I found this article on Bangkok Post, http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/crimes/262998/rebel-suspects-kill-7-in-attacks . This is basically about the ongoing bomb attack that is happening Narathiwat. Rebels that set bombs inside convenience stores caused this incident. Also, there is shooting as well, which injured many people. Most of the people injured are innocent. So I believe this is an immoral act of the people. Why would the rebels do so then? How did they become rebels? I think that Thailand is going through major natural disasters that are driving the people nuts. So their act may not be something that can be judged directly as being immoral. Rather than asking what they are doing, the incident may be explained through defense mechanism. I think that they are going through an unresolved conflict causing multiple defense mechanism including projection (anger) and conformity. They must feel pressured thus doing wrong things and killing people to project their emotions. Also, the others join because of conformity. There is an example of Asch’s test. The Nazis had been cruel due to conformity. So some of the bombers may also go through conformity. Thus, we should think about the factors that may have affected the people’s decision making.
http://www.thairath.co.th/content/region/212443 From Thairath (newspaper in Thailand) on Oct. 28 2011 updated on 1am. This article is about polices in Patum Thani found a guy trying to steal things from a shop that is closed because of the flood. However, when the police caught the guy and bring to the station, he denied and said that he wasn't stealing. This is an immoral act because people are already suffering from the flood, but the guy still uses the sufferings of others to benefit his own self.
In this article, the guy uses the defense mechanism of denial. Some people may see him as stupid and stubborn because it is obvious that he is stealing, but we also need to look from his point of view. Why did he use denial? It's because when we panic, we'll not be able to analyze situations clearly, so we may just use the simplest way to get away from the problem, which is denying the fact. It is not wrong to use denial because its a shocking situation of being caught by a police. I believe that if he have more time to calm down and think he would not have denied and make better choices.
This article written on Friday October 28, 2011 focuses on the flooding situations in Thailand. The United States has already issued a warning about not to go to Thailand for their vacation because of the flood issues. But a lot of US tourists are still going to Thailand for vacation because places like Phuket and Chiang Mai are unaffected. Even though a lot of tourist places are unaffected, a lot of unaffected areas could flood anytime because natural disasters are unpredictable. So they are urging US nationals to leave Thailand or flood affected areas as soon as possible.
Avoidance: I think US government should not urge their people to stop going to Thailand for vacations. Since they are all going to places that are unaffected by the flood, it should be okay for them to travel there. So US shouldn't stop them from going to Thailand because US travelers have the rights to make their own decisions since they have their own points of view. They should avoid opinions from the government and only listen to the people who agree with them.
I found this article in http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2011/09/25/national/Angry-Chai-Nat-flood-victims-destroy-sandbag-barri-30166084.html is about peopel in Chai Nat destroy sandbag. They say that they lived with the floodwater for a month now, and they can't stay with it any longer, and they have to suffer with athlete's foot. So they destroy the sandbag walls. This will cause the water flows down and reach Suphan Buri, this will cause more damages to other area.
I think the defense mechanism is Anger, because they are angry that why the government need to build sandbag wall in their area. And they want the level of water goes down, so they destroy the wall down. The part that they say the they suffer with athlete's foot and can't stay with it any longer, the defense mechanism is this place is I'm Sturggling. Because they trying to tell that they are suffer with it. I think it is not wrong to do, because they are trying to save their home. But they forgot to think that if the flood reach Bangkok, who will help them?
http://www.cnngo.com/bangkok/life/thai-floods-waiting-game-getting-old-bangkok-residents-016444 From CNNGo, a branch of CNN, that in Bangkok there are still tourists partying while most of the other provinces have been flooded. These tourists have fun for themselves and not caring about the fact of danger and the help needed. In my opinion, the tourists having fun in Thailand is in ignorance. This defense mechanism is to ignore the fact of situation happening although they have a choice to hop in and help it out. I believe they are ignoring simply because they are tourists, and the only goal they were here was to have fun. However, they got caught up in a natural disaster. They chose to ignore the fact of the disaster and continue moving forward on their own goal. In the current situation, they might not be facing in a very dangerous situation, thus they continued to party. But if they got into a hazardous situation, they would either start to help out or choose to flee and get back to their homeland.
The article “Phuket People Have All They Need Compared to Disease Ravaged Flood Victims” (http://phuketwan.com/tourism/phuket-people-compared-disease-ravaged-flood-victims-14921/) on 28 October 2011 contrasts the people in flood-hit areas of Thailand with the people in Phuket. Because of the ongoing floods in Bangkok right now, supplies in Phuket are dwindling, as seen by rows of empty shelves in supermarkets. However, there were also people who seemingly do not realize how serious the current situation is, and are complaining about trivial things, such as lack of beer and long power cuts (leading to spoiling of wine). Some profiteers, in particular, were charging 800 for a bottle of wine which normally costs 500 baht.
