[gastabegree]

I am not writing this as a blog, rather I think this should be an open discussion....

Ya know here is some info that got me thinking and I will probably be flamed for this post, but I would like to share an opinion.

My wife is from Mokduhan, but when we go to Thailand she visits family in Savankhet Laos. She has family on both sides. She had long been in the USA when we met, so I never questioned her background till about a few months ago. But long story short she was a Lao citizen, not Thai as I had naturally assumed.

All this time in TCB and on the forums, I simply explained to everyone she was from Mokduhan, and really did not know that was not her place of birth. So one day back in June, I was in TCB and someone asked how long I had studied Thai. I told them a few years and they commended my endurance and evidently wondered why I was studying for so long and what my drive was. Of course they first asked about my wife.

I told them she was Lao and she is from Savankhet (the Savankhet skyline by the way can easily be seen from Mokduhan or at least the hospital depends on haze). The response I got astounded me.

The chatter commenced to explain that my wife is not Thai therefore there is no reason for a farang to study Thai. She told me I need to study Laotian! I gave it no mind, but she was quite persistant. I did finally get angry, I did not draw attention or ban/alert her (at the time being a mod), but I was very angry by the rascism.

I then explained that I do speak Lao, in fact I speak Lao far better than I speak Thai, because so many Lao words are used in my house. I can not read Lao, and nor do I care to attempt to learn Lao. Honestly I feel it is a dead language or dying anyway, and most Lao higher educational systems use Thai printed material due to the lack of Lao books on the same level.

I finally left the chat, so angered by it that I did not return for several months. Before the Thai people speak up and say 'Lao and Thai, we are cousins, we are the same'. I have heard it a million times, always from the Thai people.

I was in the local Asian market last year and my wife asked the Thai woman if they were out of noodles. The woman got very upset, and boldly and rudely said "I do not understand, I am not Lao or Isaan!" My wife repeated it in Thai accent free and the woman again got angry and louder then said "Please speak English!". Noodles, it is the same word in Bangkok as it is in Pakse!

I have told you all that I grew up with many Lao friends all my life. That is why I speak Lao, I have played Takraw (gathaw) since I was 6 or 7 years old. Lao ja (from Carabao) was one of the first songs I liked to sing before I was 10. These refugees after I grew up, began telling me some of the stories from the refugee camps bordering Laos. I am not going into detail ever on this site, because I don't want anything bad to happen to this site.

I know some call it the spoilages of war, and I honestly believe that the Thai government is good as a whole. I am very sure that these things would not be done by Thai soldiers today. I am not bashing Thailand, but I am simply pointing out that there is a race issue, and it has displayed itself in a very drastic manner, in the refugee camps, my local market and in TCB. That is why I say don't tell me we are cousins.

What I want to know, is why?

We all know where the black and white race issue comes from in the USA, that is very public and well known. We all know about the ethnic issues the Nazi's had, that too is documented. Chechynia, Bosnia, Georgia, Sudan, Pattani we know all these. So is anyone going to have a comment on how this could have come about? Is it simply the class distinction? If so why do these Thai people feel they are any better? What happened?