Expats Did you know that in Thailand?
“Monkey Business”
If you were in the coconut business, whom would you employ as pickers? In the southern province of Surat Thani, Thailand, one enterprising firm employs about 800 monkeys to do the job. Under a $4,000 (U.S.) grant provided by the Thai royal family, monkeys are given professional training on how to pick coconuts from trees. However, “not any old monkey will do,” reports The Economist. Some do not have the temperament for the job, as is true of the ‘white eyebrow' variety—they often prove to be too lazy. By contrast, a workaholic monkey can pick as many as a thousand coconuts daily, notes The Economist. If it were paid a salary proportionate to its productivity, it would earn more than a middle-ranking civil servant in the Thai government. In spite of a working life of only about five years, they are well worth the investment. They cost about $40 to train.
General Knowledge for Expats
The Natural History Magazine first reported this practice back in 1919, so it appears that Thai workers don't worry too much about the "outsourcing" of their jobs.
I wonder though if these monkeys could be trained to replace POLITICIANS and those petty bureaucrats in the PUBLIC SECTOR who we refer to as Public Servants because they're supposed to work for us (and not the other way around as they seem to think)? Wow, maybe that would be something really useful and catch on all over the world!
Interesting and amusing post, but am I missing something here? Does it have something to do with expat life or the experience of expats abroad?
Cheers,
William James Woodward, Expat-blog Experts Team
As you say interesting and amusing was just meant for that, next time wherever you are as an Expat when you enjoying a coconut and it is from Thailand maybe the monkeys had a part in bringing it to you! Hahaha!
So is that where the expression "a monkey could do that job" comes from 
Bob K
I would like to believe, coz I might not be able 1000 a day and still have goodnight's rest 
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