Child sex tourism law fails first test

Famous Cyclist for Pattaya?

When talk turns to turning pedals, the world throws up some great names. From Sir Hubert Opperman, the all conquering Aussie of many years ago, to the current crop of Tour de France winners like Jan Ullrich from Germany and Marco Pantani from Italy, and then on to the all time greats like Belgian Eddy Merckx, the six foot four inch powerhouse nicknamed “The Cannibal” with 525 wins to his career.

Belgian Eddy Merckx

Not surprisingly, is the omission of one other name from that list - that of Kim Fletcher! Delaney’s Kim, the man better known for peddling alcoholic liquids rather than pedalling push-bikes, has entered Pattaya’s answer to the Tour de France - the Tour de Maprachan Dam! This event is actually the Great Bike Ride, held as part of the Care 4 Kids Charity programme in conjunction with the Kids Charity Fair at the Amari on the 16th of September.

Kim has entered the 50 km “sprint”, even stating that the distance won’t worry him, as he has gone by bus to Bangkok many times, which is much further, as part of his rigorous training routine. Nutrition, of course, rates highly in his training as well, and the high calorie Gin and Tonics that he has been seen drinking are all part of the toning up process. “Well, I may as well start with the liver,” says Kim.

Kim Fletcher

However, since the event is part of a charity fund-raiser, Kim has taken that part seriously. To show just how serious he is, he has even borrowed a bike and fitted racing rat-trap pedals as well. That part of the equipment has proved to be hazardous as Kim was unable to extricate his feet from the pedals when he stopped the first time and immediately fell over, firmly attached to his machine, ending up requiring stitching for the subsequent wounds!

Kim is appealing for your help! Sponsorship of a rider means that the money goes to the Fountain of Life charity. Sponsor Kim on this bike ride and he will finish the 50 km if it kills him (it just may do, with his skill in the saddle) and the kids from the Fountain of Life will benefit. Whether your sponsorship is 100 baht or 10,000 baht, it all goes to the kids. Contact Kim at Delaney’s for a sponsorship form, or email your pledges to [email protected] and Kim will do his best, while you are doing your best for some disadvantaged kids.

Be at the Fair on the 16th and welcome Kim at the finish!

Seafood heaven at the Haven

Delaney’s to host BCCT Pub Night

What is repulsive in one part of the world, in another is simple lunch

Few things say as much about a culture as its food. As America exports hamburgers and cola around the world, best-selling author Jerry Hopkins brings readers a fascinating collection of strange, exotic foods that cater to more adventurous appetites. Strange foods: bush meat, bats, and butterflies; an epicurean adventure around the world. This book is not for the faint of stomach.

Currently a resident of Thailand, Jerry Hopkins explains “Over a period of twenty-five years I have eaten deep-fried bull’s testicles in Mexico, live shrimp sushi in Hawaii, mice cooked over an open fire in Thailand, pig stomach soup in Singapore, minced water buffalo and yak butter tea in Nepal, and stir-fried dog tongue and five penis wine in China.” Now, in strange foods, Hopkins chronicles his dining experiences for the rest of us in a food-infused travelogue complete with recipes, glorious photographs by Michael Freeman, and tips on where to buy everything from rats to frogs to dried sea cucumbers.

If you think the worm in bottle of mescal is strange, you really should have a talk with Jerry. Meet Jerry Hopkins at The Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand on Wednesday September 6, 2000 at 8pm.

The Farang Equation

The predominantly Thai Lions Club of Phratumnak recently asked Peter Malhotra, the Managing Director of the Pattaya Mail, if he would address their group on the attitude of the “Farang” population towards life in Pattaya as they see it. Peter in turn, researched the subject with many farangs in Pattaya and the following is an extract from that address:

The first item that must be understood is that “Farang” is not a country. So not all farangs think the same. European farangs and British farangs have held several wars to show they often do not agree!

Similarly, the kinds of these farangs who live here in Pattaya range from successful businessmen, to some who are not even wanted in their own society. There is no uniformity.

Kovit Tianthongnukul President of the Lions club of Phratamnak thanks Peter Malhotra for his talk as our token farang Dr. Iain Corness looks on.

With the Success Yours column in the Pattaya Mail, one characteristic comes through in about 90% of successful farangs interviewed – they came here on holiday, fell in love with Thailand/Thai ways and then worked out how to come here to live and work.

With the other groups of farangs, many are here because they are escaping from something or someone in their own countries – be that the police, taxation, ex wives or current wives.

One aspect of life in Pattaya that is enjoyed by almost all farangs is the relative “freedom” compared to their own countries. The developed world has produced so many rules and regulations that high flying entrepreneurs feel they are stifled. The regulations are all to stop you doing something – not to make it better, more fun or easier.

