Dear Editor,
I read the article “Child Protection Committee rescues 12 youths from dire conditions” in Pattaya Mail (Sept. 9, 2011). The Pattaya Child Protection Committee worked with local charities to assist low-income youths. Most at-risk youths came from poor families that migrated to Pattaya to look for work and settled in the slum areas. They are often physically, emotionally and sexually abused, flock to drugs and are neglected by elders focused on finding food for them. During their research, bureaucrats came across 12 children in dire straits and placed them in the custody of the state and document their cases.
In Japan, we have the same kind of problems; however, I think the situation seems to be worse in Thailand. Maybe it is because of the Thai character.
I have lived in Pattaya about three years. Apparently, the biggest difference between Japan and Thailand is the climate. I think the climate affects the Japanese and Thai characters.
In Thailand, it is basically hot throughout the year. When it comes to natural disasters, I can think of floods during the rainy season. It is not so serious usually, but this year is the exception.
In Japan, we have four seasons: spring, summer, fall and winter. The temperature difference in summer and winter is about 30 to 35 degrees. With regard to natural disasters, I can think of typhoon, earthquake, tsunami, flood and snow avalanche.
Comparison between Thailand and Japan reminds me of a story “The Ant and the Grasshopper.” During summer, ants continue to work to store up food for winter. On the other hand, grasshoppers sing songs and play. When winter comes, the grasshoppers cannot find any food. The grasshoppers ask the ants to share the food, but ants decline and say, “Why don’t you dance in winter? You sang in summer.” At the end, the grasshoppers die of hunger.
I think Japanese people are like ants in the story and always try to prepare for the future. Also, I think Thai people are like grasshoppers which never experience the severe winter. In this point, I really envy Thai people. They can easily be optimistic. If they lose a house, they can sleep outside throughout the year. If they lose all the money, they can easily find something to eat like tropical fruits throughout the year.
Japanese people tend to prepare for the possible crises. For example, after the Tohoku Region Pacific Coast Earthquake this year, Japanese people now work on the recovery and at the same time, start preparation for the next severe earthquakes.
I think the optimism of the Thai people sometimes leads to the bad situation such as youths neglected by the parents. For example, when some of the Thai people I know have a regular job, they spend the salary right away. As soon as they get the regular job, they buy a new mobile phone, car, house and so on. I guess they spend money in such ways, because they are optimistic. If I were them, I wouldn’t spend the money in such ways. I will spend some of the money, but I will save others for the future. Once, one of the Thai people asked my husband to lend him money, but we said “no.” It is because we knew that he would never give it back to us.
If there are many parents like him in Thailand, it is possible there are so many children in an adverse condition. Just by changing the optimism to pessimism a little bit, I think there will be fewer children at risk.
Because of the flood, Thai people now face a crisis situation. I’ve been worried that Thai people would be very optimistic and say, “Mai pen rai. The flood went away. Now everything is OK. It is not necessary to prepare for the next flood.”
I think many Thai people tend to think if you are happy today, it is OK. Tomorrow is tomorrow. They think it tomorrow.
It may be ideal that you can be optimistic anytime, but I guess the balance between optimism and pessimism is also very important. I think the way of thinking many Thai people have make the low income youths situation worse. It was a big surprise for me I heard that many Thai parents dumped on relatives (grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.). When I listened to the stories, I figured that many of them did so due to their selfishness and optimistic view.
The flood this time may be the turning point for Thai people. If they could change the optimistic view slightly and prepare for the future, Thailand would grow up as a nation. If not, no more development may be expected nationally and economically.
Noriko Taguchi
