Visiting Thailand right now is like Love in the Time of Cholera. We live our life and enjoy our ourselves to the backdrop of a pandemic. The day after we arrived, Thailand suspended its Test and Go program for vaccinated international travelers. We made it in the very last day possible. Around the world, countries are bracing for the Omicron variant – with a number of European countries taking the more extreme steps of lockdowns, social restrictions and curfews.
The fact that everyone here wears a mask whenever they are outside of their home – indoors, outdoors, while riding a motorcycle or otherwise – has become commonplace and blended into the background. We have adjusted to more continuous mask wearing – even when it doesn't really make sense. And then of course, there's the somewhat absurd exception where people can take their masks off to eat publicly. So, you can have a full restaurant with no masks, but you can't go for a run in the park without one….
Nonetheless, if Thai statistics are to be believed – or even if they are reasonably understated – Thailand has done well during the pandemic with a very low death toll and relatively small percentage of people with reported cases of COVID. This means that, at minimum, Thailand hasn't seen high rates of hospitalization and death. Is it the aggressive mask wearing? Or the requirement to use readily provided hand sanitizer walking in and out of every building, train station, restaurant and public restroom in this country? Or the temperature checks at all those same places where sanitizer is required? Who can say for sure?
But whatever it is, from a public health perspective, Thailand has succeeded.
Of course the cost is obvious to anyone who did make use of the Test and Go entry. We walk around the major attractions of Bangkok like we have Disneyland to ourselves. Today at the Chatuchak Weekend Market – the largest outdoor market in the world – we had the best experience ever. Normally, Chatuchak is crowded and sweaty. You earn your discounted prices on clothing and tickets in sweat and tears. But with a much lighter customer base of mostly Thais, here was plenty of elbow room, a lot less body heat and ample opportunity to shop in peace. Moreover hungry market vendors were reasonable in their pricing – not asking for absurd prices they expect to half before the negotiation is over. Of course, there is the added advancement of air conditioning in most of the vendor stalls. Twenty years ago when I first stepped foot in Chatuchak, there was nothing but the rare and occasional fan. But today's market vendors often have their stalls air conditioned – perhaps for their own comfort as much as anything – and their A/C leaks out into the corridors, making the whole environment more pleasant.
More than anywhere so far, Chatuchak drove home to me the economic growth Thailand has experienced in the past twenty years. While many things are still relatively cheap compared to home, many things are not. The inflation around Thai iced tea is shocking going from 12 Baht just last time we were here to 20-25 Baht today. But many can afford it and do. The incredibly luxurious malls are not empty without tourists. Middle to Upper Class Thais are there, spending their money and their time. The grocery stores are filled with imported items that never used to exist here from fine cheeses to red wine to craft beer to organic peanut butter. Heck, we're enjoying our morning toast using a loaf of bread from Paul, my favorite bakery chain in France. In 2001, I could rarely find freshly baked bread, now I can find bread that's better than home.
These outcomes – successful disease control, economic growth, delicious bread and the overall standard of living – are interesting in light of Thailand's political landscape. In 2001, Thailand. was ostensibly a democracy with a properly elected prime minister. Since then, it has vacillated between elected leadership, military juntas and questionable elections in which the military leaders get elected as civilian leaders. Thais do not enjoy all of the liberties found in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France and many other Western democracies.
Many if not most Americans would say that a country without strong liberties cannot thrive. The Thai people cannot be happy and successful under an authoritarian regime. And in some ways, that may be true. But this is not a country of sad, oppressed people. The standard of living has continued its ascent, undeterred. The vendors in Chatuchak enjoy air conditioning, more families enjoy cars, 25 Baht Thai iced tea is driven by the trendiness of the national beverage amongst its own – and the fact that they now have it in high quality, sturdy plastic cups with paper sleeves instead of sipping through straws from thin plastic bags with handles.
This goes against the grain of everything Americans know. We are a country born in opposition to authoritarian control from a monarch across the sea. We fought with the republics against the monarchies in World War I – effectively ending absolute monarchy in the Western world. A few decades later, we fought against tyrannical fascists in Europe and Asia, saving the world from an unimaginable future of oppression and hate. We have watched as our neighbors in South America have struggled with cycles of democracy and totalitarianism, watching countries like Argentina, Colombia and Brazil begin to succeed and then fall into political and economic turmoil – again and again and again. America outlasted and outmaneuvered the oppressive, boorish and at times murderous Soviet Union and watched with horror as Mao Zedong used programs called The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution to drive his people downward and backward but not before starving and terrorizing them.
