Guest fountainhall Posted April 22, 2011 Posted April 22, 2011 There has been no mention on this forum about a topic which has had tongues wagging at all levels of Thai society for more than a week now. Over Songkran, three young Thai girls aged 13, 14 and 16, got caught up in the Songkran spirit on Silom. They mounted a van, stripped off their tops and started dancing with abandon (hence the topic title which is a headline from today’s Bangkok Post). Unfortunately for the girls, someone took a video and posted it on You Tube. The Bang Rak district director filed a complaint with the police and urged that obscenity charges be filed against the girls. He claimed the topless female revellers had hurt the image of Thailand and distorted Songkran culture. Even the Culture Minister joined in the condemnation, urging strong action against both the girls themselves and the Songkran event’s the organisers. The Minister seriously suggested the punishment should include the girls being required to read books about the Songkran Festival to young students so they could learn how serious this celebration is. I remain astounded that a Minster of Culture should regard himself as the guardian of a nation’s morals. Isn’t culture about the finer things in life, about the arts and the preservation and development of traditional culture? But that’s a whole new ballgame. This being Thailand, double standards are everywhere and, as many commentators pointed out, the incident illustrates once again the hypocrisy inherent in Thai society. First off, the Culture Ministry. For some time it had on its website a tasteful painting of, guess what, naked breasted young girls After the Minister’s outcry, guess what? That painting disappeared in a flash! Photos below of the original and its replacement thanks to this Bangkok Post link - http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/232503/ Then the girls were fined the minimum of Bt. 500 for some disturbance of the peace, whilst they made groveling apologies about their inappropriate behavior. That You Tube video has not only been pulled from the internet, the police are threatening action against those who posted it! The cover-ups notwithstanding , commentators continue to keep the incident alive. In an interesting opinion piece in today’s Bangkok Post, Suranand Vejjajiva, a political analyst who served in Thaksin’s cabinet, discusses an Art Exhibition which is running this month at the Koi Art Gallery in Bangkok. Titled Colour of Day / Colour of Night, this shows the work of two painters who “portray their totally opposite perception and interpretation of Thai society and the way of life of the subjects.” The article continues that one of the artist’s work reveals - . . . the personalities of his "night" subjects - the lady-boys, the soi dog, the bright neon lights against the dark sky - a very different perspective of the "angels" and their way of life in the city - and a reality not many Thais care to admit the existence of. So what does this art exhibition have to do with the three girls who danced topless on Silom Road at night during the Songkran holiday? The answer: corruption, hypocrisy and denial. The infamous Bangkok nightlife is no national or international secret. From the strip joints of Patpong to Soi Cowboy with their bars and night clubs, the Phetchaburi and Ratchadaphisek roads with their massage palours and spas that offer "special services", the numerous pubs, bars, executive clubs and "marn rood" (curtained) hotels - all are proof of a thriving sex industry in the capital. From "a-go-gos" to "coyotes" and the odd and varied sex shows, girls, boys and increasingly transvestites dance the floors half- or fully naked. Alcohol flows and sex workers can be had for a fee. As for the spas and massage parlours, the rooms are conveniently included with the services rendered. In Bangkok and other cities like Pattaya, Phuket and Chiang Mai, you can of course enjoy sightseeing and the various historical, cultural, sea and sand tourist destinations. But at the same time, the sex trade flourishes, attracting all sorts of personalities - not only tourists looking for fun, but also criminals, sex offenders, paedophiles and many other dodgy characters. Human and drug trafficking are intertwined. Crime, robbery and murder become widespread and corruption rampant. It is not just corruption in the sense that officials take bribes and allow wrongdoing to take place. The acceptance that nothing can be done about the sex trade in Thailand, that this is part of a "normal" way of life, corrupts the minds of the people and bleaches into the ethical fabric of a society . . . The police and government authorities, by clamping down on the girls, and the enthusiasts who posted the video clips on the internet demonstrate the Thai hypocrisy and denial. By trying to quickly close the case and getting the news off the front page, the authorities are not addressing the real problem at all. If corruption is a root cause, hypocrisy and denial are what make matters worse. If one cannot look the truth in the eye and carry on pretending that darkness does not exist, then no problem will be resolved, and our sons and daughters will only sink further into condemnation . . . I am a realist; I am not going to pretend that all such establishments, right down to the last whorehouse, will be eliminated and Thailand will become a peaceful and ethical Buddhist society - as depicted in a lot of temple paintings . . . But if New York City can clean up Times Square, and if Boston's aggressive policy can lead to the demise of Combat Zone, then why can't Bangkok? . . . How can we all live with a clear conscience when our sons and daughters are being bought and sold, where many can attain better opportunities with education and proper health care? Can you really sleep at night if teenagers are willing to dance naked just for a bottle of whiskey? Is the money we gain from tourism to sexual destinations really worth the loss of our human dignity and that of the next generation's? http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/233128/a-society-in-denial-over-topless-dancing It’s a thought-provoking piece. Details of the exhibition at - http://koiartgallerybangkok.com/ Quote
pong Posted April 22, 2011 Posted April 22, 2011 agin my 2 cents: if you want to get a Thai angry- there is a short and simple way-let him/her peercieve that his/her bisnis is being ruined. Those people need to pay dearly to see naked tits, so that is a bisnis controlled by going inside the nearby PatPong bars and paying an expensive drink. But this story got a tail (read todays Thaivisa-news, FR 21/4): those girls come from west-BKk/border to Nakorn pathom province (Ohm noi and Ohm Yai, yes, I have been there), where they were regular patrons to a bar, where they said got free drinks (alco) by doing same-same. Now that bar got raided by independent police the very night after that confession-at 3,.30 Police found 100s of people still going on binging/drinking (as you all now that is way beyond the witch-hour), with also dozens of underage -18 ers, some as young as 14. There was also gambling and other acts of indecency. Dont know if the pink drug-using piss was also checked. The bar owner/manager told police, that he paid off local police for keeping order 500 bt./day-to some 20/25 policemen. So he was not to blame. The local head of police was moved to an inactive post in some boonsticks village right after learning this. Can anyone give me a thorough reason why ALL ''entertainment'' in Thailand always has to include of drink too muth at too late a time by too young people? Or that the only way a Thai can think of entertainment has to insist of those vices? the regular farang forums all cry foul of again yet another case of the tipical Thai hypocrysy. Quote