The people who were complaining needlessly were most likely using the defense mechanism of distractions. Due to the anxiety the people have towards the flood, they decided to do something else to distract them from that anxiety, and make themselves feel like they are actually doing something to “help”. If I was stuck in that situation, I would also need something to distract me and keep myself calm. After all, giving feedback certainly does not harm anyone. Likewise, the profiteers who were selling off goods were only ensuring their survival by getting rid of unnecessary goods and also getting money from it, which can be used to trade for other, more important things.
People in the north where the flooding area is, seizure the water gates with full armed weapons, because they wanted the water on their side to leave quickly, but they only think of them selves, they didnt think of the most important area of Thailand, Bangkok. If they leave the watergates broke, 800 million people living in Bangkok will be affected, Thailand will fell deep into a serious economy crisis due to Bangkok is consider a international capital. Bangkok is the richest city in Thailand, by their strength it is possible for them to help the rest of the people in the flooding areas, either sending them foods, drinks, needs, etc. In this situation, we can easily notice that ANGER is being used, they force Bangkok to accept to open the watergates because they have more weapons. AND YET, THE THAI GOVERNMENT DECIDES TO LET THE PEOPLE FIGHT AGAINST EACH OTHER, RATHER THAN SENDING POLICE TO STOP THEM. (AVOIDANCE & IGNORANCE) It is not because we are selfish, it is because the flood in our area is flooding 3 meters for about 3 weeks, dead pigs, chickens, cats, dogs are floating everywhere on the streets, causing deceases to spread. The water must pass through Bangkok in order to go to the sea. And yet, the government are not doing anything, they are just reporting stuffs people already can see. So, Bangkok do not blame us! Blame the governments!!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/21/thailand-floods-bangkok. This article is about the politics of thailand behind the flooding situation. It discusses about Yingruk's ability to be the prime minister at certain times like this. It also discusses about the opinions that people have with saving Bangkok and sacrificing the rest of Thailand. Basically, critics believe that there is inequality with the rural and urban relationship. This leads to a moral dilemma, because sacrificing people and then enjoying the wealthiness of not having the flood are defined as immoral to some people. Even though the GDP of the country may rise, there is no justice and equality. If bangkok were to share some of the water, the situation would be much better for the whole country. The defense mechanism formed here is ignorance because the government knows that the way they are doing it is unjust. But they chose to use ignorance in order to save the city itself, and to save its own economics.
http://www.thaipost.net/x-cite/281011/47223, a Thai newspaper from Thai Post, on 28th October 2011. This article is about a taxi driver charged a higher price for meter during the flood victims. Recently they received complains that the taxi drivers charged passengers more than a meter price. In the evening of October 26, staff of received a flood news, went to the Don Muang Airport. After arrived at the airport, the taxi driver asked for 2 times of the meter price. His reason for that was the point of flooding, and it was a flooding area. This is immoral act because, the taxi drivers considered unfair and aggravate the people who have suffered even more by higher the price of meters. The taxi drivers from this article used the distractions in defense mechanism, because he used flooding situation to be an excuse for higher the price of meter. Even though we might consider him unfair and aggravate the people who have suffered from floods, he actually has his reason too. The taxi driver used this opportunity to gain more profits, and he actually risking his car through the flood to send the passengers. In my opinion, this is not wrong because these taxi drivers might suffer from the flood too. As taxi drivers career, they might not have enough money to buy their food supplies or things that they needed during the floods situation. Therefore they used this chance to find more money for themselves or family.
This article is about people not allowing Royal Irrigation Department and Bangkok Metropolitan Administration(BMA) to open the water gate and let out water.The government wish that the people who disagree will understand the situation where this is the way to help Thailand and let out water. Government stat that if the people still disagree about the gate openning plan, then the whole plan will be delayed and water will not be able to be clear on time.
In this article, they people uses that defense mechanism of denial. Denial is a defense mechanism that people use to refuse the truth and deny the truth. I think that in the point of view of these people, they think that they need to save themselves first before they can save others. People may sometimes be selfish, because they will want themself to be save before they help others. Not many people can sacrifice themselves to help others and help Thailand if they can't be safe.
Monday, 24 October 2011, 8:23 pm http://illinoisredshirts.blogspot.com/2011/10/floods-dissolve-thailands-superficial.html
This article is about how the Thailand prime minister is trying to deal with the flood. She said that there is no way to block the water forever. In order to let the water flow to the sea, some places need to be sacrifice which would also cause a lot of damage to the people and their properties(factories). As a result, many people started to complain, both because their houses or factories will get damage and lose a lot of investments they had put in.
In my opinion, the defense mechanism used here by the victims of the flood is "I'm Struggling." That is because they are trying to make the government feel sorry for them. Instead of focusing on the problem of the flood, they try to make the government focus on themselves who would get hurt or lose a lot of their properties, money and efforts they had put in. Of course, I can understand no one would want to sacrifice themselves for the others; however, in this case, there is really nothing else that can be done without causing any damage to anyone.
