Hysterically funny BBC doco on Thailand

[thonglor55]

I've just watched an hysterically funny "documentary" featuring a 23yo bimbo who whines her way through a holiday on Phuket. Don't miss the scene where she lectures the hotel management on how they should be treating their staff. Apparently this child has previously "exposed" prostitution in Cambodia and child labour in Africa. The thrust of her message seems to be "Don't holiday in Thailand because the Thais treat their own people badly but if you do make sure you double or treble the wages of the locals by tipping them outrageously, and by the way I've set them straight on how they should be running their country".

You''re being very harsh on the poor girl as I mean at "least" she got all that sea gypsy / hotel developer land thing sorted out- and the Prime Minister himself is going to take a personal interest in making sure the situation is handled "fairly" - I assume they mean fairly as in making sure he or his cohorts get their "fair cut" lol - and in case you don't get it, I'm totally agreeing with you, the programme was cringe worthy in the extreme and it makes you wonder how idiotic dumbed down TV like that can even get made never mind aired ! ......but still at least all the hotel workers are going to benefit from the "pound" that she was going to leave in every room she stayed in from now on eh ! lol

[Patexpat]

I shall watch on iPlayer tonight .....

It has to rate as the biggest load of crap ever aired about Thailand, and that silly little girl would make a perfect NGO as she knows nothing about anything!

[gaymandenmark]

Does someone have a link?

[thonglor55]

Does someone have a link?Sorry, a friend of mine from the UK showed me a pirated copy on a DVD as soon as he got off the plane.

Does someone have a link?

This is a link to the BBC programme but you can't watch it in Thailand!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programs/b0100vtt

There is also a lot of discussion on ThaiVisa.com about the program here: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/455859-tourism-and-thailand-the-bbcs-shocking-truth/page__pid__4320908#entry4320908

and from Andrew Drummond here: http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2011/03/29/bbc-the-shocking-truth-about-tourism-on-thailand/

Most reviewers agree that she has a very irritating voice, somewhat like an Essex girl version of Olive Oil from Popeye.

[Beachlover]

Welcome to Asia!

I'm not going to bother watching because I know it'll just piss me off.

Andrew Drummond had this to say after watching it...

THE REVIEW

I have now had time to watch this programme at my leisure. I do admit having nodded off a couple of times only to be woken up by this StaceyтАЩs shrill voice. Also caught the tiny tears at the end. Well of course the title тАШThailand: Tourism and the TruthтАЩ should have been changed to тАШWe send Tracey Dooley on holiday to Thailand to have a cryтАЩ.

It was, I have to admit a little bit grating to watch, and not because I canтАЩt live with her accent. IтАЩm actually feeling a little sorry for Stacey. ThereтАЩs no investigation in тАШStacey InvestigatesтАЩ. It is patently obvious that the producer and director are leading this girl into prepared storylines, which shethen has to react to.

Bit of a shame that they picked on the Baan Thai Hotel in Phuket which not only pays above the minimum wage but also provides free food, accommodation and transport to its staff and is also planning to arrange, says the manager, families of staff to come and visit.

Many of the women on the hotelтАЩs staff are sending money home to children up country and Stacey never once asks why they need to do this. There are certainly no тАШbrutalтАЩ working conditions at Baan Thai and one of the workers even says she works at the hotel because the money is better.

None of these workers would change their life for 40 quid a day in the UK.
Instead Stacey concentrates on a worker who lives off premises (by choice because she wants her freedom) in a 2000 baht a month slum, hence the тАШratтАЩ.

I loved one cut in the programme when Stacey is filmed talking on a mobile phone and then clicks off and turns to camera and says that it now looked like a meeting with the Prime Minister was on, when we all know the fixer had been doing all the talking.

She is even close to tears again on Koh Phagnan when she accompanies two very burly female rescue workers with close cropped hair patrolling the beach at Haad Rin (with no insignia) who complain that the foreigners often tell them to тАШF..off!тАЩ and again at the island morgue where they have to pay atrocious electricity bills (3,000-4,000 baht a month) to keep the bodies of foreigners cool before relatives or Embassy officials arrange their collection.

