Among the stoic farm boys and urban punks resigned to spending the next two years in uniform, there are the inevitable gulps, gasps and weeping celebrities alarmed at the poverty and bar haircuts lying in wait for them.
The law requires every male to either do a few weeks of basic obstacle-course training while still in high school or else report for induction when they reach 21, ready to spend two years at the mercy of a really mean drill sergeant. You can dodge the draft if you can prove you have a hazardous medical condition (hence the preponderance of asthma at this time of year), that you absolutely cannot spare time from your studies, or that you’re transgender.
Being merely gay doesn’t cut it. Gay blokes have to pile in with the straight dudes and take their chances with what’s literally a lucky draw. You reach into a bucket and if your hand comes out holding a red card, you get in line for a bad haircut. If you pluck a black card, though, you’re free to go home and resume whatever it was you were doing.
This year there was a ripple of relish when a guy we presume to be gay showed up at the registration station in Nakhon Ratchasima quite prepared to take his chances. He was wearing a pink bow in his fairly short hair. The recruiting officers exchanged knowing winks.
Video of what happened next – posted on the Facebook page of Medical Battalion 3, Infantry Brigade 3 – went viral online, because it’s a real kick seeing the young fellow’s reaction when he pulls a black card out of the bucket. The boys in the battalion obviously enjoyed it too. Their caption reads, “We admire you for going through the annual conscription. It’s the duty of all Thai men.”
The clip has amassed more than two million views and been aired on several TV channels. It shows the candidate – excited, nervous, cheered on by people in the hall – pick out his card, realise he’s still a free man and start dancing around ballerina-like with joy, even hugging the officer in charge, who’s grinning like a proud father.
It was the military officers’ empathetic, smiling reaction to the guy’s good fortune that appealed most to online viewers, even more than the dancing and the general relief at the outcome.
“This is very sweet,” one viewer commented. “All those soldiers look really friendly.” “Really admire the officer who gives this pink-bow man a hug,” said another. “He’s very nice!” And still another remarked that, “They look like a big, happy family – very heart-warming!”
The greatest praise, though, was for the boy in the pink bow, simply because he didn’t even try to avoid the call-up. “You’re tougher than all those celebrities who avoid service with their unbelievable excuses,” someone pointed out to near-unanimous agreement.
This source first appeared on The Nation Life.