Teacher MarStop Calling Thais Lazy
"Stop Calling Thais Lazy"
How many times have you heard some self-important international businessman -- or woman -- complain that Thais are idle, tardy and impossible to train in the wise arts of Western efficiency? You know the sort. They're normally the ones who hang out at private members' clubs and shudder at the idea of actually fraternizing with the locals or bothering to learn the language.
They also feel that it’s their birthright to offer unwanted monologues on how the country will never be taken seriously in the world of commerce until employees start taking themselves seriously, or become inspired by worldly business gurus who write books like "Who Moved My Sandwich" or "The Seven Habits of Highly Defective People."
While these business wonks may raise your hackles with their barrage of patronizing piffle, it has to be said that there is a modicum of truth in what they say.
After all, it would be folly to claim that there isn’t something inherently lackadaisical about the Thai approach to life and work.
The question is: why should this idleness be scorned rather than embraced?
After all, where has this know-it-all Western approach got us, world economic and geopolitical domination aside?
'Generation Bling' and an addiction to debt
In Britain, Generation X has been replaced by Generation Bling, where gangs of consumer rioters torch their own homes and community shops in a frenzied bid to express their right to wear branded clothing. This latest shopping trend has replaced “Park and Ride” with “Smash and Grab," it seems. Meanwhile, the American obsession with money, compounded by a hatred of tax and social responsibility, has evolved to such an extent that Tea Party nutjobs are now seen as patriots; and facilitating low-income earners to access affordable health care is viewed as radical Marxism.
More to the point, the current reality is that these debt-addicted Western economies are tanking at a time when in Thailand, the government, most banks and a great deal of businesses can boast solid balance sheets. Who should be listening to whom, then?
So much for efficiency.
Personally, I’ve always loved the fact that in Thailand you can walk into a local shop and find the staff enjoying a siesta slumped across the counter -- waking them up is an interesting challenge in itself.
I also never fail to be impressed by the way in which motorcycle taxi drivers can sleep on their bikes without falling off. The way that the hammock comes as standard with every songtaew, so the driver can kip when parked up, is another show of class.
Taking a power nap doesn't make you lazy
This pragmatic approach to reality –- why not sleep if you’re tired, why pretend to be busy when there’s nothing to do? -- is not the exclusive preserve of the world of low-paid work.
Go to most Thai offices, be it a small firm or large corporation, and you’ll find well-paid executives enjoying a shame-free snooze at their desks, oftentimes sleeping with their heads propped up by an ingeniously constructed pile of books and stationery.
They’re not lazy. They get the job done. They also know it’s normally better to have a power nap than to masochistically ignore your body’s biorhythms.
Thailand should be commended for the way in which it cheerfully and politely sticks two fingers up at Western conventional wisdom and refuses to bow to the mechanical ethos of Swiss watchmakers or the oscillations of a quartz crystal.
If Mr. and Mrs. Fat Cat can’t handle this and would prefer to live in an aseptic environment where creativity has been stamped out with ruthless efficiency and any remnants of your soul are sucked out with a straw once a week in a government-sponsored clinic, perhaps they should move to Singa-Bore.
Source:
> CNN Go! http://www.cnngo.com (by Greg Lowe, CNNGo Bangkok Contributor)