"The countdown to another military coup has begun, former deputy permanent secretary for defence Admiral Bannawit Kengrian said on Tuesday.
"Adm Bannawit, chairman of the People's Council of Thailand, said from his long experience in military circles and security affairs he could comfortably say there would definitely be a coup.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/219340/bannawit-coup-countdown-has-begun
"Adm Bannawit, chairman of the People's Council of Thailand, said from his long experience in military circles and security affairs he could comfortably say there would definitely be a coup.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/219340/bannawit-coup-countdown-has-begun
"The average MONTHLY wage in Thailand is approximately US$300. In Isaan, it's about US$150-200 per MONTH (certainly not US$200 per YEAR!). They are not rich, but not that poor, man!
"Don't say that a girl is "sacrificing her life to save her family", because that's not true in most cases. I wrote this earlier in another thread: contrary to what many people think, prostitution is not a job of last resort for Thai women to survive, but it's rather a vocation for those (and mostly are uneducated farm girls) who want non-essential material possessions that they can't otherwise afford. In the poor villages, you don't need more than 3000 baht per month per person to live as a local, but that's when you don't buy non-essential material possessions.
"Before becoming prostitutes, the local girls often worked in regular jobs, as a farm girl, or in a factory, or as an employee in a restaurant, in a small shop, in a 7-Eleven or in a supermarket, for instance. They probably did not earn much more than 6000 or 7000 baht per month before becoming a prostitute, but that's already sufficient for a local to live a decent enough life in this country. But of course, it doesn't allow them to buy often many non-essential items.
"The average Thai prostitute spends a great part of her earnings in non-essential things (she also sends a substantial part of her money to her family -- I would say about 50% in most cases, sometimes lesser than that, but not often more than that, according to the testimony of many working girls -- though, but her family often uses a non-negligible part of this money to buy non-essential items too). For instance, the average local prostitute would buy a new cellular phone every three months or so only because she can afford it and to show it to her "friends". The local prostitutes also gamble a lot and are often meth-amphetamines ("ya ba") consumers, again, because they can afford it, but those are certainly not essential needs.
"By the way, you seem to believe that a local prostitute earns on average about 25000 baht per month (if 80% of her monthly income is about 20000 baht). That's usually a lot more than that (unless she's old and unattractive), especially for the girls working in the farang-orientated P4P market, even if the girl doesn't have any sponsor. Even if the girl is a freelancer who works just 20 days per month and who only has one ST and one LT session per day, in Pattaya, she would already easily earn 30000 baht per month (and she can do much better than that) and about 50000 baht per month in Bangkok. That's for freelancers, working not too much and asking reasonable fees (and with no sponsor), so, imagine what the best go-go girls are earning in Bangkok!"
"Don't say that a girl is "sacrificing her life to save her family", because that's not true in most cases. I wrote this earlier in another thread: contrary to what many people think, prostitution is not a job of last resort for Thai women to survive, but it's rather a vocation for those (and mostly are uneducated farm girls) who want non-essential material possessions that they can't otherwise afford. In the poor villages, you don't need more than 3000 baht per month per person to live as a local, but that's when you don't buy non-essential material possessions.
"Before becoming prostitutes, the local girls often worked in regular jobs, as a farm girl, or in a factory, or as an employee in a restaurant, in a small shop, in a 7-Eleven or in a supermarket, for instance. They probably did not earn much more than 6000 or 7000 baht per month before becoming a prostitute, but that's already sufficient for a local to live a decent enough life in this country. But of course, it doesn't allow them to buy often many non-essential items.
"The average Thai prostitute spends a great part of her earnings in non-essential things (she also sends a substantial part of her money to her family -- I would say about 50% in most cases, sometimes lesser than that, but not often more than that, according to the testimony of many working girls -- though, but her family often uses a non-negligible part of this money to buy non-essential items too). For instance, the average local prostitute would buy a new cellular phone every three months or so only because she can afford it and to show it to her "friends". The local prostitutes also gamble a lot and are often meth-amphetamines ("ya ba") consumers, again, because they can afford it, but those are certainly not essential needs.
"By the way, you seem to believe that a local prostitute earns on average about 25000 baht per month (if 80% of her monthly income is about 20000 baht). That's usually a lot more than that (unless she's old and unattractive), especially for the girls working in the farang-orientated P4P market, even if the girl doesn't have any sponsor. Even if the girl is a freelancer who works just 20 days per month and who only has one ST and one LT session per day, in Pattaya, she would already easily earn 30000 baht per month (and she can do much better than that) and about 50000 baht per month in Bangkok. That's for freelancers, working not too much and asking reasonable fees (and with no sponsor), so, imagine what the best go-go girls are earning in Bangkok!"
