Quick notes on Thailand Trip

[AlohaSteven]

"Her family gave her basically the leftover food, always showing preference for the other children. Not uncommon in primitive societies where the disabled and elderly are seen as a burden and therefore not treated the same."

I wonder if this phrase comes across the way exactly as it is intended. Thai society is certainly different than American society but it would seem going out on thin ice to term Thai society "primitive." To me, a primitive society does not make access to decent medical and dental care an affordable option to all citizens, so by that measure America is a primitive society relative to Canada, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, et cetera.

Rather than being primitive, I'd suggest that societies where the less able receive left-over food are societies living very close to the earth in the sense of not having buffers, safety nets, and supports to cover the difference if there is a food shortfall. This hardship relates more to problems stemming from historical and current inequities in resource distribution, political power, and access to goods and services than to being primitive. Thai societies had highly developed cultures when many European societies were still thwacking each other with clubs.

Puna strikes me as being a good example of this sort of odd discrepancy between material development and cultural development, being as it is lacking in medical coverage, roads, post office boxes and so on relative to other areas with more political clout yet also being sophisticated and highly developed in its culture, music, art, literacy, local know-how regarding agriculture, surfing, and so on. This is rooted in historical and current inequities in access to and the exercise of political power, IMHO.

Thanks for sharing your travel experience!