12 Vices to Avoid: The Moral Code of Kaha Koot Co-op

City of Chumpae, Kon Kaen province

Kaha Koot Co-op is one community that has the most vibrant architectural style in the city of Chumpae. It sits on a hectare of land owned by the co-op itself. There are 57 houses on the site; each house has 48 square meters of usable area. Some houses are already finished and occupied; some are still in the construction. Overall, they are about 90% done with all the houses.

The floor plans are not so different from each other however, but the residents had refurbished the exterior and interior of the houses in such way that no one could tell that they all came from a similar gene pool - CODI's architectural studio.

This is one of the advantages of having people participate in designing their own houses. Even though the folks hired outside contractors to do their construction, they had already put in more than 10,000 collective hours of participatory design meetings.

The co-op drew up their own site plan; there is a large common community space at the lower left-hand corner of the site and several pockets of communal spaces are also integrated into the plan. The pink square in the middle of the site plan is the multi-purpose meeting hall - a pavilion - for various social events and organizational forum. The red squares represent 2-story houses; the blue squares, 1-story houses. The 2-story house costs 200,000 baht each and the 1-story house, 150,000 baht.

It all happened in 2004 when 114 people - squatters around the area - came together and decided to collectively buy a new piece of land. They found a large 1 hectare piece of land which cost 1,760,000 baht. They took out 1,584,000 baht loan from CODI with 2% interest rate.

Then they decided to start a co-op because it was deemed necessary whenever the community decide to buy a new piece of land together. Some other communities, however, have been known to simply put all the names of their members in one title deed. This more informal approach - where all the resident names are placed in one deed - requires that all members be present to make a collective decision. This could be problematic if the community is large and has over 100 members. With the co-op model, whenever, a decision is needed, the co-op committee could decide what to do in a timely manner.

The pay back on the land is 1,600 baht per month for each family; cheaper than going out to rent an apartment - an endeavor that could cost 2,000 to 3,000 baht per month. However, it still hard for some families to make payments even though there are 2 working members in each household.

"It's quite hard for some household to make the payment," says an old lady with a a very smooth child-like face. "Some of us had irregular jobs with fluctuated income."

After a few years, however, many community members dropped out of the co-op because they could not afford the monthly payment. They went on to settle on public land - the Treasury Department's - so that they would be paying less per month. On a public land they would typically pay 0.25 baht per square meter per month (for the land cost).

The co-op was then left with 71 members (57 households) that stayed together to this day. The saving co-op now has 9 committee members and the entire co-op is divided into 5 subgroups of 5-6 members each.

The community had received 3,705,000 baht in grant from CODI to do infrastructure upgrades. The saving co-op was instrumental in the management of two major infrastructure upgrades - electricity and water. The water infrastructure cost 498,695 baht and the electrical grid extension cost 841,935 baht.

The co-op has its own sanitation team that do the cleaning and general maintenance in the community. The city of Chumpae gives them a budget of 30,000 baht every month so that they could do sanitation and cleaning work - this includes garbage management and recycling.

The committee members of the co-op - though largely old men and women volunteers - are also compensated for their time. The co-op has a total management budget of 92,651 baht; this money is use for community meetings and event organizing work. It is collected from the members' monthly payment to the co-op.

I walk over to the community meeting hall where a meeting of about 30 people is being held.

A lean old man in his 50s with a head full of white hair is explaining to the folks about the moral code of the community. Most folks in this particular forum are in their 50s.

They look studiously at a large poster on the board as the old man explains why such and such vices are bad for the community; why the co-op members should stay away from such vices. The poster reads:

POISONIOUS SOCIETY: 12 VICES TO AVOID

1. Lotto:
This is form gambling that exists for a long time. It almost becomes a part of Thai culture. This is because Thais like to take risk and to get rich fast.

2. Horse Racing:
This is a recent phenomenon. It is a form of gambling for the rich. This form of gambling is protected by the laws. But gambling, in general, cannot make you rich.

3. Night Club
Night Clubs are places where all the vices congregate; they are places where there are alcohol, gambling, cigarettes, and prostitutes.

4. Cocktail Lounge
The cocktail lounges are different from night clubs in that they have girls who sit and talk with the customers at the tables. They are also places with lots of vices.

5. Massage Pallor
The massage pallor is a place where the prostitutes do their servicing. In large cities and especially in Bangkok, the government has to step in to provide regulatory zoning for these pallors so that they could be managed in an organized way.

6. Pornographic Magazine
Historically these were called "books to provoke the jungle tiger." At present, there are regulatory measures to eliminate this type of magazine because they are seen as the source of rape and murder cases.

7. Pornographic VCD
These are seen as the source of crime among young people; they provoke the young to practice rape and murder. Today enforcement has been made to restrict the sales and distribution of these products.

8. Dirty Internet Sites
It's a form of media that the young can access instantly. A few malicious people could cause harm to many people. And it could brainwash out youths. It's a dangerous form of media where anyone can have access.

9. Divorces
This is an important problem today. The divorce rate is very high today. The consequence of such high rate of divorce is that it produces kids with drug problems, kids who become prostitutes and kids who become wanderers.

10. Alcohol, Cigarettes, and Beer
These are just like drugs, but they are acceptable according to laws and regulations. They all have unpleasant side effects; cigarettes cause cancer, alcohol causes liver problems and they clouded your mind.

11. Drugs
These are chemicals which are unlawful. They destroy your body and health; and drain your money. There are many forms of drugs such as Heroin, Methamphetamine, Cocaine, and opium.

12. Crimes
Crimes are serious problems that affect our nation. They range from thief, rape, murder, drugs, etc. These are all crimes which need to be address because otherwise no one will be happy living in such environment.