Poor Thais struggling with price rises
Updated
In Thailand, where inflation has already reached ten year highs, the urban poor are facing an increasingly difficult struggle as rising prices for rice and fuel are creating hard times.
(FX Sound of shutters opening)
CORBEN: The businesses and markets of Bangkok's working class area of Klong Toey mark the start of another day. Small outdoor restaurants and stalls ply their trade. But the business climate is harder these days. Behind the sounds of traffic and inner city urban life real economic struggles are taking place.
A charm seller, who calls himself 'Joe Klongtoey' says the economy is deteriorating.
JOE: He says the people have less money. Everything is more expensive. Oil is more expensive. Families are hart hit and are having to go without. He says last year the economy was better.
CORBEN: In Thailand, the rice price doubled in the first three months of the year. Charity organizations in Bangkok often face long queues of people seeking discounted rice. Record global fuel prices have fed into the local Thai economy. But the grim stories go beyond consumers' struggling to make ends meet.
In Klong Toey's slum community a Catholic Priest, Father Joe Maier, who has spent the past three decades working among the poor says the outlook
is grim. Many in the community earn a little more than 150 dollars a month.
MAIER: This is a community, we don't grow anything around here - we buy and sell and work and sell our sweat and it's getting worse and
nothing's going to get better until somebody really tries to do something and we don't see that happening.
CORBEN: And what are you seeing as an indicator of the seriousness of the situation?
MAIER: We'll there's more kids coming to us, there's more kids on the streets, there's more kids who can't go to school - the price of rice
is unbelievable. People who are used to salaries say of 4,000 baht - now that salary is worth 3,000 baht at the most - so they've got to cut corners - they've got
to eat.
CORBEN: Father Maier oversees a community centre, an AIDS hospice and an orphanage. The community centre has stepped up its spending to assist
more families to be able to send their children to school - even paying for the uniforms.
MAIER: Oh Lord, Oh Lord I don't know what we can do - we can keep feeding kids and we can still teach them in school - we're a place of hope and joy - hope no matter what. We'll carry on. It's a lot more drastic that it was three months ago - if you come back three months from now it's going to be much, much worse.
CORBEN: But for some the help comes too late. Nitaya Pakkayaka works at the centre.
NITAYA: They had a father who committed suicide drinking a poison because he has two daughters who go to the school and he doesn't have the
money to pay the school fee and his wife ran away because she doesn't want to take care for any responsibility. These problems are happening more and
more in the society in Klong Toey.
CORBEN: The Thai Government has announced a program of providing food coupons for the poor. But many non-government aid groups are questioning
the likely success of the program. The real problem, they say is the rising prices with little relief apparent in the short term.
Fears are held of rising crime rates, drug usage and drug trafficking. Over the past several weeks rallies in Thailand have taken place calling for
relief from the high prices.
Sompob Manarangsan, a political economist at Chulalongkorn University, warns of more protests as increasing numbers of people
face increasing economic distress.
SOMPOB: The economic situation is much more serious than the political matters. We can see that if the people are going to rise up
more and more - not only in the urban areas but also in the rural. They need to relieve the cost of living on the people otherwise I don't think the
government can handle the situation.
