Everyone's a winner

Re: "Applying for a US visa was not pleasant", Letters, January 30.

I read with interest the letter from Mr Len Kneppers, who complained that an American Embassy official denied his Thai wife a tourist visa on the grounds that "all Thai women marry older men only for the money".

I would quibble with the adjective "all", but to make an informed judgement on this case we would have to know the age differential between Mr Kneppers and his wife. But even if it is significant, so what? Young Thai women marry old foreign men for the money; old foreign men marry young Thai women for the sex. The woman, who may come from a desperately poor family with no income at all, needs money. The man, who may be so old that nobody even wants to look at him, needs sex. It's a trade-off, a win-win situation in which human needs are satisfied on both sides. So long as neither of the involved parties is complaining, what's the beef? The beef comes from the bleating save-the-worlders who moan that the evil old man is exploiting the poor deprived young woman; but in fact there is mutual exploitation on both sides.

In this particular case, the problem is that the interviewer was not being professional. Visas are usually denied because the applicant cannot present sufficient evidence of funds to support the proposed visit, or evidence that he or she will return home when the visa expires. There may be other valid reasons. But since we have not heard the interviewer's side of the story, it would be unfair to pass judgement.

If Mr Kneppers feels he has a valid complaint, he should write a letter presenting his case to the American ambassador, with a cc to Mrs Clinton in Washington, and see where that gets him.

A footnote for those who may harbour a salacious interest in this topic: In my robust but misspent youth, which I do heartily forswear and repent, a young Thai lady active in the field of interpersonal relations informed me that some Thai girls really do prefer older men. But the reason is not undying love. The reason is that an old man will require her to perform her professional duties just once, then give her lots of money to go out shopping before rolling over and going to sleep. The younger man, on the other hand, requires her active services to be performed vigorously five times a day and is not at all forthcoming on the money-for-shopping front.

Horace Beasley

Bangkok