Watching CNN this morning a person being interviewed mentioned that "....millions of Americans don't have a passport as they see no value in ever leaving the USA and visiting elsewhere....". That started me thinking about what are the positive, character improving things we as foreign residents of Thailand can learn here?
All of us get into a funk here from time to time and curse this place, but there MUST be some positive things about this culture and the way they do things that would benefit us to embrace and practice?
Be careful if you use "mai pen rai" as an example. Very dangerous in my opinion unless interpreted and implemented properly. Pete
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Source
I've always maintained that the best education in life is travel. Those that choose or have no choice but to remain in their personal closeted environment miss so much in terms of different cultures and ways of life. I've always maintained that in foreign climes one should make an attempt to learn it's history and learn as much about it's culture as possible.
RICHARD OF LOXLEY
It’s none of my business what people say and think of me. I am what I am and do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. It makes life so much easier.
Yes, exposure and learning can be personally satisfying anywhere, but what do we/can we/should we take away from here that could be considered worthwhile and of value to our life bucket so to speak. Pete
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Source
Something that we can learn from here is the extent to which those that dwell within the society are pretty personally free to do as they want and just how tolerant, in many aspects, it [society] can be as long as you are not involved with the obvious no-no subjects. I would think most that live in Thailand are a lot freer to do as they see fit than most are in the UK, China, Vietnam etc, for example. The only thing that obviously constrains in this aspect is the financial factor and some social prejudices that are generic to the culture (patronage system etc)......but even those that are towards the bottom of the social triangle and constrained by money or social walls are often still in possession of optimism and happiness.
I rather enjoy living in a land that has not been hijacked by political correctness and pettiness from a nanny state forever tinkering in peoples' lives, despite it's well documented frustrations for us as foreigners.
The importance and respect shown to family. New food recipes. The 'not thinking too much' attitude to life. The politeness, if only superficial. The Buddhism in action, even though it may be 'opium for the masses'. I particularly enjoyed learning you can drive on the pavements in Bangkok. Must give that a go next time I am in London.
After my first two years in Thailand I first realized there is a big cultural difference once I went back home. For two years I had been living among relatively poor people who despite that all seemed to be happy with the little they had, they were smiling all day and were nice to each other and to me. And here I was back home. All relatively wealthy people but no one seemed happy or smiled. Instead of helpful, nice and pleasant as I had got used to in Thailand - almost without noticing - people were much more unfriendly, seemed suspicious, sometimes even hostile, and certainly overall more unpleasant to deal with.
Of course things have changed a lot in the last 20 years. Not to the better in both worlds.
If people ask me why I prefer to live in Thailand I tell them this:
In the west you call your sick mother that you cannot come to see her right know because you are really busy at work. You tell her you will try come to see her tomorrow.
Here they call their boss that they cannot come to work because their mother is sick.
All of you who have been here for a while know of course that this is not completely true because the Thai is not going to call his boss, he or she will simply not show up. But let's not complicate things.
Or another example:
In the west we say let's finish this job first after that we can eat.
Here they say let's eat first after that we can finish the job.
Also here I simplified a little as the job might not be finished at all, but the let's eat first part is correct!
We are all living in 'the good old days' of the future.
My brain is like an Internet browser; 12 tabs are open and 5 of them are not responding, there's a GIF playing in an endless loop,... and where is that annoying music coming from?
zeitgeist wrote:Do people who live here think they have learned to be more or less tolerant of immigrants in their home countries?
Zeitgeist
I think it depends on what type of Immigrant you refer to.....
To use the UK example...... There are Immigrants from all parts of the globe.....
The Immigrants who are educated..... Skilled...... And contribute to UK society are to be welcomed......
And then you have Immigrants who are uneducated..... Unskilled...... And who are nothing but a drain on society....... These people should be made unwelcome and generally..... Robustly encouraged to go home.....
Edited to add: Thailand has made me far less tolerant towards the latter.....
zeitgeist wrote:Do people who live here think they have learned to be more or less tolerant of immigrants in their home countries?
Zeitgeist
And then you have Immigrants who are uneducated..... Unskilled...... And who are nothing but a drain on society....... These people should be made unwelcome and generally..... Robustly encouraged to go home.....
And where would the 'Good ole USA' be today if your suggestions were adopted by the, then, indigenous population.
And where would the 'Good ole USA' be today if your suggestions were adopted by the, then, indigenous population.
Your post is both racist and ill informed.
Re-read my post in its entirety.....
I was referring to the UK.... Not the " Good Ole USA ".......
And then you have Immigrants who are uneducated..... Unskilled...... And who are nothing but a drain on society....... These people should be made unwelcome and generally..... Robustly encouraged to go home.....
If you think that these people do not exist..... I suggest that you extract your head from the sand.....
It is neither racist or ill informed...... It is simply the truth......
nanyang wrote:And where would the 'Good ole USA' be today if your suggestions were adopted by the, then, indigenous population.
Your post is both racist and ill informed.
Do you mean the Indians? Nope, didn't think so.
SD's post is certainly not racist. It's clearly in favour of selective immigration (to the UK I assume?) based on skill shortages etc. but that's a long way from being racist.
If this (yawn) 'new' topic is to continue, maybe it needs a new thread of its own as the original topic has already been swamped.
Edit - oops, just saw that SD replied as I was prepping this
And where would the 'Good ole USA' be today if your suggestions were adopted by the, then, indigenous population.
Your post is both racist and ill informed.
Re-read my post in its entirety.....
I was referring to the UK.... Not the " Good Ole USA ".......
And then you have Immigrants who are uneducated..... Unskilled...... And who are nothing but a drain on society....... These people should be made unwelcome and generally..... Robustly encouraged to go home.....
If you think that these people do not exist..... I suggest that you extract your head from the sand.....
It is neither racist or ill informed...... It is simply the truth......
If you cannot handle that...... Too bad......
You have a good evening now.......
I suggest that you extract your head from your 'rear end'.
I was merely trying to point out, a point that you missed, that generalizations are nonsense.
How would you expect someone who is uneducated to be 'skilled'?
They need opportunities and encouragement to be able to contribute, positively, to their environment.
You are, in my opinion, an ill educated bigot who needs to be aware of - 'the truth'.
Last edited by nanyang on Wed Oct 30, 2013 8:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
