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Improving Quality of
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 Land and Houses For Sale in Northern Thailand |
The suggestions below address concerns that relate to
Thailand, but many could well apply to other southeast Asian countries, indeed most
countries in the world. The items below are aimed primarily at improving Thai people's
quality of life. They're also geared toward improving the appeal of Thailand's #1 source
of revenue; their tourist industry.
The four categories within this page are:
A. Improvements That Wouldn't Cost One Satang (directly below)
B. Improvements That Would Require Modest Investments
C. Improvements That Would Take Serious Planning & Investment
D. Outside Gilded Resort Doors
Improvements That Wouldn't Cost a Satang
Discourage loud music on city streets. Discontinue amplified radio
bulletins throughout towns, and end roving trucks with amplified advertisements. Develop
non-loud areas within buses, shops, restaurants and malls. Suggest: proprietors turn down
stereos, or at least have their loudspeakers face one corner of store or bus space. That way, people
who want loud sounds can congregate in front of the speakers. Patrons who prefer moderate noise
levels can sit in relatively quieter sections. A 'no noise' section is
not a realistic option.
More about noise pollution.
Cite
dangerous drivers, and those with vehicles that are too loud or emit too
much exhaust. In my town, an average of one driver goes thru a red light at each
light change - that's thousands per day. Yet I've never seen any driver pulled
over by police for running a red light.
Declare trees with a chest-height trunk circumference greater than 40 cm as
public domain. Fine anyone cutting such trees without a permit.
Educate farmers about the attributes of using clippings and rice hulls for mulch and
composting rather than for burning.
Encourage greater participation by girls in sports. Currently, 92% of sport activities
are boys only.
Designate additional islands and coral reefs for protection. Have patrols enforce
strict litter rules. Take it a step further and mandate that no internal combustion
engines be allowed within a kilometer of shore lines. Create an understanding that natural
environments have more value in their natural
state than as a source of raw materials. Don't allow anyone to walk upon
the coral (note: rubber flippers do not lessen the harm of walking on live
coral).
Improve
school curriculums to foster innovative thinking.
Lower exorbitant import duties - some reports tell of
demands for 200% of retail value - even for second hand items.
. Discourage illegal garbage dumping and burying. Outlaw burning of plastic
trash. Impress upon the public the desirability of putting trash in bins, especially in
regard to outdoor events. Discourage excessive plastic packaging and
bagging. Currently, every item that can be purchased in Thailand is bagged in
plastic. Make people that it's ok to decline redundant plastic bagging of
purchased items. It's even ok to take coverings off of newly purchased
items - right at the place of purchase. If retailers were to get inundated with
piles of plastic and cardboard at their check-out counters - it would have a
ripple effect on up to manufacturers - perhaps getting them to be a tad more
responsible with their packaging decisions.
Encourage responsibility by men who abandon their children. Demand
decent
support payments by deadbeat dads be sent to whomever is taking care of the children.
Suggest: minimum Bt.5,000 per month.
. Revamp the Immigration Department's visa regulations
for foreigners who who choose to reside in Thailand. Thirty day
visas are the most commonly available duration, and that's fine for tourists and
short-term visitors. However there are other foreigners who choose to stay for
longer durations. Many are retired folk, yet many are also active as
teachers and NGO volunteers. Collectively, they bring in billions of baht
of outside money - that trickles throughout the Thai economy. Most of
those hundreds of thousands of foreigners are compelled to travel to an
international border every month to renew their visas. Besides being immensely
inconvenient, it can feel a bit like being a paroled convict having to
re-register with State authorities every 30 days.
Demand responsibility and transparency by politicians and others in positions
of authority. Let them know that continually making excuses for wrongdoings is not only
immature & illegal, it also sets a bad example for everyone else -
especially young Thais.
Currently,
video stores offer movies in the following genres: violence, romance, horror,
sex, fiction, esoteric pap, comedy, and more violence. There no options
for people who may want to watch a non-fiction film, or one about real history,
true biography, science or nature. Video shops chould be required, as a
community responsibility, to have a decent percentage of choices be Discovery
Channel-type documentaries.
Educate people on the benefits of organic produce over produce that may look
prettier - but is not as healthy.
A stroll down any suburban street in Thailand is a walk
between walls. Similarly, every rural property is either walled in or fenced
with barbed wire. On that same theme, nearly all ground floor commercial buildings are
wrapped in gray metal from evening to morning. Rare is a house with
windows that are not curtained or shuttered. Is there some sort of
cultural imperative that insists that every house, every property, every shop
must have manifold layers of physical barriers? In contrast, Holland has
houses and shops with uncovered windows. Similarly, few houses in America
have walls erected around them - allowing lawns to roll down to sidewalks -
thereby affording a more spacious and non-forbidding feeling in the
nieghborhood. If some bad people want to attack a house, they're not going
to be much hindered by a wall or fence.
