This summer, traveling through Croatia and Hungary, I thought about climate in a broader cultural sense than ever before. I thought about all the ways climate can affect people’s day-to-day lives, and even how customs and traditions get built up around an area’s climate patterns. I mostly thought about this is in terms of Mediterranean Europe and their habit of afternoon siestas. It is so hot most afternoons that it is not worth attempting to be productive. As a result, stores close and everything shuts down.
Now, in Southeast Asia, I am once again thinking about climate, but in a totally different light. I am living in Thailand, have visited Cambodia, and am reading about Burma while living with a Burmese family. It has become evident to me, that many similarities between these countries have arisen out of similarities in the climate. All three countries have a new years festival in April (that is the beginning of the lunar year), and the main attraction of this festival is a huge country-wide (or rather; multi-national) water fight. For all three countries, April is the peak of their hot season, and it is nearly unbearable to be outside. Everyone looks forward to this festival for months even though it has a different name in each of those three countries.
This is going to sound funny, but I’m pretty sure climate has also affected the bathing and sanitary habits of these countries. In Southeast Asia, it is customary to use a squat toilet -- not too unusual in all of Asia -- but in Southeast Asia, after using the toilet, you spray yourself down with water in order to clean yourself. Even the wealthiest families do not use toilet paper, because there is no reason to. In hot climates, you will dry quickly, and it may even feel good to be wet for a while. Places with running water and flush toilets, rarely have toilet paper, but they do have a small hose to spray yourself with, as oppose to a simple bucket.
The reason this all has really struck me right now is that the house we are staying in has running water. There are pipes going into the bathroom, and it would be easy enough for them to decide to have the water flow end with a shower head, a flush toilet, or both. Instead, they do it “Thai style,” with the two ends of the pipes leading to basins from which you can later draw water for a bucket shower or to wipe yourself. The family clearly has the means to have a western bathroom if they wanted it, but there is no reason to. The Thai way works for them. It is a clear example of how westernization is not the only way to progress and modernization. There is no reason for them to westernize, because the western way is not necessarily any better than their traditional way, especially with the weather they have.
Alice says it is the same in the Dominican Republic. People are used to bucket showers, and there is no reason to do otherwise. In the United States, we tend to think that our way is the best, and that anyone who is able to have a flush toilet and a hot shower will. We assume that is what people want, because it is what we want and what we are used to. In Thailand, only the houses of expatriates and restaurants trying to bring in expatriates and tourists have sitting toilets. They know that to please us they have to have sitting toilets and have toilet paper available, but that is the only reason. As Americans we think our way is best, and the only way that makes sense.
Alice and I also talked about progress, technology, and modernization in terms of how it relates to colonization and independence. One way in which Thailand is unique, is that it has never been colonized. The Thais have always been in control of Thailand. (They claim that, but in truth nearly all of Thailand has been under either Cambodian or Burmese control at some time. That said they were never colonized by a Western country). This is especially relevant because all other countries in the region were colonized by the English, French, or Dutch. Thailand was skipped by pure coincidence. The country happened to be in the right place, situated between a region of all French colonies, and a region of all British colonies. The French and British decided to avoid confrontation and leave Thailand as a neutral, buffer zone.
In high school, I learned all about colonization, and we discussed both the effects foreign powers have on their colonies and the independence movements that were so prevalent in the 1950s and 60s. However, I don’t think I fully understood all that colonization meant to these countries until now, when I am able to see it first hand. Since 1948 when both Burma and Cambodia officially became independent, there has been significant political turmoil in each country. There has been civil war, or the threat of a civil war in each of these countries for nearly the full sixty years since their respective colonial powers left. In addition, each country has had military regimes, that have severely persecuted minority parties, and in Cambodia, Pol Pot went as far as full-on genocide.
Thailand has gone through nothing like that. It’s true that Thailand has had its share of military coups in the past half century. But they have nearly all been bloodless, and there has never been a time when Thais have been forced to flee the country for any reason. Besides, the royal family remained in power for nearly the entire century, and the country has remained united by their reign. While Thailand still does not have a stable government or a working constitution, the country is able to become a truly modern state. There are many successful Thai corporations, and the people have a sense of pride in themselves, their country, and their king.
That is so far from true in both Burma and Cambodia. Human rights and simple freedoms have been ignored in these countries for decades, and their citizens live in fear of their governments. Many have been forced to flee their homes, and even their country, because of persecution. In addition, each country has been through desperate economic times with unbearable inflation rates, and governments that steal from the middle and lower classes.
Cambodia has had a fairly stable government for the past ten years, but there is still an edge of fear in each citizen’s life. They are scared to discuss politics, because if the wrong person heard, they could be killed. And it is only in the past ten years that they have even had this much luxury. For the forty years before that, without even saying anything, but just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, they could have died.
In Burma, a small elitist military regime has been in power for over twenty years, terrorizing the entire country. Many minorities have fled the country, and even the ethnic Burmese, if they have opposing political beliefs can be jailed or killed.
Clearly, there were many factors leading to the turmoil that each of these countries has recently experienced, but I have really come to believe that the biggest reason for this turmoil is the history of colonization. The British and French did not leave the countries with the means to support themselves or with a capable and just ruling entity. It would have been nearly impossible for either Cambodia or Burma to overcome the situation they were left with after colonization and successfully recover to form a functional and accepting government.
Under the colonial powers, there were always elitist groups with undeserved power, and there were always outsiders ruling without enough knowledge of the people they were ruling over. The colonial powers, in other words, set a bad example for future leaders of these countries, and also left the wrong people in power.
It was not until recently that I had a great enough understanding of Thailand, Burma, and Cambodia to piece this all together. When learning about colonization and independence movements in high school, it was somehow never as clear to me that the lasting affects of colonization were as disruptive as they are today. I am now able to see how similar their traditions and lives are, and how vastly different their ruling powers are. There are so many reasons for these countries to be alike, and yet Western powers have driven them in other directions.
