Happy Valentine’s Day from Bangkok, city of blushing virtue.
In yesterday’s Bangkok Post:
“City police have put a damper on the spirit of Valentine’s Day with a 10pm curfew on teens under 18 to ensure they go home early and do not fall prey to sexual temptation.
Police will patrol ‘risk areas’ where teenage lovers may be tempted to share moments of tender intimacy tomorrow night.”
Added the deputy chief of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, Kamol Kaewsuwan: “Love is beautiful. But it’s not necessary to end up having sex.”
3 comments
Comments feed for this article
Trackback link
http://wherewherewhere.net/2007/02/14/happy-valentines-day/trackback/
February 16, 2007 at 6:08 am
Marc
I have a “risk area” that the po-po can have some “moments of tender intimacy” right ‘ere.
Is it possible that the police, from the chief on down, have forgotten what country they’re policing?
February 16, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Thomas
Hee hee. The funny thing is, after being here for just a little while, that report makes sense to me. The culture here is simultaneously chaste & respectful on the one hand and utterly debauched on the other. And, somehow they don’t exist entirely exclusive of one another. Respect for religion and the king are more integrated into everyday life than what we’re used to in the USA (as are ladyboys and ping-pong shows.) I’ve seen hipster teenagers in the Buddhist temples and they wear their religion very naturally.
Bangkok doesn’t strike me as a Las Vegas-style place, a separate repository for vice and desire. Vice co-exists with traditional values in an almost coherent way. (Analysis based on one week here, mind you.)
February 17, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Daria
Yes, whereas America weighs in with chaste (and not so respectful) on one hand, while only fairly utterly debauched (openly) on the other.
[Start that ’70s song, “I’ve been to Nice and the Isles of Greece, where I sipped champagne in the sun. Moved like Harlow in Monte Carlo, and showed ‘em what I’ve got. I’ve been undressed by kings and I’ve seen some things that a woman ain’t s’posed to see. I’ve been to paradise, but I’ve never been to me.”]