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Well it's almost Christmas. Christmas and New Years have become so big in Asia that the festivities are celebrated almost everywhere. Funny that while PC extremists have tried to exterminate our holiday traditions at home, Asians are really picking them up!

But I think the high mark of that censuring PC crap has been passed and it's all down hill from here. While the media finds the odd example of our traditions being taken down, that kind of nonsense has no support in the real population, ergo it can't continue ad naseum.

You know, I've noticed a fascinating cultural reaction by the Thais to the foreigner's disappearing here. I don't know if it's called "projection" or "role reversal" or what not, but previously no Thais ever dyed their hair blond, I mean never, including up to just a couple months ago.

But now, several times I looked at some blond hair and thought I'd see a foreigner, but was very surprised to see it was a Thai woman. I mean, I never saw this before in all my time here, now suddenly several women all around town have dyed their hair like foreigners.

Interestingly, I think it has to do with several things. One is they have always cheated and lied to us, it's well known there have always been two prices, one for Thais, a higher one for everyone else. Plus two years ago, when the now deposed prime minister swept to power with a huge majority, the, well, racism, or at least discrimination, was at a crescendo. They had a law that foreigners could not do any work that any Thai could do, so one British guy I knew needed to paint his little restaurant, but the Thais insisted he pay THREE times the going rate because he wasn't Thai!! If he didn't, then no one would accept the work, and he wasn't allowed to do it himself.

So he told me he closed up shop one day and painted the interior himself. Anyway, that kind of thing was common and occured in all aspects of living and working here. There were some things that were upsetting the Thai population like the huge impact of the English language spreading across Thailand (which the Thais complained about and felt threatened by), plus "Western Partying" and constant drinking was spreading all over (a big Buddhist organization protested hard (and succeeded) to prevent the national liquor monopoly from floating a publicly traded stock)).

So Thais had some grievances, but don't feel sorry for them, like that labor discrimination, and constantly cheating us, they're real clever at taking advantage of others.

Anyway, that sudden announcement that a 20 year visa policy was changing in just a couple weeks was such a middle finger in the face to all of us who helped make Thailand popular, and the Thai's really seemed to believe they were on the cusp of a new era where the new airport they just built would, basically, manufacture tourists, who would stay the shortest times and spend huge money, that they had this attitude of "Effe off and get out!"

And now that it has absolutely crashed, and the Thais have lost huge status in the world community of travelers from many countries, it looks like this sudden desire to "look like a foreigner" with this sudden dying of hair, which I repeat, I've never before seen Thais do that, it looks like an admission of guilt and a feeling of regret at being so wrong about things, perhaps even an attempt to hide what happend by placing "foreigner dummies" around town!

It's an interesting psychological development, at any rate, because you'd think if you just succeeded in kicking people out you would want to forget them, not start looking like them. Interesting.