In the formerly touristic north, such as Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, poverty is increasing rapidly now that tourists no longer come, many families depend on this tourism industry, but also suppliers such as farmers, parasol makers, elephant parks, scooter rental companies, etc. Many self-employed people have now become financial buffers and there is no future.
The inner city (within the square) of Chiang Mai is at least 70% empty, only shops for local residents, such as a motorbike shop and a single local Thai restaurant, are still open. Even several 7-Elevens are closed. The number of hotels has more than halved. The number of closed bars, restaurants, massage parlors and nightclubs cannot be counted on a hundred hands.
Schools are also noticing the financial decline, a well-known private school, which provides very high-quality education, has now seen so many students drop out that the existence of the school hangs on one side.
One of the biggest problems is that whole families work for the same tourism employer. Father, mother, son and daughter work at the same hotel and grandmother looks after the children and does ironing at home, everyone is happy. But…. the hotel closes and everyone is on the street and there is no financial safety net in Thailand and therefore no income.
It is also doom and gloom in my immediate surroundings. My immediate neighbor worked with his wife at a hotel, which is closed, so no more work, luckily they have a house without a mortgage, we give them a bag of rice every week, other neighbors also give. The neighbors across the street came 4 weeks ago, said goodbye with tears, they gave the key to their house to the bank, could no longer pay the 8.000 Baht per month, had paid the mortgage for 12 years and paid off the debt for 12 years. Gone home, gone money….
Personally, we now pay the school fees for 4 children, being 17.000 Baht per 6 months and another 3.000 Baht for clothing, shoes and notebooks, together about 20.000 Baht per 6 months, per child.
Today the mother of our daughter's girlfriend came to my wife and told me that they no longer had money to pay for the school and so had to pick up their daughter from school and take them to a King's School, King's schools are Government's schools, where the children who are lucky enough to be able to read and write at the age of 12 usually do not count. English not at all.
There you are, sponsoring 5 children is really too much for us, but it is our daughter's girlfriend (7 years old). Then appeal to Thailandblog if there are people who want to help sponsor school children, because after this mother there will inevitably be more. Any contribution is of course welcome.
Mail for more info to: [email protected] together we can help the “Pearl” of the North to survive.
Submitted by Laksi
Lackey, nice initiative, but I think if we all show a little bit of good will, we can help a lot of people around us. For example, in my village I help 2 families who have to make do with an old-age allowance of no 1000 Baht.
And I also help 2 children of the family who prefer to go to an elite school in the city (but don't put out a knock, neither for shelter, nor for home). It is a pity to see how many (whether or not working hard) take to drinking and gambling and do not think about their neighbor or their own future.
But here too I have placed a stop for even more donation. There is no help from wealthy inhabitants in the village to help the poor wretches even a little. They do, however, enjoy a meal, drink and gamble together every week.
Conclusion : I help the worst in the village and support the family and have control over what happens to my expenses. The day I see that they can afford a moped or a large flat screen TV, I will ask myself questions and maybe help others who need it more.
But I sincerely wish you success with your pearl from the north, and if you have any surplus donations, you can always share them with the farmers in the Esaan, orphanages, elders, the beggars in Pattaya and Bkk, etc. etc.
Only poor people can help people because the rich want more and more money.
I also have a neighbor that I occasionally help with some food and something extra. What I never do is give him money. I have no idea what happens with the money so I prefer to help him in a different way and so far he is still very happy with my help.
What I would definitely advise against is to offer financial help through intermediaries. Once I lost a nice sum of money when we wanted to support the local temple. A regrettable incident from which we have learned a lot.
My Thai family supports a few old people in our village who have little income and who have to eat. And they support them with food by cooking for them or giving them a bag of rice now and then. Giving money is pointless because their families have all borrowed from somewhere and then it would be spent on that.
I think this is also the most realistic way to help someone. Giving money is a bit of a bottomless pit. This whole situation is going to last for a long time. Poverty will increase and more people will come who depend on donations. And the more people you help financially, the more will come. In the end you have no idea what happens to your money.
I am convinced that almost everyone with connections in Thailand helps the Thai people. Even more than the wealthy Thai. I do too. But there are also limits to what is financially possible and, moreover, there is no prospect of a quick improvement for the poor Thai population. It is a sad situation and my heart breaks when I occasionally read the dramas when people run out of work and money.
I fear that the wave of poverty will not only hit the North.
Coincidentally, last week (for the first time since we moved here) we gave a reasonable sum of money to our neighbours.
The man is a driver and has a fixed income of 20000 THB/month. His wife can no longer work because they have a 22-year-old son who is terminally ill and needs constant care. They had to sell their house at the time and are now obliged to rent (4000 THB/month).
The medical costs for their son are skyrocketing, they can barely make ends meet. They have been living in their rented house for a year now and to make matters worse, they now have to move again because the owner is afraid that their son would die in his house (they have 2 months to leave the house).
They no longer have money to move, when they look for a new rental house and they hear that their son is very ill, they are refused! A very sad situation.
