Being a beggar, an occupation in Thailand soon. If law is passed.

Today I was at school and reading a newspaper on my laptop while doing some work, when I came across what I thought had to be a joke. Even when I read the article I thought it was a practical joke and also other teachers didn’t believe me until they read the article.

What the article is about is being a beggar in Thailand. Anyone who has travelled to Thailand has come across pesky beggars; many foreigners actually dig into their pockets and give absurd amounts of money, which can be 20 Baht to 100 Baht.

In the article it said that; being a beggar will not be so easy anymore if draft legislation approved by the cabinet yesterday becomes law. The bill proposed by the Human Security and Social Development Ministry sets conditions for people who want to be beggars.

Now this is next bit is pretty hard to read and not laugh or shake your head at the absolute stupidity of it.

Beggars must provide proof they are underprivileged, disabled, homeless or elderly without children to care for them. And this will be a reserved occupation, exclusively for Thais who must carry ID cards.

So, it is an occupation! Also you need proof that you’re underprivileged. And have a Thai ID Card. Now many people who are “underprivileged” don’t have forms of ID, especially all the documents needed for a Thai ID card.

Now this is an absolute ball tearer. Try not to laugh, please.

Would-be professional beggars will have to report to local administration organisations for approval and work permits.

Yes, the beggars will get “work permits”. So this means if this bill is passed you can ask a beggar for their work permit and ID Card.

Here’s the bad news:

Local agencies will be responsible for controlling beggars in their jurisdictions, while the Social Development and Welfare Department will have special centres to help them and programmes to care for them.

Now, local agencies do not try and control the beggar situation, so this means that they will more than likely let it continue the way it is. Thais don’t want to create ripples in the calm water.

Some good news:

Those who force other people to beg, or exploit them, will be liable to criminal punishment, deputy government spokeswoman said.

Umm, why don’t they simply enforce this now? This is happening all across Thailand now. The government knows this; major human rights organizations know this. What is stopping them from trying to catch these scumbags now?

Then the government minister says “Passing the legislation into law would help the authorities get rid of the large number of foreign beggars in the country”.

There are many foreign beggars including many asshole foreigners pretending to be hard up and telling sob stories of unjust that has been done to them. I seen a beggar from England begging last trip to Bangkok, he had a pathetic story written out on some cardboard. I wanted to kick the guy but this would just be a waste of energy and time on such a thief.

This is a good idea as most of these people are illegal immigrants and most are under the control of gangs. Detain the poor people and send them home to their countries.

A fellow teacher who just done a Thai Cultural course said that he was told on this course about Thai children being taken to Cambodia and being maimed as in having body parts removed to get more compassion from people. He thought this was a joke until I told him it wasn’t.

I explained that this was true and still happens today. Young children still go missing in remote villages in Thailand, stolen by mafia style gangs and sold into a life of misery; sadly Thai parents also sell their children for paltry sums believing they are going off to a better life.

But most of the beggars you come across in Thailand come from other countries, usually Laos and Cambodia. Most are being used by gangs and mistreated, I cannot tell any person travelling to Thailand “Do not give any money to a beggar”. This is even for a tiny dirty little kid, or an old lady with a tiny baby.

Yes, some are genuine, but many aren’t. Don’t support the gangs that are making many of these beggars’ lives hell. The money that beggars get goes to these ruthless thugs who beat them if they don’t collect enough money.

So if you travel to Thailand, don’t be rude to beggars. Give them a polite grin and just shake your head “No” and keep on walking.

I didn’t think I could come across anything more ridiculous than what I have ever already come across here before, but, this really takes the cake. It is pretty well the most insane thing I have read. Maybe this idea was thought up at a late night brain storming session at a local karaoke club well after Thai closing times when the brain cells weren’t working their best.

But again this is just my unprofessional view and maybe there are professionals out there with their views, I would love to hear them.

Brunty