Of course you’re not required to think anything.
Only accept that it’s a different culture, and it’s okay for them to have a distinct cultural perspective on this particular event.
They are entitled to have a very different attitude towards some things, it’s their country after all.
Update: The creator of the video has removed it from YouTube, but Thailand still bans the entire site since there are two other images that don’t praise the king enough.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21511554-5005961,00.html
Somehow this worship of Mr. B., who is apparently considered to be semi-divine, reminds me of Kim Jong Il in North Korea, who not only singlehandedly has made the country such a paradise to live in, but is credited with inventing fire.
You see, those two phrases in that order are contradictory. You tell me I’m not required to have a certain opinion with the first sentence and then tell me what opinion to have with the second sentence.
If I think that their King-worship is idiotic, I reserve the right to say so. Don’t tell me I have to “Accept” it as valid. I think it is not valid.
The child brothels are in Cambodia. The child prostitutes that foreigners are getting busted with here – mainly in Pattaya – work the streets. It’s still a complete zoo over in Cambodia, though.
Yes, the lese-majeste laws are very strict here, and that’s all I’ll say on the matter, because I want to keep on living here.
Sam’s post makes me wonder: are there Thai police tasked with searching out sedition and royal blasphemy? I hate to use Orwellian terms, but is there a unit of “Thought Police?”
Sam, I don’t expect you to answer because I’d hate for you to get in trouble. (despite my mini-rant above, I do believe in respecting the culture of the country that you are in. It’s just plain polite as well as prudent). So if there are any dopers who can answer safely, it would be nice to hear the straight dope.
Hypno-Toad
OK, my credentials are that I was married to a Thai woman for 22 years. AFAIK, there are no secret “heresy police” or anything of that nature. Making fun of the King will get the average guy pissed-pff at you.
Musicat
I would have to disagree. Kim-Jong-whatever is maintained in power by troops and secret police whereas the King in Thailand is kept in power by an overwhelming majority of the population. The average guy is pretty firmly convinced that the King is looking out for the welfare of the country and the population.
There are a couple of elements to this:
For starters, he is seen as a check on greedy and corrupt politicians. The other aspect of it is religious. I never learned all the ins-and-outs of it as I am not religious, but the King is also seen as a (maybe THE) head of the church.
Between the two, the King can get just about anything done that he wants.
Regards
Testy
Ten years is a bit harsh.
In Cuba you only get 3 months to a year in prison for desacato, or disrespect of any government official or functionary, and 1 to 3 years for disrespect of a high government official.
Damn right. Cut it down to make it better fit the seriousness of the crime. Like 9.5 years, maybe.
It makes Cuba look downright progressive.
It’s hard to explain how beloved the King is. It’s almost like he’s a living saint. There are pictures of him everywhere, on the streets, in businesses, in private homes. When I was in Thailand in January, people I barely knew would tell me how much they loved the king. And he seems to be a genuinely good monarch. He’s invested lots of his own money in projects to improve the standard of living for rural Thais.
It’s hard for Americans to understand, but then there are lots of things about American culture that are completely bizarre to Thais. Putting our elderly in nursing homes, for one example.
The Swiss dude has been pardoned by the King:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/04/12/thai.king.ap/index.html
He is also being deported. Well, way better than prison.
But only if you do it from inside a federally designated Free Speech Zone.
Except that he was pardoned after a couple of weeks and sent home to Switzerland to sleep it off. A few weeks in jail for being a disrespectful, drunken prick seems about right, wouldn’t you say?
From the Bangkok Post:
The reason he was pardoned after a couple of weeks, of course, is that it takes time for stuff to make it through whatever channels it has to make it through. Another point is that the Thai King, although incredibly popular, really doesn’t have much to do with the laws and the courts. He does, as this case shows, have the power to pardon someone, but it’s not as cut-and-dried as a couple posters above make it seem.
Note that I think the whole “you can’t make fun of the royal family” law is unfair, I did have the good sense to not violate it while I was in Thailand.
No, I don’t. Imagine if I had the power to do the same to you just because you stuck your tongue out at me in public?
And while I’m glad he was pardoned, the fact that the law exists and is still capriciously, selectively applied is disturbing. It’s a bad law that is enforced only at the whim of the authorities. Citizens should be able to know in advance that what they do is allowed or prohibited; they shouldn’t have to rely on whether some ruler felt benevolent that day.
The citizens did all know this was prohibited, so did this drunken tourist.
His culture accepts that in his drunken state any disrespect he may show toward any authority will likely be excused as foolhardy but not much more. He was mistaken to think that would apply in a different culture that holds an entirely different view of any disrespect toward the beloved royal family.
This is a cultural divide. No one is asking you to understand it, that is not required.
Just as when citizens of other lands come to the west, regardless of their own cultural standards towards things, they are expected to abide by the cultural standards and laws of the lands they are visiting.
They are not allowed to beat their children because such things are acceptable and commonplace in their own culture. And we don’t much care if they understand our view point only that they respect it, as it is our law.
This is their law, and they expect visitors to respect it, even if they cannot understand it reflects a different cultural attitude than their own.
The guy wasn’t a citizen, he was a visitor, albeit most likely a long term one. Not a great law, granted, but it is their law. He breaks it at his own peril.
My point is that those who shrug the law off by saying, “but he was pardoned, so it’s not really all that bad in practice” are encouraging selective application of a bad law. The fact that a pardon can sometimes be obtained does not make a bad law into a good one.
Your judgement doesn’t make it a bad law, the citizens of this country are quite happy with this law as it reflects their cultural values.
Stop judging it by your cultural standards already!
And you know they are happy because…? They smile in the travelogues?
No matter what your cultural standards are, the fact that a pardon can sometimes be obtained does not make a bad law into a good one.
There’s been another conviction, this time of an American apparently of Thai descent. Sentence: 2.5 years: http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/08/world/asia/thailand-american-insults/index.html?hpt=hp_t2