Mechai Viravaidya in March 2008 at the Skoll World Forum at the University of Oxford. (Photo: Wikipedia)
Mechai, as I will call him hereafter, is a famous person in Thailand, and rightly so. He has done a lot for the development of the country and in a special way. He mainly worked from the bottom up with volunteers in the towns and cities, in the XNUMXs and XNUMXs to enable birth control, and then to fight HIV/AIDS.
Origin and childhood years
Mechai was born on January 17, 1941 (for the meaning of his names see note 1). His father Samak studied medicine on a royal scholarship in Edinburgh, where he graduated as a doctor. There he also met his later wife Ella Robertson, also a medical student. They secretly married in April 1937, much to the anger of Ella's father but with the pleasant approval of the other relatives. Both returned to Thailand separately that year, where they built a future as doctors. Ella vowed never to return to England.
In 1954, at the age of 13, Mechai left for Australia to continue his studies at the Geelong Grammar School, where a number of Thais had already studied. He wanted to study medicine just like his parents, but the exact subjects did not suit him. He eventually graduated in Commercial Sciences from the University of Melbourne. In 1966 he returned to Thailand.
First job
He got a view of a few jobs: two well-paid jobs at Shell and an insurance company, or else a normal paid government job at the NEDB (National Economic Development Board). He consulted his mother, who asked him if he wanted to earn a lot of money or do something for the good of the country? The latter then chose the job. On behalf of the NEDB, he had to assess and report on development projects all over the country, which took him to all kinds of different places. Looking back, he said that he used to only know Bangkok, but only now got to know Thailand really well: the poverty, the lack of facilities and opportunities. He noticed that in all these projects the local population was usually not consulted and hardly benefited from it. He also came to the conclusion that the strong population growth in those years (with seven children per fertile woman) prevented a better economy and well-being. That led to his next commitment: birth control.
In 1965, Thai beauty Apasra Hongsakula was crowned Miss Universe in Miami. In 1966, Mechai was allowed to accompany her as a guide and translator. He asked for her autograph but neither had paper or pen. He asked her to put the signature on his cuff, which she did with a lot of laughter. The images of it went all over Thailand, which made Mechai famous immediately. ("Did he ask for her hand?")
In 1971, he married Thanphuying Putri Kritakara. King Bhumibol received the new couple with some gifts. The couple had a daughter together. A year later, Micha took part in parliamentary elections as an independent candidate. He was defeated and came only fourth.
(SURACHAI JAMEET / Shutterstock.com)
Birth control and condoms
Mechai wanted to limit the population growth in Thailand, because he saw that as a necessary thing to help Thailand move forward. With the help of foreign organizations, he founded the Planned Parenthood Association (PAD) in 1976 and began campaigning. He wanted to talk about sex and contraceptives, which were still taboo at the time.
The condom became his main weapon, which he defended with humor in public space: stickers, posters, T-shirts decorated with colorful condoms and slogans were circulated throughout the country. Mechai handed out condoms as tips to taxi drivers and in restaurants, bus stations, hotels, movie theaters and park rangers. As a minister, he distributed condoms in Patpong and Pattaya. At schools and during meetings, he held condom blow-up competitions, which was accompanied by much hilarity. He also had monks bless contraceptives with holy water.
He spread the slogans 'Many children make you poor' in "A condom a day keeps the doctor away'. Health volunteers helped distribute condoms in the villages. Talking about condoms became very common. Someone suggested calling a condom a "Mechai" in the sequel, and so it happened. He also founded the restaurant chain 'Cabbages and Condoms', where information was given and where you could eat 'without getting pregnant. I once bought two cups there: one with all kinds of positions and one with chattering condoms.
Other contraceptives such as the pill, Depo-Provera injections and IUDs were reserved for doctors working in hospitals and therefore virtually inaccessible to villagers. Mechai also made it available in the villages, where volunteers were trained and received a small fee for each transaction. Did it all help? Of course! The average number of children per woman fell from 7,4 in 1961 to 3,9 in 1981 and is now around 1,5.
