In Pathum Thani province a short distance north of Bangkok – it’s encompassed in what’s known as Greater Bangkok – thousands of condoms have lain uncollected on the roadside for the past week. Locals don’t know if they’re new or used, but in the photo accompanying this article, they don’t look all that new to me. Street cleaners are refusing to go near them for fear of a health risk.
Excerpt: “A witness said a large black garbage bag fell from a car one day last week and two other cars following it ran over it and ripped it open, sending countless condoms across the road. Passing cars blew them away to the pavement and closer to people’s homes.” This prompts the question of why anyone would be driving around with thousands if used condoms and where he collected them from. This is an odd one even for Thailand.
I mean, yeah, you don’t want to be rolling around in them, but it seems like a face mask and some rubber gloves should give you more than enough protection to clean up some condoms. Given the truly nasty stuff that sanitation workers handle on a daily basis, this doesn’t seem like it would top the list for dangerous. Surely street cleaners are used to seeing dead animals and worse?
You do wonder how they got there. Should be a good story if someone can figure it out. My guess is that it will turn out to be less salacious than the press might hope. Something like a condom factory tossing out items tested for quality assurance, maybe.
Can they get some large corporation to sponsor that section of the highway to pay for getting it/keeping it cleaned? Something big like… maybe… Capitol Records?
Of course they might have to negotiate putting speakers on top of speed limit signs to play music that comes under the wing of the corporation. Like this.
One day when I was visiting my mother’s house, she came in from the garden with several condoms, and said Look what I found in the back yard. We went out and found several more. She lived about a block from the Wisconsin State Penitentiary, and some well-meeaning group hired a light plane and flew over the prison throwing out several gross of them. Some were windbown, and fell in neighborhood yards, which resulted in questions from the media to the warden. His hilarious reply was – why would anybody think they would be needed by the inmates, since there are no female prisoners, and therefore there is nobody for them to have sex with. (I am not making this up. As I recall, that was about 1992.)
Isn’t there a store / Roadside Attraction around there (Bangkok) that specializes in condoms? I was on a tour that stopped there and was amazed at all of the condom related products that were available…
Yes, I think that was it. We didn’t eat in the restaurant, but browsed the gift shop, where they seemed to have “condom everything”. The only thing that sticks out in my mind was a condom dress, which was actually quite well done. It actually took a double take to realize that the whole thing was actually made of condoms.
I haven’t eaten there for a long time, but I recall instead of after-dinner mints, there was a bowl of condoms by the cash register. That was at the Chiang Rai branch up in the North – haven’t actually eaten at the Bangkok location, but I have walked past it.
The restaurant and the PDA were the brainchilds of one Mechai Viravaidya, a colorful local character whose quirky public-health initiatives garnered him the nickname of Mr. Condom. In fact, condoms are still sometimes referred to as “mechais.” He’s been a senator in parliament and played a starring role on a local soap opera. And his PDA received a US$1-million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation a few years ago for their HIV/Aids work.
Abortions are illegal in Thailand but very common. And it’s no secret that if you want a cheap but safe abortion, the PDA is the best place to turn to.
I noticed that link says abortion in Thailand is legal but often perceived as illegal. Huh? Checking around, I see a law was passed making it legal three or fours years ago but quietly due to public opinion, which remains very much against it. The law was passed after 2000 aborted fetuses were found stored away in some back-alley hack shop. I recall the 2000 fetuses being found, but they sure were quiet about passing the law. First I’ve heard about it. But the PDA remains the best option for indigent girls in trouble.
in my mind was a condom dress, which was actually quite well done. It actually took a double take to realize that the whole thing was actually made of condoms.