Thoughts on "Developing" Countries

Monday May 16^{th, 2011 – AngThong, Thailand}

I have been in Thailand for six weeks now, and the… I don’t know, inefficiencies, of living in what Westerners call a "developing" country are beginning to weigh a bit on me and my Westernized psyche. Examples include:

Chaotic, life or death, babies with no helmets traffic pattern and nonsense layout of roads and u-turns.

Lack of access to proper refrigeration.

Lack of trash removal services and organized recycling programs, sewage and drainage management.

The unsanitary nature of food carts, outdoor butchers and fish markets, streets covered in anything imaginable (chicken bones, spit, piss, fish blood, booze, vomit) mixed with hard rain and pollution, and also squat toilets.

Reduced speed of Administrative processing

Old and second-hand technology, machines, or devices that do not work.

Questionable construction methods (i.e. bamboo scaffolding) and electrical maintenance.

The quality of the Thai educational system and illiteracy in general.

The poverty, homelessness and disfigurement of street people and animals

One must obviously recognize that not all of these descriptions fit everywhere in Thailand. It always depends on where you are, and the scenery changes so much from soi to soi, village to village, city to city, building to building. Since moving from the more touristy areas of the country, and other areas within the capital city, I am truly undergoing a kind of Asian culture shock I was not exposed to in the first month of being here. The things on that list impact me directly on a daily basis. They are distinctions that come to my immediate attention more so than ever before (except for maybe my visits to rural Mexico) and that attention causes me to reflect more deeply on the meaning of my surroundings.

I have a problem calling Thailand a "third world," or "developing" country. The intended meaning of those words, unfortunately, are no longer attached to their original significance – they have evolved to immediately denote cultural and intellectual inferiority. But if we go back to the terms we are using, we are hard pressed to find others to describe what the differences are between developed and undeveloped nations. I have come to decide that those words are meant to refer specifically to technology. Most of the examples I give are indeed exactly what makes my middle-class, small city home in the US so unconsciously luxurious. Plumbing, drainage, sewage, traffic flow, clean food, clean bathrooms, recycling bins, clean sink water – all these little amenities already developed, already in place, already up and running and working and functional and making the economy more "efficient," at least technologically-wise.

We get used to them wherever we are, because humans are adaptive. If you don’t have to think about those things, they are invisible, they are a given, they are taken care of for you by the garbage guys, the secretaries, Information Technology services, electricians, doctors, public school systems, shelters, soup kitchens, politce, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. However, even in a "developed" nation like the US, one cannot deny the varying levels of this technological type of development, especially when it comes to poor urban and rural areas – a lot of them probably resemble poor areas of Thailand, so who really is "third world," "developing," or "backward"? What we are talking about is a difference in the level of key developments that make an economy efficient. To be Westernized is to be efficient. Lightning fast. Accurate. Efficient. Fast food. High Definition. Organization makes things easier, and technology provides for a lot of organizing.

Thailand doesn’t work like that…….. duh.

Part of why I love Italy and Italians is because of this little thing called il ritmo della vita – the rhythm of life. Life is not rushed or hurried, it takes its time. One should not be worried about efficiency, but sip the cappuccino slowly and enjoy it thoroughly; watch the waves wash up to the shore and recede again to the sea; let the sauces simmer long on the stove; take a ride for the view, not the destination. In Italy, I embraced that rhythm, and took pleasure in leaving efficiency behind, even if it meant a few uncomfortable sacrifices on my part. The sacrificing of comfort is what traveling comes down to. If all you do is go from resort to resort and cross border after border, you are a pseudo-traveler. You have to stay long enough to see how it is away from the Westernized five star hotels, get a sense of the people and their relationship to the geography and history, and even then, you only get a peek inside the richness of that country/culture. Immersion is never complete.

In Thailand, the rhythm of life is quite similar to Italians – Thais like to take it easy, go with the flow, what happens will happen, avoid confrontation, mai ben rai - no problem, no worry. I want to adopt that mentality as much as I did in Europe, but I am finding that it takes a little longer for me to accept my surroundings and the comforts I’ve abandoned in order to embrace this culture for what it is.

When taxi driver’s and tuks-tuks and sales people all try to con you out of your money, when you find red ants in your coffee or roaches and spiders in your shower, when you feel you may die in the speeding, reckless minivan every time you take a trip to the city, when you are so hungry and all the food around you looks like food poisoning, when you accidentally step in a huge pool of dirty black street water, when wild dogs bark at you around every corner, when loads of Thais blatantly stare at your white skin and bare shoulders in non-tourist areas, when you constantly smell a medley of rotten eggs, sweet spices, wet trash, and vegetable stir-fry, when you are always juggling between constipation and running to the bathroom every twenty minutes, when you have to continuously find ways to clean yourself of sweat, when you have no health insurance due to miscommunication, when you have no schedule provided by the school you work for and you are supposed to start teaching the next day, when you feel more and more desensitized to those in need every time you walk by a beggar without giving them some money….

Well, it’s weighing on me. It’s harder to acclimatize than I had anticipated. It’s going to take more time than I thought to embrace all of those things for what they are: part of Thailand, part of being immersed in a foreign culture, part of living a different way of life. No matter how much research I did, how many words I tried to memorize (I feel silly for even trying), nothing prepared me for this experience. I have never felt so at a loss for the ways, routines, customs, and communications of a place. Like I said, culture shock. I need to find a temple stat. At least that’s easy to find here!

But getting it all out in concrete words and identifying what’s making me moody helps me feel better, breathe better. And I know this phase will pass - I will eventually adapt. Another month or two and I will be shocked at how much better I’ll be at navigating my way around. Another month or two and I might feel a little more in control of myself again. I’ll know the bus routes better, the fastest, cheapest ways to cut across the city. I’ll have an iron stomach and the sharp eye for good street food. I will speak more Thai and know how to barter better and when people are scamming me. Live and Learn.

It’s the times we are overwhelmed, though, that we ask ourselves those loaded questions: what am I doing here? Why did I come? But I always know why. And this stage that I’m going through is part of the answer. I have just never known much about Asian culture in general, except a few stereotypes, some historical facts, and some run-ins with key pieces of Eastern literature. Thailand itself is even less familiar to me than, say, China or Japan. It’s just gonna take a little time, and lucky for me, I have all the time in the world. As for living expenses, well, that’s another story. Just because stuff is cheap doesn’t mean it’s easy to save money. Bangkok is breaking me in big time. It’s time for me to sell my car back home  I really like that car… but I don’t want to have to worry about money here, and like usual, while I aim to live cheaply, I’d rather spoil myself instead! You only live once, and while I am here, I figure I should indulge.