Soi Dogs

Capitalism in the raw.

Sewing bras for Triumph in Thailand:

The time coupon system basically means the worker’s wage is paid according to the wholesale price of a finished product. Each assigned task will come with fixed amount of time its completion. “For example, if we are tasked to stick on 20 bows with a 20 minute coupon, that means we have to get it done within 20 minutes.  Each day, we have to do the task at this rate for up to the 480 minutes they assign. If we cannot match the given amount of time, we will only get the minimum rate (355 baht per day). But if we can, they will count the excess time at 1.03 baht per minute,” explained Boonrod Saiwong, Secretary-General of Triumph International Labour Union.

Since this system stimulates employees to produce more because nobody wants to receive just the minimum rate, what everyone does is to rush to get their tasks done. They do not drink if they are not desperately thirsty and will hold off going to the toilet. They will not eat anything that will put them at risk of getting diarrhoea.  At the lunch break, they keep working until a guard blows a whistle meaning they will just have to stop. For all these efforts, they are rewarded with kidney diseases, cystitis, pyelonephritis and stress.

“If we are used to the task, that means we will be able to finish quickly and they will deduct our time, or if they see that we can produce a lot, when new stock orders come, they will give it to different workers and deduct their time instead”.

And then the crisis:

Today, out of the blue, the happiness of these four women and their other 1,954 colleagues has come to the end. They were laid off two months ago, the reason given being that the company has had to change their business structure worldwide.

At 1 am. on Friday 26th June, unlucky employees received bad news through mobile phone messages telling them to come to hear what the company had to say at BTEC, Bangna on Monday 29th June.

“When we arrived, those who came to hand us envelopes were soldiers in black uniforms, equipped with arms.  Before entering the venue, they checked our bags. Even bottles of water were not allowed. Think about it, who would bring weapons? We did not even know why they told us to go there”.

The Secretary-General of the Triumph Labour Union added that 1,959 employees were put into 4 categories including 1) those who took leave, were absent or late for work 2) pregnant women 3) those who had been working for a long time, and 4) those who had occupational illnesses. Thanyanun, Surin and Yeung fell into the last two categories. Boonrod also faced the same fate as the Secretary-General of the Union.

“We used to calculate the cost of production for one bra starting from ordering raw materials to the cost of cutting. The average cost was 40 baht but they sell at 1,000–2,000 baht. Where does the difference go to? Normally each day one order produced no less than 1,000 pieces and there are all together 57 orders. Imagine how much profit they make,” Boonrod gave us the information. 

Boonrod did not tell us the amount of compensation she got, but compared it to 40 good-quality swim suits. “All the effort that we had put in all the way was worth only 40 good-quality swim suits” the Secretary-General repeated.

Full article from Prachathai

True/UBC and homophobia

In Thailand, the TV channels are fairly heavily censored for:

a) any kind of bloody violence--stabbings, shootings, etc.

b) any nudity

c) any consumption of alcohol

d) any smoking

e) holding a gun ora knife to anyone's head, throat, body, whatever

If any of these things appear on TV or in a movie shown on satellite, it will be pixellated out. It's kind of silly and annoying in many cases. For example, there's a guy drinking a bottle of beer. Before he touches the bottle, it's in clear focus. Then he picks it up, and suddenly--PAZAAM!--the beer is a blur of pixels. Then he puts it down and PAM! it's back to clear focus. This is apparently suuposed to disguise the fact that he's (shock!) drinking the beer.

Obviously, the censors believe Thai people have less memory capacity than, say, goldfish.

But on the other hand, it is useful for things like full frontal nudity being pixellated out when I'm watching a movie with my kids. No, there's no watershed in Thailand, and no, there's no rating system, so when we sit down and watch a movie that I've never heard of, sometimes there are . . . surprises.

So: sometimes annoying, sometimes okay. Evens out.

But.

I watched a movie last night called Talladega Nights. (Jolly amusing, if you haven't seen it yet.) It's about NASCAR drivers, and the protagonist is called Ricky Bobby. He's pretty much the epitome of what you'd expect a NASCAR driver to be. The antagonist (played with panache by the chap who did Borat), whose name escapes me, is a gay French Formula One driver, who listens to jazz, sips machiattos in his car, wears black polo necks, and generally makes me howl with laughter whenever he appears.

*SPOILER*

At the end of the movie, Ricky Bobby has utterly changed (which he had to really; he was an utter ass at the beginning), and this is symbolized by him kissing the French driver. It's a very good ending for the movie: ridiculous, amusing, and touching all at the same time.

And True censored it.

Yup. Pixellation over the two actors' faces when they kissed. This didn't happen when Ricky Bobby and his wife kissed passionately at the beginning, nor did it happen when Ricky Bobby (after his wife had divorced him for his best friend) started making out with another woman in a bar. Nope, it's not the act of kissing itself that is offensive, according to True; it's just when two men do it.

According to TrueVision entertainment, two men kissing = full frontal nudity = stabbing someone in the face (also = drinking a beer = smoking a cigarette). They're all equally offensive.

So next time someone tells you how tolerant Thailand is of bisexuality/homosexuality, tell them to get stuffed.