From ANDREW DRUMMOND, Bangkok
September 26 2011
Daily Mail
Students in a school in the northern Thai capital of Chiang Mai thought they would give their teachers and parents a surprise on their Summer Sports Day.
They kept their secret under wraps until the day was upon them and then with flourish and a fanfare they arrived to gasps and groans from within the crowd.
Leading the march into the sports ground was Adolf Hitler replete with toothbrush moustache followed seconds later by his squad of rather effiminate SS guards with plastic machine guns.
Foreign parents and teachers reeled under the shock of the sheer bad taste of the exhibition and once again Thailand’s education system took a knock. Didn’t the students still know what the Swastika and Nazis represent? The answer is they clearly did not. Not even some of the Thai teachers.
As a result, a delegation from the consulates of Britain, the United States, France, and Germany today (Monday) went to the school to protest. They left after the school authorites said they had been kept in the dark over the students’ plan and insisted that no offence was intended.
A foreign English language teacher at the Sacred Heart Catholic School in Chiang Mai said: ‘It was all very embarrassing. Traditionally the students wear fancy dress on the summer sports day and they like to keep everything they are preparing quiet. Nobody saw any swastikas around the school before the event.
‘But then on sports day when we saw these Nazi storm troopers we were appalled. We told the Thai teachers that this was not on. But even they did not understand what was wrong with the display.’
A British parent said: ‘It could have been worse. They could have been marching to the ‘Horst Wessel Song or ‘Bomb Oh Bombs on England.’
A school spokesman said: “We did not know what the students had planned. This is a bit unfortunate but no offence was intended. We explained to the consular representatives.”
It’s not the first time this has happened in Thailand.
In 2007 a director of Thewphaingarm School in Bangkok, Kanya Khemanan, was forced to apologise to the Los Angeles based Simon Wiesenthal Centre after a similar incident in which 200 students dressed up as Nazis for the Summer Sports day, and strutted around Seig Heiling.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center complained: ‘We are long past the time when such incidents take place in Asia that can be excused due to ‘alleged’ ignorance of the Nazis’ atrocities during World War II.’
This is a result of the lack of proper education at Thai schools. The center of the world is Thailand and even that history is taught biased. Forget about neighbouring countries and the rest of the world.
The lack of proper education (aka indoctrination aka brainwashing)?
As a farang I can only shake my head in wonderment at the breathtaking obscenity these children were enacting.
Quite a good metaphor for Thailand.
Unusually for Thaivisa, there is a balanced set of comments on their site which clearly shows the teachers were aware of what was intended. Not the first time this has happened in Thailand anyway
The teachers response is hypocritical
All I can say is that I spoke to a 'foreign' teacher who did not know.
I agree westerby, more importantly it is a sad reflection on Thai educational standards and the general xenophobic attitudes implanted in Thai society.
Seems to me that Thailand's attitude towards Caucasians is right in line with the former Aryan Nation concepts of alleged racial superiority. Wat's the problem?
Wow Starfighter how did you come to that conclusion? No don't answer 🙂
I don't believe it reflects on the Thai educational standards in the slightest, the fact that teachers, now and in the past, have not been allowed to disseminate or discuss vast amounts of history because it conflicts with what the ruling elites wish to be known is not in itself a reflection of education standards but of Governmental repression. Thats said it still beggars belief this can happen, and be allowed to have continued, in a so called modern society.
Stunning. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say that this stems from them not knowing what was prepared. Which in and of itself shows a lack of responsibility. Lloyd's point should be stressed. Once they saw what was happening why was it not stopped immediately. I can't think of a worthy excuse under any circumstances. Continuing to shrug these things off as a ""lack of Thai understanding"" or education is just making excuses and tacitly approving of what went on. I can't think of really anywhere in the world that the performance would have been allowed to continue.
And in the 2001 Loi Kratong parade here, the float voted #1 had depictions of two paper mache towers being destroyed by 2 battery operated planes. The crowd was deliriously excited.
Thais learn nothing about history after the Ayutthaya period, don't know that they were an ally of Japan in WWII.
Where on earth did they get that stuff. I have noticed an ignorance amongst Asian cultures of Western History…
Yes, and all Western cultures are totally informed as to Asian history……
And the punishment will be – nothing
Thai teachers 'did not understand' the controversy…
Une polémique tout àfait inintelligible tant pour des étudiantes thaïlandaises que pour leurs professeurs, qu’ils soient bouddhistes voire catholiques, d'une école catholique de Chiang Maï… Plutôt que de s’offusquer, il serait bien plus judicieux de s'élever contre cette tendance àvouloir imposer aux cultures du monde entier un décryptage symbolique conforme àune pensée unique, àce qu’un Occident soumis àla subversion sioniste et au chantage compassionnel de la Shoah considère comme le politiquement correct…
Le svastika est un symbole important partout présent en Asie, autant chez les hindouistes que les bouddhistes… ou dans le jaïnisme. Son origine remonte àla nuit des temps…
Sanouk ! Les Thaïlandais aiment às'amuser… ils ont le sens de la fête… un goût prononcé pour la dérision, qui n’exclut jamais l’autodérision… Par ce défilé, ils ont simplement voulu parodier, se moquer un peu de ces Occidentaux qui ont osé leur emprunter et détourner de son sens profond un de leur symbole les plus sacrés… Le vrai problème est bien là: cet emprunt par l’Occident d’un de leurs symboles… et àprésent sa diabolisation honteuse, tout au moins incompréhensible pour qui vit en Asie. N’inversons pas les turpitudes !
Not all places in the world are politically correct bolshie style. Its part of history and burying all references to it is a dangerous practice.
Storm in a tea cup, done and gone.
This is awesome! Time for people to get over it and lighten up. It happened, it was atrocious, but it's over… have a laugh not a bitch!
Not to be outdone, Regina Coeli College invaded Poland.
Get over yourselves, you sad Western gimps.
Thais neither know nor care about Hitler.
Get over yourselves. Not everywhere in the world is as restrained by PC as the so-called 'free west'.
As an Englishman perhaps I should take offence at this stuff, however I don't, it happened, get over it FFS.
A lot of Thais died under Japanese occupation. Is this not taught in Thai schools? Imagine a re-enactment of the Japenese taking over Thailand and students dressing as WWII Japanese troops. Would that be allowed to happen? Would Thai people find it in bad taste?