Bureaucracy in Person

I went to visit my host family yesterday and spent the night for the first time in a few weeks, and it's amazing how different things are! My host Mom has a new motorbike, the neighbors have a new garage and kitchen on the side of their house, and my Thai is actually at the point where I can kind of understand what's going on a lot of the time.

Last night was especially fun, because everyone was in a good mood. On Friday, my host brother drew a black card, so he doesn't have to spend his next two years in the military. Let me explain:

In Thailand, every male is eligible for the draft when they finish their education. They have two choices:

• Enlist for one year (six months for college grads)
  
• Enter the lottery, and if you lose, be drafted for two years (eighteen months for college grads)

The lottery is quite the spectacle (which I got to watch as a video on my brother's cell phone). A large group of young men sit in an auditorium, and get called up one-by-one to a table in front, where there are a bunch of military guys. One of the military guys holds on to the kid, and he draws a card out of a box. The video quality was bad, so I couldn't tell if the kids were being held in the endearing, reassuring way that Asian men hold other men's arms, or in the rough ("Don't run away or I'll take you down") way that cops hold people who are handcuffed.

Anyway, if the kid picks a red card, he's drafted. If he picks a black card, the crowd goes wild, the kid smiles and pumps his fists, and he's free to go. Gawp celebrated especially enthusiastically.

Compared to the way America did the draft (assigning numbers by mail and then reading them on TV), this seems shockingly personal and horribly inefficient. But that's how the Thais like their bureaucracy.

Last week there was some kind of tax refund (economic stimulus?) thing going on, where Thai people who paid for health insurance and social security but made less than 15,000 Baht per month were paid 2,000 Baht (about $60US) by the government. Again, in the States, they just mail you a check.

In Thailand, you needed to go to the local government office last Wednesday to collect your money. Economically, this means that your free money really isn't free, since there's a time and transportation cost associated with it. That means some people won't bother, which I guess saves the government some money.

Of course, it also means that the poorest people with the worst jobs (who can't take half a day off) can't go get their check. Oh well.

I was talking to my roommate about getting her refund check, and she said it was pretty miserable, since there were so many people, and because she had to stand in two lines. The first line was to get her check. The second line was two stories down at the Cashier's office, which was where everyone had to go to cash that check. Because really, why not?

So on this tax day, just remind yourself: at least the IRS has a good relationship with the Postal Service.