Bar Girls, Social Media, and Anarchy

Today's song is: Private Dancer  ... Tina Turner

I have been writing this blog for many years and this blog post is 676. I started writing this blog for the following reason:

All of the above are beliefs that lead me to where I am now. This blog hopefully, will describe my journey over the next 10 or 20 years (by the grace of God) as I live out my life, trying to make a difference in other's lives. Buddhists refer to it as karma. (From the 'Why This blog' page)

I have decided the world has passed blogs by, and will stop contributing to this blog sometime in March, probably around post #700.

People seem to be obsessed with sound bites (Twitter) rather than substance. VLOGs are also very popular as it takes no effort (reading). I dislike VLOGs because I find them an intrusion of privacy as Vloggers do not ask for permission of the people in their videos.

My page 'Why This Blog' details why I started this blog. I was embarking on a new road in my life and I thought it would be interesting to people to travel with me. That road is nearing its end as my family and I move back to Canada to start a new journey.

My objection to social media is that I believe it leads to anarchy when misused. Special interest groups can have a much larger impact on society than they may or may not deserve. Fact checking is in vogue these days, but there is just so much information being disseminated that you can't fact check it all. Twitter has resulted in people being fired for comments they have made. Mob rule is now possible. Unfortunately, people have forgotten that you readily hear from people who are not satisfied, but seldom from people who are satisfied.

I had my last night out in the Big Mango yesterday with a couple of friends and I had very little goodbyes to make as many of my bar girl friends have left the business for one reason or another. I had an interesting discussion with one girl (not really a girl, she is 37) that I have known for years and I told her she would not see me for close to 2 years. She stated, 'You and your family have such a good life!' and I stupidly replied that I had worked hard for it. She jumped on me stating that she too works hard for every baht she earns and I quickly agreed with her. What I really meant to say was that I worked hard and long (35 years) to get to the stage I am at.

That lead to an interesting discussion about her disappointment that she could not continue in high school beyond grade 9 as her parents did not have the money to pay for grades 10 - 12. She has been working since she was 15 years of age, for a total of 22 years, often for less than 300 baht a day. I admire her.

I watched many farang tourist in many bars last night, and today, when I reflect on the experience I wonder what they thought as they watched the girls perform.  I had hoped that this blog would have changed their perception of the Angels in the City of Angels.  Maybe I have become a pessimist, but I doubt they understand. Tina Turner summed it up best perhaps in her song Private Dancer.

I make no apologies for not being politically correct over the years and truth be told I often stated things I knew people (especially family) would object to, and I did not necessarily believe in, hoping to get some lively discussion in the comments section. I believe discourse is important in society and through discourse, people may begin to understand that most things in life are not black or white, but shades of gray.

TTYL