CASE STUDY
Please
read the case study and answer all three questions. (Total: 40 marks)
Chasing the Little White Ball
New Internationalist
issue 263 – January 1995
Condensed Version of Article
Golf
courses are sprouting like mushrooms after spring rain across East and
South-East Asia.MaleeTraisawasdichai finds that fairways make good
business but bad neighbors.
‘My
wife was a caddie. She is dead.’ So spoke 27-year-old Pong Kheungkham, father
of a little boy and a poor farmer from Baan Thung Yang – a small village in
Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. Janpeng, his wife, was two months pregnant when
she miscarried on the 17th hole at the Santiburi Private Community. A month
later she was dead.
Perhaps
it was because she had carried the heavy bag over such a long course or because
of daily exposure to the chemical pesticides used to keep the greens – but the
cause of Janpeng’s death was never clearly established. Her story shows how
rich golfers’ élitist passion is satisfied at the expense of the poor. Golf
constitutes an arrogant ‘power sport’ for the privileged few.
Around
Asia the advent of the golf course means disruption of ecology and the human
community. Japan, Asia’s most golf-crazy country, has at least 2,016 golf
courses covering 2,227.7 square kilometers of land. The area exceeds that of
Tokyo.1
In
Thailand – the centre of ‘golf mania’ in South-East Asia – 200 golf courses
have depleted the country’s limited water supply that is vital for rice
farmers. In Malaysia over 160 golf courses have swallowed up tracts of
rainforest. In Indonesia 91 golf courses have bitten a big chunk out of
traditional farming wetlands and nature reserves, in one case expelling nearly
1,000 families.
China,
Burma and Indochina are the new frontier of the corporate golf industry. A
‘golf-resort-plus-casino’ package is being introduced to Burma, Laos and
Cambodia. In Laos, Thai developer SompotPiyaoui’s plans for the KonPhapheng
Resort Development include two casinos and two courses, a 1,200-room hotel, an
international airport and a power station. ‘Setting up a resort complex in the
middle of the KhonPhapheng Fall, which is ecologically sensitive and the
habitat of unique fauna like the Irrawaddy dolphins, is in itself unacceptable.
It is a black and white issue. It’s like you were going to poison the Mekong
River right into Cambodia and Vietnam.’
Cheap
land, weak regulations and feeble local opposition in South-East Asia –
particularly Indochina – are a strong draw for Japanese developers. Back home
in Japan strong local opposition has managed to halt the construction of 720
golf courses since 1988. For Asia’s poorest countries golf resorts provide a
lure to draw easy money from wealthy tourists, expatriates and the local nouveaux
riches.
How
many ‘golf dollars’ stay in the host country is also a matter of debate. ‘When
a tourist starts his journey he buys a Nikon camera and then flies with Japan
Airlines,’ says Thai anti-golf activist ChyantPholpoke. ‘Arriving in, say, the
Philippines for golfing, he takes a Toyota limousine and checks in at a
Japanese-owned hotel. He goes up to his room in a Hitachi lift where he takes a
drink from a Toshiba fridge, turns on a Sharp air conditioner and a National TV.’
Golf
is the sport of the powerful and influential. In Indonesia half the existing
golf courses are owned by President Suharto and his family3. The US
armed forces have 300 golf courses, maintained at a cost of $60 million a year
to the American taxpayers.’ According to Thai Lieutenant General
SananKajornglam: ‘Most generals have to play golf because it’s a high-society
game. Golf is expensive. If you are known to be good at golf and you play with
the right clans, then let your superiors win, you can curry favour and get
promoted.’
Thai
farmers are not so sure. In 1994 Thailand experienced its worst-ever drought
year. The Royal Irrigation Department (RID) discovered 13 golf courses
illegally diverting water from irrigation canals. The Government, however,
prohibited farmers from growing a second rice crop while golf courses went on
pumping water from the reservoirs. An average course in Thailand consumes 6,500
cubic meters of water per day – enough to satisfy the domestic needs of 60,000
rural villagers.
SuradejVongsinlang
– a water-resource engineer who quit his golf-course job – is candid about
water-theft tactics: ‘Some golf courses near rivers dump rocks and sand into
the river to make the water level rise, so it will flow into their golf
course.’
Caddies
and course workers also fall victim to pesticide poisoning. Caddies interviewed
at Santiburi golf course in Chiang Rai said they all suffered skin disease,
dizziness and kidney problems after just a year’s work. Dead birds are found
almost every morning after greenkeepers have sprayed pesticide at night. In the
US a Golf Course Superintendent Association’s study confirmed that: ‘Among
golf-course superintendents there is more lung cancer, more brain cancer, more
cancers of the large intestine and prostate. Especially lung cancer.’
The
image of Thai women is often used to sell the country to tourists – golf
tourism is no different. One promotion leaflet entitled ‘Thailand Paradise Golf
Plus’ pulls few punches: ‘The splendour of the courses and club houses is
unrivalled in Europe. And the service offered by the caddies, who are young,
friendly, knowledgeable – and usually female – is unparalleled in the world.’ A
receptionist at the Santiburi golf course revealed: ‘I have been approached by
golfers many times to go out. Once a Malaysian pro told me if I went with him
he would give me all the money he won from the game. But I managed to refuse
his offer gently.’
It
remains to be seen whether the ‘nature-loving’ golfer can be convinced.
MaleeTraisawasdichai is a journalist with the Nation in Bangkok.
1GAG’M Newsletter,
May 1994.
23Far Eastern Economic Review, 5 May 1994.
Questions
Answer all of the questions below. (Total: 40 marks)
Question 1
Assume
the golf course is owned by the Thai government and was created to promote
economic success and improve the standard of living in the country. Evaluate
the success of this golf course using the Triple
Bottom Line. Be sure to use specific examples from the case to support your
evaluation. Based upon your evaluation include a summarizing statement on
whether or not this golf-course has been successful.
(15marks)
Question 2
Imagine
you are a local government official in neighboring Cambodia and you have been
asked to look at the golf course in Thailand to decide if a similar development
should happen in your country. Using only a Utilitarian/Rule-Utilitarian framework explain your decision. (10 marks)
Question 3
What
are all of the factors that should be considered to decide if the golf course manager
(not owner) is Morally Responsible for any damages that have occurred? (15
marks)
