No one wins in this shameful situation

Horace Beasley’s blunt remarks about old foreign men and young Thai women marrying as a trade off between money and sex brings us back to the Dark Ages of intellectual and cultural deterioration.

The “trade off” allegation, which appears to be a euphemism for prostitution, is an acceptable win-win bargain according to Horace Beasley. However, civilisation and education teach us otherwise. With the decline of virtue and ethics, social order will collapse and we will find it difficult to distinguish ourselves from other animals on this planet.

We should remind Thai politicians that there are increasingly more aged foreigners marrying young Thai women, notably in the rural parts of North and Northeastern Thailand. This reflects that the decades of corruption, self-interest and neglect among politicians is taking its toll. Unsolved poverty and poor education has lead some poor families to believe that by marrying a foreign husband, regardless of his age, their family fortune can reverse overnight.

For Thais, the joke that a Thai village father who greets his foreign son-in-law at Udon Airport is perplexed to find him more like his daughter’s grandpa, is a sad joke. And until there are signs that the livelihood and education of the Thai people in these regions is improving, people like Horace Beasley will continue to laugh and quibble: So what!

Yingwai Suchaovanich

Bangkok