Another positive aspect for life in Thailand for working farangs is the taxation/BOI incentives. Many farangs are paying 50% personal tax in their own countries, after their company has already paid tax on its earnings. Double taxation like this drives many businessmen away from their native countries. In addition, to start a new business here, the BOI has good guidelines and makes it easier for the farang to get going with waived taxation for some years and similar attractive offers.

Undoubtedly the attitude of Thai women is also another plus for the farang men. In their own countries, the men are continually bombarded with “women’s rights” and similar issues. They feel that farang women have become aggressive and the farang man feels he is having to defend himself in his own country from these angry women and from laws brought in to really push the “rights” of women. Compare that to a nice Thai woman who makes him feel like he is “king”. Is there a real comparison?

On the positive side, there is more to do here than probably anywhere else in the world. Being a tropical seaside community, there is fishing, sailing, pleasure boating, trips to islands and water sports, as well as golf, bowling, softball, one of the most popular groups of Hash House Harriers in the world, plus family attractions such as elephant rides, sight seeing tours, a water park, miniature golf… The list goes on.

There is also a large selection of restaurants to choose from, offering a wide variety of different types of cuisine. All this and it is relatively inexpensive here as well. The dollar, euro, mark, pound, whatever goes a long way in Pattaya.

The bar scene cannot be left out of the popularity equation. And even though most in town would like to think they don’t exist, if there were no bargirls here, Pattaya would never have grown to where it is today. Take them away and watch the place turn into a ghost town.

Climate is also a big factor. Many who come here do so to escape brutal winters in their home countries.

The beautiful beaches here are a double-edged sword. They are a big attraction, yet when people get here and see how polluted they are, Pattaya’s image goes down hill in a hurry. One farang even said, “One of the most difficult things to explain to folks back home is why I am here, when Pattaya’s beach is so polluted you can’t go swimming in it.”

The culture here is a big draw. Thai dancing, sword fighting, Thai boxing, all are unique to the area and give visitors the feeling they truly are in a magical land.

For one farang, he gave “Test of Self” as a big reason for his being here - but it can wear you down as well. Living in a foreign land, not being fluent in the language, yet still being able to communicate can be quite an accomplishment. At the same time, it can also be quite frustrating.

Finally, on the positive side, farangs say you never know what you will see or experience when you walk out your front door. “I’ve seen things here, both good and bad, that I would never have experienced in a thousand years living anywhere else. My favorite example is the “high-speed chase” I saw early one morning about 4 a.m. Just before I got to Soi 6, a “teenage” elephant (not a baby but not fully grown either) came scampering out of Soi 6 with its mahout kicking it for extra speed. Luckily there wasn’t a lot of traffic, for it cut right across 2nd Road and headed up towards the shops and open area on the right side of the road. I had to stop so it wouldn’t hit me, and just before I started back up, the “Red-Police Truck”, complete with a group of officers in the back, came flying out of Soi 6 in hot pursuit. You’d never see that in the States!”

So why was Pattaya the choice for the farangs? For many English speaking farangs, this part of Thailand is the most cosmopolitan in the whole country. There are international pubs and restaurants, a high level of English is spoken, there are shopping centers and the proximity to the Eastern Seaboard industrial estates where many of them work. Road signs are in English, there are English language newspapers and the movies are also in their native tongue.

There is also the “gay” equation – many gay farangs come from countries where they could not openly walk down the street with their boyfriends, but they can in Pattaya - Thailand being much more tolerant towards gays than in their own countries.

On the negative side is the pollution. Pattaya could go a long way towards increasing respectability in the world’s eyes if she could clean up the water and somehow instill into her populace the importance of keeping the environment clean. “No Littering” signs, fines, etc., might be somewhere to start.

Planned obsolescence is another negative here. Just look at Beach Road - it gets re-surfaced every year. Surely this is not just incompetence, so it must be planned obsolescence - someone is making sure they have a steady income at taxpayers’ expense.

Corruption is also a bit hard to get used to. Western upbringing teaches doing everything “by the book”. Corruption is punished with imprisonment, fines, banishment from the community. Here it is accepted as normal practice, on every level, from bottom to top. There also seems to be an attitude where if I am clever enough to cheat you, then there is nothing wrong with it - until you catch me. And if you do catch me, you’d better be more clever than I to prove it.

Which brings up the subject of double pricing. Nothing disgruntles anyone more, regardless of nationality, than the feeling they are being cheated or discriminated against. Double pricing goes on in many places in the world, but most places do it a lot more discretely than Thailand. It is not uncommon here to see signs proclaiming “10 baht for Thai, 100 baht for farang”. If you’re going to double price, at least make it discreet. (As a sideline to this, many “farangs” would more than likely pay a little extra in the form of a tip if they felt they weren’t being cheated!)