This flooding situation happens at Pathum Thani Thailand. It's heavily flooded, because the armies pump the water from Bangkok into the canals, which make the surrounding provinces' water level to rise higher than usual. People that live in the provinces around Bangkok was angry on their government by letting Bangkok stay dry, and making their's wet. Hundred thousands of workers are forced to leave their home and lost their jobs because the rising of water level. By looking this as a people live in Bangkok I think it's necessary to save Bangkok, when Thailand had already lost many industries and agriculture products. In the people that had their house flooded may think that the government was being immoral and bad toward them, because they are not important as the capital. Government should already faced a great moral dilemma of keeping Bangkok or give up other provinces. As we can see Bangkok is the last stand of the fight against flood thingy. It's like cliche when the government said that they already lost many industries, they are not loosing the tourist too. Personally I don't stand places for this situation, all I am surprised about is that there is no red or yellow in this situation, all of the Thai people gather up and fight the flood just like a big family.
This article is about 3 thieves in Nakon Nayok who robbed flood victims. They stealed about 35,000 cash after being pretentious by assisting them to move stuck pickup truck.
From my experience, most thieves are uneducated. Despite the fact that stealing goods is the risk of getting caught, they used the Defense Mechanism called ignorance to defend their opinions from being challenged. At first, they pretended to help flood victims so that the latters would feel comfortable staying with the formers. If they hadn't pretended to help flood victims, it would be hard for them to snatch their moneys. According to this incident, they initially might involve in moral dilemma by deciding whether to steal or not. However, they use the mechanism called ignorance to don’t care about it. Though knowing that stealing cash involves the risk of getting caught, but they just ignore the fact. Therefore, they neglected the risk and stealing the cash for the sake of their benefits.
http://www.mcot.net/cfcustom/cache_page/125098.html This article is about a group of robber stealing grape farmers' boat. Later they sell it at price around 4,000 to 8,000 baht to people who's suffering for flood at Nakhorn Patom. When they were being ask why do such a thing, they answered they were farmer who sell chicken dung to people who's doing fish farming. But during the flooding period, business has fall so they decide to steal boat for living instead.
In the article, the group of robber uses the defense mechanism of I'm struggling; trying to distract the attention of police on the stealing issue to the reason behind why do they do it. We all know that stealing is a immoral behavior but try thinking from their situation and point of view. They were also suffering from the loss of business and have a hard time to survive too. So they have to do this to keep their family alive. If stealing is your only option, wouldn't you do the same too? And this is the point that they wish the police would understand and put mercy on them. However i believe there's always a better (or moral) way to make things right rather than trying the immoral way.
http://www.thailandnews.co/2011/10/thais-face-drowning-disease-in-disastrous-floods/ This article is talking about the problem of crocodiles and snake bites during the flood, but they said drowning and disease is the top risks. The problem here is, not only drowning and disease is top risks in the situation, the animal problem of crocodile and snake bites also caused a lot of problem, but the government didn’t provide anything to help with the disaster of animal harms. I think the defense mechanism used in this article is that: distraction. The government supposes to lead the people to avoid the animal harms during the flood. But they just tell the people to be avoiding of the drowning and disease. They didn’t provide reasonable details for people to focus on drowning and disease issues. Animal harms also cause a lot of problem, but they didn’t tell the people how to defense themselves or stuff. Even though there are people who are helping the situation, but still, if the place is flooded, can they help every single place? They should be more concern about the situation now, instead of focusing on just prevent drowning.
http://www.cnngo.com/bangkok/life/thai-floods-waiting-game-getting-old-bangkok-residents-016444 From CNNGo, a branch of CNN, that in Bangkok there are still tourists partying while most of the other provinces have been flooded. These tourists have fun for themselves and not caring about the fact of danger and the help needed. In my opinion, the tourists having fun in Thailand is in ignorance. This defense mechanism is to ignore the fact of situation happening although they have a choice to hop in and help it out. I believe they are ignoring simply because they are tourists, and the only goal they were here was to have fun. However, they got caught up in a natural disaster. They chose to ignore the fact of the disaster and continue moving forward on their own goal. In the current situation, they might not be facing in a very dangerous situation, thus they continued to party. But if they got into a hazardous situation, they would either start to help out or choose to flee and get back to their homeland.
It's passed 1:30PM...actually, it's already 1:50PM as I type this. That means I have given people an extra 20 minutes already. From this point onwards, everyone who entered their posts before this message gets an automatic perfect score. Those who posts after this message should make sure to impress me with their reflection in order to get at the most 75% of the total score. CIAO!!!
