Authorities on the New Colonialism
I have joined the roster of strangers in strange lands profiled on a relatively new website called Expat Interviews, designed as a guide for people who are considering abandoning their homelands to see if some other country enjoys life more.
They are legion who have decided that America, Britain and Australia prefer to make war rather than love and went in search of more peaceful surroundings. In my case I fled the War on Snow and sought out the tropical extremities, hoping Buddhism would embrace me. For those of us who chose Thailand, we’ve all pretty much had the same reaction: “What??? Oh … oh, well, never mind, I’m staying anyway.”
You get over the initial shock. Eventually.
Webmaster Victor in the Netherlands set up the site and with freelance writer Lizza in the Philippines contacts exiles around the world and asks them to fill out a pretty painless questionnaire. Last I looked I was one of 12 expatriates in Thailand who’ve offered analyses. My profile is here.
Other recent recruits have included New Zealander Jacqui in Japan, German Susanne in China and Dutchwoman Rose in Turkey. The site certainly makes for some interesting reading. I wish it had existed before I came to Thailand — it might have saved me some trouble figuring things out for myself.
Paul, Your blog looks interesting. I came across it as a result of a Google news alert I have on Buddhism Thailand. I wanted to read your opinion but the red ink on a brown background was too much for me to navigate past. I offer this reaction with the best wishes. Bill.
I appreciate the comment, William, but the red text is only used for headers, comments and sparingly elsewhere. I hope most people are seeing the posts in white text!
Nice interview. It’s good to know how expat thinks about Thailand and Thai people. I can’t agree more there are bad and good Thai and I happen to be one of the good bunch:-)
You sure are, Veena. When you get around to running for parliament, I’ll encourage everyone I know to vote for you.