Additional Information
    On one's first visit to Thailand, everything seems idealistic but after living here for a while, you begin to see that Thailand has its fair share of problems. One of the first ones you encounter is the environmental problem. As most travelers arrive in Bangkok, what strikes you right away is the stifling heat, traffic congestion and the filthy air. Diesel belching trucks are everywhere and older cars have zero or very poor emission controls. Tuk tuks and public buses are some of the worst polluting vehicles on the roads. Carbon monoxide levels are 50% above acceptable standards and leaded gasoline is still used. A recent study indicated that food in Bangkok can have excessively high levels of lead due to exhaust smoke. (Makes you think twice about what you put in your mouth.) We recommend passing over the smoke belching tuk tuk and taking a taxi. It will cost you just a bit more but it will save your lungs from breathing heavily polluted exhaust fumes as you wait in traffic. (The air-conditioning is nice too.)

    Although most assume air pollution is limited to Bangkok, the sad truth is that even the most rural areas have terrible air quality in the dry season. Farmers burn their fields to get ready for planting season, everyone burns their cut grass and bush, garbage is burned, hills are burned for new planting, industrial smoke is unchecked and new building sites burn their trash. Take a look at the NASA satellite image on the left. It is of northern Thailand and Laos and a bit of Vietnam. The white indicates smoke and the red dots are fires. This white blanket covers the area from December until March. If you fly into Chiang Rai at this time, instead of seeing the beautiful mountains, you see what looks to be fog but upon breathing it, you realize it is smoke as it hurts your lungs. If the local government had any idea of how much clean air is worth in terms of tourism and health, they might consider limiting burning.

    One of the next problems is the disappearance of the rainforests that up until 1950 covered over 70% of the country. Virgin forests now cover only an estimated 10% of Thailand (almost all in National Park areas) as advanced technology and road development allowed access to remote areas and sheer greed and mismanagement allowed the saws to continue 365 days a year. The picture on the left is a NASA satellite image that shows green where trees grow and brown where only grasses now grow. The big brown area in the center is Issan, or NE Thailand, the poorest region in the country. The green to the left and right of this is Laos and Burma.
    Everywhere corruption is rife and well-connected politicians or Forestry officials still go unpunished for the cutting of virgin growth, even in National Parks. There was recently a case exposed by the media of a local politician who had hid teak logs cut from a National Forest in Chiang Saen Lake but even though thousands of rotting logs sat at the bottom of the lake, the state was unable to convict him. (Sadly , Laos and Myanmar, are following the example set in Thailand and within the next 10 years the majority of their virgin forests will be gone as well .) With the destruction of habitat, many kinds of wildlife have been pushed to, or over, the brink of extinction. This includes the Asian Elephant, the tiger, Asiatic black bear, pileated gibbon, clouded leopard and Irrawaddy dolphin to name but a few.

    One of the next problems that few tourists have to see first-hand but is ever present is corruption. Police officers sit on the side of the road, pulling over motorcycle traffic, with no intention of giving anyone a ticket, only lining their own pockets. This is not to say that all police are corrupt but many Thais will tell you that the police are the most dangerous of criminals. Unfortunately corruption is not only limited to local officials. For example, the Avian Bird Flu was recently a major issue in Thailand. The biggest poultry producer, CP, was found to have been infected. When a representative from the European Commission came to ask about the state of the bird flu, he was told by the Thai Agricultural Minister that everything was under control. Three days later, the first person was dead from the flu and even more troubling, the CP factory did not have to cull a single bird as the owner is related to the Thaksin family and they claimed that their "indoor" facilities gave them 100% control of the situation. Small farmers in the countryside were required to kill their entire stock. The EU, realizing that they had been lied to, stopped importing Thai chickens and as a punishment said they would re-evaluate the situation 6 months later. It appears that the current government is run by big business and to be well connected to the Thaksin family means your business can prosper. Even a Lt. Governor who illegally opened a copy of the national university examination prior to the exam still has not been convicted of anything as he is a close friend of Thaksin and it just so happens Thaksin's daughter was taking the test this year.

    Continuing with politics, election time in the rural areas means a source of income for most people. The poor eagerly await the free flowing cash that comes from the candidates who buy votes. Even though elections can now be discounted until a "fair election" is finally achieved, this does not stop candidates from dishing out cash. Taking this a step further, if the candidate is "investing" in her future by buying votes, she of course wants a return on her investment so she will most likely end up as a corrupt politician looking for ways to leverage her connections for a high return.

    Corruption is not only rampant among the police, it occurs among students as well. Students frequently pay other students to do their thesis or project for them. The more well-to-do even pay someone to attend university in their place. It would be interesting to see if Prime Minister Thaksin really did attend Eastern Kentucky University and Sam Houston University in the U.S. as he claims. Even if he did, would you want to your leader to have gotten educated at those two less than stellar universities? Interestingly enough, he has just started his own university in Bangkok - Shinawatra University. Maybe it is one of those universities where you don't actually have to do anything, just send your money for your degree.

    Another problem less serious than the previous but still a problem is traffic etiquette. It simply does not exist. If you are walking, even in a crosswalk, no one in a car or on a motorcycle will stop for you. The bigger goes first so watch out. Every developed country protects pedestrians. Too bad Thailand protects only the rich.

    In Chiang Rai, some of the problems that are striking are the discrimination and corruption faced by the poor, especially the hill-tribe people on a daily basis. Hill-tribe people without citizenship can not get an education, can not get healthcare, can not even leave their area without written permission. Poor people riding on buses are checked at every checkpoint and if they can not speak Thai well, their nationality is immediately questioned and they have to show an ID card. The poor most likely drive motorcycles instead of cars and everyday you see police stopping motorcyclists checking for helmets and licenses (which then results in the guilty paying a bribe directly to the police officer to avoid the more expensive fine.) Car owners are almost never stopped outside of checkpoints although drunk driving is a common problem.

    Finally, getting back to Thaksin, even if he truly has the interest of Thailand and her people at heart he has severely curtailed freedom of press, condoned the killing of over 2000 people in his War on Drugs, has threaten NGOs and labeled them as troublemakers and has engaged in excessive cronyism. His policies including 30 baht healthcare and easy access to loans has made him popular among the masses and has heated up the Thai economy. It will be interesting to see how he will be labeled by future historians - an egocentrical semi-dictator or the man that brought Thailand into the ranks of the 1st world.