I offer a rare view into the minds of Eno (35, Japanese), Marc (50, Dutch) and John (60, American), who have come to Thailand in search of exotic, erotic adventure.
To ensure realistic and true reporting in the proud new tradition of embedded but still fearless war correspondents, I decided to accompany these men on a trip to the places they frequent and engage them in casual conversation on the topic of HIV/AIDS while enjoying an authentic atmosphere.
"So", I said to Eno as we were finally seated in a cheap and dirty little establishment of which he appeared to be particularly fond, "how many of these girls do you think are infected with HIV (the virus that causes AIDS)?"
"Not sure, maybe 60 percent", he estimated carelessly.
"60 percent?", I repeated while carefully avoiding shaking hands with a girl who just then had come over to introduce herself. "What do you think the likelihood of getting infected is - from sexual intercourse I mean?"
" Don't know, somewhere around 50-60 percent."
"You mean there's a 50-60 percent chance of getting an infected girl, and if you do she will infect you?"
"Yes"
"First time?"
"Yes I think so, mostly. That's why I follow the advice and use condom. Then I don't have to think about it"
John, who had followed parts of our conversation, felt compelled to jump in at this point:
"It's full of weird germs from all parts of the world here. The girls get them all from their customers. If you take one tonight, make sure you don't kiss her – anywhere you know? Doesn't matter how cute she is. That's the worst. It's also why I use a straw."
"A straw?!" I exclaimed.
"Yeah a straw and only straight Scotch, no ice. The alcohol kills the germs"
He handed me a straw which I immediately inserted in my Singha beer bottle.
Having thus taken all possible precautions against 'weird microbes' I asked where they get all this info and numbers from. But Eno had been distracted by a girl clad in what I can only describe as a baby's night gown who accused him of being a 'Cheap Charlie' because he didn't want to buy her a drink. She obviously wasn't impressed with his explanation that he left his ATM card in the hotel room: "You no like me." She accused. "I'm no beautiful for you, OK I understand". These words were followed by a smile directed at me which demonstrated beyond doubt that if we didn't all find her beautiful she definitely wouldn't understand.
Marc, who's been living in Thailand 13 years and has a Thai wife, came to our rescue.
"My (Thai) doctor told me last time I went to see him that right now it's very bad here in Phuket. A lot of the girls have HIV at the moment. He said to be very careful."
"Really?" I said. "Did you get tested yourself?"
"No I don't go to the bars now that I have a wife; although when I first came here I must have f… half of Phuket, never used a condom – and my wife the other half. But the doctor told me to not get tested right now because I sounded like I had a cold. He said it could come up (false) positive, because there's some kind of nasty influenza going round right now with the weather."
"So there's an influenza epidemic and an HIV epidemic at the same time?"
"That's what my doctor said, and I see a lot of people coming down with the flu right now. So I'd better wait. Won't make a difference to my life anyway."
"So the girls get tested but you don't?"
"Like John said, they're used to the bugs, much more than we are."
I felt the time had come to get a little more aggressive in my questioning, so I asked if any of them had actually known a Thai who had full blown AIDS"
Their eyes glazed over for a while. John sucked meditatively on his straw. "I don't know", he said. "Some of the lady boys look really thin and awful. And the girls, they don't want them here if they test positive. They make them test and if they're sick they send them home."
I'd heard that one before: "They send them home, if they test positive and still there's an epidemic? Who infects all the new girls all the time? I've heard they're pretty smart at using condoms."
"Yeah but the condoms break sometimes man. You know these Thai condoms."
I glanced over at Eno, but he just nodded imperturbably.
'But what about the guys with Thai wives and girlfriends that they get in the bars. I mean if 60 percent or whatever are positive, don't they get AIDS?"
"I knew a couple once, a very nice German guy", Marc said. "Both he and his girlfriend tested positive".
"What happened? Are they still here?"
"Both dead. Went pretty quick too. Six months after they tested positive, gone."
"They both died at the same time?"
"A couple of months between them. The guy looked awful in the end."
"But a half year, both of them. That's really quick"
"Yeah, it was a bit strange. They had plenty of money too. Went to the expensive clinics in Bangkok all the time to see the experts, and got all the new treatments. And it just got worse from day to day. "
"Anybody else?", I asked. All 3 shook their heads.
At the next table, the girl whose advances we'd rejected was informing her friends that we were all gay. But the girl who'd tried to shake my hand hushed her and nodded her head meaningfully in my direction. "That guy over there speaks Thai for sure."
I quickly caught the attention of the waitress and asked for the bill.
Time for the thieves to flee the temple.
Claus Jensen is a Dane living in Thailand
where he is able to eke out a meager but sustainable
existence as a
martial arts instructor primarily because he is much
taller than the average Thai,
and can overpower
most ordinarily accomplished
Thai boxing teachers provided they are half his size and twice his age. (Hank)
It's good to see that there's at least one person in Thailand who's not totally brainwashed by the propaganda. As you can see in this fine article, all of Thailand's HIV testing is fraudulent. I lived in Thailand for years, was friends with a lot of prostitutes (who I regard as the finest people on the planet) and have stories I shall one day write about that will make it clear to you that "Hiv/Aids" ranks as one of most despicable, if not THE most despicable, crimes against humanity that have ever been perpetrated. Prostitutes in Thailand are forced to get tested by their employers and sometimes tested against their will. If they have any of the 75 or so reasons for a false positive, most likely their doctors will not even consider that possibility. Girls are forced to be tested as often as monthly, and with that many tests, the odds of a falsie sooner or later are VERY high. And because the doctor most likely KNOWS that they are prostitutes, he won't even consider that it might be a false positive, because it's so OBVIOUS that she must have gotten it from sex, and anyway, she DESERVES it, cause she's a WHORE.
The perpetrators, in order of despicability: 1) The media, who faithfully repeat assertions and hypotheses of the powerful as if they were facts and censor all opposing information, even going so far as to fire a brave editor at one of Thailand's leading newspapers who published an abbreviated version of the article linked above; 2) The so-called "scientific journals," which willfully blind themselves to the fact that the Hiv papers that they publish don't make any sense, and whose responsibility is clearly to their drug industry advertisers and their golfing partners in the medico-scientific brotherhood, and not to humanity; 3) the corrupt scientists themselves, faithfully seeing only that which they want to see, which happens to be the view that benefits their drug industry paymasters the most; 4) the corrupt public health officials, virtually all of them beneficiaries of the "public service"/"private profit" revolving door; 5) the poor sick gay community, whose hypochondria and self destructiveness leads them to welcome sickness and death and to support Hiv/Aids like a religion; 6) the sicko religious fools, most of them probably impotent or celibate, who welcome "Hiv" as it is another way to get people to stop having sex, which happens to be the most virtuous act a person can do. Okay that's enough blame for today, though for sure there are more guilty parties...
Posted by: Elmo | October 09, 2006 at 11:40 AM