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surviving globalization
These are three of the 90 households in the village for whom silk provides the main source of income. Each of these families is able to make a living from their silk products that at least match their likely earnings in local towns and Bangkok, yet without having to pay for accommodation, travel and other costs and without suffering the traffic jams and poor air and water quality that they would face in the capital.
Boonsom actually returned from her factory job in the city and says she is happier and better-off as a result. A few years ago none of this would have been remarkable. Thailand has a long-established reputation for silk production, particularly in the northeast region where skills have been passed from one generation to the next, providing the main or a supplementary income for many thousands of farmers. Even now, silk remains a defining feature of the Thai brand and silk products are widely available in the little town of Chonabot, one of the northeast region's main centres for silk trading, as well as in airports and tourist shops throughout the country.