mommy will buy a football team in England and send son to be manager
On May 13, 2:03=A0am, xis2...@googlemail.com wrote:
> BBC News, Bangkok
>
> Sometimes a single incident manages to shine a spotlight deep into the
> soul of a society.
>
> There was just such an incident in Thailand last year, which has just
> gone to court, and which speaks volumes about the dislocating impact
> of more than four decades of break-neck economic growth.
>
> It was a seemingly routine accident along Sukhumvit Road, one of
> Bangkok's busiest and most traffic-clogged thoroughfares.
>
> A Mercedes-Benz was pulled up alongside a city bus, and a young man
> was having an angry exchange with the bus driver, whom he accused of
> scraping against his car.
>
> The passengers started shouting at the man, who got back into his car
> and appeared to be about to leave.
>
> But instead he accelerated forwards onto the pavement and into the
> crowd of passengers, crushing several of them under his vehicle.
>
> One woman later died, and several other passengers were seriously
> injured.
>
> A fit of road rage perhaps? The police charged the young man, Kanpitak
> Pachimsawas, with murder.
>
> But the case very quickly turned into one about class differences,
> about the perceived arrogance of Thailand's rich, towards the poor.
>
> 'Bad attitude'
>
> Kanpitak, it turned out, was the 20-year-old son of a former Miss
> Thailand beauty queen and a wealthy businessman.
>
> Many parts of the Thai bureaucratic system favour rich people - if you
> are not one of them, you will always be left at the back of the queue
> Suchira Insawan
>
> He was also the nephew of a powerful police officer.
>
> The bus driver reported that his father had arrived at the scene and
> threatened to use his police connections against the passengers.
>
> "He thinks he has money and a big family name, so he can do things
> like this to poor people," the bus conductor told reporters at the
> scene.
>
> Kanpitak's father was unrepentant. Speaking on a TV chat show two days
> later, he showed more concern for his son than his victims.
>
> Responding to the bus conductor's comments he said: "They are
> uneducated. That's how they are.
>
> "They think they are abused, that rich people are bad, that the police
> are bad. Lower class people have a bad attitude towards police
> officers and rich people. They hate us and curse us."
>
> Suddenly we were witnessing something you do not see much in Thailand
> - open class conflict.
>
> Inequality
>
> Thailand has one of the most unequal distributions of wealth anywhere
> on the planet, despite some recent improvements.
>
> And that yawning gap between rich and poor is most openly on view in
> Bangkok, where ostentatious displays of wealth are commonplace
> alongside the grinding poverty experienced by millions of migrant
> workers who have come from the countryside.
>
> Luxury cars costing more than the entire annual income of a village
> rub up against the battered carts of street vendors.
>
> New shopping centres and apartment blocks are crowding out what little
> open space remains in the city, projects that help the rich get even
> richer.
>
> It should come as no surprise that it is in Bangkok that a five-star
> hotel is offering its 50 highest-spending guests what it calls the
> meal of a lifetime, prepared by a team of Michelin-starred chefs and
> preceded by the guests being flown by executive jet to a village in
> eastern Thailand to witness a little poverty before tucking into their
> 10-course feast.
>
> Total cost: around US$300,000 (=A3150,000). The event has barely raised
> an eyebrow in Thailand, but caused such an uproar elsewhere over its
> questionable taste that many top chefs in France have decided to
> boycott it.
>
> What is so striking about Thailand's inequality is how little visible
> social tension there is.
>
> For the most part people appear to accept their lot without
> resentment. Some put this down to Buddhist concepts of fate and karma,
> others, to Thailand's deep-rooted sense of hierarchy, with the king at
> its apex.
>
> Social activist and former Senator Jon Ungpakorn sees more prosaic
> causes.
>
> "Because of the high growth rates in Thailand there is a sort of
> buffer," he says.
>
> "Even the poor feel they are doing better than they would have done
> many years ago. They still see that they have opportunities ahead."
>
> 'Damage is done'
>
> The case of Kanpitak Pachimsawas has struck a raw nerve.
>
> Websites in Thailand are filled with comments demanding that the young
> man face the full force of the law, regardless of his family
> connections.
>
> Some poke fun at his father's claim that it was mental stress that
> caused him to drive his car into the crowd.
>
> But there is little of the blistering anger that erupted in China
> after a similar case four years ago, when a woman who drove her BMW at
> a farmer she had been arguing with, killing his wife, was given only a
> suspended jail sentence.
>
> It forced the Chinese authorities to reopen the case, and to close
> down websites carrying the online debate over the case.
>
> In Thailand, Kanpitak Pachimsawas was released on bail and, amazingly,
> even allowed to continue driving.
>
> On his first day in court he was apparently overcome by nerves and
> said he was unable to answer any questions. The judge adjourned the
> case until November. He may never go to prison.
>
> Suchira Insawan, the daughter of the woman he killed, says she feels
> no anger towards him.
>
> She has yet to receive any compensation from the Pachimsawas family -
> she has asked for 7m baht ($222,000; =A3111,000) but is likely to get
> less, perhaps even less than the list price of the Mercedes-Benz that
> crushed her mother.
>
> "The damage is done," she told me. "I forgive him. I don't want to
> destroy his future, I don't want him to be jailed. I don't want bad
> karma."
>
> She also had little faith that the courts would find against such a
> privileged young man.
>
> "Many parts of the Thai bureaucratic system favour rich people. If you
> are not one of them, you will always be left at the back of the queue.
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