Letters to the Editor
alaina
Published Letters: 12 Editor's Choice: 1
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G-d is not on Khao San Road, Bangkok. I've Checked.
[Read the article: I went to L.A. to work in film and just got yelled at]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]After living in Thailand for four years and having traveled most of Southeast Asia, I feel qualified to report that it's not the place to find spiritual revelation. Most people that live here would say that Mystical Asia is a myth. There is probably no place that could make any claims to holding some kind of regional enlightenment that can be brought home along with souvenirs. Travel is great, but it can only do so much.
What most short-term travelers find here is other travelers with similar false notions of finding something. Most of their nightly itinerary is drinking themselves into oblivion and telling tall tales. Others that are looking a bit harder might become a monk or a nun in a temple. I've never done that, but it's an austere life of getting up around 4am and chanting then walking barefoot asking for alms (mostly food to eat) until around 7am. Nuns quickly discover how much lower women are considered than men, and monks can often find some pretty seedy things going on in temples (like anybody, there are bad monks and they are nearly immune to punishment.)
People poorer than you'd imagine can be seen here, and serious government efforts to do much about poverty cannot be seen here. Moving in with family would seem very normal to most people here, a woman moving out while unmarried is not considered normal (unless she is going to the city to make money for the family.) The most worthwhile lesson to be learned here is that Westerners (especially women) are lucky to have the options and resources that we do.
The problem with using travel to find a solution to a problem at home is that you leave home. When you return, everybody else has been living their lives and sometimes they've lived in a way that you can't catch up with. You may return to find a different problem than you set out to solve. People go away for long enough and end up creating the problem again in a new place anyway. Without considering the choices that were made which lead to the problem and changing the thinking behind it, the same problems always return.
Besides, there's rumors of another coup soon in Thailand, and you can get a tan in LA too.
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What is this about? The company?
[Read the article: I stood on principle and was harshly reprimanded]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Did your boss ask you to pick up his dry cleaning on company time? Walk his dog? What?
What kind of company is worthy of people falling on grenades to defend? Who does this action help? The company serves to give its employees a paycheck and make or do whatever else that it does to earn money. If the company is sinking, jump ship to find yourself another paycheck.
Having a moral compass is a good thing, but perhaps looking at the bigger picture is a better idea. These kinds of battles occupy valuable mind space and can cause sleepless nights. Don't exhaust yourself over something if it's not worth it.
If the company is dumping toxic waste on playgrounds or has a business plan that will end up starving children in Africa; there's a battle, and it won't involve HR. I know someone that blew the whistle on a very large company and she spent two years of a criminal case against them looking behind her and wearing a crash helmet while driving. Hers was a battle worth fighting and if you ever have the misfortune to have to go to such extremes, you'll need all the energy and mind space that you can get.
Don't fight for a principle, this does not seem to be a worthy cause.