WELCOME TO THE BIG WORLD


      When I first came to the village the people had nothing, they planted rice, had chickens, caught fish and frogs. Western goods, cars, motorbikes, TVs were few and far between. Families lived in one room wooden stilt houses, that was life. Most had never left the area and knew no other way. Having seen no other life, they were happy, there was plenty to eat, no cares or worries. Each day was the same as the last, time was measured in the planting and harvesting of rice, but change was coming and it came fast.


      First came the paved road and electricity, then TV.  For the first time many could see another world outside of the village. Not the real world, but a Television depiction of the world. 
      Thai soap operas, showed a world of beautiful people in expensive cars, living in mansions. Commercials showed a never ending list of products that you needed to live the good life. To most of the village the one thing that said, I have made it, was the car. A little cheap car was no good, it had to be a big twin cab 4 by 4. People would sell their kidneys for one. Few would ever be able to afford one, until the coming of rubber.


      The Government had promoted rubber, giving free land and trees, many took up the offer and planted. Others laughed at them, for wasting their time, but rubber was planted and grow. When the time came to tap, the money flowed. Now to a westerner it may not seem big money, but to a people who seldom saw cash for much of the year, it was a fortune and unlike westerners this income was expendable. There are no mortgages, rent or taxes, no food bills or repayments to be make. It was money to be spent and the banks and car companies were happy to lend and sell.


       Over the last few years, I would say there are more big new cars in this and surrounding villages than one would see in the suburbs in Australia. First the cars came, then  the concrete brick houses began to appear. To make the homes look like the TV ones, washing machines, widescreen TVs and other good were bought, on credit, rubber would pay.


      As I sit here today the village has entered a sombre mood, people are, for the first time in their lives,  worrying about money.
      The rainy season has settled in and not much rubber can be tapped, but with the world commodities price fall, it has dropped to a point, where hired tappers are leaving for better paid jobs in BKK and those that tap their own can't make the repayments on all the cars and goods they have bought. New house building has stopped, throwing the builders out of work.
       A recession has hit the area, a thing that none had ever seen, things have always got better, never worse. Kids are used to drinking coke and eating ice cream, Men have taken up drinking beer at times, instead of cheap rice whiskey, driving cars and going to town to shop.
       Everyone blames the Government, little do they realize that when you enter the big world the rules change. What happens on the other side of the world dictates whether it's sticky rice and frogs or ice cream and coke.