BANGKOK – The board of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand (FCCT) has agreed on the long awaited update of its anachronistic chit payment system, announcing that as of next month it will introduce a new, high-tech exchange of multi-colored Native American beads.
“Wampum”, which was traditionally used as a system of currency among some indigenous tribes of North America, consists of white, purple and black clamshells, chiseled into small beads. The FCCT’s handmade wampum will replace the unwieldy and antiquated yellow and pink paper chits currently distributed to members.
In a 15,000-word email to NotTheNation, FCCT Treasurer Henry Silverman, who is being credited with the idea, wrote that wampum had been selected over other newfangled payment schemes, such as a machine that accepts small plastic “debit” cards and then directly withdraws from one’s savings account.
“We also considered a simple cash-based system based on the common currency of this country, which is known as the Thai baht,” wrote Silverman, “but society is obviously moving away from cash-based systems and the club needed to take that into account.”
Under the new system, each FCCT member will be allocated three strings of 50 white quahog beads, two strings of purple ones, and one string of the highest denomination black ones. The wampum beads can be exchanged for food or drink, with a pint of Heinken, for example, costing “1 white and 1 purple” according to its the club’s newly designed menu.
Silverman noted that he, FCCT president Nirmal Ghosh, and vice-president Daniel Ten Kate would receive special woven wampum belts that could be worn around their waists to mark their special status within the club.
Silverman said that as early as next week, the beads would be arriving from a Long Island, New York-based tribe and that members could then start exchanging any leftover yellow and pink paper chits for wampum, but not cash.
“We know a lot of members are sick of being forced to buy and carry around small packets of easily discarded and exasperating paper chits. I’d like to say that those days are over and encourage them to come pick up their strings of shiny Native American beads.”
