The dark side of tourism in Thailand

Who hasn’t dream of going to Thailand on holidays? A destination that offers first class hotels at a bargain price, beautiful beaches, a wide range of leisure activities and some of the biggest parties around the world... Tourism is having a massive affect on Thailand but, at what price? The documentary screened by the BBC ‘Thailand: Tourism and the Truth’ try to give answers to this question.

After touching down in Pucket, the host Stacey Dooley stays in one hotel of the island, where enjoys first class facilities for only 30£ per night. Massive swimming pools, luxury rooms, no-end to sight free buffets, and tropical cocktails make a dream vacation that, unfortunately, ends as soon as the working day starts for the hotel’s workers. The staff usually works around 8 hours per day, 6 days per week. The maids earn 4.5£ per day, which means, approximately, 80£ over the legal minimum wage. Although the hotel provides to the staff accommodation in a shared room, food and transport, they almost scratch a living, as it is usual that a worker supports an entire family.

In spite of the economic growth in Thailand, there are huge inequalities between rural and urban areas, that’s why it can be seen an important rural flight to those areas improved by tourism. The most of the people who decide to emigrate to find a job in the tourism sector, leave their families in other regions and support them in the distance, by sending them the money earned at the hotel. In the particular case of the maids, plenty of them are mothers who can spend even two years without see their children.

Some of the hotel workers, who earn a bit more money than maids, can afford to rent accommodation by their own. They prefer to live outside the hotel because they can enjoy more freedom as visits at the accommodation for staff provided by the hotel are not allowed. The problem here is that, because of the massive tourism, rentals in the town are really expensive for the locals so they just can rent domestic properties far away from city centre and in a inadequate sanitation. Rats, cockroaches, unpaved streets... is the other side of the coin when it is offered a luxury holiday at bargain prices.

Tourists takeover the island

More than 3 million tourists from all over the world visit Pucket island every year, which is almost 10 tourists for every local. Bearing in mind this figures, is easy realize until what extend tourists takeover, literally, the little island of Pucket.

To accommodate so much tourism, investors are building hotels in areas traditionally occupied by local communities. The documentary shows the case of a fisher’s community who arrived in Pucket from China 400 years ago. The lack of rights and the no knowledge of the land’s law among the locals are making things easier for the investors while the locals are seeing how their lifestyle is threaten due to the loose of their land.

Other significant case shown in the documentary is the popular Full Moon party, which takes place every month in a tiny island called Ko Phangan that is “invaded” by a plage of young people, who are eager for party, alcohol and tecno music: over 30.000 people takeover the island in the main season of holidays.

Providing that health centres are far away from the beach where the party takes place and there aren’t enough resources to take care of all tourists, lots of locals volunteer in order to help those drunk or stoned tourists needed from medical attention. In sptite of the effords, the resources of the tiny island are not enough and it’s not new to hear about tourist’s deaths every year during the celebration of the Full Moon party in the island.

Choosing to die

It’s difficult to remain indifferent after watching the documentary ‘Choosing to die’, broadcasted on BBC last 13th of June. It’s not only because the issue attracts a great deal of discussion, but also because at the end of the documentary it’s shown Peter Smedley’s assisted suicide, a 71 years-old millionaire hotelier who was suffering from motor neurone disease.

Peter share with us the moment of his death and drinks the lethal substance that will make him sleep and, then, die. He swallows the poison with no doubt, his hand doesn’t shake. His last words after being asked by the nurse were “I’m sure”. Later, would come the goodbye for his death’s witnesses and a message for her wife: “be strong, dear”. The more awkward moment was just before he fell asleep, when he asked for and was denied water. Those seconds probably made his wife a lump in her throat, who cried after realizing that her husband was slipping and he wouldn’t wake up anymore.

That is how was the end chosen by Peter Smedley, who wasn’t a terminally-ill patient, but it was visible his lack of independence. Maybe it was the main reason that drove him to the Swiss clinic Dignitas in order to end his life, a decision which was made, according to his words, without being depressed, but with mixed feelings.

For 12 years, Dignitas has helped more than 1.000 people to die. The assisted suicides take place in a residency provided by the organization and under the supervision of the assistants, who prepare the drugs, give advice about how it must be drunk, provide psychological support and keep patients company in their last moments of life. Patients must drink the drug by themselves to die within the law. In Switzerland, law doesn’t punish or prosecute people who help others to die, providing that the person who wants to die is aware, repeatedly express their demand to die and consume the lethal drug by themselves.

