In another paradise

If you think that finding a job in Thailand as an expatriate is difficult, think twice. Finding a legal job in Thailand as an expatriate, that is difficult. Many foreigners do not bother with the system, after all it is easy to avoid and easily corrupted. As a teacher at a government school however, that is impossible. The Thai system is one of the most cumbersome in the world. To get a permanent work visa, you need a work permit. To obtain that, so many different documents that I cannot even list them. The first step in the process is to apply for a temporary work visa, that will be extended later on. Of course visas are not for sale inside Thailand, so I needed to travel to a Thai embassy in the nearest neighbouring country. That happens to be Laos, and the city to be is Vientiane, its sleepy capital on the Mekong river. The journey from Maesot takes about 16 hours. Fortunately, two of my colleagues were in the same situation so we went together. I found myself in Vientiane on the 15th of May.

Before I describe Vientiane, some historical background on this unnecessary piece of bureaucracy. Thailand's two major cities, Chiang Mai and Bangkok, have often been at odds. In the days of the Lanna Kingdom in the 11th century armies from the north often threatened the south. After the 'liberation' of the north from the 'evil' Burmese, Chiang Mai seemed to accept its role as a provincial centre meekly. The power centre of Thailand was in Ayuthaya or, after the Burmese destroyed it, Bangkok. However, cultural and ethnic differences meant this submission of north remains an uneasy situation. In the early 21th century one keen business tycoon by the name of Thaksin Shinawatra exploited this unease to grasp political power. His populist nationalist movement is called Thai rak Thai, which means something like 'Thai (only) like themselves'. It was based in Chiang Mai and its supporters, the 'red shirts', sometimes gather mobs to plunder Bangkok, more or less copying the strategies of the Lanna and Burmese armies of yore. The modern northern armies, instead of marching, are transported by buses supplied by the party.

Like all populists movements, some of the policies TRT implemented when mr. Thaksin was in power (from 2001 to 2006, when he got ousted by a military coup) are rather short-sighted. Their new rules on work permits are a good example. The correct observation that many foreign workers are under-qualified led mr. Thaksin to believe that it is important to discourage foreigners as much as possible to work in Thailand legally. This way, his limited reasoning went, only qualified workers will take jobs in Thailand. I have no idea about other sectors, but in education the policy, in combination with the goals set by ASEAN (the community of Southeast Asian countries), has backfired on Thailand. Compared to other countries in the region, the Thai population's knowledge of the English language is abysmal. Yet a couple of years ago, to comply with ASEAN standards, Thailand decided to set up English language programs in every major government school. However, these schools lack the money or cultural understanding of foreigners to hire the required teachers. And at the same time, TRT's policies made sure the inflow of foreign teachers decreased significantly. The result is one big chaos everywhere. My own school, which is still a relatively well-organized one, needs 13 English language teachers, yet we have only 8 at the moment. And these 8 are pestered with the ridiculous requirements of the TRT policies all the time, so that we miss about half our lessons. You may wonder what quality of education our students receive.

Meanwhile, three of our teachers were sitting on a terrace in Vientiane, where we witnessed the first monsoon storm of this year (the rain came late again, like last year). Laos is another country of course. Officially, it is a socialist worker's paradise, but ironically, almost no one works in Laos. People that do keep it to a bare minimum of a couple of hours. Laotians can be observed to sit in the shade of a palm tree the whole day - no kidding. I saw the same guys sitting in exactly the same position, against the same tree, at 8 'o clock in the morning, then at noon, and finally at 5 again. Only the dark clouds gathering seemed to be a signal to get up. The storm came. The temperature dropped 20 degrees in 5 minutes time (after several weeks in 45 C, 25 C feels like you are freezing). The wind across the Mekong was almost powerful enough to blow the tuktuks off the street. Next came rain, and thunder. It was a delight, after weeks of oppressive, humid heat.

Another particularity of Laos is that almost everybody rips you off. Somehow I wonder if this is related to the extreme laziness I encountered in the locals. After all, if you do not work, you need other ways to make a living. To be sure, the Laotians have a reason to shake every foreigner out. Unlike Thailand, this is a developing country and the standard of living is poor. However, this habit, together with Thai taxes on exports and imports, cause Vientiane to be the most expensive place in the region. Inflation is rampant, not just for foreigners, also for locals. Most products and services are twice what you pay in Thailand, on the other side of the river.

This brings me back to Thai politics, one of the most illogical and opaque subjects in existence. This is a paradox: why does Thailand tax its neighbours so much? A tax on imports is a way of protecting your own industry, but it seems strange to tax your own export. The only possible answer I see is: out of spite. Historical grievances with Laos. I wonder how committed Thailand really is to economic cooperation with its neighbours in ASEAN.