Word: thailander
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These statistics may well be true, and so may most of the Times's figures-but obviously some are truer than others. A census of illiterates in an advanced, well-documented country carries considerably more conviction than a report from the remote corners of Thailand. Nobody is really sure exactly how many people there are in Thailand, after all, much less the distance that one of them can travel in a day, so the margin for error is presumably considerably larger than a precise figure like 17% implies. What makes such numbers imaginary is that most of them...
Once upon a time, even after the idyllic years of Anna and the King, Thailand was a faraway paradise called Siam. Its marketplaces floated on canals, and its rice fields stretched to the horizon. When someone felt troubled, his friends were likely to tell him, "Mai pen rai," which means, "Well, never mind...
Then came the war in Viet Nam. Thailand's pastoral peacefulness vanished as seven airfields for warplanes were built, and hotels for G.I.s on leave were thrown together. Since 1950, the U.S. has funneled some $3 billion into the economy -mostly during the war years. On top of that came some $260 million in other foreign capital, largely from multinational corporations. Office buildings went up everywhere. Most of Bangkok's famed canals, or klongs, were filled in, paved and made into roads...
Yankees Go Home. Now, however, Thailand's economic climate is turning out to be misty and clouded. The economy is troubled by dropping prices and softening demand for some of its main export items, including tin and rubber. Rice exports, the mainstay of the economy, have been especially poor, largely because Asia's "green revolution" has made rice producers out of countries that formerly were importers. Thailand, under the spell of Mai pen rai and the war boom, failed to diversify its economy. In consequence, the country has a bulging rice stockpile and growing trade deficit...
...nearly half since early 1970. Desperately searching for any business at all, many of the city's R.-and-R. hotels have shifted from daily to hourly rates. At some, curtained-off parking stalls hide the license plates of their embarrassed clientele. U.S. aid and foreign investment in Thailand have declined markedly. In Bangkok's center, a ten-story office building completed more than a year ago has only four tenants, all on the tenth floor. Many internationally owned hotels, including the new Sheraton and the Dusit Thani, show 20% to 40% occupancy rates...