HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

“Unseen in Thailand” not for foreigners

Two tier pricing is a very interesting subject

Farewell, Bruno Forrer

Don’t let your greed destroy the very thing that you love so much

People need peace and quiet

Smoke bothering the children

Is corruption a matter of degree?

Rocks through your windows?

Why only one night?

“Unseen in Thailand” not for foreigners

Dear Sir:

According to a recent Pattaya Mail report (Vol. XI, No. 22), the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has published a new guidebook in collaboration with a triumvirate of local high-profile sponsors. “Unseen in Thailand” reportedly features tourist attractions in the country that are off the beaten track. How interesting! But the bummer follows suit: The book is only available in Thai language.

The kingdom welcomes some ten million foreign visitors each year, and surely a considerable number of these would just love to learn about these “unseen” places and sites. Does TAT honestly think foreign tourists are only interested in visiting Phuket, Pattaya, Chiang Mai and messy Bangkok, which they always promote heavily overseas, or is there any other reason for keeping these “secrets” exclusive to Thai tourists? The mind boggles.

Thomas Schmid

Bangkok

Two tier pricing is a very interesting subject

Editor,

Well this is a very interesting subject indeed, but I’m afraid it’s just a fact of life in Thailand that we have to accept unless or until the Thai government implements laws to regulate it. I don’t think people should look on double pricing as racist, it’s more to do with people’s attitudes because of the differences in living standards between developing countries and developed countries. I’ve heard that visiting Japanese or Chinese tourists get charged the same higher prices that Westerners do. But sometimes, if they can pass themselves off as a Thai, they can get the Thai price.

I remember when I was first in Thailand in 1981, local people used to regard me as a millionaire just because I came from the U.K. In general, ordinary working Thais look on themselves as much poorer than Westerners and Japanese etc., that is, in terms of salaries, cash in the bank etc.

However, as we all know there are a large number of Bangkokians who are extremely rich, so maybe this is ironic. In the west we do have some double pricing structures. It’s very common that full time students and pensioners can obtain discounted prices, and this doesn’t take into account whether they are wealthy or not. Of course these are examples of special offers not special surcharges. But the psychology is similar. So fair or unfair, T.I.T.

Mr Chips

Occasional resident in Pattaya

Farewell, Bruno Forrer

Editor;

As members of Bruno Forrer’s family who live in Switzerland, we would like to say a heartfelt “thank you” to all of his wonderful friends, associates, and guests who dined at Bruno’s Restaurant for their sincere condolences and warm expressions of sympathy for our loss.

We want to say how much we appreciated the kind gestures of those who sent flowers and wreaths, and how grateful we were to everyone who attended Bruno’s funeral. These acts of kindness will always be remembered and gave us comfort when we needed it most.

Bruno had many friends and it is heartwarming to know that so many people loved and respected this benevolent and generous man. Thank you all for your kindness to Bruno and for keeping his memory with honor.

On behalf of the Forrer family,

Walter Schlatter

Rudolf Maerkle

Don’t let your greed destroy the very thing that you love so much

Dear Editor,

No matter how fast many Western foreigners fly into the Kingdom, their greed seems to arrive here even before they have put one foot on Thai soil. And no matter how good their education has been and how good and easy access they have to good information about what is going on in the world, their brains seem only to serve their greed.

This is clearly shown in the ongoing dispute about the so-called ‘dual pricing’ system.

Some contributors qualify this system as essentially racist. That’s a ridiculous exaggeration and - even worse - an un-thoughtful, but nonetheless very painful insult to all those people who really have suffered from apartheid or who are still suffering from structural and continuous discrimination. I’m referring to something as poor and un-guilty black people being brought to death as they couldn’t afford a good lawyer who is capable of dealing with a biased white jury.

To compare their little discomfort with anything like racism is beyond any standard and decency.

And why this, why putting so much strain on the local Thai people’s friendliness and hospitality, not allowing them to earn a little more? Is it for any high-standard ethics or principle’s sake that they make this fuss?

No, it’s just for a few baht!

It’s not so much the things they say; it’s more the things they do NOT say:

* They don’t tell whether the amount paid was nonetheless considerably less than the price they would have to pay in their home countries for the same service,

* They ‘forget’ with how much ease they could enter the Kingdom, and how many difficulties an average Thai would get for entering their home countries. And surely these restrictive admission policies of their democratically chosen administrations are never called ‘racist’.

* They only mention fixed priced things in their home countries and ‘forget’ about the things for which there are no fixed prices like rent of rooms, and - of course - income tax.