Stacey talks about the dark side of Thailand. There is of course. But boy oh boy, someone is really keeping Stacey in the dark on the Full Moon Party Island.

Bottom line here is that people at the bottom of the food chain are treated badly. It happens in the U.K. too. If I were StaceyтАЩs agent I might be staying тАШLook love, letтАЩs stop these programmes now before you get stereo-typedтАЩ or simply тАШTime to move on gal before you are fed to the sharks.тАЭ

TV producers talk a lot about demographics. The demographic group for this programme is those people who want to see a na├пve girl next door brought to tears by what this world has to offer outside Luton.
Amazingly this programme was produced and directed by women.

[Patexpat]

I shall watch on iPlayer tonight .....


.. and I did. What cringing, condescending, ill informed reporting from, dare I say it, the BBC. A fantastic own goal!
Example of bad investigative reporting: '40 pounds (B1,940) a month is expensive for a room in Thailand'

Tosh .. shameful and utter tosh!

It has to rate as the biggest load of crap ever aired about Thailand, and that silly little girl would make a perfect NGO as she knows nothing about anything!


Combat,

What do you mean NGO,if she has the above attributes,she might as well go for the job of UK prime minister,because he has the same!

Combat,
What do you mean NGO,if she has the above attributes,she might as well go for the job of UK prime minister,because he has the same!

I couldn't agree more Kevin, or why not send the dumb bitch into Afghanistan, with her knowledge and expertise she could sort the country out in no time and let the troops come home!

[allieb]

This is the correct link, the one posted by Roger is incomplete. I am just about to watch it in Saudi Arabia I have a UK vpn set up on my pc


http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... estigates/ (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0100vtt/Thailand_Tourism_and_the_Truth_Stacey_Dooley_Inves tigates/)

[cdnmatt]

Probably against the board rules, but for anyone outside of the UK who wants to watch it, you can download it free here:

http://www.fileserve.com/file/3UTmHuh/t ... id-ftp.avi (http://www.fileserve.com/file/3UTmHuh/thailand.tourism.and.the.truth.stacey.dooley.inves tigates.ws.pdtv.xvid-ftp.avi)

I think at least. I'm still waiting for my download to finish, to for all I know it's a fake.

[allieb]

I have just watched it and I am embarressed to be a Brit. The voice and stupidity of Stacy, an East London / Essex tart is just too much. She has reminded me why I never want to live in the UK again. It would have been better for her to do a documentary on Benidorm.

I have just watched it and I am embarressed to be a Brit. The voice and stupidity of Stacy, an East London / Essex tart is just too much. She has reminded me why I never want to live in the UK again. It would have been better for her to do a documentary on Benidorm.


allieb,

She can't,there's already one running! :evil4:

[cdnmatt]

Just finished watching it. All I can say is spoiled, sheltered little brat who is totally oblivious to the real world. But more than likely, ended up with a rich daddy who has some producer friends, and rich daddy wanted to make her a documentary star.

I love how the dumb broad was waing to everyone, even kids.

[RichLB]

First off, the video is available on VUZE and I have watched it. It's true the girl is a bit too perky for her own good, but why have so many missed the point. Lower strata Thais are grossly underpaid and struggle to survive. The women she interviewed who work six days a week and haven't been able to afford a trip home to see their children for some years is typical, not unique cases. While there is little tourists can do to fix the economic inequities in Thailand, we CAN remember that a tip which has little effect on us can mean the world to wait staff, hotel maids, maintenance men, etc. It seems to me far too easy to criticize the messenger in this documentary and ignore the message.

