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Mags Meanderings:
From Som Tam
To Mushy Peas
a cultural chasm
According to UK government figures, over 800,000 Brits
visit Thailand every year.
Some of those will of course be regular visitors. Some
of them ‘semi expats’ who stay for part of the year and
may have property and family there, and who will know
their way around the country and its customs hopefully
well enough to avoid undue risks.
Of the remaining huge numbers of regular British
tourists there have now been seven reported killings
since 1996, only one of which happened before 2000.
But the most recent tragic murders of two British
youngsters on Koh Tao on September 15th are the first
I have known to attract such huge media coverage in the
UK. Which at first I took to be a good sign. New brooms
sweep clean kind of thing. More transparency in the
police investigations, with constantly updated reports
on their progress.
Sadly as time goes by the use of the word ‘progress’
seems to lose credibilty. First it seems to have proven
impossible to prevent anyone from leaving such a small
island, even if only for a few hours. Or at the very least
to make a record of those who did leave. Perhaps even
take prints and swabs?
Then a full week after the murders previously
unmentioned CCTV footage was appearing, showing
yet more individuals thought to be worth following up.
Suspicion had already fallen on different ethnic groups,
veering between them almost daily. It almost seemed
as if a day at a time had been allocated to investigate
farang, Thai, Burmese etc.
Alongside all of this came ill judged comments about
scantily clad women attracting attention to themselves.
To be fair to the senior figure responsible for those
comments, perhaps he is only familiar with scantily clad
women who sit behind glass or dance on bars waiting
for their number to be called, and perceives all others in
the same way. After all he did then send his condolences
to the families of the victims.
But by then I can’t have been alone in thinking that the
whole investigation was falling apart, and that maybe all
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the new transparency was a mistake. It is bad enough
for any parent to get that knock on the door with the
heartbreaking news of the death of a child. But it is
impossible to imagine what they are going through
when new theories are presented to the world almost
daily. Especially when those theories involve sexual
conduct, supposed fights, jealousies and yaba.
Of course expats know that the Thai way of dealing
with death is very different to our Western way, and is
unlikely to change. We also know that, compared with
many other countries, Thailand is pretty safe. That said
- I can’t remember the last time I heard of a tourist being
murdered in the UK, although trying to unearth facts and
figures could be a lifetimes work.
What is interesting is a guide published in 2004 by
the University at Albany in the States, which advised
agencies there on how to analyse and respond to crimes
against tourists. The guide produced a list of factors
which contribute to these crimes, most of which are
pretty obvious, and apply equally to tourists in Thailand.
Factors such as tourists being seen as lucrative targets
who are relaxed, off-guard, and therefore more prone
to take risks, and who are more likely to be drawn to
nightlife locations.
To be fair most of us will be able to identify with those
findings, and at some time have got the tee shirts to prove
it. But one conclusion of the guide above all strikes a
chord as far as Thailand is concerned, and that is the
theory that local hostility grows along with increased
tourism.
And that theory does seem to fit with the increased
popularity of Thailands’ southern islands for their full
moon parties, and parties for the sake of parties, where
small, once quiet communities are now thriving on the
influx of tourists and the relative wealth they bring.
The problem for Thailand now is managing that change.
Just don’t hold your breath.
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