Hangin Downtown

I don't go to the Sukumvit area downtown too often. It's pretty famous in the straight world though :-). Walk down a couple streets from the fancy shopping districts of Siam Paragon, Centralworld (at least the unsinged half), and Gaysorn (still standing, maybe the red shirts believe in tolerance?), and you come upon the world of straight and transexual women plying sex to legions of tourists from around the world.

Soi Cowboy and Soi Nana are the most famous strips of go-go bars in this area, and if you are interested, you can find thousands of Isaan and foreign girls working the bars for some cash. My door doesn't swing this way, but I have friends that... oh, I don't want to make you uncomfortable :-).

Anyway, I am always interested to walk around this area because there are people from areas of the world that I have never visited. I see Russians, Libyans, Iranians, Pakistanis (I know because they told me :-P), and many people from African nations. I've talked to many of these people just to see where they're from, ask them about life in Thailand, you know :-).

Many of the Africans seem to live here full time, and some of them, I've noticed, speak Thai very, very well :-). My boyfriend says there are a couple guys of African or Thai-African decent that speak Thai perfectly. I'm always impressed by that, because I know how difficult it is to truly speak the language. Many of us might be able to understand now after living here a couple years, but getting the tones and complex structures correct is a really challenging goal to attain.

Anyway, the Africans are here, and they seem to concentrate themselves in the areas surrounding Sukumvit Road. I always wondered what they do for work down there, and have received many different answers from the local populace.

"Buying things for Africans."

"Learning the Thai language."

"Selling clothing."

"Selling drugs."

I gotta be honest, the latter response is the most often used when I ask a Thai this question. Many of them here seem to believe that most -- if not all -- Africans are here selling or buying drugs. Honestly, I'm not sure what many of them do, because I have never had a friend or colleague from Africa here or in the U.S.

That was until I came to my current university where I met my first African colleague. He is a late-30's Nigerian with a rather large chip on his shoulder :-P. Everyone in Thailand, he thinks, believes Africans are inferior. I can tell you that in my office that it is certainly not the case, but I'm not discounting that everyone has stereotypes and illogical thoughts regarding people considered 'different.' I realize that.

Then again, I do have to admit that many of the Thai people here believe that Africans or people of a darker skin complexion are poor and of lower class. I've written about this before, but I seem to hear alot from Asian people about Africans. I wonder what they would think after comparing my bank account to many Africans living here. That might be a good surprise :-).

Anyway, I can see why my colleague has that rather large chip permanently affixed :-). He's pissed that everyone treats him differently, and that treatment is largely based on stereotypes. One day, I asked him why he thought those stereotypes are perpetuated, and his response was a kind of confession. admitting that many of the Africans here are selling drugs and prostitution.

"That's what the people here want to buy! Africans are businessmen," he tells me.

I can't disagree with him there, except about that idea of 'businessmen' --- I'm not really sure what that term means. Anyway, this country, for all of its quirks and beauty, is quite welcoming of many western imports. This includes Louis Vuitton, KFC, and Chrystal Meth. I can't figure out which contributes more to tearing the social fabric of Thailand, but we can definitely agree that the last one is bad for your physical health.

I do sympathisize with my colleague honestly. because I understand his predicament. He isn't selling meth or prostitution, just teaching English at a university, supposedly (just kidding!). But still, he has to shoulder stereotypes every day from the uneducated and the uninformed. He thinks America would be better, and I have to say that he might be right --- maybe just a little bit. If someone thinks they're going to avoid stereotypes and racsim by going to America, then she or he needs to read some stuff before hitting our amber waves of grain.

I for one am really interested in the people living here, Africans, Pakistanis, Burmese, Fillipino, I want to know about them all. Just to confirm, I don't believe any of the stereotypes out there, except the one about older Chinese people always stealing toilet paper or taking the unairconditioned bus to save two or three baht. I believe that one.

So, if you're a foreigner living in Thailand, and are in the market for a friend. Here I am. I'm taking applications 24 hours a day, and I'm available for story-telling or KFC any time :-).