A 'peoples revolution' has started in Thailand, 21 confirmed dead yesterday (which means more that are probably unreported) and several
hundred injuries (over 800) including bombs, grenades, bullets and sharpened bamboo stakes.
The latest news photos show snipers in place in tall buildings firing into the fray.
Class warfare that has been
simmering for several years (centuries actually), mostly since the most recent military coup has
erupted....
.
The "Red Shirts" are supporters of Mr. Taksin, the
popularly elected (amid charges of election bribery) Prime Minister in
power before the 2006 coup. They are mostly rural poor from the North
Eastern Issarn region who provide most of the food and labour force for
Thailand. Seeing as Army recruits are generally from amongst the poorer
areas (as is the case in Western countries too) you can guess a lot of
the soldiers and police empathise with the Red Shirts, which limits
their effectiveness in suppressing the 'protestors', disenfranchised masses, or terrorists (depends on your viewpoint).
Now we have to wait and see what happens in this 'end game' situation and power struggle.
This facebook link contains photos of the demonstrations INCLUDING DEAD
PEOPLE .
Thailands
tourism economy (a major industry and employment sector in Thailand)
has just been kicked when it was down. No one wins in the short term.
This is very sad.
One thing I can say though is
if more Westerners were as proud and as resourceful as the Thai people
then a lot of the draconian legislation and civil liberty erosions
would not have taken place in the West in recent years. They stand up
for what they believe in.
This also impacts me directly in that foreign films can't get insurance to film here and so go elsewhere, for about a year then they start to come back, then some more political unrest starts... and so on...
Many tourism businesses here will go to the wall, this will feed unemployment (something unheard of in Thailand), this has a flow on effect throughout the rest of the economy and with little social welfare crime will increase.
Economically most of all Thailand really needs a stable government for a while, regardless of who is in charge.
Time for me to move on, I can't sit and wait for this to right itself, it has been on the boil now for 4 years and it could take quiet a while yet.
