 No, this is not an entry about corruption exposures, but rather one of the most sonically evocative constants of Bangkok life: the immutable bleating of security guards' whistles while directing traffic to and from buildings and navigating parking lots.
Some find the pervasive whistle a necessary evil: "It's annoying for me, but I think it's useful for people who are driving so that they can concentrate on something else while listening for the signal to move forward," reasoned a Thai pedestrian.
But a more common sentiment is disdain. "I hate them...I'm not sure anyone knows what the whistle means: stop or go," seethed one anrgy farangutan.
One local driver differentiated between good and bad security guards:
"Some good ones can really help you navigate your way to the tightest of parking spaces with the right tunes/notes/lengths of the whistle blowing, but some bad ones do not have any patterns/thought on how they can make use of the whistle."
She explained that there was an instinctive order to the assault of trills: "A long note is like, 'Ok, keep going, backing or whatever you are doing,' and the short, abrupt ones mean stop..." she clarified. "The whistle notes are always accompanied by hand/arm movements/signals as well. It's intuitive, you know?"
Well, some clearly do not know. "I never found them useful," said a farang driver. In fact, inside a car with blaring music, he doesn't even notice them anymore.
Besides the debate about whether continual whistle-blowing is needed, tolerated or hated, what is it about security guards and their intimate attachment to their whistles? Security services in Thailand are more common than yellow shirts on Monday. The various styles and elaborations of their uniforms is testament to the fact that there is no code of apperance or behaviour. To cement their authority, decorated security guards citywide have perfected their salutes, heel-clicks, hand signals and, of course, whistle-blowing.
"I feel like I'm in charge when I'm whistling to direct cars to do what I like," admitted a security guard on Phra Arthit road. "Most security guards are uneducated and I feel good to be able to command something."
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