FAROUCHE

I learned 3 things with Thais that I think we should , as Filipinos put into practice in our everyday lives.

1.) They don't beep their horns, they have like "driving discipline" , as what they called it. even how traffic it is, they don't beep their honks. surprisingly the result is, they are one among the countries with the lowest rate of road accident in the whole world.of course i put it into a test, there's a one way "soi" (small street in Thai) we hailed a cab, imagine as we talk with the cab's driver for like 45 seconds of where the hell we're going, we didn't hear a single beep beep from the cars on our back. coolness!

2.) aside from Thailand's famous beaches, like you know Phucket and Pattaya, Thailand is also known for their very own red light district, located in Bangkok, Patpong, Silom, they have the go-go bars , you know where you see pretty girls dancing on stage with nothing on. or if you're like gay. There’s a street there where you'll see macho guys wearing their briefs only, doing some gym stunts on the mini gym outside their bar to attract tourist.
Ok the lesson here is that, No matter how "sinful" or taboo the Thai entertainers are doing, it is just for the show. Its only a show and only foreigners can get inside these bars. They have high respect for their fellow Thai entertainers. So the bars there and all the show they were offering are for tourist pleasure only. They don’t have a written law, commanding the locals to stay away from these go-go bars. They just have it, self-discipline and respect towards their own race. Within them, no matter what they are doing they have a respect to them.

3.) And you know how much they love their king that died like 80 years ago already? What we have here in our country are like dozens and dozens of billboard ads with their marketing strategy. But when you go to Thailand, there are not much of billboards. But you’ll get to see LOTS of the King’s pictures, commemoratives and other memorabilia. And they have this every Monday thingy? That they wear yellow shirts, As part of commemoration for the king. Then you know some wishful thinking hit me. When are we , Filipinos start patronizing our own government? I know it sucks right? But how come through out one generation to another generation, we don’t have a leader that we are all proud of? That we could honor? That we as Filipinos can look up to? We criticize, condemn and bad-mouth our very own politics and their governance.

I wonder 5 or 10 years from now. What will happen to our exquisite country full of endless possibilities for tourists and locals?
How can we move further or ahead with this attitude and way of thinking?
A friend told me that before, our country and Thailand’s exchange rate was like 1 thai baht = 1 peso.
But now? Its like 1 thai baht = 1.4 peso?
Are we lagging behind again?
 Like what happened with our country and Hongkong?
This is reality.
We have to act and do our own part as a citizen of this country.
Before it’s too late.
And I guess the hardest part that we have to admit is that
we Filipinos lack self-discipline.