Here are Thailand’s Headlines of the Week
15-Year-Old Dies in Phuket Vegetarian Festival Shoot-Out.
Shoot-outs between teenagers are part of the landscape in Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya. They’re belong to a very old
tradition and are implicitly tolerated because, despite the mayhem they cause, they help preserve Thailand’s ancient warrior culture. Because Thailand has the best rice-growing land in the world it has been the target of many invasions from larger, envious neighbors over the centuries. In a dangerous environment like ours, you don’t want the boys to become sissies, do you? That’s why Thais generally take a ‘boys will be boys’ attitude to these incidents. Though Thailand’s homicide rate is slightly higher than the USA’s (5.0 vs. 4.5 per thousand citizens), the light touch policing makes for a much more relaxed environment. Police suppression is not nearly as evident in Thailand is it is in most Western countries. That’s one reason I like living here.
This headline is the first I’ve seen that balances Thailand’s pacifist Buddhist culture (the vegetarian festival – Thais love their abundant, exotic veggies) with the old warrior culture. Bravo!
Thailand’s headlines of the week are brought to you courtesy of the ever-inventive Thai people, who don’t like to make the same mistakes twice: they prefer to try new, exotic ones, bless ’em.