The misery of male slavery

"You may prefer to keep the little brown people barefoot and living in trees,"

an imperialist with missionary zeal out to "educate" the little brown people away from their primitive ways.

I didn't know that the Japanese, Taiwanese etc were all the same race but maybe you know better and think all "little brown people" think the same! :glasses10:

Lunchtime,

I know what your post means especially the last paragraph, and I agree with you, they are not at all, the same.

I don't like being referred to as a Farang!!

English, German, American, Australian, wherever you come from, We have vast different cultures, lifestyles and ideals.

And before anyone jumps on the computer keyboard to send a post about France and/or the Thai name for a Potato etc etc

I KNOW ALREADY!

So do the Thais. It is offensive, it is generally meant offensive and although some of the younger Thais are merely mimicking their peers, It is offensive.

Equally, it is one of the few countries in the World that would refer to an American black as a "negro".

Whether it be by ill education or not keeping up with the times, Thailand's government, when they get one, needs to wake up, smell the coffee and re educate people, especially in their manners to outsiders.

They do have more polite words, such as " Tang Chart" [ I won't apologise if they English spelling of a Thai word is not accurate , as the Thais never do} which is all encompassing to describe outsiders and people not of these shores.

Two more points,

How many times has the person you have offed from a go go for more than a couple of days, suddenly not been given what he wants??

Two minutes ago, you were Neil, Kevin, David, John whatever.

Now, you didn't agree to buy the mobile phone, you've grown two heads, you become, that "FARANG" Now tell me it is not derogatory!

Second example.

Your passport is not quite in order at the Airport or there is a slight query with your luggage, All of a sudden the discussion between the officer and his staff, becomes all about the Farang whilst eye gesturing and nodding to each other in your direction.

What if our Immigration officers in the UK etc started asking "Anyone seen the luggage of the yellow fellow with slanted eyes" He'd be fired in a breath!


I think Fair's fair, but its " Just the way I see it!! "

It seems a little perverse to write on a trail about human slavery, misery and death to say how miffed you are when someone uses an address you don't care for.

It seems a little perverse to write on a trail about human slavery, misery and death to say how miffed you are when someone uses an address you don't care for.

If you're saying "off topic " Wowpow, nearly every thread on here ends up like that!

jaafarabutarab,

Hi, I'll bow to your better knowledge on History.

One point, I didn't say in my post the term Tang chart meant foreigner, if you read my post.

My interpretation was, not of these shores, Different Nationalties encompassing all. I think that is what I said???

That is certainly what I meant.

The onus is also, by the way of course,the way you express it and the circumstances surrounding its use, as I desribed before in a previous post.

The point you make on the children is absolutely terrible, I hope for their sake, someone of influence hears about it and intervenes.

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

"when someone uses an address you don't care for." Wowpow !

did you mean a: "dress you don't care for."
a street "address you don't care for."
or was adressed in a manner "you don't care for."

pendantic I know but I want to know if someone's having a go at my frock, me or my residence..or all 3 !!

[Aunty]

Communism has been a huge success in China, Russia and Vietnam..considering the alternative if it hadn't happened...and socialism will be the saving of South America.

However it was the great philosopher Bertrand Russel who 70 years ago predicted that the East would become like the West and visa versa..and that's what's happening with Russia and China-embracing capitalism while the US and GB embrace fascism.

Well I'm sorry Lunchtime Lush, but on that score you are dead wrong. Communism (Mao) was an utter disaster for China. Having been there and seeing the poverty during its dying communist days, dead bodies floating down the Yangtze river, a suicide too on our boat...........................

Although it's interesting. I breakfast most days at a little cafe that is run by a Chinese immigrant family from Shanghai. The owner and I often have quite long discussions about well everything really, usually philosophical in nature. He often talks about life in China during communism when he was a young man, the simplicity of it all, people being more or less equal, everything the same. Life was simple, people were happy, even though they were not rich. He looks back on those days with quite a degree of nostalgia missing his life more simple, and for him at least, a simple happiness. Now there's the bills to pay, the cafe to run, long hours, seven days a week sometimes. A son to put through college. Life is more complicated, more demanding, harder, and he's not getting any younger. Happiness is very important to him, but his hard earnt wealth has not brought him happiness, and I think he is genuinely puzzled about that.

But I don't see this as an issue of puzzlement, or economics. It's an issue of awareness. Living back in communist China was like living as a child lives. There was no awareness, the State provided everything, just like Mum and Dad provides the world for their child to live in. And it's difficult to long for something you don't know even exists. So in this simple world, ignorance is truly bliss. But we are not children, and living life as a child is no way to live. It's NOT living. And I have often asked my friend, if all Chinese thought the same as you, how come China changed? If everybody was so happy living in the workers paradise of life as a child, there would be no need or desire to change. But clearly that is not the case. I guess for every happy Chinese like my friend, there was another who was unhappy, who wanted to leave home, grow up and become all they could be, or at least have a go at it. They want opportunities and choices, and the rewards that go with taking a chance and success. They want to grow and create and to be somebody. They want to live.

You see my friend wants to impose a system of government on all people because it makes him feel comforted to live that way. It's easy, its safe and its predictable. But many do not want to live like that, because it simply fails to satisfy them. So why should my friend get ti impose his will on others because it makes him feel better about himself? If that were to happen, they well be no great art, literature, science, engineering. There won't be any great plays to go and see or any great books to read, because children don't need that kind of stuff.

To me it all comes down to what is the best system to live under that allows as many people as possible the freedom to really live as they wish. Communism by its very nature produces a suffocating mediocrity and little chance to escape from it. At least under our system my friend can choose how to live, and if he really wants to return to a more simple life for happiness, then he can choose that too. But choice by definiation implies awareness.

I've never observed Thai people using "man" (or "mun") for foreigners any more than they do so for other Thais (which they do quite frequently).

I've never observed Thai people using "man" (or "mun") for foreigners any more than they do so for other Thais (which they do quite frequently).

Boygeenyus,

I am no expert, however, in my experiences "Man" is an impolite expresion of "Khow" He/she and is a derogatory term usually, made by someone who dislikes the third person to whom they are referring.

"Mun" even "Munga" rising at the end means You, and again as far as I know, dates back, and is old thai, to the times of Rama V, again in strong language and is purposefully derogatory, usually to put someone in their place!

Yes, Kevin. I know exactly what the word means and how it is used. Thais use it all the time with 1) people they are very, very friendly with (for example, groups of teenage boys will refer to one of their group in the third person using it); 2) people they dislike; 3) people they have no emotional connection to and feel no need to speak politely about. Plus, of course, animals and inanimate objects and concepts.

I have never noticed it being used more to refer to foreigners than it is to anyone else.

Me neither,

They would, in fact, use it more towards one of their own than us as Foreigners.

We don't hold their attention span long enough!