[thonglor55]

... we CAN remember that a tip which has little effect on us can mean the world to wait staff, hotel maids, maintenance men, etc. It seems to me far too easy to criticize the messenger in this documentary and ignore the message.Yes, why don't we band-aid the problem? It won't be fixed in my lifetime. It's no coincidence that it's the North-East that was the main area for the communist rebels and is now the source of much of the Red Shirt's support. Personally I'm all for stringing up the establishment and their apologists (including many former and current contributors to this Forum) to the nearest lamp-post come the revolution, but I guess we could postpone that day for a month or a year by increasing the size of our tips. At the very least it will perpetuate the view that social problems can be resolved through handouts rather than root and branch revolution. In her naive way the child who presented the documentary was struggling to articulate the need for such a radical change, although I doubt she has the gumption to understand what is required. Although I generally have no time for Asia's dictators, Lee Kwan Yu has achieved a very great deal for the ordinary people of Singapore (and the only cheap boys there are the Indonesians who come in on a 14-day visitor pass)

[Beachlover]

have so many missed the point. Lower strata Thais are grossly underpaid and struggle to survive. The women she interviewed who work six days a week and haven't been able to afford a trip home to see their children for some years is typical, not unique cases.
RichLB... Welcome to the Asian rat race. This situation (and far worse) happens all over Asia.

This is life. Not everyone gets to grow up in a wealthy Western country of privileged means as you (I assume) and I did. Want to know how many days a week my Dad worked and still does? Seven, though now he does it for satisfaction than necessity. Want to know how much my parents saw of their kids? Very little. I used to get sent to live with my relatives because they were too busy working to look after me.

The great thing is in most cases, if someone born into poorer circumstances works hard and works smart, there's no reason they can't work their way to a life of better means as my parents did.

How do you define "grossly underpaid"? Why do you think the women took the job? Did they have a gun pointed to their head?

If you pay workers more than you need to attract and retain them, you inhibit the growth of your business and in the long run, you won't be employing as many workers as you would otherwise. In an economy where there are unemployed people, this means more people remain unemployed and without an income altogether.


we CAN remember that a tip which has little effect on us can mean the world to wait staff, hotel maids, maintenance men, etc.
I'm not disputing tips make a difference. If it makes you feel great to give a big tip to everyone you come across, fine.

But before you start moralising about Western tourists not tipping enough, take into consideration that you come from a country (I'm assuming you're American?) where the tipping culture is vastly different. Then look around you and watch what other Asians are doing. I'm not talking about the poorer working class Asians you spend most of your time with. I'm talking about the wealthier middle-class Asians you see in Thailand and all over Asia.

Personally, I think the sensible thing to do is tip when it's deserved for outstanding service and in proportion to the service rendered. Not to show how wealthy you are or how underpaid you THINK they are.

[cdnmatt]

but why have so many missed the point. Lower strata Thais are grossly underpaid and struggle to survive.

What? Do you think the cleaning ladies at your local Holiday Inn are living large, or something? Or they just don't count, because they're not working in a foreign country where you love to holiday?

[mahjongguy]

As we sat down to watch this show, I warned my b/f that it was likely to be tabloid crap. Hoo boy, was I right. It made last year's jet-ski expose look like Pulitzer material in comparison.

Other posters have already picked apart the show, and I agree with their every criticism. Yes, the minimum wage needs to be raised, but otherwise the plight of the hotel maids didn't move me to rail against a heartless government. What these women were missing were supportive husbands, and there's nothing unique about Thailand in that regard. It's a cultural issue, one that's worse in the U.S.A. than here.

People getting evicted from their long-held undocumented property? Has this girl never heard of the British Empire? Her forebears stole entire continents. Still, it was nice to see her cheered upon hearing that the PM will "take care of it".

Sheesh. My b/f, whose first job was in housekeeping at a major BKK hotel and has since been exposed to every aspect of tourism, is highly sympathetic to all working class people (as long as they actually do what they're paid to do), but he thought the whole show was crap. Even her occasional valid point was ruined by her know-nothingness.

