Two news items, unrelated, caught my interest this past week. The two allow me the excuse not to write any political analysis on the current situation - which has not developed above the usual bickering, politicking and last-minute dividing of the leftovers before the coming winds of change.
Lovely legs, thin and long, help airline attendants bring quicker service up and down the aisles.
The first news item concerned the new policy of Thai Airways International, the national flag carrier, restricting the weight of flight attendants; from now on, THAI's air hostesses and stewards must be within a certain BMI or Body Mass Index to be able to continue working with the airline. The directive, as reported in the press, stated that the airline has set a target to become among the top three airlines in Asia and among the top five worldwide.
To achieve this goal, the continuous development of flight attendants in terms of service and personality is an essential factor. This entails a healthy body (raang kaai somboon kaeng raeng), an appropriate physique (roop raang moh som), competency in work, and building a good corporate image for the company.
To be fair, many jobs require one not to become obese due to interference with one's efficiency and effectiveness. Recalling news of the overweight policemen here in Thailand and in many cities around the world entering fitness programmes, one may laugh; but the bottom line is that the public may feel more secure with a more agile policeman patrolling the block.
The same could be said for flight attendants in terms of safety and the service provided.
Being a little chubby myself, I do feel guilty when friends comment on the size of my tummy. But I get off the hook with the excuse of having to host a weekly food show. And every three months I have to face my kindly doctor who is kind only till he measures my blood pressure.
To be able to control your weight is certainly good for your health, lowering your hospital bills and making you more effective at work - or so they say.
But somehow the THAI directive started out on the wrong foot. It was perceived as being discriminatory, even sexist in a way, with the company seeming to judge staff from their "appropriate" physique rather than overall effectiveness at work. And according to an unnamed employee, this policy is threatening the jobs of many flight attendants, with the result that many have been driven to depression, to overdosing on diet pills and ending up on the psychiatrist's couch.
If such is indeed the hidden agenda, then the company should be in deep trouble since this kind of bigotry violates basic human rights and degrades human dignity. People should never be judged by their appearance. And although it is human nature to like to look at people who are pretty and good-looking, flight attendants need not resemble Miss Universe or teen movie stars to perform their duties. Service that is courteous, friendly, efficient and effective makes a more lasting impression.
I am not writing to judge THAI in any way whatsoever. I am more worried about the general attitude among Thai society, in building values based on judging people by their looks rather than on real merit. Check out the many commercials being broadcast on radio, television and the numerous billboards around the country. The emphasis is on being thin and beautiful: drink this, eat that - become skinny and you will have many friends and be instantly successful.
One may say that selling hopes and dreams is normal marketing practice. But if the advertisements create a false impression and exaggerate the properties of a product while instilling a wrong sense of superiority over others based on how they look, then we are creating wrong values for the public. The advertisers are also making a lot of money from the suffering of those who aspire to be "thin", at the cost of unnecessary expenditure, health hazards and a sense of inferiority and being discriminated against.
More blatant is the amplification of being "white."
Many skin products for Thai women are advertised as capable of making one's skin "white" to the point of "glowing". This is also a recent phenomenon, driven by companies which sell products cashing in on the belief that white skin signifies beauty. Pew khao pong pen yong yai means a glowing, white skin literally showing the filaments that make up the delicate skin.
Again, some may say it is an individual's right to do whatever they want to their bodies, and if they want to be "white" then they can buy as many bottles of "whitening" lotion or even go to the extreme of surgery and colour pigment implant.
So I feel that the commercials should not propagandise to the point of creating a discriminatory value
Which brings us to the second piece of news widely discussed in many blog posts. People who have been using the subway recently spotted an advertisement above a row of seats that reads: "Seats reserved for 'white' people.
Imagi