One of the biggest news stories in Thailand right now is the YouTube video of an angry father from the Netherlands singing about his daughter’s rape in Krabi, Thailand.
First, don’t even get me started about the idiocy of a father who thinks the appropriate response to his daughter being raped while on holiday is to make a YouTube video singing about it, while slandering Thailand’s police and brandishing a gun.
But, what makes this incident even worse than this idiot Dutch father are the tens of thousands of western men, many living in Thailand, who are now jumping on the “Let’s Damage Thailand’s Reputation Over This Rape Because We Can” band wagon.
Unfortunately, it’s not surprising.
A sizable percentage of western men who live in Thailand or who visit alone on a regular basis are less than stellar specimens of their gender. Sorry to say so, but it’s true.
Thailand gets the pedophiles, the drunks, the drug addicts, the sexpats, men who can’t hold down a job, men running away from paying child support or who are wanted by the police in their own countries — all who arrive in Thailand looking for a dirt cheap standard of living and cheap sex.
Most of these men would be classified as ‘losers’ in their own countries and most would never find a girlfriend. That is also why most of them hate women in general, but western women in particular — a characteristic they also bring with them to Thailand.
Once here, they often treat Thai women like prostitutes and talk about Thais in general like they are worse than the dirt under their shoes.
The western male friends we have who live in Thailand, and are actually hard-working, upstanding residents, say the same thing. In fact one, who owns a successful business in Bangkok, went as far as to say recently that “75 percent of western men in Thailand are people I would cross the street to avoid”.
So bad, he says, he won’t even make eye contact with one when he sees them on the street as he has no wish to communicate with losers.
So, when something like the “Evil Man from Krabi” video hits YouTube, it’s not surprising these men hit the Internet in droves, slamming Thailand and Thais, lying about Thai men, Thai women, the Thai legal system and how foreigners are treated in Thailand.
To hear them talk, foreigners and foreign tourists are treated terribly in Thailand, western tourists are raped on a regular basis and Thais only want us for our money.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
In the decade we have lived in Thailand, we have been treated with nothing but politeness, courtesy and respect by almost every Thai we have dealt with.
The people who own the building we live in go beyond the call of duty to do anything we need to make our stay with them more comfortable.
We are treated with friendliness and courtesy in local stores and markets, and by our many Thai friends. Thai police too have been nothing but helpful and polite.
So to see Thais being painted as rapists, liars, cheats and losers by western men who, in many cases, are some of the biggest losers on the planet just makes me angry.
Yes, some Thais are rapists, cheats, liars and losers, just as are some Americans, some Dutch, some British, some Norwegians, some Germans, some Japanese and on and on and on.
Most, however, are not.
The moral of this story then?
Don’t believe everything the Dutch father says about how his daughter was treated in Thailand and what happened to the man who was arrested for her rape. While he is angry about his daughter’s rape, and rightfully so, the case against the man who allegedly raped her has not yet gone to trial.
The father seems to think, however, that because the guy was arrested he should be immediately found guilty and thrown in jail. That’s not how a democratic legal system works — in Thailand or anywhere.
As the Thai police have attempted to explain in a YouTube video posted in response to “Evil Man from Krabi” (and yes, unfortunately, they explained poorly as they did it in Thai which few non-Thais understand), there are laws in Thailand the police have to follow.
Meanwhile, the man was arrested, charged and is now out on bail.
His case will be heard in court and a decision will be made by a judge. Until that point, an angry father putting up a video on YouTube does nothing constructive.
What it has done is to cause some western tourists, who are too ignorant to do their own research about Thailand in general and Krabi in particular, to cancel trips to Krabi thus damaging the economy and the livelihoods of Thais in Krabi who had nothing to do with the rape of a Dutch woman.
It is also damaging the reputation of Thailand, a country that is one of the best places in the world for any tourist to visit – and particularly safe for women.
On top of that, the video has caused a slew of western men, many who are currently availing themselves of Thai hospitality in all its shapes and forms while slamming the country to anyone who will listen, to troll the Internet making derogatory comments about Thais, Thai men……blah, blah, blah.
All I can say is lies, lies, lies coming from the mouths of losers.