How hypocritical is Thailand?
The country of Thailand is sometimes rather double with its regulations. One of these rules is that work that can be done by Thais should not be done by others (foreigners). But what about the construction of condos and hotels?
This work can also be done by Thais. In practice one sees trucks full of Cambodians, among others, who are taken to the construction sites. They are prepared to work for less than 300 Baht per day and then apparently different standards apply.
In Thailand, a number of beautiful buildings have been designed by foreign architects after being selected from a number of submitted concept proposals. For example, in Chong Nonsi, the skyscraper MahaNakon with a height of no less than 314 meters, was recently festively opened. This beautiful building was designed by Ole Scheeren, a German architect.
There has now been unrest against this, because this work could also have been done by a Thai. However, the former governor of Bangkok had given his approval. Now the association “Protector of the Constitution” is trying to replace the name of the designer with a Thai name, so no more Ole Scheeren as an architect. And by extension also the other buildings, which were designed by foreigners to change their name.
“Foreigners should not steal the work of Thais,” said Srisuwan Chanya, secretary of the National News Bureau of Thailand. This right to work is reserved for Thais. That all this is based on jealousy and wounded pride is clear. After all, other major projects have also been realized by foreigners, such as the Suvarnabhumi airport by the German architect Helmut Jahn or the Bangkok Mall by Boiffil Architecture from France.
How big or international can one think?
If it is hypocritical then, it is no more hypocritical than in any other country…!
Thailand, just like a country like Japan, applies the principle of “own people first” in many areas, and I think they are absolutely right.
Thailand does not participate in the Western over-civilized corny politically correct approach to people and things, so we see what this has led to in our Western cities.
Keep it up Thailand, you decide autonomously who or what is accepted, not some legal body.
Indeed, the existence of such legal bodies is the reason why a country 'must' apply a certain culture in a hypocritical way.
If countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands were allowed by Europe to apply the same autonomous approach as Thailand, some serious problems would already be much less serious.
Moderator: Your response should be about Thailand and not about the Netherlands.
Pat, so you don't find the conditions described by Lodewijk any problem at all?
https://www.thailandblog.nl/achtergrond/de-onzichtbare-birmese-werkmigranten-thailand/
'Own people first' is your principle. So you have no problem at all if in shops and government agencies YOU are always at the back of the queue, paid 2-4 times as much as a Thai but only earn half with the same work, when water is scarce, etc. YOU get something last , no lawyer in a court case because the Thai takes precedence, you are evicted from YOUR house because a Thai wants it, no problem if you are ignored and laughed at as a foreigner? etc etc. Really? I do not believe it. I think you believe that as a European foreigner you can claim more rights and better treatment than those poor Burmese and Cambodian foreigners.
You have no problem if you and your expat friends are transported in a truck like the one in the picture?
Completely agree with you Tony. As a non-Thai you are discriminated against in all areas. I go out regularly so I know what I'm talking about. I am regularly laughed at, humiliated, sometimes also abused just because of your skin color, because they think you are rich and that makes them jealous. I try to ignore it but sometimes it's hard. This is Planet Thailand and we are the aliens! For those who don't see that, it's time to take off the rose-colored glasses and sit down at the locale and try to have a conversation! If they call that Eigen Volk First, I don't know anymore.
It is their country's agreement and we have to adapt, but we can also remain ourselves a bit. After all, we weren't born here. Corretje, as a farang you certainly get special treatment and you are never discriminated against; are you lucky! This has nothing to do with the Thais tearing down, just the facts as they are. Please stop disagreeing go back to your motherland; is a simple explanation and has absolutely nothing to do with it!
If we follow the Thai reasoning then no Thai is allowed to work abroad anymore. Equal monks equal hoods.
Can they stop the large flow of income from abroad. Hundreds of thousands of people working in the Middle East are deported back to Thailand, the same Thais working in the US, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Europe, etc. Deport because Thailand does the same, namely arrest, imprison and then turn off.
If the prevailing morality is that no foreigners are allowed to work in Thailand, then neither should the other way around.
I think hundreds of thousands of families are being duped but the Thai chooses it and apparently the responders to Pat's response agree wholeheartedly,
And the Thai also think very wrongly that they can teach the children English, while the teachers have little or no command of that language.
Completely agree with the author of this article. Very narrow-minded and nationalistic way of thinking to replace the name of the originally foreign designer of a high-profile object with a Thai name. Also reflects the idea that prevails in Thailand, namely that a Thai is superior to a foreigner. And the hypocrisy manifests itself in the very widespread use of unskilled and sometimes illegal workers from neighboring countries in certain low-paid professions, who are necessarily satisfied with lower wages. That a Thai could also do that job does not seem to be important anymore. The photo accompanying the article shows the very risky mode of transport of workers, often including young children. Have seen these fully loaded trucks all over Thailand, including on highways where people drive at high speed. No authority says anything about it, the lives of these people don't seem to matter.
Boiffil is Boiffils. An excellent architectural firm. They design master plans and then they are elaborated by various local architects, as in the case of the Mall Bangkok.
The master plan designs are then sold to the developers.
Dan Georg, architect
foreigners are allowed to do what Thai can do. They then only have to apply for a work permit. Is that somewhere else?
it is the other way around, you are only allowed to do work that a Thai cannot do. For example, if a foreign language is needed that the Thais do not speak.
“What a Thai cannot do” is actually not correct.
The employer must demonstrate that he cannot find a suitable Thai candidate for that job or position at that time.
In that case, he may have a foreigner carry out that work.
I have been coming to Thailand for years and always with great pleasure, my wife is Thai, we often eat Thai so you will not soon hear me speak negatively about Thailand. I can't talk about living in Thailand simply because I don't live there. My longest consecutive stay in the land of smiles has been 2 months and I really liked it then the moment the plane took off from Bangkok to Amsterdam I was already homesick again. So much for my love for Thailand.
Of course not everything is positive when it comes to Thailand, I know that too and it is true.
As for the so-called protectionism in Thailand and protecting the Thai there goes very far. In principle, as a foreigner you are not allowed to do anything, in contrast to what Thais are allowed and able to do in Western countries. Thailand has an inward-looking economy. The disadvantage for Thailand is that it will never become anything at World level, many domestic ) problems, corruption, shifting jobs to each other, protectionism, etc. The International world should of course have none of that. The result for Thailand is that it will always remain a so-called 3rd World country and will never play on the World stage. Countries nearby that are showing a raging rise (Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and in a few years Myanmar will overtake Thailand as an economy and then Thailand will certainly be left behind if you consider all the bumps that have been thrown up lately to make it difficult for foreigners to stay there. Those foreigners will think twice about investing there (buying a house without land ownership, etc.). The only thing I can think of is that China will one day "eat" Thailand economically and that won't be free as far as I know China foreign policy So far it's a great short term holiday country.