Disasters waiting to happen

There’s always something new and unusual to see when you visit or live in a country that you’ve not grown up in and for westerners visiting Asian countries this is particularly true. Then again no doubt Asian people visiting western countries would find many of our day-to-day activities a little odd.
Back home when we get on public transport, it is the norm for people to offer their seats to old people or pregnant women (well everywhere outside of London anyway). In Thailand it is the norm for adults, old, pregnant or otherwise, to give their seat up for a child. Here it is children that are given the greatest respect (perhaps that’s why they are such brats half the time). If they don’t get given the seat on the bus or sky-train, then it is expected that they will sit on somebody’s lap. You frequently see children and bags farmed out onto complete stranger’s laps. I think that people back home would have a slight trust issue with this.

Perhaps one of things that stands out most here is the different ideas on safety and regulations. Having lived in a selection of places I’ve learnt that everywhere has its own idea of what is or isn’t ok. And, apart from the obvious ‘diving with student’ regulations I’ve never been a great stickler for rules. Living in Bangkok however and you’re constantly faced with things that either at best make you do a double take, at worst make you cringe and turn away for fear of witnessing disaster. Whether it’s 3 adults and 3 kids on a motorbike with no helmets on while travelling at speed in four lanes of traffic, or simply a guy on a moped with a Vicks nasal stick up each nostril (evidently this unique brand of air-conditioning isn’t that dangerous – until he falls off and it becomes a unique type of brain surgery), there’s always a reason to be looking out the window of your taxi.

The other day Nick and I were having breakfast on the back balcony and looking at the guys working on the new building across the way. They have been building some new apartments and are now painting the outside. This is a job that seemed to fall to one person who, as you can see from the picture, was in a rather precarious position. Every time he moved the whole structure (which wasn’t that stable to begin with) wobbled violently. The scariest thing however, was the fact that for him to go up or down a rung he had to span a distance greater than his actual height, while dealing with the wobble and the unsecured bucket of paint.

It seems that even where children are involved, even the precious little Faberge eggs that we have in our care at school, that there can be an insane disregard for danger. Very near our office, all the old school buildings have been knocked down to make way for a new larger structure. If you are to look through the door of my old classroom you will see three walls and a vast gaping hole where the opposite wall once was. Half of the structure has been knocked down and there are minimal if any supports to secure what’s remaining; stuff is constantly falling. The worst part about this is that children have been playing outside the classrooms and the doors have remained unlocked. It took one of the other English teachers to point out the potential danger in this before they actually thought about securing the area. It is a real miracle that there aren’t accidents happening all around us.