Relationships in Thailand

I just touched on what was the basic, moral question to be asked in a Thailand. My view is that this is it - Is it real or unreal? From there, one can proceed to the right and wrong, the good and bad questions.

The presenting situation for me was a request made within a friendship. Having shared what I did last time, it made me think that, for the sake of clarity, I now needed to share how I perceive relationships operating here. This may be a personal interpretation but it is mine and I can't deny it.

Where I come from, my parents and others that I know love each other and because of that love they live for each other, they then share all that they have. What I see here is the opposite. A relationship is first based on people sharing what they have. They then enter into a relationship where they share and live their love.

This is based on what I observe and know from living here. My experience may be limited. I recognise that it is a generalisation and generalisations are not always helpful. Finally, I want to be clear on what I am not saying. I want to be clear
-that I am not saying that back home is any better;
-that I am not saying that good and genuine relationships do not occur here.

It is just about recognising the differences that I experience. I also see the weaknesses arising in relationships both here and back home. These weaknesses speak of human weakness and fragility, and we all know this so well. Once again, these weaknesses may have different manifestations or cultural interpretations but we all share in them as we all share the same humanity.

While we may recognise our diffferences because of culture, we must more importantly affirm our mutual humanity. That is an important insight arising for me out of my time here. I see that we can too strongly emphasise differences because of culture to the detriment of affirming our shared humanity. Living here I can see how we can even excuse what is not good on the basis of culture but culture is not an excuse for mistreatment or downplaying of others. What is of any culture may be good or sometimes bad. What is good is to be treasured. What is bad in terms of not upholding the goodness and dignity of people is to be challenged. Above culture, there lies the good human ethic as expressed through a gospel ethic.

I am sounding like a priest again.