Dear Hillary,
I lived in Loei, Issan for two years and I know how hard the people have to work for their daily rice. Their young people come to the big city to make money and send half back to their family. The girls who come to Pattaya go to the bars where they join the world’s oldest profession. If they get a job in a factory or shop the wage is THB 300 for one day. In Britain, the minimum wage is THB 300 for one hour. The bar girl naturally would like as much as she can get from the Farang. If he gives her too much money or gold, that is his fault, not hers. As to Robert’s derogatory remarks about my education, I know the difference between massacre and genocide. He does not. I hate what the British Empire was, but it subjugate people to make them workers or slaves, it did not annihilate them. Since he prefers German, he should read “Mein Kampf” by Adolf Hitler and educate himself as to what Genocide means. All I can say to him is “G’Dai Mite, Austraaaalia is a long wai awai.” Hillary, my love, Scotland has waited for independence for 300 years. We can wait a little longer.
Don
Dear Don,
Thank you for the “my love”, nobody has called me that for so long, my Petal. While I do agree with you in the main, you can’t really compare earnings in Thailand with earnings in Britain. The cost of living there (or Australia) is sky high compared to here, you must agree, so they need much higher wages. There is also the fact that the Pattaya bar ladies are making a lot more than THB 300 an hour, I am told. Inflation has set in financially, as well as in the superstructures (God bless the inventor of silicone)! Genocide is a ticklish subject, especially for this column, and I am sorry to remind everyone that the British settlers in Australia (sorry Austraaaalia) did a cracking job with the aboriginals in Tasmania, did they not?
