THAI TALES PART 2:THE SAGA OF THE KAREN LONG NECKS

Above: One of the 'long neck' women we saw near Chiang Mai.


We recently went back to Thailand with a friend, visiting Chiang Mai. There, we did a day trip to the Golden Triangle, a point where Thailand, Myanmar and Laos met, formerly notorious as the world’s leading supplier of heroin. Apart from seeing this area, the ‘highlight’ of the day trip was the visit to an ethnic village. The people here are refugees from Myanmar and are commonly known as the Karen ‘long necks’. If you think this may be a bit insensitive, you’re right. The story of these people is sad, with the conditions that they experience and live in little more than a zoo. Most of this tribe arrived from Myanmar (the Karen have long been fighting the Myanmar government) but the Thai government has left them in limbo. They are not free to become Thai citizens, nor  until recently eligible for resettlement in other countries. The Thai government allows them to stay in Thailand in camps which they rent from the Thai government. In order to pay this rent, the women have maintained the long neck tradition, which according to some sources, had been dying out. Foreign tourists like myself go to their village, paying a US $10 fee to visit the village, thus allowing the tribe to make a living. However, they are unable to leave as the Thai government recognizes the economic value of the ‘long necks’ appeal to tourists and the amount of revenue it provides. So the ‘long-neck’ people are caught in a cycle of wanting to leave but being unable to, of wanting to stop their body modifications but having to maintain it in order to survive. The Thai government has at least acknowledged that this cycle is damaging to the tribe and have allowed some of the ‘longnecks’ to emigrate to other countries, in particular New Zealand. However, many others are still trapped in this bizarre existence, slaves to the mighty dollar.  Hopefully, one day, these people will be able to live their life, with or without wearing the rings, without having to worry about the economic consequences of removing the rings. Its ironic that Thai means free as these people have been effectively been deprived of the freedom to choose how they live for several decades now.

THAI TALES PART 1: THAILAND’S EXECUTION SQUADS

In the past 50 years, most countries in South East Asia have had reputations sullied by military dictatorships (Myanmar) and by war (Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia). In comparison, Thailand has long been the darling of the area, attracting backpackers and resort tourists alike. Over 14 million tourists a year are attracted to Thailand by its beaches, cities and temples. This is in spite of almost yearly coups and the ever-present sex trade, which may account for up to 10% of tourist spending in Thailand. However, in Thailand, its not just the ladyboys with a dirty, little secret. 

When my wife and I went there for our honeymoon in 2003, the Thai government were in the middle of a purge of suspected drug users and dealers. Suspects were given time to turn themselves in or face punishment. Punishment came in the form of execution, with 600 suspects shot in a two week period. Over 2, 500 suspects were killed in the year. Authorities refused to allow autopsies to be performed on the bodies, with reports that bullets were excised to remove forensic evidence. No international upcry was heard, mainly because the people killed were suspected drug users. A review board found that up to a half of the people killed were not drug dealers or suspects but were killed by security forces because of personal grudges, family feuds and as the result of misidentification. If such actions had happened in Myanmar, the world would be shocked and rightly so. But Thailand and its tourist trade was left largely undamaged by these actions. The Thai government at the time and subsequently have dealt with the matter in a way that has limited any damage to Thailand’s tourist industry. It appears the West doesn’t mind shutting its eyes to such acts as long as the government involved is a Western style democracy and isn’t a militay junta or a pseudo-Communist regime.