Finally there is the feeling of acceptance, or rather non-acceptance. Unfortunately, xenophobia lives on and discrimination runs rampant. Be that the Banking Laws, the difficulty with visas and double pricing - all are very much disliked. No matter how long a farang lives here, he will be subject to disparaging remarks thrown at him in the Thai language from people who think the farang can’t understand. This just shows an underlying attitude by many Thai’s that farangs are a “necessary evil” - and gives the impression that Thai’s want your money - but please leave it and leave…

The speech was very well received by the Lions group, and many of the points had not been previously appreciated by the Thai society that was addressed that evening, so it was a cultural learning experience in many ways.

While the farang equation will never be fully worked out, the Pattaya Mail invites readers to comment on the address. The best letters will be published in Postbag over the next few weeks.

Thought for the week:
So what would ants know about leading & managing...
Who cares what ants do...
I'm busy with crocodiles...

by Richard Townsend, Corporate Learning Consultant
http://www.orglearn.org

Well ants have been around about 100 million years and in their terms we are beginners when it comes to process management. But they’re just stupid little crawly things acting on their instincts… true, but what a well honed set of instincts they have, consider this:

Input Quality. Leaf Cutters (they’re ants) are so ‘quality conscious’ that they back up in case of disaster by delivering the bits they bring to ‘the office/factory’ to different areas so the entire colony doesn’t collapse if some bad stock turns up. What about the quality of our supply chain, are we exposed? A major technology company recently publicly announced that one of its key divisions suffered millions in lost revenue (and I guess market share) because their single chipmaker had a factory fire. Who decided to buy from a single chipmaker, let alone one with a single production facility? How’s our supply chain, have we looked lately?

Production Quality. Ants’ competence management is so well refined that they even have different physical attributes to handle specialist tasks. Leaf Cutters come in different sizes and shapes, to suite their role. How is our competence modelling going? Do we hire for what we need and train for the shortcomings? How long has it been since our managers looked at the competence requirement for their department and presented a proposal on how to fix the gap? Does HR test applicants against the job spec before hiring or do they still send in ‘the best of a bad bunch’?

Output Quality. Another ant variety, ‘Rattue’, can teach us about partnering with our suppliers and customers. They team up with a caterpillar that supplies them with food in return for their protection from predatory spiders. Dangerous intruders cause the caterpillar tap when they approach. The interesting thing is that the supplier (caterpillar) speaks the ants’ language. The most successful finance salesman I ever new was an ex-roadwork’s construction contractor. His customers dealt with him because he understood their industry, the machinery they needed and the financial aspects of their business. How much do we know about our customers and their problems and how well our solutions really fit or just flog product?

No Ants To Be Found. The Internet business and some of the problems emerging (including the first few of many failures to come) is a prime example of how businesses lose track of what their customers need. As an example, I have been trying to change my web host for three months due to poor communication practices of my ‘supplier’. One of their staff even said, ‘for that price you don’t get any service or advice just a space on our server’. Needless to say, after 3 months, 50 or 60 emails and a phone call to the ‘states’, I am still unable to complete the change. Many Internet companies forget that people deal with people and that they need to personally communicate with individuals. Badly worded, technical, jargon filled, anonymous do it yourself forms are not effective communication devices, particularly when problems arise. No wonder the business analysts on TV keep asking ‘dot coms’ about customer ‘burn rates’.

Are you listening for the tapping caterpillar, do your staff have the cutting attributes they need, talked to a dissatisfied customer lately to analyse your organisation’s shortcomings… or is there a spider at your door?

Worth a thought.

To contact Ric mailto: [email protected]

YWCA and PSC continue to support local schools

The YWCA Pattaya Chapter and the Pattaya Sports Club presented food and sporting equipment to the Bang Lamung kindergarten school in Ban Rong Po on August 24th during a luncheon they arranged for the children at the school.

Pattaya YWCA Chairperson Mrs. Premrudee Jittivuthikan and local YWCA members donated rice, cooking oil and fish sauce to support the school kitchen. Ron Herbert, PSC Secretary, representing the Pattaya Sports Club, presented athletic equipment in support of the school’s athletic program.

Copyright 2000  Pattaya Mail Publishing Co.Ltd.
370/7-8 Pattaya Second Road, Pattaya City, Chonburi 20260, Thailand 
Tel.66-38 411 240-1, 413 240-1, Fax:66-38 427 596; e-mail: [email protected]