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See, hear, or speak no evil

Cultural indifference to nudity

See, hear, or speak no evil

Editor;
When I write a letter to Pattaya Mail critical of what I see and experience in Pattaya I don’t expect some resident expat to come along and call me a whiner. When Jack Tighe calls people whiners he has no respect for others and no tolerance for opposing views. Evidently he expects a tourist or expat in Pattaya to see, hear, or speak no evil. That’s not the way things work in a democratic country.
Now having said that, I suggest that Jack should get his facts straight when writing a letter and he should consult a lawyer when in doubt. In his last letter to Pattaya Mail (Dec.25) he took me to task for saying something about noise pollution in South Pattaya coming from the DVD shop in the market and the Buddhist school in Wat Chaiymongkol. If the lawyer says that all the noise I allude to is legal, I will begin to double glaze my windows and doors, let my A.C. run 24 hours a day, use ear plugs, and never say anything about noise pollution again. Perhaps I will just move on as many in my building have done and as Jack suggests. If I do decide to move on I will welcome some compensation since I have been in my present quarters for 12 year and the noise about which I speak is a recent innovation.
I have no doubt that the noise is illegal so I’m not afraid of what the lawyer says to Jack. And I have no fear of voicing my opinion. Jack should look up the word civilize in the dictionary. It means to refine, educate and enlighten. That’s what we all should be doing no matter where we are. I also suggest that he apologize to P.W., D.W. and G.B., the people mentioned in his letter and skip all that nonsense about “An Axis on Whine”!
Ray Standiford

Cultural indifference to nudity

Editor;
Doesn’t it lack logic to say that insular rural areas more represent a country than cities with many ordinary people from many areas and all walks of life? I see little in up-country villages that can’t be found in Pattaya & Bangkok, but the latter two also have far more.
To apply the release of true self when moving away from home peer pressure to only go-go girls anywhere shows a sheltered life. For instance, young-oriented Western resorts by the score are 10-fold more hedonistic than Pattaya, the notoriety of which comes not from a wild scene, but as sex-obsessed or financially independent but emotionally dependant older men can rent financially dependent women (who are emotionally independent). Despite this allowing people to serve each other’s purpose, it irks deep-seated Western cultural prejudices. Sub-dividing and deriding types of Thai women (like bargirls or go-go girls) is just an ego-driven “mine is different” need of the men who care too much about what others think, and do not want to be judged, which is natural, but want to judge others, which is hypocritical. It is, in fact, the same bigotry of those who deride the whole Thai thing, who are deaf to “she would still love me even if I hadn’t bought her an house” assertions.
A man playing the expert on women is always vain, multiplied exponentially when he is aged, the women are generations younger, foreign and he met them in an artificial situation. The staid Thai way pointed to some weeks ago was schooled into the masses by official 1930s decree, and schooled out was true cultural indifference to nudity.
After Thailand’s copying of old Western inhibition, it is ironic that many Western women now often adopt the old Thai (free) way. I recall tourists being fined in Spain and Greece for going topless, but it is now widely the norm for even elderly ladies, nude on many beaches. No one bothers except those new to it. Signs are that there’s a full moon on the rise in Thailand. Well-off 20-yr-old Thai girls in my Bangkok suburb “Western Culture’ class were most amused by DVD scenes of beach baring, hysterically so at a volleyball game. They found a 70s bra-burning scene so hilarious that they seemed about to do it.
Basing integrity on consensual adult sexuality is stuffy thinking that causes sexual immaturity. Prostitution by definition - to sell out ethics - has far more cosy homes than the sex trade. Some nude models and promiscuous women I’ve worked with - the two don’t always align - were far more principled than many “proper’ people I’ve known. Lawyers topped Shakespeare’s bad list. For many it is politicians, bankers or police, all outwardly “proper’ jobs. Many people would say that proper is like elevator music; each note is right, but the whole is proper boring.
Tony Crossley

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