Mechai was also involved in abortions. He knew that there were an estimated 300.000 abortions each year, many performed improperly with sticks or massages, resulting in many hospitalizations for bleeding and infection. He opened a number of abortion clinics, something that was actually illegal. The law said that abortion could only be done if a pregnancy would cause serious health problems. Mitchai believed that not only physical but also mental problems should be taken into account in such situations. Incidentally, the law was amended in February of this year: abortion up to 12 weeks will no longer be punishable.
In addition, in the years 1979-80 he was active in the refugee camps on the border with Cambodia, and started a campaign for clean drinking water in the villages.
In the initial phase, Mechai received quite a few complaints from men who said that the condom was 'lost' or slipped off easily. He enlisted a number of ladies from the Chao Phraya Massage Parlor to measure the diameter of erect Thai penises. It turned out to be an average of 3 millimeters smaller than that of full-blooded Westerners. Mechai then ordered small sizes of condoms. (Help! I can't find anymore whether that is 3 millimeters in circumference or diameter! Does a reader know? Thai ladies think that thing from Westerners is bigger but those from Thais are stiffer!)
Sometime in the early eighties, Mechai once received a request from a number of foreign scientists if they could use an air-conditioned office. That was allowed, but he had to move a group of Thai employees to another and sweltering local. And a few days later there was a sign on the door 'He prefers farangs because his mother is a farang!'. At a meeting a few days later, he brought this up without any anger, noting that he had not chosen his mother, and that they should go to his father's door.
Fight against HIV/AIDS
In 1984, the first patient with HIV in Thailand was diagnosed. Despite a rapid increase thereafter, the government did not consider it a major problem, as most cases initially occurred in prostitutes, homosexual relationships and needle-using drug addicts. In addition, the tourism industry feared a drop in attendance if it was talked about too much. Denial and silence was therefore the motto. 'Visit Thailand Year' was a tourist campaign in 1987.
In 1989, Mechai returned from a year of study in the United States and quickly realized the growing magnitude of the problem with nearly 100.000 new cases of HIV a year, with 72% of prostitutes testing positive. He decided to fight against HIV. In the meantime, a bill was ready that made it mandatory to report positive HIV cases, to test everyone and to require admission for all positively tested persons. Mechai was against this and the bill was not passed.
Mechai preferred to work for better information, now unfortunately without humor. After an initial ban, radio spots, television debates and posters calling for appropriate behavior appeared. The establishment of the National AIDS Advisory Committee was also a step in the right direction, although it was temporarily disbanded after the 1991 coup. However, Prime Minister Anand Panrarachun subsequently appointed Mechai as Minister for Tourism, Information and AIDS. This was a clear gesture, after which a very effective information campaign started with a good government budget.
Mechai went on a rampage against the sex industry. His statement 'it is better to take rat poison at home than to go on holiday to Thailand' didn't exactly go down well...
Research showed that in 1991 61% of all conscripts had their first sexual experience with prostitutes. That has fallen sharply in the following years. The number of conscripts tested positive for HIV fell between 1992 and 1996 from 8 to 3%. At the same time, the use of condoms when visiting prostitution increased in that group from 61 to 91%. Although several hundred thousand inhabitants are still living with HIV (the highest number in Southeast Asia), the number of new cases per year has fallen to between 5 and 10.000 per cent. 15.000 a year. There are still about XNUMX thousand AIDS deaths in Thailand every year.
The texts on shirts that Mechai came up with were really funny and convincing, such as: 'Stop Global Warming, use Condoms' or 'Condoms: Weapons of Mass Protection' and 'In Rubber We Trust'.
