I've said it a few times in the past about how Thailand has a tendency to blame any problem that they can on Myanmar. It's gone on for the years that I have lived here and it was going on for hundreds of years before I arrived. It might happen the other way around as well in Myanmar but I've never been there before so I can't say.
Lately, the recent outbreak in Covid is clearly not the fault of the Burmese people as it originated in Thailand, but the government still does daily sweeps disinfecting the border between Myanmar and Thailand.
src
This has received criticism from Thais and foreign individuals as well for a couple of reasons the first one being that this isn't any evidence to suggest that the disinfectant would have any effect on Covid and there was also not indication that the Myanmar people were even infected with Covid in the first place. Many people are calling it a waste of money and resources and others are calling it the usual anti-anything-Myanmar because of something that happened nearly 1000 years ago.
This recent outbreak, which I don't really believe is real anyway, is meant to have happened all the way down in Bangkok at nightclubs being spread by young Thai people. The Burmese have exactly nothing to do with it. I think that most people who live here a while kind of get tired of the "blame everything on foreigners" that happens over and over again in this country.
I recall when Covid first came to Thailand all foreigners including me, were avoided as if we were definitely carrying the plague even though it was well-documented that the virus was primarily brought into the country by Thais returning home from virus infected areas. There were times where private companies weren't allowing foreigners into their businesses and even banned foreigners from traveling on buses and trains. This decision was quickly reversed after international scrutiny but it just goes to show how the knee-jerk "someone else, not us, made this happen" notion in this country can be.
src
This notion of blaming anyone but ourselves in not unique to Thailand; I think that most countries prefer to blame their neighbors for their problems rather than admit that maybe some of the bad stuff that happens is actually our own fault. I know that my country does this on a regular basis. However, walking down a border line and spraying Lysol all over the place isn't just hating thy neighbor, it is also profoundly stupid.
I was working in an elementary school in Thailand many years ago. The children were taught Thai pride on an almost scary level and this included teacher-sponsored hatred towards certain nationalities, especially the Burmese. It also focused on basically all their other neighbors as well but not so much Laos because those guys are basically Thai anyway. Indians were also pretty high up on the list of nationalities to hate / fear for some reason and the Indian girl that was in our class (both parents immigrated many years ago) was picked on relentlessly. In a non pervy way I want to say that she was looking like she was going to be very pretty when she got older and she was also one of the more clever kids in the class.
This spraying of disinfectant... I hope it has some purpose but I had already heard about this spraying of the Myanmar border and just kind of had a chuckle about it. People are complaining about the cost but isn't bleach like one of the least expensive substances on earth?
The national pride you refer to is still there. I teach in a school now and the way they line up like soldiers in the morning to pay homage to the flag and the Royals almost seems like brainwashing. I have also seen the classes where they really point out the fact that Burmese were terrible people for decapitating Buddha statues in Ayuthaya. This happened a VERY long time ago... It's time to let it go.
Thanks @gooddream for being engaged in the ASEAN Hive Community. !ENGAGE 90
ENGAGEtokens.I think it was a story in the Bangkok Post last week that a leading virologist said the current outbreak of UK variant came from Cambodia after illegal migrant workers snuck over the border and went to work in a bar in Bangkok, meanwhile, the Cambodians are blaming the UK variant on the Chinese after they arrested a security guard at a quarantine hotel in Phenom Penh who allowed two positively tested Chinese nationals out for a night out in return for a back-hander!
I've also been reading a lot of rumours recently that the reason Thailand was the first country outside China to discover a positive case of Covid which is linked back to a similar variant found in Bats is that it actually originated here. I am sure if 'news' websites like Thaiger keep reporting things like that, they won't be running much longer!
So much mis and dis information flying around but like you say, it won't be Thailands fault!
Entertainment venue = Very expensive Soapy! and another story that's 'gone quiet'!
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2097119/two-ministers-visited-covid-linked-bar
Thanks @nathen007 for being engaged in the ASEAN Hive Community. !ENGAGE 100
ENGAGEtokens.Oh that story you linked is great. I am quite certain it will be buried or they will just be promoted to some position somewhere else for a while. If you or I did this we would go to jail.
They've sprayed some streets in Phuket as well. Smelled like chlorine from the pools :)
Thanks @chrisinphuket for being engaged in the ASEAN Hive Community. !ENGAGE 10
ENGAGEtokens.The Khmer migrant workers have learned to keep their heads down and happily evacuate the country when waves of illegal migrant worker deportations kick in. There's always got be a scapegoat for a country's problems. Many Cambodians like to blame their problems on Vietnamese people.
Well i suppose it is global, no country wants to accept responsibility. Wasn't China actually trying to say that Covid was planted there by the Americans at one point?
There was definitely some finger-pointing going on.