"Perhaps the following thought that my Thai mother mentioned many years ago will be helpful to all foreigners interested in learning about the country, and may also be something to use as a guiding principle, “if you are Thai-ignorant and money-foolish, you will always have Thai ‘friends’”."
1) Honesty-Integrity
Above all else, I appreciate honesty and integrity in my close friends and my spouse. As most of you know, these traits are hard to find in LOS, perhaps because they are also related to the important issue of face and the significance of duplicity common in Thai society. While there is also plenty of dishonesty and lack of integrity in my own culture, what I am discussing here is the way in which these actions are manifested in Thailand and the rationalization and inability to accept truth when it conflicts with other important issues such as face. This is the most difficult portion of the paper to write, as there are so many examples I could discuss and so many ways in which the Thai can be seen by farang as dishonest. I don’t think that there are many more divergent ways of distinguishing among Thai and farang than how we view honesty. There are few Thais in whom I can place my trust or rely on.
2) Intellectual Curiosity, Style v. Substance – The pursuit of the superficial, an inability to distinguish among salient and insignificant information and issues, and the need to be entertained.
There is a long held joke in U.S. society about the dumb blonde that has been around for so long that today the caricature is a standard form of saying someone may look nice, but they are stupid. To be blonde is to lack intellectual substance. In a way, the Thai are the blondes of Asia. The Thais are wonderful people and the women are pretty, sexy, and fun (suay, sexi, sanuk), but they are also not an intellectual force... in any way. You may enjoy looking at them, and having fun with them, but long run commitments to them soon become tiresome as there is little intellectual curiosity that creates a long-term interest; the longer I am with them the more I feel that I’m taking care of a child, not dealing with someone who is supposed to be an adult.
3) The role of a husband. This section is based on my observations, and my discussion with former girlfriends and Thai female friends over the past 20 years; (note that some Thai women will occasionally change the order for the benefit of the potential or actual spouse).
The order of importance of individuals in the life of a married Thai female seems to be: a) children, b) her parents, c) extended family/maybe husband, d) the neighbors, etc.; note I would be, at best, third on the list. Secrets are also important; keeping them from me is annoying. I think the general tendency about secrets is: (correct me if I am wrong here Stick as I last discussed this issue ten years ago with a very close Thai female friend, in which case this would be a change among current Thai women aged 20-30) that while the Western male tends to see their spouse as someone whom they can both trust (control) with most household matters, they are also someone with whom you can discuss issues in confidence, and share secrets. That is NOT the case in the traditional Thai family.
The average Thai woman will tell her closest girlfriends many more secrets than she will tell her husband.
4) Accommodation and compromise...or just giving up – In the movie, “When Harry Met Sally”, Billy Crystal explains to Meg Ryan that there are basically two types of women, high and low maintenance, which is determined by what the woman felt were the necessities in life, what they could do for themselves, and what others should provide. Meg Ryan said she was low maintenance, while Billy Crystal responded that Meg was the most difficult combination of the two as she was a high maintenance gal (because she wanted things the way she wanted them) who thinks she is low maintenance. Most of my Thai faens were this latter type of high maintenance, who like to believe they are low maintenance. I’ve had many female friends over the years, and many of them were truly low maintenance, at least it seemed this way to me. Fun loving people, who didn’t require much to make them happy. Most also seemed to be fairly independent, which is both a characteristic of low maintenance people and a trait I admire in all my friends and seek in a spouse. Unfortunately, something happens to Thai women when they get a faen. They quickly transform themselves into rather needy and demanding high maintenance women, who don’t think they are much of a burden on anyone, or at least think they can smile and connive their way into getting what they want. One day you wake up and wonder what happened?
5) Sex – in the long run.
While I believe that people from a European tradition generally tend to think of intimate physical sexual relations as a life-long pursuit, I don’t think that this is the case in Asia, and certainly not in Thailand. Ask your Thai girlfriend, ask your male ‘Thai’ friends, how long they expect Thai women to be sexually active. In general, I think traditional Thais tend to view sex as something for the young and that it is demeaning for ‘old’ people, especially women, to engage in this activity.
I think that article mentions things that are true of most women, not just Thai women. They are sneaky, they don't have intellectual curiosity, their kids and family come before their husband, they are materialistic and sex ends after the wedding day except in cases when she wants another child.
