U.S soldiers in Pranburi building a school and library

[dtaai-maai]

The point I was making is that the US gets flogged on this forum by many. It was to show that yes there are good things that the US does. I wanted alittle comeback. Again we have the Brits standing up and proclaiming how they do things are so great and the US does not. Thank the heavens for the revolution.

You asked the "floggers" what their countries did as a good will gesture. Some of them told you. Now you're whingeing.

Perhaps if you'd made your point in a less openly confrontational way, you'd have had a warmer reception. All you've achieved is to make matters worse. Are you employed by the US government by any chance?

[Big Boy]

Foodie, I think it all went wrong when you implied that over 50 US servicemen had been deployed to Pranburi to 'build' a school and a library. Had you said that they were 'helping locals to build', then that would have put it in to context, and would have been very commendable.

Going back to your original question, what do other nations do to help out? Well I know for a fact that the UK is very involved in many such ventures on a voluntary basis - not necessarily here in Thailand, because I'm not so sure that the need here is so great these days. I'm sure other nations undertake similar projects as well.

I know when I first started coming to Thailand in the late 80s, the Australian services were very involved providing water supplies to the North East of Thailand. This is probably the most commendable act of generosity that I've encountered here, but I'm sure there are many others. We just don't have to boast about it.

[caller]

The point I was making is that the US gets flogged on this forum by many.

That needs to be corrected to a few, where an anti-american bias does surface. And sometimes the language used negatively impacts on what otherwise might have been fair comment. I put it down to an inferiority complex.

But I find that generally, some ex-pats like to knock what they have left behind? It seems to me that ex-pat Brits in particular do very well at this. Sometimes, IMHO, as with the comments about the US, the comments are deserved, others I find risible.

You have to take the rough with the smooth.

[Arlo]

http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-te ... d-map.html

http://www.nationalguard.mil/news/archi ... print.aspx

The last link says there are 6 planned humanitarian projects. Perhaps what the OP is talking about is another. The US leaders in the recent past have sure done a good job of giving the USA a bad name. Most people I have talked to know invading countries and killing innocent folks is wrong but the system in the states is so corrupt. Its all about big business these days and if you get in the way then you better look out. But its still nice to see that militaries can be used for other things than war.

[Pleng]

The point I was making is that the US gets flogged on this forum by many. It was to show that yes there are good things that the US does. I wanted alittle comeback. Again we have the Brits standing up and proclaiming how they do things are so great and the US does not. Thank the heavens for the revolution.

The US gets flogged on many a forum by many. As do the Brits, Germans, Russians, Africans, and every other nationality I can think of.

Saying 'look some Americans did this so there' proves nothing.

I've never got this whole national pride malarky. It's like you're trying (selectively) to take credit for other people's good deads. "Look some Americans are building a school. I'm American. 'We' are great". I'm sure you would be the first to distance yourself from any negative story about drugs pushing or murder with a "not all Americans are like this". You can substitute 'American' in the examples with any other nationality.

Be proud when you've done something worthy to be proud of. Not when a group of people unrelated to you, unknown by you, and 100% uninfluenced by you are doing a good dead, just because they happened to be born in the same country as you.

[dtaai-maai]

Putting aside the jingoistic aspects of this thread, let's all accept that any demonstration of altruism by anyone is most welcome, even if there is a little flag-waving and PR involved. I'm sure it was good for the sailors concerned to experience a bit of Thai life away from the fleshpots, and almost equally sure that it was good for the locals to meet some helpful young farangs, whatever their nationality.
There's another thread running at the moment along the lines that "there's no such thing as a free lunch" which is probably equally applicable here.

One thing that has always surprised me about the Thai authorities is their reluctance to accept outside help, presumably for fear of looking weak - this was particularly in evidence at the time of the tsunami and more recently during the flooding last year. The US Navy probably had to sweet talk the Thais into letting them help!

[GLCQuantum]

Putting aside the jingoistic aspects of this thread

Just in case anyone else didn't know this word...

Jingoism is extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy.[1] In practice, it is a country's advocation of the use of threats or actual force against other countries in order to safeguard what it perceives as its national interests. Colloquially, it refers to excessive bias in judging one's own country as superior to others – an extreme type of nationalism.