The Media's Role in this representation/misrepresentation.

Thailand is persistently represented by the media (especially Television and Hollywood-style movies) as little more than a city of bars and whores. Most movies that I see that have anything to do with or are set in Thailand persist in hanging around Patpong or some other disreputable district of Bangkok.

This effect is broad. It has eaten down into the very beings of many Westerners and they now see Asians, in general, and Thailand, in particular, as little more than flesh pots. Sure there are many exceptions to this rule, but the rule remains, albeit unquantified.

The Vietnam/US War brought S. E. Asia to the TV screens of the world. Many, many people, especially in the USA did not know where Vietnam was on a map prior to the TV War that was fought in Vietnam. They did not know where Asia was. The first media-induced public taste of S.E. Asian culture is well depicted by a popular US Marine "slogan" during that war: "I came to see foreign countries, experience foreign culture, then fuck 'em all and kill 'em."

From the ashes of Vietnam and Cambodia was born a popular western-male perception of S. E .Asia as a place where you could get laid REAL easy. How so? Why so? Well, western males are so strung out about sex they need to go where they can rape and pillage for 10 bucks a night and besides, "my buddy in the marines told me so" (comment circa 1972.)

Why have the media depicted Thailand thus?

US military R&R sorties in Thailand, during the Vietnam war, set the scene. When you have a culture that accepts sex without too many personal hangups, and the boys from the boat are flapping dollars in your face equal to a year of your income.... The girls are just sitting around the dry rice paddy doing nothing and they are itching for some fun anyway. Well, what the hell! What's a fellow supposed to do? Go and fix it, of course. From the early 70's onward Thailand began to develop an image of being a flesh-pot, a place to get laid. Men think primarily with and for their dicks. Sure there was other stuff there, other business, but come on, we all knew it was THE place.

The media perpetuated this myth. Until the myth became reality. Was this intentional? Did the Western man, with his attendant sexual hang-ups and obsession with "proving his manhood" and his problems relating with the so-called "liberated" Western women actually feel a NEED to find a place and escape to it? A place to flee from his sexual bonds? To escape in dreams of "Exotic Asia"? The media is mostly male. True? The big media bosses are mostly male. Correct? Did they create this imaginary place because they couldn't get laid [at home] without a lot of social bullshit? Because they just wanted a quick dip?

Whatever; what we know is what we are taught. And there is no doubt in my mind that a large percentage of Westerners, especially but not exclusively male, think of "sex holiday" when you mention "Thailand."

A song came on the radio. It was a song from a musical called "Chess". You know the song, surely. "One Night In Bangkok" was playing on the radio.

"One night in Bangkok and a hard man tumbles, not much between despair and ecstasy", then "Oh you can go back to your bars, your massage parlours... I get MY kicks above the waistline sunshine!".

"Oh shit" I thought as I sat there. I hated that song and what it was suggesting.

OK, so it's not supporting the perceived "sex industry"; it's criticizing it.

The point is that here was the broader media presenting Thailand, casually, off-the-cuff, and for THEIR commercial gain as a place of "bars, temples and massage parlours". Bangkok was being depicted in part of the story behind the musical "Chess" as an unusual place to hold a chess tournament.

Why? Well, the sex of course.

Because as this musical and it's accompanying hit record "One Night In Bangkok" indicated, Thailand is a place where anything vaguely cerebral could be seen as unusual because EVERYBODY is busy pursuing pussy and ass. The song perpetuated the myth, the fantasy, that Thailand is a "sex-on-ya-mind" kind of destination. I was sitting thinking exactly that, and knowing how wrong it was when my friend piped in with "Oh shit man, I'm heading over there!"

"What for?" I replied, "to join a monastery?".

"Naaah, for the girls you fuckwit" he answered me back, "my leaves due soon, I'm sick of Aussie bloody shit-nosed women, I'm going to go get me one of those Asian girls you like so much mate!".

Oh God. So there you had it.

"Those Asian girls you like so much mate". Thailand in a capsule. That was the only reason he thought I'd go to Asia all the time. The only reason he could understand. And that understanding, or lack thereof, did not come from being inundated by the media with cultural essays on Asia. His ignorance was born of what he'd been fed by the media in Australia all his life. And behind the media, the government. And behind them - him, my friend. What effect does this media depiction have on Thailand?

Over the last few years, tourist arrival numbers have dropped significantly in Thailand. Some people believe that this is due to (1) Thailand's depiction by the media as a "sex destination" and (2) the onslaught of AIDS over the last two decades or so.

People think "Sex destination? - AIDS? - No Way!".

The tourism industry is affected negatively, the foreign dollar income is reduced, income levels drop, the girls hit the streets again. 'Round and 'round it goes. Some people in Thailand believe that foreign investment is deterred from Thailand sometimes due to the "sex" reputation. Some boards of directors actually ARE that stuffy - and that ignorant. It's catchy you know - ignorance I mean.

I know that one of the MD's of a previous employer of mine was prohibited by his wife from coming to do a year of duty in Bangkok because "there are whores on every street corner there, no way!". That was all she knew of Thailand, just that, "whores on every corner".

The firm in question had to pay a lot more money in the end to get an equally qualified manager to attend to their Bangkok offices.

How do you think the Thais feel knowing that their country is depicted in this manner?

