Cultural interaction leads to progress

The cited examples of a few lapses of values by the West do not warrant calling Western values completely useless. In the same vein, Thai-ness has its strengths and weaknesses. It is the mixture of the strengths of the two that has brought a degree of progress to our land. Myanmar, with previous despotic generals who had the same belief as Guy Baker that one could not learn from the West, remained a pariah state for two decades. Finally last year the leaders came to their senses. Exposure to Western culture had a similar effect in China, when Deng Xiaoping in 1978 led China to mix with the Western world, leading to the realisation that the world is bigger and more acceptable than what previous leaders had led people to believe.

Fortunately, Thailand never closed its doors to the West, socially or economically. It is this open-minded attitude that may have caused Thailand to rank as one of the top five countries for happiness, while Asean’s richest country ranked among the lowest five.

Songdej Praditsmanont

Bangkok