This article from The New York Times talks about the ongoing flood issue and its current Thai prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra. The article first talk the history of the current prime minister and how she became what she is now and then jump on how the flood issue is testing her. With her begin the prime minister, she have gained a lot of votes and trusts from both side, the side that support her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, and the side that oppose him. But, after this tragic incident, she have lost people's trust and is struggling to regain it back.
To me, what people are doing is trying to avoid the "real" issue. They thought that she is going to turn like her brother, therefore they rapidly jump into a conclusion without taking a careful observation and analyzing the situation personally. Since Thai people are famous for imitating and copying other trends, they are very fragile and vulnerable to rumors. People from all around the country believed that she was a lousy prime minister for walking on a plank while her people are in water and upon seeing the picture, they jumped onto a conclusion that the Thai prime minister is acting like the Thai national super star who is ruining the country like her brother did, or so they believe. However, if one should analyze the situation carefully, a picture can be very biased. Since, the former prime minister has his picture taken while standing on a plank too, the question arose to my mind- "how about him?". One should analyze q situation carefully, rather than jumping on a conclusion based on rumor that are popular, so that we won't take the path of ignorance and avoidance.
http://www.udnbkk.com/article/2011/1027/article_89162.html This article is posted on October 27 2011’s 5:47pm. This article is about a factory worker who lost his job because of the flooding issue, and so he has no income, so he steal stuffs from people’s house and sell it out, and he spent the money he earned from selling things on buying illegal drugs. I think the defense mechanism used is I’m struggling and distraction. It is “I’m struggling” because in the article it wrote that the man said that he is just a factory worker who have no job recently, and he have no income to depend on so he steal stuffs and sell it to people to earn some money. The guy in the article is trying to make people pity him and let others focus on the point that “I have no job and so I have no income the depend on”. It is a distraction also because the guy uses drugs to keep him distract from what is going on in real life(losing a job).
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2011/1028/Bangkok-awaits-flood-as-northern-suburbs-suffer This article is written on Friday October 28. This is about the flooding issue in Pathum Thani. Pathum Thani is already covering with water, and the government also warns the citizens to evacuate. The water is already a person tall and also very stink, however the people seem to be unwilling to move. The people that do not move will cause the government to perform their task slower. Andy those people will be in a very dangerous situation where the soldiers might have to be checking on them. One of the reason the article talks about is that, they are afraid that other people might steal their stuffs. I think the defense mechanism is distraction, because the reason they gave is something else beyond their concern. They should know that their life is more important than the properties they own.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15319921 This article is mainly about a prime minister in thailand name Yingluck Shinawatra. She's giving orders towards military and civilian volunteers to hold back any flood water that's coming from the North and central provinces, since Thailand can't afford to lose what's in the capital, Bangkok, including the new airport, industrial zones, etc. Apparently, if Bangkok gets flooded as well, then it's going to be a huge disaster in economic. Thailand has already experience a similar flood situation before, and Yingluck Shinawatra wants to make sure that the same tragedy doesn't repeats itself again. However, from my point of view, looking at this situation in an ethical way, we should also take the people who's house has already been flooded very badly, people who are not living in the capital, struggling from the ruthless flood in consideration. It's probably normal that Yingluck Shinawatra as a prime minister wants to protect the heart of the economy in her first instinct, but comparing to citizen's safety, which some has already been injured, or even worst, life taken away by the flood. People are way more important than economics. Overall, I think Yingluck Shinawatra should come up with a better method to deal with the flood. Even if when there's no other way, I think sacrificing economics to save people's life is totally worth it.
This article is talking about Thailand’s latest flooding issue. They also state that Thailand are doing a lot of prevention on the other province that has not being flooded. There is one person who is a banker and he said “You have to prepare,”, not only his words but he also bought a rubber boat in order to consider his safety. The government is also putting sandbags in a famous hospital called Siriraj Hospital. This hospital helped King Bhumibol Adulyadej in 2009. Lastly they also mention that there are aiding group who help many people who don’t have running water and toilet paper.
In my opinion, this article uses the defensive mechanism of avoidance. They are avoiding some of the more important problems and help those who is save and life not really in danger. And consider what one of the monk said, “It’s likely going to get higher, but I don’t think it’s going to get high enough to cause chaos,” just by this passage, I can see that he is really avoiding the problems. Tons of people are suffering and still he said it won’t be a chaos. Instead of saying this, he may like help people with their conflict.
I found this article on Bangkok Post, http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/crimes/262998/rebel-suspects-kill-7-in-attacks . This is basically about the ongoing bomb attack that is happening Narathiwat. Rebels that set bombs inside convenience stores caused this incident. Also, there is shooting as well, which injured many people. Most of the people injured are innocent. So I believe this is an immoral act of the people.
