Mechai Viravaidya

Mechai Viravaidya (born January 17 1941, มีชัย วีระไวทยะ) is a politician and activist in Thailand who has popularized condoms in that country.

Since the 1970s, Mechai has been affectionately known as "Mr. Condom", and condoms are sometimes referred to as "mechais" in Thailand. Mechai was deputy minister of industry from 1985 to 1986 and minister for tourism, information and AIDS from 1991 to 1992. He served as senator from 1987 until 1991; as of 2004 he is again senator.

Mechai was born in Australia and educated at Geelong Grammar School. His mother is Scottish and his father is Thai. In the mid 1960s he came to Thailand and started to work in population control, emphasizing condoms. In 1973, he left government and founded a private organization ("Population and Community Development Association") to continue the work. Among other things, he held condom blowing contests for school children, encouraged taxi cab drivers to hand out condoms to their customers, and founded a restaurant chain called "Cabbages and Condoms" where condoms rather than mints are served after the meal. He doubled his efforts when AIDS appeared in Thailand, in the mid 1980s. Initially his message fell on deaf ears, but after a military coup in 1991 he was made minister for tourism, information and AIDS. He was able to start a large and quite successful education campaign and served until 1992.

An interesting side note is the large abortion clinic which openly operates next to the Condoms and Cabbages restaurant. This is one of several places in Bangkok where women can purchase a professional abortion on demand, a practice which is technically illegal in the country. The clinic is tolerated, purportedly though not officially through arrangements made by Mechai Viravaidya.

He won praise from the toilet industry for proposing that retailers be obliged to build a public toilet for every 10 square metres of retail space.