Dear Sir,
I view with much sadness the travails of many foreigners including my fellow Americans in obtaining a visa to the USA for Thai kin or associates. There is of course, no excuse for the impolite attitude shown by many Thai and American staff, in the case of our embassy. Yet, perhaps a little background gained in the last twenty-five years can give some insight into the genesis of many of these attitudes.
Some years ago a deputy minister in a neighbouring country asked my assistance in aiding a woman to obtain a visa for business purposes to the USA. I checked her bona fides and gladly agreed to assist. I knew I was not part of the problem of people illegally immigrating to America on tourist/business visas with no intent to ever return. A few weeks later the Deputy Minister showed up with a fistful of dollars and a grin to tell me he had taken the woman to the airport and she was gone. The money was a "thank you" from the woman, which I declined to accept; "It was only right to assist because she is legitimate and will return." He laughed: "She will never be back." I was stunned and set out to make notification to the US side. Then I found that not only was I part of the problem but so was the person granting the visa and the list was long of those she had "helped" on behalf of her local boyfriend. I swore, "Never again"!
Then a group of senior American officers (generals/colonels), active and retired, contacted me in Bangkok. They were having a reunion and wanted their Thai bartender from their old base officers club to attend and help them celebrate. It seemed like such a great idea. I found him in the northeast living with his wife and children. He seemed to have a very happy life here and he and his family were thrilled that he was remembered by all those American pilots. I thought surely there would be no harm in writing the US Embassy a letter guaranteeing he would return on behalf of my brother officers from the US military.
His wife and children accompanied him to the airport and away he flew to the USA to attend the reunion. Some months later his family contacted me because he had not returned and they had heard nothing. I contacted the reunion organisers and was told that they were all so thrilled by his attendance, they decided to help him stay in the USA. After all, he had met a very nice Thai-American girl at a restaurant and they would be married. I was stunned by how blithely both he and my American brother military officers disregarded his family here and that my name was used to get it done.
There have been times when I have been truly angered by the disregard shown by my embassy and others toward poor people truly under threat from neighbouring regimes. With that being said, I also must share responsibility for the hard time many who have written in to complain have had with our embassy. I unwittingly became part of the problem. This in no way excuses impolite behaviour by embassy staff but perhaps a little understanding is in order also because others and I unknowingly became part of the problem.
Major Mark A. Smith
USA, Retired
Free housing for a former prime minister
Thaksin complains, "I am just an unemployed person trying to find myself a job," How sad; my tears fall like rain. But, there's hope! There's a job opening for which he, and only he, is qualified. It offers free room, board and clothing for two years. Not only that, his shirts will be in his supporters' favourite colour - red. His lodgings will be super-safe, with guards 24/7. He will have visitors on the same schedule as his colleagues, and if he and his ex-wife reconcile, they can have conjugal visits, just like any other couple. With a PhD in criminology, he's certainly qualified to teach his colleagues on subjects like, "Crime does not pay." He can emulate former public health minister Rakkiat [Sukthana], who has just been released after time off for good behaviour - and who is now a monk, teaching others about dhamma, that money does not bring happiness, and that he was relieved when he was caught, because then he would not need to be on the run any longer.
Khun Thaksin, to apply for this job, simply visit the nearest Thai embassy and hold out your hands, wrists together.
Burin Kantabutra
Bangkok
The sad plight of homeless dogs
Homeless dogs can be seen everywhere in Bangkok . My friend told me that many of them were actually abandoned by their former owners. I feel sad for these dogs, for their difficulty in surviving. They don't have the ability to earn their living like humans. What's worse, they've been accustomed to staying with humans and depending totally on our attendance. In addition, dogs are different from other animals in that they are our friends and are equal to us as living beings. I feel angry because a large number of dog owners keep them for the sake of their own happiness. In many cases, dogs as pets are treated as toys to please their owners, or companions to reduce their owners' loneliness, or ornaments to indicate their owners' social status. When their certain functions have disappeared or if they do something wrong, it is unavoidable for dog owners to lose interest in them and abandon them. The immoral decision can turn dogs' lives upside down.
Luckily, many people are kind to homeless dogs and always provide them with food, which highlights Thai people's kindness. However, I still suggest that animal rescue centres should keep homeless dogs first and then seek new homes for them because dogs cannot live a happy life without suitable owners. Those who decide to keep dogs must be responsible for their whole life; otherwise they should be punished.
Meng Tian
Bangkok
Practising Buddhist barred from a prayer room
As yesterday was my 65th birthday, my wife, her mother and I decided to go to Wat Phra Kaew to make merit. I am a professor at Dhurakij Pundit University. I also have a prominent global reputation as an author and strategist.
Although I am an Australian citizen I have lived in Bangkok for five years. It is not just where I stay, it is my home. My wife is Thai. I have a work permit. I pay taxes here. I also happen to have been a practising Buddhist for the past 45 years.
Imagine the embarrassment I felt when I was forbidden to enter the prayer hall at Wat Phra Kaew. Why? Because, according to the sign at the entrance door and the colour of my skin, I am a foreigner and therefore cannot possibly be a Buddhist as well. The only thing my wife and I wanted to do was to pray together on my birthday. Not allowing me to practise my religion in the most important wat in Thailand for the reasons given are simply racist. The assumption that a foreigner cannot possibly be a practising Buddhist is nationalistic hubris of a kind I have rarely experienced in any other country.
Today I no longer feel welcome in Thailand. My many Thai friends and colleagues are equally embarrassed. A simple act of passive aggression towards me has left me feeling a stranger in a land I love and had adopted as my own. I sincerely hope that Thais will rapidly come to understand that they have no rights of ownership over the Buddhist religion. Furthermore to deny me access to the prayer hall today is the opposite of what is so often claimed by Thais - that in this land we are free to practise our own religion. Clearly those words are meaningless.
Richard David Hames
Bangkok