Thai style

Ok so now after almost 4 months here I can say that Thai people deeply lack of any sense of criticism!

I don't want to draw too much easy conclusions but I am pretty sure that the situation of the country would be a lot better if the people were not so passive! (including the actual political crap!)

Thailand has many assets, the landscape is amazing, the weather is perfect, they can't complain about any dramatic historical background... but the people deeply lack of any sense of criticism, it looks like they never care, are always keen on being at disposal and would never ask to get more infos but instead will be glad to follow without understanding what is going on... It can be sometimes very upseting.
It might sound unfair and arrogant but I have unfortunately many examples and I think everybody would agree that Thailand is still not really mature... it just reflects the way the people are.

At AIT for instance, the professors are really not up to a MBA program (they arrive late on the day of the exam and don't even apologize, they arrive in class with no preparation and write their powerpoint while they speak to us...) and yet I have never heard a single student (apart from the exchange students, who complain but don't want to change anything as long as we are not ask to work more ;)) say anything. You could argue that i shouldn't criticize this tradition of respect to the elders in the Asian culture, but in this case I think they are not only very entitlled to complain but they should complain if they want AIT MBA to be one day in the Asian MBA ranking (yes becasue so far it is not even on the list!)
Last time in the van to Bangkok, the stupid driver drove too fast on a slow down (ralentisseur) and 5km further we had to stop on the high way because the tire was flat... Nobody wondered how long it would take and nobody even told the driver that he was stupid to drive so fast for the safety of everybody (I was so frustrated not to speak Thai!)
It is also very common that they don't explain you the plan, as they think that just like they would, you don't care either about it and will accept to follow without understanding the point.

I don't want to speak too much about it, because I don't know enough, but I think the actual political situation has also to deal with this. The majority doesn't care and therefore PAD people don't want to go for reelection, as they know that this majority will vote for the corrupted people who give them money. So the PAD people keep blocking the country (hoping the actual Prime Minister will resigned, but he doesn't) and nobody complains! It is the high season for tourism inThailand now and the economic damages will be huge! So for us it is increadibly strange that the majority doesn't manage to make its point. It doesn't make sense, that a few academic people can't be stoped... Even if they are right about trying to struggle corruption, it is not the problem here, what I mean is that they are still a minority, so they shouldn't be able to block the whole country by taking the international airport!

Of course I am far from being able to make a comprehensive analysis of the Thai society (which is anyway a lot too complex; I mean in how many country in hte world do you find three genders: male, female and lady boys?) The cultural differences are also VERY real and maybe i forget that in Europe people can also be very passive but anyway, I keep thinking that it could be worth it that they put their fingers out of their ass (translation of a french expression ;)!) and become a little bit more pro active!
Oh yes and nicer also... because if you still have this image of Thai people being very friendly and welcoming, just forget about it:( As a French I can't afford to criticize too much about it, but it is just a matter of fact, they can be increadibly ass holes!

But I still DO like Thailand!