FARANGS IN THAILAND NEED TO ORGANIZE

The Thais on some level are going to need to decide just exactly whom are their friends, the farangs who live there and visit, or the outside interests attacking these same farangs.

It is sad but true that here in America out government is influenced largely by special interest groups, and often these same groups have their power not because they represent a large portion of the population, but they are simply well funded, well organized and have had time to make political contacts in Washington.

I believe that the Thai visa revision rules that followed the Karr arrest are connected to this same phenomenon.

Farangs visiting and living in Thailand contribute outrageous amounts of money and positive influence to Thailand, but so far only their financial contribution to the economy is recognized.


Regardless of the sexual politics of western farangs visiting Thailand, they represent an upper class element of their own countries society.

International travelers as a whole are persons who have jobs, education, and preserved assets sufficient for the same travel. Therefore they almost always bear the markers of being of an upper element of their home countries.

As Thailand is full of western tourists and residents, Thailand benefits not just from the money spent by these people, and it is probably billions , but they receive untold cultural advantages also.

Thailand receives the benefit of their "average in country education level" being lifted by the addition of these same western minds.

While it is true many westerners are only on vacation in Thailand and are not attempting to contribute to the "brain trust" of the country, they actually do .

When a westerner takes a bath in the morning, and brushes his teeth and goes out on the street and buys a newspaper, or politely buys breakfast somewhere, he has contributed to the overall literacy and decency of the environment around him.

If a westerner is sitting in a beer bar and is trying to describe to a bar girl about his life in New York or London, for a few moments that same country girl is getting a culture lesson from a patient teacher that she would no doubt not get picking rick back in Issan.

Western Farangs as a group are a random composite of characters, but even in our most humble moments, we are adding to the socio-cultural "futurism" of Thailand.

Western Farangs are frequently legitimately nice people, and attempt Thai style politeness and diplomacy in their daily dealings not because they are trying to avoid a mugging, but because they are seriously interested in not talking down to the locals, and learning about their culture and getting along with them.

Anyone who discounts the cultural contribution made by Western Farangs in Thailand on holiday simply isn't considering factors that are abstract, and difficult to observe on a spread sheet.

As a group, we farangs should not consider ourselves superior to the Thais, but we need to collectively recognize that we are positively adding an upper class western feel to this place, even if it is given in the form of single men on holiday unwinding from their daily stress.

The western man has been talked down to enough by "moralizing special interest groups" in America and elsewhere.

We need to recognize ourselves as a legitimate demographic, and put down our beers long enough to come up with a plan for our own equitable treatment while we are residents, or on holiday in LOS.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MQcJGcMCg8E


Michael Miller
Indianapolis,
2007