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Ordinary People
Watching short documentary about a Thai female worker’s life,
I am saddened by the current situation of ordinary Thai people. The show
followed her life from the time she woke up, commuted to work, worked and went
back home. Her wage (minimum wage) was 211 Baht but at the end of the day, she
spent 212 Baht although she chose the cheapest mode of transportation and meal.
The only way she could afford some basic needs (let alone her son’s education) was
to work over-time. She said she had never dreamt of saving, just to get by day
by day, she was happy.
But I am not!
Travel into the city
every day, I spend, just for the commuting cost, more than 100 Baht. More and
more every day, I wonder how people here can afford to live and survive.
Back on May 1st, Thai workers were asking the government
to increase their minimum wage, roughly 2-3%, but it was turned down. Of course
the government does not care about the poor although they receive votes from
them, but they are more concerned about the rich who give them money because at
the end of the day, they can use that money to buy back those poor voters
anyway.
The government easily gave in to the demand from the sugar manufacturers
and the rice producers to increase price because of the skyrocketing oil price.
But they did not give the green light to the workers to increase their minimum wage
as if the oil price did not affect the ordinary people and as if the poor were
invisible in this society. Unfortunately, the labor movement has long died
down, here or all around the world. Watching another piece of news from BBC
about the widening gap between the rich and the poor and how the poor find it
hard to afford to live in Germany, it makes me wonder if the people who live in
this leaning welfare state cannot survive, how can the people who live in this
poor country can?
Ordinary people around the world are being attacked from all
sides. They are suffering from the high cost of living while their wage has
been stagnant for years. They are being attacking by consumerism which is
creating fake needs through advertising. Some people cannot afford a cell phone
but they buy iPhone and some people do not need a car but they buy it anyway.
Observing all of these situations, I wonder how long this
current unjust social structure can carry the world community or how long the
poor can absorb all the burdens that the rich give to them before the whole
system crumbles. I guess it is the same question that how long our Mother
Nature can bare all the toxins that the human beings have thrown at her before
she will fight back.
Every time when I see these ordinary people struggling so
hard to get by each day, I think about the life of the next generation.
It is very scary. Tae Athi
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