Let's see
some bulletin boards and classified ad sections in newspapers and such things
that enable people to interact. Currently, everything happens on a
'word-of-mouth' basis - and that's ok, but community interaction on that level
is rare. Similarly, there are scant few second-hand shops - which is a
reflection of Asians' disdain for used items, a silly notion that's fueled by
retailers' rapacious yun to sell only new things. Further proof is the
fact that you'll rarely, if ever, see a yard sale or garage sale in Thailand.
So too, flea markets don't exist in Thailand - in the sense of
recycled or used
items.
Responsibility for pets - particularly restraining agressive dogs.
B. Improvements That Would
Require a Modest Amount of Investment
Encourage building owners to re-paint their buildings with mildew-resistant paints,
preferably a non-toxic type. There is such a thing as mildewcide additive for paint - but
it's not available in Thailand. Encourage building owners to install gutters/drip molding
that would lessen the eye-sore impact of black mildew that grows on the sides of nearly
all buildings.
Develop and implement ways to lessen loud noise from unhoused motors used by boats
that ply all of Thailand's navigable waterways.
Create a 'Youth Conservation Corps' with the purpose of developing a greater
awareness of environmental husbandry.
Re-introduce
indigenous species of animals and plants to select rural regions. Designate more
protected forests. Discourage people from killing birds and other wild animals
for food or sport.
Develop ways to cover and hide the endless stretches of black wires that run along
every road and alongside nearly every building. Some suggestions; (a) conduit, (b)
underground, (c) inside or behind walls, (d) paint wires to match wall colors.
Create a government department with the authority to assign "Heritage
Village" designation. Select a few villages nationwide to be re-configured to
showcase a certain historical time in the past. That village would therefore become
infused with cultural significance and be like a living museum. Designated parking would be no closer than two kilometers away - no exceptions for
tourist buses, delivery trucks, motorcycles, or any wheeled vehicles that don't fit with
the program. No electric, nor phones, nor computers allowed. Besides tourist income,
the villagers' quality of life would change - not in the least by having banished internal
combustion engines and loudspeakers.
Create "Heritage Tree" designations.
This would entail an organization that compiles a list of the largest trees of a
particular species in the kingdom - and a similar list for each province. This
would not only contribute to an increased appreciation and preservation of
trees, but also add tourist appeal to certain regions.
C. Improvements
That Would Take Serious Planning & Investment
Relocate government offices, currently all stuffed in Bangkok, to one or more
outlying regions. Same for universities, military bases, businesses, industries.
Continue to develop mass transit. Upgrade buses, and lessen the number of
taxis in Bangkok. Currently, about 75% of the thousands of Bangkok taxis drive around with
no passengers - contributing mightily to gridlock and smog.
Encourage innovative thinkers to develop alternative power devices. Suggestions:
battery powered motorcycles, wind-up air fans, solar pre-heat for hot-water, and designs
for passive cooling in buildings. Patent possibilities abound.
Install sewers and water treatment plants where needed. Place grates over 'vehicle
trap' water gullies that line some streets. Those straight-walled cement ditches are
usually deep and often just wider than a vehicle's tire - perfect size for disabling a
vehicle. Similarly, redesign metal grates currently used to cover storm drains.
They're often perfectly sized & aligned to wreck bicycle wheels.
Create more parks and playgrounds. There is much fallow land in Thai cities and
towns. Give the kids some more places to play!
Build 'park and ride' multi-level parking lots around the perimeter of Bangkok.
These could serve as hubs for mass-transit into the city.
Develop
greater awareness and purchase-incentives for renewable power resources,
especially solar. Currently, there is only one company in Thailand that sells PV
panels (BP) - and their prices are twice what the same components sell for in
western countries.
Develop a 'Rapid Deployment Force' (in fact, not just in name) that would be ready
within hours to deal dynamically with
regional trouble spots. An effective RDF would also have medical
and disaster relief capacity.
D. Outside Gilded Resort Doors
Thai Tourist Authorities would have us
believe that the reasons less tourists coming to Thailand are (at various times); the war
in Iraq, SARS, and other external excuses. The main reason, in this writer's opinion, has
to do with what's happening within Thailand itself.
Not all tourists are money-spending dorks. As
they put funds aside and plan a vacation, they also network information about destination
options. What they're hearing about Thailand is not all a pretty picture. Thai tourism
industry people would do well to take a realistic look at what Thailand has to offer.
Beyond the picture-perfect resorts and cultural attractions, there are other realities.
For example: The tourism authority's ideal is to have all tourists stay at luxury resorts.
Never mind the current reality that collectively, backpackers generate more revenue than high-end
tourists.
No one expects the outside world to be idyllic, but crossing a street can be one of the first challenges confronted by a wayward tourist. If she doesn't already know that Thai drivers do not stop for pedestrians - she'll learn soon enough - hopefully not the hard way.
As for noise levels in the real world: Some tourists can grin and bear it, and that's commendable. For those without pigskin ear drums, earplugs are recommended. A suggestion for hotel managers: give a pocketful of earplugs to your doormen and tell 'em to offer a pair to each guest who ventures out to brave the decibel-laden streets - your guests will love you for it.
This text is not meant to sling mud - rather it aims to suggest improvements. As mentioned in the first section above, many of those improvements would cost little, if nothing at all, to implement.
