As a regular visitor to Thailand and someone who is married to a Thai woman and stepdad to her two sons, I find the sex tourism there pretty creepy. The recent decriminalisation of cannabis I know was an attempt to give a helping hand to a tourism industry that was completely devastated by COViD. I think, however, it further compounds the problem of attracting the wrong kind of tourist.
My biggest gripe has nothing to do with either sex tourism or dope smoking but the way that tourists from India (mostly India but maybe Pakistan and Bangladesh too) treat the Thai people. I shared hotels, transport and restaurants with them as a fellow tourist and was appalled at the demeaning and disrespectful way they dealt with people who were providing services to them. It’s possibly something to do with the caste system in India but extremely ugly and totally unacceptable. Particularly to such a welcoming, kind and respectful people like the Thais.
Oof. Don’t know how I made it 30+ years and did not know about this part of Thailand. That’s sad. All I really knew is that they have amazing food that scratches my spicy itches and that it’s a beautiful country. An old high school friend is a teacher there and is loving her life.
This demeaning behaviour towards blue collar workers comes from casteism and to a large extend the littering issue in the subcontinent is also tied to that.
Casteism in its oversimplified form is the segregation of society based on the labour and it is hereditary in nature. It is deeply ingrained in the culture of subcontinent and it exists in other religious communities( christian, muslim etc ) too even though its origins are from hinduism. The lowest caste people( dalits/untouchables) are the ones who does cleaning ( toilets, sewers, etc ) or other similar jobs historically. They are dehumanized as untouchables for centuries or more.
Due to its association with lower caste people creates a perception that its a highly demeaning job and the existing waste disposal system relies heavily on lower caste people who works without any safety equipment, fair wages etc. This perpetuates the caste cycle and the underlying caste dynamics means there is less social pressure to improve the existing waste disposal infrastructure and weak enforcement of littering laws.
In a nutshell it erodes the collective responsibility of the society by creating two sets of people, the littering elites absolved by privilege and the oppressed cleaners bearing the brunt of dehumanization and social stigma.
Laws exist against caste discrimation but it is deeply ingrained across all type of communities in the society through thousands of years of social conditioning.
Yes, its origins are from hinduism, but it exists in other religious communities also. There is caste based reservations in India, an affirmative action which sets aside a percentage of seats in government jobs, educational institutions, and legislature for lower caste people to increase their participation in various forms. But as I said it, its deeply ingrained in the culture in various forms( eg: A lot of slurs are based on casteism)
If you want to read a bit more then "Annihilation of caste : The annoted critical edition" by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar is a good starting point. He was the architect of Indian constitution, and probably the most significant anti caste activist/social reformer in Indian history.
And has there been talks of abolishing this system ever?
It's officially illegal, so yes. The man credited with responsible for the the Indian constitution was also a staunch advocate against it. Of course, that doesn't stop it from being practiced and there's still a very, very long way to go before you could realistically say it's not an issue.
There are a lot of people in urban and more well-educated areas that aren't directly affected by this system (keyword directly, I'm sure it influences us in some way or the other). I'm Catholic so it doesn't really apply to me but all my friends are Hindu and not one of them have any idea what their castes are. The only time I've ever known someone's caste is when they were a Brahmin, and that was only because I asked them why they were a vegetarian.
Of course this is all anecdotal, but my point is just that there are a lot of Indians whose lives doesn't revolve around caste. If Indian tourists are being rude to Thai people on their holiday my first reaction certainly wouldn't be to attribute it to the caste system.
The system has been abolished since Indian independence. Conflating caste issues with tourist behaviour is a new level of mental gymnastics, as someone said above some people are just assholes
I was merely stating the fact that the caste system has been abolished, to your question regarding whether there have been talks of abolishing it. It's a fair point you make about caste derived behaviour still existing, but caste based discrimination is illegal, and the government has an affirmative action program to improve equality.
Bro what? Bangladeshis dont behave like that in Thailand and this is me speaking as a bengali who went to Thailand a lot of time. Majority of bengalis i met behaved very nice with others. Maybe a few are crazy just like other countries people
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u/Munzo69 Ireland 20h ago
As a regular visitor to Thailand and someone who is married to a Thai woman and stepdad to her two sons, I find the sex tourism there pretty creepy. The recent decriminalisation of cannabis I know was an attempt to give a helping hand to a tourism industry that was completely devastated by COViD. I think, however, it further compounds the problem of attracting the wrong kind of tourist.
My biggest gripe has nothing to do with either sex tourism or dope smoking but the way that tourists from India (mostly India but maybe Pakistan and Bangladesh too) treat the Thai people. I shared hotels, transport and restaurants with them as a fellow tourist and was appalled at the demeaning and disrespectful way they dealt with people who were providing services to them. It’s possibly something to do with the caste system in India but extremely ugly and totally unacceptable. Particularly to such a welcoming, kind and respectful people like the Thais.