Thailand: A Culture Shock (2013 Wish For You)

Over the December 2012 / January 2013 holiday period, I was blessed to be able to spend it with my father and brother in Phuket, Thailand. It was the most expressive holiday I have ever experienced. It helps that I was at had quite a self-aware and spiritual mind set to be able to take cognisance of the information I will divulge later on. More than anything, I learned quite a few lessons about life and its inhabitants.

Upon my departure from Thailand, apart from the weather, certain realisations occurred to me and it is the content of these realisations that I would like to share with you.

Firstly, the lifestyle: Thai people live a basic but satisfactory life on minimal earnings and equally minimal debt. The agricultural sector of Thailand forms just under 41% of its market industry, including its imports and exports. The Thai people that live in the agricultural areas are especially accustomed to making use of their own resources in order to sustain a modest yet comfortable lifestyle. What I did notice was that the majority of the persons living on the farms were well matured and probably in their early or late 60’s. Conversely, the age of the majority of the persons living in the cities range between early adolescence to early or late 50’s. Another big sector there, forming about 42% of their market industry, is the services trade which includes tourism and their notoriously profitable sex industry. Ironically, their unemployment rate is a mere 0.7% and poverty percentage is at 8%, perhaps because of their lacking materialistic needs. Granted, I only stayed in one area and thus my knowledge is limited. However, the percentages are correct and have been cited from the IMF statistics resources. What struck me most was the fact that the Thai people were content in their earnings, even when it amounted to something between R65 (+/- $7.83 or ₤5) to R83 (+/- $10 or ₤6.38) per day’s labour with exceptionally long hours. Unfortunately, I started comparing this work attitude with those of South African workers and I realised that in fact, a lot of the lower to middle class South Africans have an attitude problem. Thai people, from my observations and gut feels, were not the type of people to use past inequalities as a leveraging tool or bargaining chip, nor were they inclined to expect an employer to simply “make an offer” just because of paper advantages, for example a degree, or historical advantages, such as black economic empowerment, which an applicant may have. Such advantages are now being abused by certain applicants (not all) as a means to fight the caveated thought-pattern held by many young people of “why do I need to do…” in order to shirk responsibility (also known as "the Y Generation"). I believe that much can be learned by us from the spirited attitude held by the many Thai people I met.

Secondly, the acknowledgment of women in an intellectual or academic field of work is quite scarce. Too often did I see women of all ages either cooking, cleaning, prostituting themselves, being exotic dancers, bar girls, and even housewives (supposed “stay-at-home moms”). Most of the Thai males that I met owned and ran their own businesses. When I mentioned to one of them that I was in the legal field of practising law in my own country, the look of intimidation and disgust was quite apparent. It is quite a travesty of justice that women in Thailand are not provided with the same respect to obtain tertiary education in order to pursue meaningful and profitable careers. I cannot picture a woman in Thailand running her own household. Food for thought...

My next observation was more of a spiritual one but still important for everyone. I have always believed in the inherent good of all people. Buddha himself taught that each Being is born into Buddhahood him/herself but as we grow up, delusions guide our actions which taints our thoughts and creates a pattern of self-cherishing behaviours. If  Buddha believed that at the core of our Being, we are all Buddhas ourselves, then that would mean that Beings (including humans) are inherently good people experiencing a life of suffering as a result of accumulated karma. This is all relevant because I experienced two situations in which ordinarily a more sceptical person might have acted drastically different to the manner in which I acted. I lost my mobile phone twice, the first time was at night time in a local Starbucks café at a mall. I did not realise this until I arrived back at the hotel. I assumed that I left it at the Starbucks after doing a process of elimination. I initially panicked and struggled to sleep easy but I was adamant that there were good people out there who would hand in a lost item to a responsible person. The very next afternoon, when I was able to go to the mall, I paid a visit to the Starbucks and ascertained that they had retained my phone and then gave it to me. It is because I believed I would find it that the Universe rewarded my faith in the good nature of people. I then left my phone behind at the hotel without my own knowledge (again) and it was returned to me by the concierge himself. The lesson learned: the good nature of people exists inherently, and for as long as we have faith in this nature in others, we might be able to convert our current distrusting society into an honest one.

One of the most important realisations that I obtained on this trip was that my own needs to be independent, self-reliant, and lead a successful career were based on materialistic and incorrect motivations. One need only be motivated by the prospective tranquil lifestyle that follows as life well spent in achieving one’s own happiness. However, family is as important to the Thai people as maintaining this lifestyle and thus Thai people and Thai communities often look after one another and stay a closely-knit group. This understanding which pervades through their society is strong enough to motivate them into acting compassionately towards each other. So many young families have grown apart and in fact alienate themselves from each other through the growth of their own children or themselves in the pursuance of their individual goals. I have always believes that journeys through life are meant to be shared between people because a journey through life is rarely a lonely one. Sharing experiences creates opportunities to learn and to grow. I believe that these closely-knit communities have so much wisdom to share with their youth and amongst themselves that it is strong enough to break a diamond under pressure. It was certainly a pleasure to witness this amongst these humble and beautiful people.

I believe the Universe has blessed me in this life and this is quite evident by the fact that I had an opportunity to obtain these realisations from a country filled with beautiful culture and tradition. I have obviously accumulated good karma to be able to embark on this journey.

Thank you for reading this entry and I hope you enjoyed it.

I pray for you, the reader, the ability to monitor your thought patterns, be aware of your own attitudes, be grateful for the life you are living, help those who are in need of it, the ability to take a bird’s eye view of your life and replenish your energy with a warm-hearted smile, and most of all, to b e • h a p p y.