I may have left you wondering what happened with T and her pregnancy. As I had mentioned a few posts ago, T was 6 months pregnant and needed to terminate her pregnancy and was refused by local hospitals because she was in her third semester. T had ordered some sort of pregnancy termination kit from the internet and when it arrived T and P (her boyfriend) put it to use.
From what I gather the kit initiates early labour with the usual delivery pain and events. I do not know whether the baby was born alive and I do not want to know. I do know that P made it disappear and I suspect the dumpster.
Am I shocked ... no ... I understand T and P and what choices they were faced with ... Do I agree with what they did? Of course not! Do I think less of them? Yes, I do ... I have a 8 month baby and I believe all life is sacred and can't imagine doing what they did but I do not walk in their shoes and never will ... or will ever have to.
So I do not judge and will continue to associate with T. It is Easter Monday and easy to not judge but try to understand.
P is off to join the army and T will go back to the bar as it is all she knows. There are many T's in Bangkok and I believe the answer is some form of shelter for moms to deliver their babies in a supportive environment. The babies would have to be offered up for international adoption as there is no shortage of babies in S.E. Asia.
It will never happen ... how do you vet the people who want to adopt? Human trafficking is a major problem in the region. It is indeed ... between a rock and a hard place ... global economics is also at play here.
I have previously mentioned that the minimum wage in Thailand was recently raised to 300 Baht a day. That is about $10 US and it is often a 12 hour day. Many international companies have factories located in Thailand because of this cheap labor force. Most of the world's pickup trucks and many of the world's motorcycles are made in Thailand. Most of the hard drives in your computer are also made here. Thais really want these jobs because it beats working in the rice paddy all day and pays better, but still poorly by western standards.
There is always major construction going on in downtown Bangkok and it is usually large mega malls with stores I can not afford to shop in, or luxurious condos for expats to retire to or simply buy for investment purposes. These buildings are not built by Thai workers. Workers from Myanmar are brought in to do the work because the companies doing the construction do not have to pay them the minimum Thai wage. There is no shortage of Myanmar workers to take these jobs. These workers live communally in corrugated steel shacks commonly referred to as saunas because of how hot there are.
Some would argue that we stop purchasing iPhones, pickup trucks, ad cheap hard drives. Apparently Apple has the more cash in the bank than they can spend. It is interesting that the phone of choice for bar girls in Bangkok is the iPhone. It is a status symbol for them ... but it is also a symbol of what is wrong with this world.
Your comments are welcome ...
Sorry about all these comments I make, I just like reading your blog.
ReplyDeleteI think we would both remember the new condo that was being built next to where we lived in Bouley Con, where the workers lived on site in tin shacks. I could look out my window and witness that daily.
Recall that there was a big fire with many deaths at a textile complex in Bangladesh. Apparently, Bangladeshis don't want any boycotts of products made in their country, but higher wages and holding manufacturers to safety standards already in the law books would help.
I think we shouldn't stop buying pickup trucks, hard drives and so on made in Thailand , but companies that manufacture there need to know that their customers insist on fairness.