One note to Americans: though we are known to be among the best tippers overall, some of us (me included) will tip a hotel bellman but overlook leaving a tip for the maid. Somehow I never learned that, but I have of course been edified by my ever-generous better half.

[RichLB]

I must not have somehow not made myself clear in my sympathy with this documentary's message, I never suggested, and in fact explicitly said, that we Westerners have any ability to solve the income differential in Thailand nor do we have the responsibility to do so. Nor, as some suggest, am I promoting extravagant tips. Whether I, or anyone, comes from a wealthy country or have emerged from a background of similar suffering does not change the fact that any tips we may elect to offer will help the recipient in a far larger proportion than many of us realize. I am having trouble believing the rationalizations I've read here justifying behaving niggardly (and, no, that is not a racial term!!!). .

[bao-bao]

It was sensationalized tabloid-style media coverage of a lower level, but you have to give the chirpy girl credit for getting people to fund her holiday to Thailand. It's as if she'd never seen someone drunk before, but during one of those many shots of her smiling that vacant stare into the distance I could imagine her making plans to be back for another full moon party without a crew as witnesses. :rolling:

Had this been a tabloid print version I would have expected a quarter page photo of her by page three, pouting and pressing her boobs together above a caption like "Whoops! This lusty news gal almost exposed more than she bargained for!".

She may well have had good intentions, but she came off looking like an air head, sad to say. That incessant need of hers to wai as if they were monks was especially silly.

I tip folks when I'm on vacation, but I don't make a show of it and I don't go overboard. If done properly it's somewhat a show of respect, I think.

That incessant need of hers to wai as if they were monks was especially silly.
I tip folks when I'm on vacation, but I don't make a show of it and I don't go overboard. If done properly it's somewhat a show of respect, I think.

As you say bao-bao if a wai is done properly and to the right person it is gratefully accepted, but the unwritten rule for farang's is "if in doubt don't do it"

[Beachlover]

Thanks cdnmatt, for the link to the download.

I just watched it for entertainment's sake.

I like the fast edits and production values. Stacey is likable at first. She's fresh faced and has some distinctly charming facial expressions. She's a bit patronising in how she behaves to some of the Thais who serve her - e.g. the wais - but I guess she might have been ignorant (as many tourists are) and a lot of it was done for the cameras.

The flaws and shallowness of what she says gets really tiring after a while. I'm unsure how much of that is her and how much of it is her producers scripting.

Her statements about "it's not fair... something's not right" are plain stupid. Poorer Thais come to Phuket and other tourist areas to work because they earn more there than they can back home. They accept the working/living conditions and time away from family. This is what it's like all over Asia.

Her meeting with the hotel managers was dumbest scene of all... She says to them, "family is important and you know you know you don't want Mums to be away from their kids if you can help it, although sacrifices do have to be made, you really don't want families split up just so they can earn a living wage." [the managers smile and nod]

... How about focus on giving them a job and a means to earn income first!

Then she talks about how "you really want the money to really benefit the people serving you"... What about the people who took the risk to invest in building and operating the bloody hotel so she could enjoy her holiday there and employees could be paid to serve here? Any thought to them? Any thought to the fact they have to compete with dozens of other hotels and risk going under when times are tough?

As for the Sea Gypsies...I don't know the history behind them but it reminds me of the Australian movie, The Castle. What they need is a hotshot lawyer willing to fight pro bono for them!

[cdnmatt]

Poorer Thais come to Phuket and other tourist areas to work because they earn more there than they can back home. They accept the working/living conditions and time away from family.

Honestly, I didn't see anything wrong at all with the working / living conditions showed. 6 days/week, 9 hours/day, free room & board, plus at least 6200 baht/month. The staff rooms, albeit small, looked perfectly fine and clean to me. I'd say there's lots of Thais out there would who love that job, because many have it a whole lot worst. They're cleaning hotel rooms for a living, so can't expect a 5 star presidential suite, but from what I seen, it looks fine to me.


Her meeting with the hotel managers was dumbest scene of all...