ReplyDeleteWhy would the rebels do so then? How did they become rebels? I think that Thailand is going through major natural disasters that are driving the people nuts. So their act may not be something that can be judged directly as being immoral. Rather than asking what they are doing, the incident may be explained through defense mechanism. I think that they are going through an unresolved conflict causing multiple defense mechanism including projection (anger) and conformity. They must feel pressured thus doing wrong things and killing people to project their emotions. Also, the others join because of conformity. There is an example of Asch’s test. The Nazis had been cruel due to conformity. So some of the bombers may also go through conformity. Thus, we should think about the factors that may have affected the people’s decision making.
http://www.thairath.co.th/content/region/212443
ReplyDeleteFrom Thairath (newspaper in Thailand) on Oct. 28 2011 updated on 1am. This article is about polices in Patum Thani found a guy trying to steal things from a shop that is closed because of the flood. However, when the police caught the guy and bring to the station, he denied and said that he wasn't stealing. This is an immoral act because people are already suffering from the flood, but the guy still uses the sufferings of others to benefit his own self.
In this article, the guy uses the defense mechanism of denial. Some people may see him as stupid and stubborn because it is obvious that he is stealing, but we also need to look from his point of view. Why did he use denial? It's because when we panic, we'll not be able to analyze situations clearly, so we may just use the simplest way to get away from the problem, which is denying the fact. It is not wrong to use denial because its a shocking situation of being caught by a police. I believe that if he have more time to calm down and think he would not have denied and make better choices.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=10762313
ReplyDeleteThis article written on Friday October 28, 2011 focuses on the flooding situations in Thailand. The United States has already issued a warning about not to go to Thailand for their vacation because of the flood issues. But a lot of US tourists are still going to Thailand for vacation because places like Phuket and Chiang Mai are unaffected. Even though a lot of tourist places are unaffected, a lot of unaffected areas could flood anytime because natural disasters are unpredictable. So they are urging US nationals to leave Thailand or flood affected areas as soon as possible.
Avoidance:
I think US government should not urge their people to stop going to Thailand for vacations. Since they are all going to places that are unaffected by the flood, it should be okay for them to travel there. So US shouldn't stop them from going to Thailand because US travelers have the rights to make their own decisions since they have their own points of view. They should avoid opinions from the government and only listen to the people who agree with them.
I found this article in http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2011/09/25/national/Angry-Chai-Nat-flood-victims-destroy-sandbag-barri-30166084.html is about peopel in Chai Nat destroy sandbag. They say that they lived with the floodwater for a month now, and they can't stay with it any longer, and they have to suffer with athlete's foot. So they destroy the sandbag walls. This will cause the water flows down and reach Suphan Buri, this will cause more damages to other area.
ReplyDeleteI think the defense mechanism is Anger, because they are angry that why the government need to build sandbag wall in their area. And they want the level of water goes down, so they destroy the wall down. The part that they say the they suffer with athlete's foot and can't stay with it any longer, the defense mechanism is this place is I'm Sturggling. Because they trying to tell that they are suffer with it. I think it is not wrong to do, because they are trying to save their home. But they forgot to think that if the flood reach Bangkok, who will help them?
http://www.cnngo.com/bangkok/life/thai-floods-waiting-game-getting-old-bangkok-residents-016444
ReplyDeleteFrom CNNGo, a branch of CNN, that in Bangkok there are still tourists partying while most of the other provinces have been flooded. These tourists have fun for themselves and not caring about the fact of danger and the help needed.
In my opinion, the tourists having fun in Thailand is in ignorance. This defense mechanism is to ignore the fact of situation happening although they have a choice to hop in and help it out. I believe they are ignoring simply because they are tourists, and the only goal they were here was to have fun. However, they got caught up in a natural disaster. They chose to ignore the fact of the disaster and continue moving forward on their own goal. In the current situation, they might not be facing in a very dangerous situation, thus they continued to party. But if they got into a hazardous situation, they would either start to help out or choose to flee and get back to their homeland.
The article “Phuket People Have All They Need Compared to Disease Ravaged Flood Victims” (http://phuketwan.com/tourism/phuket-people-compared-disease-ravaged-flood-victims-14921/) on 28 October 2011 contrasts the people in flood-hit areas of Thailand with the people in Phuket. Because of the ongoing floods in Bangkok right now, supplies in Phuket are dwindling, as seen by rows of empty shelves in supermarkets. However, there were also people who seemingly do not realize how serious the current situation is, and are complaining about trivial things, such as lack of beer and long power cuts (leading to spoiling of wine). Some profiteers, in particular, were charging 800 for a bottle of wine which normally costs 500 baht.
