The Thai Way of Handling Bad News

Thai culture, like other Eastern cultures, abhors bad news. Sometimes this stems from benign motives (a doctor and a patient's family keep a fatal diagnosis from the patient), and sometimes the motive is malignant, as when a government hides information that the public has a right to know.

Thailand is unusually dependent on foreign tourism. About 10% of its GDP is tied to the money visitors spend here, and it's considered almost unpatriotic to disclose anything that would impair that flow. Clearly, the swine flu is bad news. So, how does Thailand handle that?

Yesterday, the Public Health Ministry announced that it would no longer report all confirmed cases of the swine flu. Why? Because, according to the spokesman for the Disease Control Department, "...that would waste a lot of money."

There you have it: swine flu problem solved. BTW, cases of the swine flu in Thailand will soon pass the 10,000 mark according to the same Health Ministry.