Those people are at their wit's end and don't know a solution to the ever-ongoing problems. So I gave them some money, but this is of course a cloth against the bleeding.
So you see, if you listen around, you will see numerous problems, harrowing situations ... we the 'well-to-do Farang' will certainly not solve this. If there are no structural solutions from the government, I fear that things will go from bad to worse.
Distressing situations indeed, but we can only help to a limited extent in our immediate environment. When you read that the government is considering ordering new fighter jets and submarines, you become a bit despondent.
The government's choice to move away from “mass tourism” and focus on terribly wealthy foreigners and Thai tourists already makes it clear that there is no prospect for the time being, or even definitively, of the incomes of all those who earned their rice in mass tourism.
The grinding poverty is real. It is also unnecessary, because Thailand intrinsically offers more than enough wealth to provide a decent living for its 70 million inhabitants.
But then the enormous inequality must be addressed.
Such a fundamental social redistribution must be carried out by politicians. So by the elected of the Thai people. I don't think any reader of Tb belongs to that.
My wife, for example, does. But when I want to talk to her about the great social revolutions in Europe, among others, in the previous centuries, I am ridiculed: I don't understand anything and see everything much too much through an ungrateful and disrespectful western lens.
Well, then I'm not going to stimulate that counterproductive loyalty to the chosen country by cleaning some bottomless pits here and there.
What I mean is: the people get the leadership they choose themselves. And of course the Thai people do not choose poverty, corruption and oppression. But for the politicians who maintain it. Or at least not exterminate them.
Color
Cor, let's clarify… the current Thai government was not elected by the people, you should know this, shouldn't you?
There is currently poverty in many countries, which is why many countries that are also reasonably to completely dependent on tourism are open again.
Thailand does not make that choice, but I do not really feel called to help the Thai now.
I think that if all Thai people who depend on tourism start to stir en masse with demonstrations, the policy may change quickly.
And that is more useful to them than sponsored contributions, a system that has not worked in Africa for 75 years.
Just received the nice news that even the money of the ordinary Farang is no longer welcome here.
Financial transfers to Thailand will be limited to 49.999THB until further notice (message from Wise).
This underlines once again that the Thai government increasingly wants to bully the Farang away with all kinds of restrictions / measures. If they continue like this, in the foreseeable future there will be hardly any foreigners left who still want to spend their retirement here. And all that support that many foreigners selflessly give away to the less fortunate will dry up completely.
Apparently the beautiful Thai government does not care about the distressing situation of their compatriots. We as Farang probably see this but can and will never solve it.
Strange because today I received the 86000Bath on my account that I transferred yesterday via Wise. Didn't get any message from Wise that this wasn't possible either.
For your information. Was to Bangkok Bank.
Hello Pieter,
From January 7, you can only transfer 50.000 THB or more per transfer to the following banks:
Bangkok Bank Limited Company
Kasicorn Bank
Siam commercial bank
This means that if you send money to a recipient through one of the banks mentioned above, everything will work just fine. But if your recipient uses a different bank, you will have a new transfer limit.
You can still send money to recipients' accounts using other banks, but you can send them up to THB 49.999 per transfer. There is no limit on the number of transfers you can make.
This change will affect all transfers made after 13.00:7 PM Bangkok time, January 2022, XNUMX. Please make sure to pay for your transfer on the same day. If you have pending payments, don't worry - we'll complete your transfer if you send us the money until then.
I received this email from Wise tonight.
Today an amount above the mentioned limit has also been transferred to my account at the Bangkok Bank.
Wise's answer, if I understand correctly, concerns deposits made via the banks mentioned to another bank, which has a limit.
But that is something different from the question of whether there is a limit on transfers via Wise to one of the banks mentioned, and that limit apparently does not exist, but that was what it was about anyway.
Pieter and Karel Sriracha
Some strange language. Google translation used I guess?
“… you can only transfer 50.000 THB or more per transfer to the following banks: BBK, KSB and SCB….”'
Which would actually mean that you could transfer no less than 50 Baht to those banks. 🙂
I have not received a notification from WISE about this as I said, but did a search anyway and found the following text from WISE on FB.
“Due to regulators changes in Thailand, transfers of 50 Baht and above will only be available for Kasikorn Bank, Bangkok Bank and Siam commercial recipients. Effective on January 000, 7, 2020PM Bangkok time. Transfers under 1 Baht remain unaffected for all supported recipient banks. '
ie transfers of 50 000 Baht and more will only be possible to Kasikorn Bank, Bangkok Bank and SCB recipients.
Nothing changes for transfers under 50 Baht to all banks.
That says quite differently than that "Financial transfers to Thailand are limited to 49.999THB"
Karl, partially correct. But apparently does not apply to Kasikorn, Bangkok Bank and Siam bank. And starts tomorrow, 7/1, only. So interested parties can quickly overwrite. Still, thanks for sharing it.
Don't panic, there is no limit on transfers to any of the mentioned banks!