ReplyDeleteThe people who were complaining needlessly were most likely using the defense mechanism of distractions. Due to the anxiety the people have towards the flood, they decided to do something else to distract them from that anxiety, and make themselves feel like they are actually doing something to “help”. If I was stuck in that situation, I would also need something to distract me and keep myself calm. After all, giving feedback certainly does not harm anyone. Likewise, the profiteers who were selling off goods were only ensuring their survival by getting rid of unnecessary goods and also getting money from it, which can be used to trade for other, more important things.
http://www.todayonline.com/World/EDC111025-0000205/Concerns-rise-floods-will-spread-to-inner-city
ReplyDeletePeople in the north where the
flooding area is, seizure the water gates with full armed weapons, because they wanted the water on their side to leave quickly, but they only think of them selves, they didnt think of the most important area of Thailand, Bangkok. If they leave the watergates broke, 800 million people living in Bangkok will be affected, Thailand will fell deep into a serious economy crisis due to Bangkok is consider a international capital. Bangkok is the richest city in Thailand, by their strength it is possible for them to help the rest of the people in the flooding areas, either sending them foods, drinks, needs, etc. In this situation, we can easily notice that ANGER is being used, they force Bangkok to accept to open the watergates because they have more weapons. AND YET, THE THAI GOVERNMENT DECIDES TO LET THE PEOPLE FIGHT AGAINST EACH OTHER, RATHER THAN SENDING POLICE TO STOP THEM. (AVOIDANCE & IGNORANCE)
It is not because we are selfish, it is because the flood in our area is flooding 3 meters for about 3 weeks, dead pigs, chickens, cats, dogs are floating everywhere on the streets, causing deceases to spread. The water must pass through Bangkok in order to go to the sea. And yet, the government are not doing anything, they are just reporting stuffs people already can see. So, Bangkok do not blame us! Blame the governments!!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/21/thailand-floods-bangkok. This article is about the politics of thailand behind the flooding situation. It discusses about Yingruk's ability to be the prime minister at certain times like this. It also discusses about the opinions that people have with saving Bangkok and sacrificing the rest of Thailand. Basically, critics believe that there is inequality with the rural and urban relationship.
ReplyDeleteThis leads to a moral dilemma, because sacrificing people and then enjoying the wealthiness of not having the flood are defined as immoral to some people. Even though the GDP of the country may rise, there is no justice and equality. If bangkok were to share some of the water, the situation would be much better for the whole country. The defense mechanism formed here is ignorance because the government knows that the way they are doing it is unjust. But they chose to use ignorance in order to save the city itself, and to save its own economics.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thaipost.net/x-cite/281011/47223, a Thai newspaper from Thai Post, on 28th October 2011. This article is about a taxi driver charged a higher price for meter during the flood victims. Recently they received complains that the taxi drivers charged passengers more than a meter price. In the evening of October 26, staff of received a flood news, went to the Don Muang Airport. After arrived at the airport, the taxi driver asked for 2 times of the meter price. His reason for that was the point of flooding, and it was a flooding area. This is immoral act because, the taxi drivers considered unfair and aggravate the people who have suffered even more by higher the price of meters.
ReplyDeleteThe taxi drivers from this article used the distractions in defense mechanism, because he used flooding situation to be an excuse for higher the price of meter. Even though we might consider him unfair and aggravate the people who have suffered from floods, he actually has his reason too. The taxi driver used this opportunity to gain more profits, and he actually risking his car through the flood to send the passengers. In my opinion, this is not wrong because these taxi drivers might suffer from the flood too. As taxi drivers career, they might not have enough money to buy their food supplies or things that they needed during the floods situation. Therefore they used this chance to find more money for themselves or family.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Residents-along-waterways-blocking-operations-30168725.html
ReplyDeleteThis article is about people not allowing Royal Irrigation Department and Bangkok Metropolitan Administration(BMA) to open the water gate and let out water.The government wish that the people who disagree will understand the situation where this is the way to help Thailand and let out water. Government stat that if the people still disagree about the gate openning plan, then the whole plan will be delayed and water will not be able to be clear on time.
In this article, they people uses that defense mechanism of denial. Denial is a defense mechanism that people use to refuse the truth and deny the truth. I think that in the point of view of these people, they think that they need to save themselves first before they can save others. People may sometimes be selfish, because they will want themself to be save before they help others. Not many people can sacrifice themselves to help others and help Thailand if they can't be safe.
Monday, 24 October 2011, 8:23 pm
ReplyDeletehttp://illinoisredshirts.blogspot.com/2011/10/floods-dissolve-thailands-superficial.html
This article is about how the Thailand prime minister is trying to deal with the flood. She said that there is no way to block the water forever. In order to let the water flow to the sea, some places need to be sacrifice which would also cause a lot of damage to the people and their properties(factories). As a result, many people started to complain, both because their houses or factories will get damage and lose a lot of investments they had put in.
In my opinion, the defense mechanism used here by the victims of the flood is "I'm Struggling." That is because they are trying to make the government feel sorry for them. Instead of focusing on the problem of the flood, they try to make the government focus on themselves who would get hurt or lose a lot of their properties, money and efforts they had put in. Of course, I can understand no one would want to sacrifice themselves for the others; however, in this case, there is really nothing else that can be done without causing any damage to anyone.
