City of Angels

Bangkok is called the "City of Angels". And Thailand the land of smiles.

It is when you are in a place like Bangkok you experience first hand the meaning of social stratification. We first went to the latest and the "largest shopping mall in Southeast Asia", featuring branded boutiques such as Jimmy Choo, and Song + Kelly was just at the corner within the shopping centre called Paragon. Shoppers dressed well, spoke good English, and food were nicely packaged.

Then we went to the Thieves market at Chinatown. It was like the Sungei Road in Singapore. Vendors spread out a piece of cloth on the road and sell used stuff. It started raining, and vendors just wrapped their stuff and sought shelter along the corridor in front of closed shops (we did the same thing, san the "stuff").

Two "markets", two different worlds.

It was then I could not understand how it is "functional" to have such stratification. I believe that it is a vicious cycle. I hate to use the term "poverty culture", but I think it is exactly because there are limited resources for those who live in poverty to break out of their social class that they have no choice but to stuck there forever. No matter how meritocracy your society is. On the other hand, I suppose there is a need for such stratification because otherwise, who would be the one doing all the labour work? Who would be the one sitting in the handicraft center, crafting a piece of furniture (by hand, painstakingly) which was eventually sold at 10 of thousands of dollars (USD). (No I didn't buy it).

I don't like that at all. But I am in this society, and I "enjoy" the benefits of such stratification. Shame on me.