That one, and when she waltzed into the Prime Minister's office wearing shitty tourist clothing. Didn't even have the decency to put some decent clothes on, and just waltzes in because she's "Stacy from the UK" here to save the sea gypsies! Even if that was staged, and done for pure entertainment value, it's still pretty disrespectful. Then of course, proceeds to go on about how tourists should respect Thais more.

[allieb]

Stacy's waiving at the kids and the manner in which she kept saying thank you, sounded and looked like she was addressing retards in a nut house.

As for tipping, chamber maids are always at the top of my list. They have the shittiest job in the hotel. I was always give a 100 baht the first time I encounter them in my room followed by a lump sum on the last day equvilent to 50 baht a day for my stay. I make a point of looking for them on the last day as I once left an envelope for the maid at reception on my departure. My boy special at the time told me "they wont give it to her".

[pandorasbox-old]

Alas the standard of UK reporting on BBC3 these days

[jolyjacktar]

Yes you all might scoff and slag her off guys but she's having the last laugh earning the good money and free hols arround the world.
I would put on an Essex accent and shed a few tears for her money.
:crybaby:

[zinzone]

My blood is boiling after viewing this awful screechy common-as-muck cow scream her way around phuket etc. How dare she, for example, go to a foreign country a try to lecture a hotel on how to treat their staff. Britains socialism from which she comes means that many working people have to pay 40-50% of their annual income in taxes and national insurance which is then given to ungratful slav's and other riff raff claiming benefits in the UK.
People come to live in Thailand to pay low or no tax and to be in an environment with a reasonable cost of living which is not the case in Britain. It is not our role to be the social worker for the rest of the world and and that effing stupid bitch should look to sorting out the problems in her own country and leave other places like Thailand to find its own way.
dear oh dear: what a load of rubbish!

[bao-bao]

It is not our role to be the social worker for the rest of the world and and that effing stupid bitch should look to sorting out the problems in her own country and leave other places like Thailand to find its own way.
dear oh dear: what a load of rubbish!
I suppose Thailand should count itself lucky that she didn't also follow up her wai greeting with "Have you heard the word of GOD today? Let me tell you about MY lord and savior..." :tard: I'd rather have her misguided comments on business than have her trying to convert people.

[frequentflier]

She came across as someone who knows very little about anything.I dont think anyone would take her comments seriously..

[Beachlover]

Honestly, I didn't see anything wrong at all with the working / living conditions showed. 6 days/week, 9 hours/day, free room & board, plus at least 6200 baht/month. The staff rooms, albeit small, looked perfectly fine and clean to me...
Yes but you've actually been through some of the poorer parts of Asia where as most Brits who watch this haven't. They'll be outraged.


How dare she, for example, go to a foreign country a try to lecture a hotel on how to treat their staff.
Yep... I just didn't get that part of the documentary where she has a meeting with the hotel managers to discuss why they're not taking care of their families better.

You can download two other documentaries she's done here:

Prostitution in Cambodia: http://www.fileserve.com/file/VHBt2XD/s ... id-ftp.avi (http://www.fileserve.com/file/VHBt2XD/stacey.dooley.investigates.sex.trafficking.in.camb odia.ws.pdtv.xvid-ftp.avi)

Kids with Guns: http://www.fileserve.com/file/yUSR2Eh

Watching the Cambodian one now. I think the problem with the Thailand documentary was they chose the wrong subject matter. These other two docs she did seem to cover much more serious issues. With the Thailand documentary, they chose an issue, which was too weak and not really an issue at all (the hotel staff).

Once they got there and started filming, they probably realised it was lame but had to keep going with it because with these things, once you're committed with the producer, host, camera crew and fixers on sight, you're committed...

as most Brits who watch this haven't. They'll be outraged.

Once they got there and started filming, they probably realised it was lame but had to keep going with it because with these things, once you're committed with the producer, host, camera crew and fixers on sight, you're committed...

Now you fancy yourself an expert on British public opinion and investigative journalism?