* The idea of ‘fairness’ is only considered when it suits them. For example they don’t discuss whether it’s fair that an average Thai would have to pay a considerable part of his month income whereas they only lose some hours’ salary for same trespass upon smoking in no-smoking areas.

Is this unfairness not one of the core problems that make it difficult for Thai justice to act appropriately against Western paedophiles?!

There are lessons to be learned from the effects of mass tourism on the local people in countries as Spain, Greece, Turkey and the south of France: Either tourists allow the local, friendly people to earn a little more or they will have to accept that these people will go away because they can’t afford anymore to pay the increased prices and the only local people that stay are the very ones who are determined to enrich themselves no matter how!

Effects of mass tourism of relatively rich people into poor countries need to be studied very well and perhaps one conclusion of this study is to abolish this dual-pricing system and to find other ways for compensating the local people for the increasing prices. But not at these foreigners’ conditions!

So my point to them would clearly be: don’t let your greed destroy the very thing that you love so much!

E. Traarbach

Holland

People need peace and quiet

Pattaya Mail Mailbag;

Leave it to the Americans. They have come up with a crude new way to export prisoner confessions. They play loud heavy metals music 24 hours a day. After a dose of this loud music the prisoner will break down and confess to anything in order to get some relief.

People living around Wat Chaimongkol are not prisoners of war, but they feel like it. It’s not rock and roll they are subject to, but it is something just as nerve wracking. A sermon from a boom box comes along at five thirty in the morning. Loud xylophone music from the crematorium is played all day and into the night. And the cannon shots accompanying the cremations are enough to give one a heart attack. (It is enough to wake the dead.) Carnivals and holy days of course are an exception to the rule.

All this noise creates a state of nervous exhaustion and anger. Unlike prisoners of war, people living around the temple can’t confess and get relief. The only thing they can do is grin and try to bear it. They close the doors and windows, take a valium, put in earplugs, and turn off the T.V. Never a breath of fresh air.

Surely there must be a law against noise pollution. And there is no reason why a temple should be an exception to the rule. Many temples now have large new buildings. There must be rooms in there buildings for all this noise. There must be consideration for others. There is no reason why sermons and ceremonials should be broadcast to the whole community. People need and deserve some peace and quiet.

Ray Standiford

Smoke bothering the children

Editor;

I have a nephew and niece of my wife who we are sending to school, at the Pho School adjacent to Wat Pho on the Naklua Road. The problem is, that during school hours Wat Pho conducts cremations and the smoke, plus the stench, is making the students sick enough to retch and vomit. Isn’t there a law that specifically instructs all crematoriums to install scrubbers or devices to eliminate this stench that emanates from these tall smokestacks during a cremation? Mr. Mayor, please check this out, as the health of these students should predominate.

A concerned Pattaya citizen

Is corruption a matter of degree?

To the Editor

I was listening to the radio station BBC World Service on the morning of the 26th May 2003 when the newscaster mentioned that they would be interviewing, among other people, the Thailand representative attending the ‘World Anti-Corruption Forum 2000’ taking place in Korea this week.

The interviews commenced with the representative for Kenya stating that it was not always money that was handed over, the poor would have to find a chicken or cow and that corruption should be eradicated, as was voiced by all interviewed with the exception of? Yes, you guessed it, Thailand. The word corruption was changed to ‘gift’ and the Thai representative, Khun Supalorncon {sic} stated and I quote, “A gift of 10 or 100 dollars US is nothing, 100,000 or 1,000,000 dollars US is another matter” unquote.

Says it all really, an international meeting talking about the abolishment of corruption in the world and the Thailand representative says that if the ‘gift’ is small enough bribes are OK.

Yours faithfully,

Mick JOHN

Ban Chang

Rocks through your windows?

Dear Billy Sheal,

No need to put up with malcontent baht bus drivers. Just install Plexiglas windows minimum of 1/8" thick and they have to use a howitzer to bust the thing. I did the same in L.A. to counteract the locals - it worked well, no more broken windows.

Mark Hasslinger

Hartland, WI

Half way to the North Pole

Why only one night?

Dear Editor,

It was good to see the “street cleared of the scourges of Pattaya” i.e. katoey’s. But why only for one night? Was this the only night the police work? Or because of a ‘very important person’ visited his favorite restaurant and it was not good for him to see how bad things are?

Now they are back in force and Pattaya is not a safe holiday destination with these people back on the streets.

Bad new spreads faster than good news. Please, the police need to take action to clear the beaches and streets to make them secure for people to walk in safety.

Mike

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