(jejim / Shutterstock.com)
Politics
Mechai has always emphasized the participation of the entire population in the planning, implementation and enforcement of measures to promote the health and well-being of the people. But he also believed that the government had an important task. As I already mentioned, he unsuccessfully contested a parliamentary election in 1972. He was Deputy Minister for Industrial Affairs in the period 1985-1986 and (as already written) Minister of Tourism, Information and Aids in the period 1991-1992. He was a senator in 1987-1991, 1996-2000 and from 2001 to 2006.
Closing comments
We can certainly conclude that Mechai has had a very positive role and great influence on both birth control and the management of the HIV epidemic. In addition, his conviction was that economic growth should always go hand in hand with a better distribution of wealth, and his gaze was always focused on the poor.
Note 1: I am getting fascinated by Thai names Mechai Viravaidya is มีชัย วิระไวทยะ mechai (pronounced miechai, two middle tones) and wierawaithaya (tones: high, high, middle, high, high). Mechai means 'Victory', and his parents gave him that name because he was born in January 1941 when Thailand conquered some French colonial territories in Western Laos and Northern Cambodia. Vira in his surname means 'brave' and vaidya means 'healer'. His ancestor was a physician to a king.
Sources:
- Thomas D'Agnes, From Condoms to Cabbages, An Authorized Biography, Bangkok, 2001, ISBN 974-228-009-6.
- TED talk: How Mechai Viravaidya made Thailand a better place. With Dutch subtitles. Really funny and educational. So watch! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL9TBKSdHXU
You need these kind of go-getters to get changes through. Respect for this.
Just as much respect for those NL people who are trying to get a decree from two years ago over the bill for 'farang' in state hospitals. As if my ache should cost more than a Thai ache….
I got to know him personally in the years just after the tsunami. The company I worked for allowed me to spend a substantial amount of money on post-tsunami projects. I was not very impressed with some of the humanitarian organizations that had just landed with the best of intentions and finally came across Khun Mechai. He advised me to “adopt” 2 villages in the Krabi region, a region that had to endure a lot of misery but did not receive media attention and therefore no attention. Capacity was almost immediately reallocated from his organization and over the next 2 years 2 completely destroyed villages were rebuilt. Each 2500 inhabitants who were given a future again. The money could not have been spent better and more efficiently in my opinion. A tall and modest man with a sharp vision and a good sense of humor who is highly regarded by the Thai people. In the Netherlands he would certainly have been awarded a high royal honor for similar work. In 2012, he was awarded the Prince Mihadol Award in Thailand.
Thank you Tino for this explanation. Have been a fan of Cabbages and Condoms restaurant for years. An inspired man.
“Mechai, as I will call him hereafter, is a famous person in Thailand, and rightly so.”
I also had the pleasure of meeting him in person in 2006. Every year I mention his name in my classes of young, mostly Thai students. I also have a keychain for my PAD USB stick that contains a condom. (Never lost it until now, unlike USB sticks with a different keychain) No student has ever heard of him so far.
His organization is now called the Population and Community Development Association (PCDA).
Beautiful stories about this beautiful man
Nice those cups, a man who is cheeky in a nice way, wonderfully not politically correct. I asked a few Thai people if they know Mechai, one of the 5 confirmed that “yes, that is a man who used to do a lot about birth control, but that is no longer necessary today”. And others - who were unfamiliar with him - responded to that rat poison quote with "smart guy, he's very right".
I had the pleasure of working with Mechai as one of my clients during the Asian crisis of 1997-1998. He became Vice-Chairman of KrungThai Bank, one of the government banks, and that bank was in serious trouble due to the crisis. I have shared many meetings and dinners with him. He was always very direct and focused on results. He also suggested that many projects in the regions should be financed by the bank, a sign of great social commitment. He had a great sense of humor and always came across as very western. If the service in a restaurant didn't come quickly enough, he clapped his hands loudly and yelled Nong, nong. The servants didn't know how fast to come to us. I also try it sometimes in the Netherlands, but no one listens to me :)
Hahaaa Alex,
Then you're in luck, because you can also be kicked out due to the lack of entertainment understanding of many catering employees.