I can tell you it makes a proud people hurt. Thai people are very proud of their country, their independence and their culture. And they know that the tag "flesh pot" is unjust. But monetary necessity being what it is - Thais also know that Farangs are strung-out about sex. And they DO know how to get money out of a strung-out Farang.

Thais know how to give too, but a fool may be taken for a ride in Thailand, and the West is made of fools. The Western media and the Western male built this particular flavour of Thailand. The Thai people accept it in their very, very Thai way. But they don't like it. And although popular opinion in certain circles may disagree, the Thais can live without the money generated by the sex industry here.

The effect this negative media depiction has had, in my opinion, is to perpetuate the distance between the East and the West in just another way.

What effect does the media depiction have on The Industry?

The industry booms. What happens when you make a big deal about criminalizing marijuana? You get a profitable black-market. Smack, same thing. Flesh, same thing.

The legislators and their buddies in the media have shoved another one down our throats here. Another demonization of something quite harmless. And this demonization intentionally brought about for other than the stated purposes.

Not only for profit this time, though. This time also to accommodate a neurosis.

The broader media needs to step back a bit and take a good look at a region of the world, fraught with troubles, trying to come up to speed with what is perceived by most to be "the modern world". Ancient cultures and social mores clash head-on with the West's peculiar and often hypocritical behaviours.

Are foreign male journalists jealous of Thailand?

Vincent and I discussed the reasons for the depiction of Thailand as a flesh pot by the foreign media. Vincent has been around in Asia for years and is a respected person in his field and in his home.

"Think about it" said Vincent as he sipped his morning coffee. "You are a reporter, you get sent to do a story on Thailand. You are there three days. You get your stuff. You meet some guys. You get laid by a wonderful young girl.".

"Yeah?" I replied, "So what? Shit happens".

"Ah yes" Vincent retorted, "but now the young reporter goes home to his office in, say, Frankfurt. It is cold beyond belief. He stares at the grey walls and the greyer sky. He gets the shit up, gets pissed off with it all."

Vincent went on to explain that he thought that then, when this general attitude sank in, the "home-returners" remembered the other Farangs living back there in Asia and quite simply got jealous. This influenced their perceptions. The weather got colder and the attitude followed suit.

Yes, a simplistic theory fraught with lack of depth. Sure.

But think about it. Think about that cold office and your colleagues who had the nerve to hang out in a weird place like S. E. Asia. If you were an average western male, you may well get jealous.

Are foreign female journalists simply neurotic about sex?

Another person I met, when questioned regarding the perception of Thailand as a flesh-pot, was heard to utter "it's those bleeding neurotic, dyke-feminist, bitch-newspaper-writers all over the world". The boy has problems obviously, don't need to tell me that.

His theory was that over the last fifty years some 30,000 female media employees lost boyfriends and husbands, one way or the other, to "The Exotic East".

Hence, according to this theory, they became jealous and hateful of a whole region of the world. This jealousy, perhaps even at a "you threaten my tribe" race-based level, manifests itself in the flesh-pot image of S. E. Asia.

Can and do Western women deal well with the well known western male image of "The Exotic and Erotic East"? Should they have to deal with it? Does it only exist in the mainstream, or is it a broader occurrence?

In my opinion, no, no, yes. But there you have it. That's life. You do have to deal with it because like Mt Everest according to Hillary - "it's there".

Kidnapped Children bonded in Slavery

One man I met back in Australia had told me a lot about how many children were kidnapped from the north of Thailand and doomed to work as servants in houses of ill-repute. He went into great detail telling me all about it.

I asked him how he came to know all of this and apparently it had been in an article in a leading Sydney newspaper. As the man stated, "It just has to be true then, doesn't it?"

I can find no evidence of this practice in Thailand. I think it would be most unusual indeed given the high count of street-children living in Bangkok alone. (Bangkok has one of the highest counts of street-children in the world). Why go to the trouble of kidnapping a kid when there are tens of thousands of them hanging out just waiting for you to pick them up and put them into slavery. Nobody cares if you just go and grab a kid from the heap. Do they?

Mum & Dad sell young Sally to the whoremarket.

"Young village girls are sold by their parents to pimps from the big cities."

As with the above, this practice is almost nonexistent - if it exists any more at all. There was a time in most societies when trades were done, brides were given and/or sold, dowries were set, made and laid. In some cultures it happens today, women are traded between families and tribes to keep social and political balances. Somewhere in the history of Thailand I am sure it happened.

But this is now, and I have simply never heard of, seen, or met any woman who'd been sold by her parents to a pimp.

This practice, if it still occurs at all, involves very, very poor hill tribe people with no education whatsoever. If this practice occurs at all, the families are paid some money to feed the rest of the starving kids and these "girls" are taken to houses, mainly in the northern cities of Thailand, that are attended by a clientele almost exclusively Chinese-Thai and Thai.

The girls must go voluntarily. You simply cannot drag a screaming girl out of a northern village. Just does not happen.

According to the myth, the sold girls are then supposed to be in a position to send money home to the family to feed and clothe the other kids. After questioning many people regarding this matter I could find nobody who could conclusively say they'd actually seen it happen.

The stories are out there, I've heard them. Another urban myth... But if it occurs at all, it is both very rare and an extremely small operation. In all the time I have been in and out of South East Asia I have never come across any evidence to suggest that this practice goes beyond very small and secret parts of society.

Come back next Sunday and read on. There are more bent attitudes in store, more warped perspectives. Read up! You just might learn something!