Matthew
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/asia-pacific/2011/10/20111017182513854168.html
ReplyDeleteThis flooding situation happens at Pathum Thani Thailand. It's heavily flooded, because the armies pump the water from Bangkok into the canals, which make the surrounding provinces' water level to rise higher than usual. People that live in the provinces around Bangkok was angry on their government by letting Bangkok stay dry, and making their's wet. Hundred thousands of workers are forced to leave their home and lost their jobs because the rising of water level.
By looking this as a people live in Bangkok I think it's necessary to save Bangkok, when Thailand had already lost many industries and agriculture products. In the people that had their house flooded may think that the government was being immoral and bad toward them, because they are not important as the capital. Government should already faced a great moral dilemma of keeping Bangkok or give up other provinces. As we can see Bangkok is the last stand of the fight against flood thingy. It's like cliche when the government said that they already lost many industries, they are not loosing the tourist too. Personally I don't stand places for this situation, all I am surprised about is that there is no red or yellow in this situation, all of the Thai people gather up and fight the flood just like a big family.
http://www.thailandnews.co/2011/10/thai-police-arrest-flood-thieves/
ReplyDeleteThis article is about 3 thieves in Nakon Nayok who robbed flood victims. They stealed about 35,000 cash after being pretentious by assisting them to move stuck pickup truck.
From my experience, most thieves are uneducated. Despite the fact that stealing goods is the risk of getting caught, they used the Defense Mechanism called ignorance to defend their opinions from being challenged. At first, they pretended to help flood victims so that the latters would feel comfortable staying with the formers. If they hadn't pretended to help flood victims, it would be hard for them to snatch their moneys. According to this incident, they initially might involve in moral dilemma by deciding whether to steal or not. However, they use the mechanism called ignorance to don’t care about it. Though knowing that stealing cash involves the risk of getting caught, but they just ignore the fact. Therefore, they neglected the risk and stealing the cash for the sake of their benefits.
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ReplyDeletehttp://www.mcot.net/cfcustom/cache_page/125098.html
ReplyDeleteThis article is about a group of robber stealing grape farmers' boat. Later they sell it at price around 4,000 to 8,000 baht to people who's suffering for flood at Nakhorn Patom. When they were being ask why do such a thing, they answered they were farmer who sell chicken dung to people who's doing fish farming. But during the flooding period, business has fall so they decide to steal boat for living instead.
In the article, the group of robber uses the defense mechanism of I'm struggling; trying to distract the attention of police on the stealing issue to the reason behind why do they do it. We all know that stealing is a immoral behavior but try thinking from their situation and point of view. They were also suffering from the loss of business and have a hard time to survive too. So they have to do this to keep their family alive. If stealing is your only option, wouldn't you do the same too? And this is the point that they wish the police would understand and put mercy on them. However i believe there's always a better (or moral) way to make things right rather than trying the immoral way.
http://www.thailandnews.co/2011/10/thais-face-drowning-disease-in-disastrous-floods/
ReplyDeleteThis article is talking about the problem of crocodiles and snake bites during the flood, but they said drowning and disease is the top risks. The problem here is, not only drowning and disease is top risks in the situation, the animal problem of crocodile and snake bites also caused a lot of problem, but the government didn’t provide anything to help with the disaster of animal harms.
I think the defense mechanism used in this article is that: distraction. The government supposes to lead the people to avoid the animal harms during the flood. But they just tell the people to be avoiding of the drowning and disease. They didn’t provide reasonable details for people to focus on drowning and disease issues. Animal harms also cause a lot of problem, but they didn’t tell the people how to defense themselves or stuff. Even though there are people who are helping the situation, but still, if the place is flooded, can they help every single place? They should be more concern about the situation now, instead of focusing on just prevent drowning.
-cheche
http://www.cnngo.com/bangkok/life/thai-floods-waiting-game-getting-old-bangkok-residents-016444
ReplyDeleteFrom CNNGo, a branch of CNN, that in Bangkok there are still tourists partying while most of the other provinces have been flooded. These tourists have fun for themselves and not caring about the fact of danger and the help needed.
In my opinion, the tourists having fun in Thailand is in ignorance. This defense mechanism is to ignore the fact of situation happening although they have a choice to hop in and help it out. I believe they are ignoring simply because they are tourists, and the only goal they were here was to have fun. However, they got caught up in a natural disaster. They chose to ignore the fact of the disaster and continue moving forward on their own goal. In the current situation, they might not be facing in a very dangerous situation, thus they continued to party. But if they got into a hazardous situation, they would either start to help out or choose to flee and get back to their homeland.
-Cliff
It's passed 1:30PM...actually, it's already 1:50PM as I type this. That means I have given people an extra 20 minutes already. From this point onwards, everyone who entered their posts before this message gets an automatic perfect score. Those who posts after this message should make sure to impress me with their reflection in order to get at the most 75% of the total score. CIAO!!!
