Thailand Social Structure

Thailand Social Structure:


A growing problem in the Thailand Social Structure is child prostitution. Prostitution has always been a part of Thai Culture, but it has never been this bad before. The people of Thailand do not consider prostitution evil. They have a traditional view on women, remaining from the traditional role they have been assigned in Thai Buddhism. The cultural attitudes of Thai men, and the consequences of the military presence, has resulted in a culture of recreational sex. The social turmoil after WWII planted the seed for prostitution. This issue is a growing concern of Thailand. As Thailand's economy continues to take a turn for the worst, more and more families are in poverty. The Thai government has found that since tourism is a quick way to earn foreign dollars it cannot easily stop this lucrative, degrading business. A beautiful country, beautiful women, and inexpensive living enables prostitution to thrive more than ever. Child prostitution becomes more and more common. Many families sell their children into prostitution for money, while others are tricked into selling their kids into it. Other kids think they can help improve their family's lives if they go into prostitution. And because of this, there are more than 800,000 children bought and sold into prostitution.

Where do they go from here?
Really, the only place they can go from here is up. They need to reform their social structure, and put in a government that will put a stop to all of this. I think this problem stems from their lack of a good social structure. Whether it means limiting tourism, or educating families and young women on the effects of prostitution. They can educate and make families aware of how people might try to trick their young children into prostitution. The government needs to start setting laws, and protecting these children from an awful life.

India's Economic Situation

Economic Situation:

Although the population in India continues to be a problem, bringing poverty along with it, the economy is actually doing fairly well. Although inflation continues to rise, the economy has also maintained rapid development. India's economy depends on foreign trade as its main source of income, India's GDP grew 8.8% since the year 2008. Even though India's economy is doing well now, many sources say that the economy will take a turn for the worse if certain policies are not changed. The way they are running their economy is not sustainable for the future. I was presently suprised that their economy was doing as well as it is. I thought with their growing population, and poverty situation, that it would be pretty bad. There is a huge divide between the small amount of citizens that are upper class, and the largely dominant poor. Also, it seems like every country seems to be struggling with their economy right now, so I would expect India's to start to drop soon.

An Article that talks about the economic situation:
 India's economic situation

India's Population Problem

India's Population:
India's skyrocketing population is beginning to become more and more of a problem. In the 1960's , India had 14% of the world's population, with only 2% of the world's land space. Their population continues to grow. For example, in 1947 their population was 350 million. Today in 2011, it is now 1.21 billion people. It now accounts for 17.3% of the world's population, only smaller than China's population. However, India is expected to exceed China's population by the year 2030. India has the highest birth rate in the world, and adds more people each year than any other nation.


How is this a problem?
India's huge population is starting to become a problem because they are quite simply beginning to run out of room, jobs, and resources. It continues to destroy the environment as well. A century ago India was covered in 50% forest. Now that number has dropped to only 23%, becuase people keep clearing forests to make room for the ever growing population.  The majority of India's population lives in poverty, barely getting by each day. The living standard continues to drop, and although India is trying to control it with policies and education, nothing so far seems to be working. Other countries like the U.S. need to start stepping in, or this will start to be a problem for the whole world.

 

Thailand Culture

Thailand Culture:

One of the most unique parts of Thailand Culture is their traditional dances. Thailand's most popular dance is called Khon. Khon is a type of dance in which the actors are masked and cannot speak. The masks are made of paper mache, and represents the personality of the character. Each step and movement that they take has a definite meaning to it. Because the actors cannot speak, they rely on their movement and the narrative song sung by the chorus to explain the story. Until the 19th Century, women were not allowed on stage, so men would play both men and women roles. However by the early 1900s, women and men were both acting on stage together. This dance is part of the Thailand Culture and history, and something they are well known for.

Another one of the unique aspects of Thailand Culture is their food. They have very distinct and well-known food. Thai food is so unique because it blends four fundamental tastes: sweet, spicy, sour and salty. Thai's try to have harmony in taste and texture in a dish. Two people will generally order 2-3 dishes to share, so they can find that balance of fundamental tastes. They choose not to eat a lot at one time, rather to eat small amounts constantly throughout the day. Not only must a Thai food smell and taste good, but it must look appealing too. They also believe that Thai's must eat rice everyday to feel normal.  Another thing traditional Thai food includes is insects and reptiles. This is do to when poverty was a big problem in Thailand, they turned to eating insects, which is now considered a delacacy. These tasty snacks usually consist of lizards, frogs, grasshoppers, crickets, silkworms and dung beetles. All these things have made Thai food unlike any other cultural food in the world.