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Go and live someplace else

Club Thailand

Tourist destination?

Go and live someplace else

Editor;
Recent Mailbag contributors have responded to complaints about such issues as dual pricing and the ‘early’ closing of bars with the unhelpful advice that complainers should go and live someplace else.
Nobody likes everything about where they live but it is a nonsense to suggest that they either keep quiet or move on. It is quite valid to complain although whining is tiresome. Better still is to propose improvements.
Personally I have no problem with early closing or dual pricing but do have a problem with those unable to think beyond the ‘If you don’t like it shut up or get lost’ response which is hardly likely to stimulate a healthy exchange of views or bring about positive developments.
Such people should go and live someplace else.
Nigel Oakes
Pattaya

Club Thailand

Editor,
“The Beach” was a successful novel and movie about a group of western backpackers who made their home on an isolated Thai island. A point made by the story was that whilst many people reject their homeland and choose to live elsewhere, they cannot help taking their home-grown hang-ups with them. I suggest that ‘Mailbag’ confirms this. Whatever debate is about, the view of many contributors is based on what happens in a similar situation ‘back home’ and they clearly believe it is the only system with merit.
It is precisely the mentality that is central to world conflict. Why can’t people grasp that their homeland’s way is entirely irrelevant in another country? So far as Thailand is concerned, a non-national is NOT treated as a national is, and that’s it in a nutshell. Self-interest whinging is negative and does no good for anyone’s feeling of well-being or bonhomie, yet it is all that many people seem capable of.
When these people are aboard and complain about their host country’s failings, they seem unable to acknowledge that the same problems exist in their homeland. Greed doesn’t affect farang and taxi drivers in Europe or America don’t try to overcharge a perceived soft touch? The rush of youth doesn’t happen and ‘boy racers’ don’t exist? Relative wealth doesn’t create a superiority complex and these lands are free of social problem? Give me a break! Fact is, some people just can’t feel worthwhile without something to point their finger at.
An issue raised time and again is Thailand’s dual-pricing policy, and I would like to offer an alternative view of the practice: All over the world there are clubs of various sorts, the members of which get privileges that guests who wish to use a club’s facilities do not get. Those guests could be said to be discriminated against, but does any guest of a club expect to be treated the same as a members? Of course not! Apply the same principle to a nation and view the nationals as members and visitors as guests, and the dual-pricing policy makes sense enough for one to live with it instead of constantly moaning about it. If anyone finds that logic too complex, there’s no more to be said. As an old mentor once told me: “You can’t knock a nail in knot!”
Tony Crossley

Tourist destination?

Editor;
As a past, regular visitor to Pattaya I feel that I must explain my actions not to return. I am tired of my hotel having either dirty or no water at all (experienced I believe by many establishments), intermittent electrical supply, poor sewage, dirty and badly maintained streets, almost zero street lighting, double pricing and general apathy.
Baht buses are a ride from hell, dirty beaches, dirty sea, a very high crime rate brought about I suggest by the restrictions imposed on the entertainment industry causing a lack of income for all and unrealistic visa conditions and charges. I’ve yet to meet a foreigner with residency let alone Thai nationality. Which brings me on to say that I truly believe that there is a grave case of racialism manipulated in Thailand by a select group of the ruling classes to undermine western influence and involvement - just look at the land / house ownership rules.
All this I was prepared to accept (why?) but now we have a situation where the more “exciting” bars are not allowed to open before 6 p.m. in the evening and must close by 1 a.m. ... no wonder the crime rate has exploded, and it is certainly not safe to walk the streets, and many are suffering violence even in their own homes ... Goodbye Pattaya!
Wasn’t the social order campaign as orchestrated by Thaksin and his cronies, a wonderful success!
Leon Palmer
Cambridge, England
via email

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