ReplyDeletehttp://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/thailand/index.html
ReplyDeleteThis article from The New York Times talks about the ongoing flood issue and its current Thai prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra. The article first talk the history of the current prime minister and how she became what she is now and then jump on how the flood issue is testing her. With her begin the prime minister, she have gained a lot of votes and trusts from both side, the side that support her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, and the side that oppose him. But, after this tragic incident, she have lost people's trust and is struggling to regain it back.
To me, what people are doing is trying to avoid the "real" issue. They thought that she is going to turn like her brother, therefore they rapidly jump into a conclusion without taking a careful observation and analyzing the situation personally. Since Thai people are famous for imitating and copying other trends, they are very fragile and vulnerable to rumors. People from all around the country believed that she was a lousy prime minister for walking on a plank while her people are in water and upon seeing the picture, they jumped onto a conclusion that the Thai prime minister is acting like the Thai national super star who is ruining the country like her brother did, or so they believe. However, if one should analyze the situation carefully, a picture can be very biased. Since, the former prime minister has his picture taken while standing on a plank too, the question arose to my mind- "how about him?". One should analyze q situation carefully, rather than jumping on a conclusion based on rumor that are popular, so that we won't take the path of ignorance and avoidance.
http://www.udnbkk.com/article/2011/1027/article_89162.html
ReplyDeleteThis article is posted on October 27 2011’s 5:47pm. This article is about a factory worker who lost his job because of the flooding issue, and so he has no income, so he steal stuffs from people’s house and sell it out, and he spent the money he earned from selling things on buying illegal drugs.
I think the defense mechanism used is I’m struggling and distraction. It is “I’m struggling” because in the article it wrote that the man said that he is just a factory worker who have no job recently, and he have no income to depend on so he steal stuffs and sell it to people to earn some money. The guy in the article is trying to make people pity him and let others focus on the point that “I have no job and so I have no income the depend on”. It is a distraction also because the guy uses drugs to keep him distract from what is going on in real life(losing a job).
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2011/1028/Bangkok-awaits-flood-as-northern-suburbs-suffer
ReplyDeleteThis article is written on Friday October 28. This is about the flooding issue in Pathum Thani. Pathum Thani is already covering with water, and the government also warns the citizens to evacuate. The water is already a person tall and also very stink, however the people seem to be unwilling to move.
The people that do not move will cause the government to perform their task slower. Andy those people will be in a very dangerous situation where the soldiers might have to be checking on them. One of the reason the article talks about is that, they are afraid that other people might steal their stuffs. I think the defense mechanism is distraction, because the reason they gave is something else beyond their concern. They should know that their life is more important than the properties they own.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15319921
ReplyDeleteThis article is mainly about a prime minister in thailand name Yingluck Shinawatra. She's giving orders towards military and civilian volunteers to hold back any flood water that's coming from the North and central provinces, since Thailand can't afford to lose what's in the capital, Bangkok, including the new airport, industrial zones, etc. Apparently, if Bangkok gets flooded as well, then it's going to be a huge disaster in economic. Thailand has already experience a similar flood situation before, and Yingluck Shinawatra wants to make sure that the same tragedy doesn't repeats itself again.
However, from my point of view, looking at this situation in an ethical way, we should also take the people who's house has already been flooded very badly, people who are not living in the capital, struggling from the ruthless flood in consideration. It's probably normal that Yingluck Shinawatra as a prime minister wants to protect the heart of the economy in her first instinct, but comparing to citizen's safety, which some has already been injured, or even worst, life taken away by the flood. People are way more important than economics. Overall, I think Yingluck Shinawatra should come up with a better method to deal with the flood. Even if when there's no other way, I think sacrificing economics to save people's life is totally worth it.
http://www.timesunion.com/business/article/Riverfront-flooding-widens-but-Bangkok-mostly-dry-2234631.php
ReplyDeleteThis article is talking about Thailand’s latest flooding issue. They also state that Thailand are doing a lot of prevention on the other province that has not being flooded. There is one person who is a banker and he said “You have to prepare,”, not only his words but he also bought a rubber boat in order to consider his safety. The government is also putting sandbags in a famous hospital called Siriraj Hospital. This hospital helped King Bhumibol Adulyadej in 2009. Lastly they also mention that there are aiding group who help many people who don’t have running water and toilet paper.
In my opinion, this article uses the defensive mechanism of avoidance. They are avoiding some of the more important problems and help those who is save and life not really in danger. And consider what one of the monk said, “It’s likely going to get higher, but I don’t think it’s going to get high enough to cause chaos,” just by this passage, I can see that he is really avoiding the problems. Tons of people are suffering and still he said it won’t be a chaos. Instead of saying this, he may like help people with their conflict.