Change of Lens

It’s Thai New Year here in my mother-in-law’s village. The house cleaning, temple visits, and water blessings all feel familiar. Yet I’m looking at this seaside community with new eyes after the past several months helping to lead a UN poverty survey in rural Myanmar.

What would the survey teams learn if they asked their income, food security, and ease-of-credit questions here along the Gulf of Thailand? Compared to the places we interviewed last month, this village appears prosperous. It’s likely getting moreso as city folks discover it.

There’s also probably more need here than a casual glance would suggest. About 60% of the district’s land is planted in coconuts. What I hear from family and neighbors suggests that this labor-intensive business isn’t as profitable as it once was. Many trees are getting old. Others are destroyed by coconut hispine beetles. I notice while running on the back roads that farmers are replacing their orchards with pineapples.

A few statistics I found online indicate that incomes in this district average much less than what farmers make elsewhere in Thailand. My guess is that the tourism revenue in this village isn’t staying local. Neither is the next generation—young people from here head to Bangkok for work. Their parents can't always afford to hire helpers. When they can, often they employ workers from Myanmar, who accept low wages.

Even though the UN survey is finished, and I’ll be looking for new work when I return to Yangon next week, I still find myself thinking like a rural planner. It would be interesting to know what information the village leaders here are using as they chart the future.