The legal gap that allows assisted suicide in Switzerland encourages those who live in the United Kingdom -where it’s forbidden- to travel to that country in order to go to Dignitas and die “legally”. However, die within the law is not cheap at all: people who require the Dignitas help must pay more than £10,000. According to the organization, the money is needed to pay the forensic analysis and the expenses for the funeral.

Lack of legal rights

The BBC was flooded with complaints after it screened the documentary, and there were plenty of comments of condemnation pointing out that the film was “pro-assisted suicide propaganda loosely dressed up as a documentary ", as the spokesman for Care Not Killing, Alistair Thompson, said. In spite those critics, the main theme of the documentary doesn’t want to “glorify suicide”, but to condemn the lack of legal rights suffered by those who decide that their life is not worth to be lived anymore and, therefore, want to die.

The lawlessness in the United Kingdom in this issue is forcing these people to hire the expensive services of certain organizations and die in another country, far away from home, in an impersonal residence like that one chosen by Smedley, located in an industrial area near Zurich. The criticized documentary shows that Dignitas is not an ideal option, it would be fairer to have the chance of dying at home or in the particular way a person has chosen.

This is a reality that exists. The easiest is to look the other way, but the government should stop doing this and face up to this problem by working on the regulation.

E.T. The Extraterrestial: 29 interesting trivia

The 30th anniversary of ‘E.T.: The Extraterrestial’ will be next year, which means that I should write a special post by next 11th of June. Obviously the 29th anniversary doesn’t make the news as much as a round figure like 30 years... however, a couple of days ago I saw E.T. and I couldn't resist: I started looking up information on the Internet and I gathered plenty of interesting facts about the Steven Spielberg’s classic film. Because today has been 29 years since its release on 1982, here you have 29 interesting trivia on one of my favourite movies as a kid:

1. The screenplay for the film was written by the Harrison Ford’s second wife Melissa Mathinson.

2. The concept for E.T. was based on an imaginary friend Spielberg created after his parents' divorce in 1960.

3. Spielberg said the film’s main theme isn't the friendship between Elliott and E.T., but the emotional situation of kids when their parents get divorced.

4. Religious parallels between E.T. and Jesus were found by some critics. As Andrew Nigels said, E.T. was crucified by military science and then resurrected by love and faith.

5. Although Spielberg refuses the Christian parable, Universal Pictures appealed directly to the Christian market with a poster that reminds the Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam.

6. Henry Thomas, best known as Elliott, auditioned in an Indiana Jones costume and he didn’t perform well. However, an improvised scene convinced Spielberg: Thomas tears caused by thoughts of his dead dog were more than enough to get the role.

7. Drew Barrymore (Gertie) was chosen because her invented story about a punk rock band leaded by her. For Spielberg that story proved her right imagination for the film.

8. E.T. ‘creature’ was created in 3 months and the final cost was $1,5 million.

9. Spielberg declared E.T. was "something that only a mother could love”.

10. The major voice work for E.T. was done by Pat Wels, an elderly woman who used to smoke two packets of cigarettes a day, which gave her that particular voice sound. According to the Spanish magazine Cinemania, she did the voice for every language.

11. The sound effects creator Ben Burtt’s sleeping wife, who had a cold, was used as well for the alien’s voice.

12. Two dwarfs, Tamara de Treux and Pat Billon, as well as a 12-year-old Mathew de Meritt, who was born without legs, wore the E.T. costume. Billon died a few weeks after the shooting and he did the sequence in which E.T. is having a walk with Elliot and Michael, covered by a blanket. The final scene was made by Tamara de Treux and de Meritt did the fridge scene.

13. Looking for funding, Spielberg got in touch with M&M company, but its sales representatives though it wasn’t a good idea that an alien eat the candies. They got wrong: the Reese’s Piece that E.T. eats increased its sales by 65% after the film’s release.

14. The project was filmed under the cover name A Boy's Life, as Spielberg did not want anyone to discover and plagiarize the plot.

15. The film was shot in chronological order to get a better actors’ emotional performance.

16. The film was shot so adults, except for the kids' mother, are never seen from the waist up in the first half of the film, as a tribute to the cartoons of Tex Avery.

17. Spielberg decided to cut a scene featuring Harrison Ford as Elliott's headmaster.

18. ‘Real’ doctors were recruited to play the doctors who try to save E.T’s life.

19. Spielberg liked so much John Williams’ music that the final scene was adapted just to match it.

20. In July 1982 Spielberg and Mathison wrote a treatment for a sequel to be titled E.T. II: Nocturnal Fears. Later, Spielberg decided against pursuing the sequel, feeling it "would do nothing but rob the original of its virginity”.

21. Amblin Entertainment's logo features the silhouette of E.T. riding in the basket on Elliott's bicycle flying in front of the moon. That production company was founded by Spielberg.

22. The 20th anniversary version was criticized as political correctness because the guns feds carried were replaced by walkie-talkies. In a recent interview, Spielberg regrets for those changes.

23. There were allegations that the film was plagiarized from 1967 script The Alien. The Spanish comic drawer Joaquín Blázquez allegated as well that the E.T. design was plagiarized from a comic character he created 7 years before.

24. In an American Film Instute poll, E.T. has been voted the 24th greatest film of all time. It was also listed by Time as one of the 100 best films ever made.

25. Henry Thomas has appeared in more than 40 films but still is best known for his role as Elliott. He was also involved in The Blue Heelers band from the mid to late ‘90s as a player, singer and lyrics writer.

26. Robert MacNaughton, Elliott's brother Michael, gave up acting and works as a mail handler in Arizona.

27. Drew Barrymore is just as well known for her films (Charlie's Angels, The Wedding Singer, Never Been Kissed) as for her pre-teen slide into alcoholism and drug abuse.

28. Erika Eleniak, the girl kissed by Elliot, has become an American Playboy Playmate and actress, perhaps best known for her role in Baywatch as Shauni McClain.

29. The budget was $10,500,000 and gross revenue reached the overwhelming amount of $792,910,554.

The UK, the promised land?

“England is not what was in its time”, it can be read in one of the website Spaniards forum’s comments. “When I was in Bournemouth more than 10 years ago, you could find four gigs in just a week... and without knowing much English”. Now, if you want to work as a kitchen porter you have to fill in hundreds of application forms and, of course, your English must be, at least, good.

Job-hunting in the UK has been complicated not only for those who are behind an unskilled job. The opinion of many foreign professionals living in the country since the days of the British economic boom is reflected in another comment on the forum: “since the very beginning I decided to look for a good job, something related with my studies. If was complicated; after all I was a foreigner with no experience or qualifications from England opting to skilled jobs, and the issue of the language was definitely a barrier... it wasn’t easy. However, once you have achieved that first job, you could promote without problems. I feeling I had was: if I don’t get an increase in my salary or a promotion I will quit. This situation, nowadays, has changed”.

Many Spaniards who have emigrated to the UK, partly because of the Spanish economic crisis, partly because they want to learn English, have found a very different picture of that immigration which the British island received during the 90’s until 2007: those immigrants enjoyed a period of full employment, with an unemployment rate of just about 5%.

However, between July 2007 and December 2010, about 900,000 jobs were destroyed in the UK, which meant an increase of the unemployment rate to almost 8% at the end of last year. The English have left being full employment period and they are competing now for those jobs traditionally held by foreigners who were eager for promising work experiences in the English-speaking world. In general terms, to find work in England today is basic to speak fluent English –hardly difficult to achieve for Spaniards because of an inefficient language education – which must be better according to the qualifications required for the post.

It is hard to compete with native speakers, obviously, but so it is with those immigrants who work for less than minimal wage without complaints. Another comment on the forum points out that Spaniards in general no longer put effort to search for ‘any kind’ of job. According to the author of that comment, the problem is not the impossibility of finding a job, but the rejection of certain posts by the Spaniards with studies. That’s why it is easy to find people who say: “Clean bathrooms, are you kidding me? I have a career!”

Whether the increase in the UK’s unemployment rate, the major competition in the job market or the rejection to work in certain jobs; job-hunting for foreigners can be extended to months. However, despite a scenario not so encouraging, many Spaniards decided to immigrate to the UK last year: a total of 3,949 people, according to the Register of Foreign Spaniards (PERE), which are included within the 64,317 Spanish residents. Of course, the real figure is much higher, as this number represents only those registered with the PERE.

It is clear that there is economic crisis worldwide, touching even powerful economies like the UK, however in Spain the figures are more than alarming: unemployment rate in April break its record at 21.9%, making up the highest percentage of unemployment in Europe. Since this trend has not stopped increasing, and we do not see any factors that predict the decline of the unemployment rate in the short term, Spaniard increasingly choose to emigrate to other countries with a greater chance of employability.

The *data speak again: Spain records the lowest number of job vacancies for every thousand people in all the major European countries, in fact, in 2008 the figure dropped significantly to 33 compared with the 352 in the UK.

Behind these figures is the reality of thousands of Spaniards who see in the UK the island of the opportunities, despite the economic crisis is also making an effect in the UK. "Job-hunting is difficult here”, says another Spaniard from London, "but there is no comparison with Spain, I stay in the UK".

*Source: Eurostat