The American Dream

"It's all bullshit and it's bad for you," I don’t think I have ever heard such simple words convey something so intelligent and poignant.

This girl had just given birth the day before I met her, her mother, and her day old daughter. She was astonishingly beautiful, and incredibly soft spoken. Growing up in a city where a minimum of three conversations tend to be held at the same time and everyone only really listens to their own voice, it was actually nice for once to be forced to listen closely to what someone had to say.

For those unfamiliar with hill tribes in Thailand I will give a quick rundown. There are currently a variety of hill tribes living in Thailand, mostly in the Northern cities. The majority of these hill tribes are Burmese refugees, the Native Americans of Asia if you will. Having lived in Burma long before the Burmese settled there they were forced to flee to Thailand due to clashes with the Burmese army as well as very poor working conditions. The girl pictured above is from a hill tribe called the "Karen." While most Karen do not practice the elongation of women’s necks there are still some factions that do. While most hill tribes have been given land and many freedoms in Thailand the long neck Karen continue to be an oppressed people, treated like animals in a zoo, on display for the viewing pleasure of Thai's and foreigners alike.

It's amazing how words, when arranged in different ways can evoke such a variety of emotions. I never imagined that someone’s story could ever make me feel such pain until I met her. Her mother and her left Burma when she was a baby. She told me that in Burma, men, often engaged in conflict with the Burmese army, were unavailable to work, leaving the job to the women and children who sometimes tended the fields for 24 hours a day. At some point the poverty had become too much to bear and they could not withstand the pain of digging a hole for another loved one, so they relocated to Thailand. The Thai government had recently started allowing hill tribe refugees into their country, and for them it seemed like the American dream. Leave the poverty and killings behind to come to a paradise where they could tend their own land and lead a more prosperous rewarding life. Instead they got displayed like a herd of buffalo in a zoo exhibit.

They moved into their first government run Thai camp a little over twenty-five years ago. These camps tend to be on incredibly small plots of land which the residents are not freely allowed to leave and return. If a man chooses to go out to work in the fields for a day he must pay 150 baht ($5) to get back into the camp, AND since working in the fields only pays 75 baht a day a man must work out in the fields for at least two days just to pay his way back in. While the men go out to work in the fields the women are left on display in the zoo. Entry to the zoo costs 250 baht per person (for a foreigner, it is free for Thais) all of which goes to the Thai government. In return they are given no health insurance, no food rations, only the privilege of being allowed to sell homemade items to visitors. Her mother told me that when they first moved there they made enough money to support themselves and while it was not the dream she envisioned, it was a lot better than life in Burma. However in recent years tourists, for various reasons, have stopped visiting these camps as frequently and families can't make enough money for three meals a day or medicine for the sick. This girl’s sister, at 25, died in her sleep of a stomach ailment that was never diagnosed because they could not afford a doctor. The practice of neck elongating was actually going out of practice until they realized it was one of the few ways they would be able to generate some income for food and medicine. To top it off their battle with the Burmese army has not ended, the bloodshed continues.

People from many countries have this dream of coming to America and "making it big" or leading a better life, yet when they arrive in this "Land of opportunity," those "opportunities" suddenly disappear. For far too long it seems that the only opportunities that are offered to these people are to drive our cars, cook our meals, or take care of family members whom are to old for us to care about anymore. It's unfortunate that so many people across the world can be so disillusioned. "It's all bullshit and it's bad for you," because at the center of every human being is greed and this greed manifests itself in the exploitation of people far to often whether it be paying them less than a viable wage to clean up our elderly parents shit, or to sit on display in a zoo and be gawked at for our differences. We as a people have to do one of two things, to not allow this monster to take control of us at the expense of others, or wise up and understand that that may never happen. Land of opportunity, HA, "It's all bullshit and it's bad for you."