Our lesson has been that Liberalism (not in the Democrat vs Republican sense – but in the philosophical Big L Liberalism sense) is the one true path forward. Our individualism and libertarian freedoms – along with the accountability our system creates for its elected leaders – are the fertilizer for thriving capitalism, standard of living and therefore quality of life.
But parts of Asia throw us for a curve. Why should Thailand and Singapore thrive while democratic, capitalistic and resource rich Indonesia languishes by comparison? Why does China grow so rapidly while remaining so oppressive – squashing the soul out of Hong Kong lest the Chinese people think an alternative way of life is possible for them?
I believe the answer lies in what Lee Kuan Yew, the founding prime minister of Singapore, called Confucian values. This often criticized term was essentially the atheistic LKY's of describing Asian collectivism. Social psychologist Geert Hofstede devised six dimensions or axes of cultural values – one being the continuum between Individualism and Collectivism. Not surprisingly, the United States is the most Individualistic country on Earth. Most Asian countries lean far more toward the Collectivist end of the axis, putting the needs of the whole before those of the individual with Japan ranking highest in the world on the Collectivist end.
The role of family and one's obligations to family are much stronger in most Asian societies. Singapore, for example, has a roughly 1% use of its Medicaid equivalent program because its government health plan allows and encourages family members to transfer their healthcare funds to elderly or poorer family members – and they do. Taking care of elderly relatives is an expectation few would shirk. Singapore's entire healthcare and social welfare programs rely on filial piety or the system as it exists could crash. Singapore's entire system of governance uses "weighted choices" to drive desired behaviors. Public transportation is made cheap, efficient and highly effective. Duties and taxes on cars are roughly 100% and vehicles are allowed to operate no more than eight years. You CAN have a personal vehicle. It's always your choice. But you REALLY have to want and be able to afford it.
Singaporeans – and Thais for that matter – tend not to bridle at paternalistic government. There is space for trust that while politicians are imperfect and corruption may exist, government may also be working in its people's general interest. In the choice between freedom and stability, Thais, Singaporeans and certainly Japanese place a much higher premium on stability than their friends in America do. Whether face masks are uncomfortable or an imposition is not something Thais are so likely to speak out on – not so much as for fear of their government, but because they are more ready to buy into the idea that wearing masks could protect their livelihoods and their lives. Does it make sense that they must wear masks while riding a motorcycle? Not to me. But if the Thai government is doing the secular equivalent of "building a fence around the Torah" its subjects are not necessarily suffering from it.
The difficult part is making room for the idea that there can be a delicate, tenuous and almost fluid space between Paternalism or even Authoritarianism, and Despotism. The Western assumption that absolute power corrupts absolutely is strongly ingrained in us. There are no shortage of examples of this either – from Hitler to Pinochet to Stalin to Pol Pot to Idi Amin. We keep these – and so many other names alive to remind us of the horrific consequences of Despotism. Rarely do people sing the praises of, let alone even know names like Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore or Antonio Salazar of Portugal who through sometimes (LKY) to always (Salazar) illiberal means created prosperity and stability for their people.
Asia's path is not going to be the same as America's or even Europe's. The histories and cultures are too different. What made Japan a force to reckon with in World War II was its amazing ability to coordinate and work together toward a singular goal. Individualist America feared that force. In the post-war aftermath, we were able to change Japan's direction with Capitalism more than Liberalism. Japan's ability to work collectively to succeed economically and on the world stage has been dramatic. Greater democracy and liberties followed, not preceeded its economic transformation.
Countries like Thailand are likely to do the same. The more market vendors who can afford A/C, the more middle class families who can afford nice movie theaters and the more college students sipping trendy Thai iced tea, the more likely their future will be Liberal. While they cannot currently criticize their government openly as they should be able to do, there doesn't seem to be anything stopping an eight year-old in a public talent competition in front of one of the largest, most upscale malls in the country from singing "I want to be a billionaire, so fucking bad." Perhaps that's as it should be.
PS – Bailey would like the blog to reflect that her Aunt Emmy both almost burned down our condo making breakfast and then almost shit herself in about a 20 minute span this morning. It is so noted :)
