a load from their pick-up with impunity. Thai-Liars have absolutely no regard for the environment, there are no laws requiring them to do otherwise.

The far west coast beaches in the monsoon months feature a layer of plastic debri from all the trash thrown or washed into the oceans. You literally cannot walk without stepping in it as it stretches the entire length of the beach. Increasingly the ocean is not safe to swim in from bacterial contaminants as proper sewage treatment is non- existent in many highly populated resort areas. Tourists are not informed of this.

On the plus side , the scenery is incredibly beautiful. In Phuket, everything is green but in about 5 years or so this will no longer be true. Everyday, more and more mountains are sheared off with no regard for mudslides ( No Concept of Future, remember?) There are laws about building above certain heights, but are routinely ignored as corruption is Thailand's # 2 commodity.

Something that isn't any Thai's fault but I'll rail on them for it 'cause I hate them so much, is the language. A tom cat with Down's Syndrome would be more pleasant to listen to. KaAAAaaaa MaaAAAAAaaAAA GaaAAaaaa....
(I guess there's a reason Thai women hooked up with foreigners usually have something in their mouths..)

Oh, and that reminds me of my theory on why western men really go Ga Ga over Thai women, it's not that they'll have sex with you your brother and any household pets- for what, 6 dollars, ( after all,I truly believe most men would actually rather have sex with each other,) it's that they'll clean up after your fat, bright pink ass and be your personal household slave. C'mon guys admit it!!!

Ugh, and then there's how animals are treated in Thailand . I took many many pictures at an " Upscale " stable of neglected, equine diseased, starving horses with open, oozing fly-infested wounds, hooves twice the normal length, no water, etc. etc. etc.
Ugh, Pics that would make you sick and cry, but am afraid to send them to the newspaper as I may find myself on the business end of a shotgun. After I leave though...And I will be leaving..

Murder is rampant, a shotgun blast in the back from a motorcycle the preferred method and you can hire someone for a few hundred dollars. There are about 350,000 people on Phuket and every week someone is murdered, usually over money disputes.
.

Most foreigners hate the way Thais drive, as they tend toward excessive speed and yellow lines are meant to be crossed, if you could see them. But, I find they most drivers keep both their hands on the wheel and both their eyes on the road, unlike in the West.
Accidents rarely cause traffic jams as everyone simply drives around them, sometimes with the attending ambulance narrowly avoided by inches. It is one of the few things I like about Thailand. Driving is VERY exciting, like being on a NASCAR track, only far more dangerous. Go around a curve and someone is coming at you in your lane. Wheee!
Law mandates you move over as far over as possible to accommodate such situations.

So let me think, is there any thing I DO like here.....

Mmmmmmm. Mmmmmmmmm

Oh I know.. Perhaps the best thing is that food, fruits and vegetables are of excellent quality, abundant and cheap, cheap, cheap. Tangerines year round, costing under a dollar a kilo. Highest quality beef, free from anti-biotics and BSE prions (Mad-Cow) at about $2 a kilo. Healthy eggs from free range, happy hens, a penny a piece....Etc.

So...Unless you are a man (or are married to one) who can't find women or men, or children, or hamsters in your own country, socially, I'd say Thai-Lie-Land has very little to offer. It's a nice place to visit... but once you get to really know them, the Thai-Liars are just beyond horrible-a nation of whores."

if you want the source--ask

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KoratCat · Centurion Joined: 26 Mar 2006 Posts: 611 Location:

I guess this hate filled article by somebody posing as a disillusioned woman is just the confirmation of the theory in the other article: racist and supremacist thinking among expats in Thailand and the nationalistic bashing among farangs on forums better not named here could lead to some thought control by the Thai Immigration before they let too many problems into the country. Thailand has always managed to remain free from colonialism and maintain its own lifestyle. Development - as Thailand is called an underdeveloped nation - doesn't come overnight. So the farangs coming over here expecting to turn it into a replica of their home countries fit to their vacation standards might be taking themselves not only just a little too important in the universe but also pose a threat to our host country's values. The visa crackdown attributed to financial interests might have been just a beginning to direct the flow for more control to be exerted by the consulates before issuing visas. The internet databases make it possible . . .

Just my opinion.
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Bulldog Drummond · Joined: 27 Sep 2007 Posts: 1 Location:

There are three main causes for racism 1. personal experience and 2. perceived attributes of a particular group as a result of indoctrination or
3. some combination of both.
It is instructive to note that most often people who are "rabidly racist" are those that have had very little contact with the group so despised. It is much easier to think of someone or group as lesser if you don't know them or much about their group.
Also, regardless of our personal culture etc we often fear what we don't understand, that is very true of cultures, ie they have weird barbaric practices, their women cover their faces (must be hidding something) or their women flaunt their bodies tempting us or they pierce their bodies. The men are ...you fill in the blank.
As the world becomes more interconnected most of these fears will subside as we learn more about one another. The main obstical remains language barriers and worldview which is often very hard to understand cross culturally.

Wocca · Scribe Joined: 06 May 2005 Posts: 956 Location:

Fight Against White People ...
Sorry, I Mean 'Racism' Advert

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWcry1QevJw

[Takes a few minutes to download]

Alan Stepney · Centurion Joined: 05 Nov 2004 Posts: 836 Location:

Maythu · Cohort Joined: 14 Feb 2005 Posts: 276 Location:

Racism is everywhere..
In my own birth country Burma..I faced the racism remarks from my neighbors all the time. My Mom is Burmese..my Dad is Karen ( one of the ethnic in Burma ). The neighbors kids call us Kayinboat ). and also we were criticized by the Karen People because we are half and half. I thank my parents that raised us well, I thank the people who call us names, without them I won't be the person who I am now. My childhood experience made me thick shin. Prepared me to be a strong and better person. I survived and my head, my chin is still high up. Racism is every where. Just don't become one of them..

Narachon · Plebian Joined: 11 Oct 2004 Posts: 82 Location: