Suffused Panic: curfew in Bangkok - Thailand

Looking at the city center from the top of a skybridge the sky appears divided by a clear-cut line: blue above it and dark gray below. It's the smoke that rises from the burning sites: shopping malls, banks, the Stock Exchange building, tires at the junctions, subway stations. The hard-line of the protest will not bend and surrender, or maybe it was all already planned in advance. Small groups of diehards move around quickly, damaging things and throwing gasoline bombs. Due to the impediments that piled up in two months the firefighter trucks cannot reach the fires. Flames flare up eating chunks of the city: key-spots, landmarks, shops, public service. The government was hard-pressed and imposed a curfew: from 8pm to 6am everybody must stay at home.

At about 5pm, three hours before it starts, I get out of my place and take a walk in the neighborhood. Usually Pahonyothin Rd is as full as a salami skin but today it's as trafficked as a highway in the desert. The supermarkets and the shopping malls are already closing. A convenience store by the filling station is under assault. On the meat-shelf there are two sausages and a few chicken legs: they look like pink rowboats afloat a pale ocean. The queue at the cashier reaches the entrance: I just take two pictures and leave a bit confused. When I reach a 7eleven I take a look and get in. The customers walk with haste down the aisles, when they find an item that they were looking for they often put into their basket the whole stock on display. If I hadn't listened to the news in English the fantasy in my head could be a legitimate doubt: it's a ten-day-curfew, not a ten-hour-one! 

When I'm on my way back the sensation persists. People don't walk, don't search, don't buy: they are insects that swarm, tear apart and drag. It's a collective neurosis, a suffused sort of panic.

Photo: meat-shelf at Tesco Lotus Express, Ratchayothin-Bangkok, by Fabio.

Other pictures taken before the curfew by Fabio here.

Photo of Central World ablaze here. And a video of the fire here.

Too simple to be true - Bangkok, Thailand

For days the red shirts have been saying: "Withdraw the troops!"

And the government replies: "You disperse first!"

But the unrest continues, new barricades are set up, more tires burn at key battle spots, unaccounted-for snipers shoot from skyscrapers windows, the military is using live ammunitions, the protesters throw stones, Molotov bombs, homemade rockets, if not something worse. As a consequence the number of the victims keeps increasing, the city-center is blocked, the transport service has been stopped, the school term start postponed, the number of tourists sinks by the day and the national economy as well.

The foreign governments and the non governmental organizations and institutions issue their typical futile and non-committal statements.

The international media provide a confused, incomplete and often apocalyptic picture of the situation, and they're almost always late. On top of that many newspapers tend to take sides. Based on what kind of deep knowledge of the situation? Their comments don't make it clear.

After five days of clashes though, someone finally comes up with some sensible proposals. Some leaders of the minor parties that belong to the government coalition have proposed a set of steps that would guide the country towards a feasible solution to the crisis: the red shirts should stop the demonstrations, then the government will have to withdraw the troops and they will eventually abandon the coalition. Which would lead to new political elections

In the meanwhile the senate speaker has let everyone know that the assembly is available for mediation talks.

It appears obvious that somehow the rally has to disperse, the troops must withdraw and new elections will have to be held. The parties backing the red shirts will then be able to play their card in a political way, and not with the use of force and blackmail. On the other hand the government will have a chance to submit their emergency management methods and policies to the judgment of the electorate. 

The government, though, seems to have a lot to lose in this story. As well as some of the protest leaders, secretly financed by the ex premier in exile.

Will reason prevail over the intransigence that got hold of the conscience of such a big share of the population?

It seems just too simple to be true.

Photo taken at Din Daeng-Bangkok, by agnesdherbeys, from twitpic

Other great photos of the unrest here

The source - Bangkok, Thailand

The detractors of the protest movement have pointed out that while the interminable parade was advancing through the streets of Bangkok, bringing Saturday's traffic to a standstill, the strategists of the demonstrations would have been using groups of motorbikes and cars, making them move fast in order to pop up at different locations within minutes, giving the impression of being in control of a much larger group of supporters than they actually are. Realistic, and probably true. Things like this happen everywhere: everything is fair in love and war. 

Undoubtedly though, the reds have found a source - probably not unexpected - of fresh forces in the crowds of Isan-born taxi and moto-taxi drivers. They come from the provinces of the little developed and culturally Laotian north-eastern region, the same where the majority of the demonstrators come from and the same where the sequence of parties directly or indirectly founded by Thaksin Shinawatra have harvested votes by the rice sacks. The important difference is that the taxi drivers, being already living in Bangkok, didn't have to travel for hours to reach the capital and don't have to camp for more than a week on the streets and the squares of the city center.

In the last few days I've often happened to be in a taxi, with the radio broadcasting the red leaders' speeches and a waving flag tied to the aerial outside: every time that the vehicle came across a pick-up truck full of red shirts the driver, from Ubon, Khon Kaen or Khorat, honked, greeted and if he was waiting at a traffic light, he'd open the window, say something, crack a joke and encourage the protesters. A lot of drivers did join the parade on Saturday or went to work donning a red shirt and hanging out the movement ensigns.

The protest goes on, the demonstrators went back to their camp but don't seem to be willing to retreat. The stock of green papaya hasn't run out yet. Thaksin is urging them on from Montenegro. Abhisit, the Prime minister, said that he's eager to start talks, provided that the reds' supreme chief - and the backer of the entire venture - is left out of the negotiations. Unlikely, unless some of his lieutenants opt for a sensational stabbing in the back. 

The city, curious, exasperated, amused or enraged, awaits for the next political developments.

Photo of Bangkok Tuk Tuk, by Fabio

The calm before the storm - Bangkok, Thailand

Sukhumvit Road on Friday night is quiet. The Saturday's crowd in Khao San Road is half as large as usual. These are two of the most popular hangout places in Bangkok: on weekends they are normally packed with hundreds of Thais and foreigners. The business loss in the area has been estimated in the hundreds million baht.

Red shirts (many of them are donning black suites and red bandannas) hang around Sanam Luang and Rachadamnoen Road. Convenience stores in the area don't sell alcohol, even before midnight. Someone buys energy drinks by the crates and distributes the small bottles among the protesters. Young men stop and chat with the foreigners, smiling, answering their questions, taking photos together. 

The Reds coming from Isan brought with them huge amounts of unripe papaya, fermented mud fish paste and chillies: they'll be able to pound som tam for a week at least. 

Sunday morning, standing on a sky-bridge over Pahonyothin Road, one can watch a parade of trucks, cars and songthaews carrying hundreds of people waving red flags. They pose in front of the cameras, cheer at the bystanders who greet and smile in return. On Monday morning a much larger procession might pass through this same road, in the opposite direction, bound to the base of the 11th Infantry regiment, where the PM Abhisit has set up his backroom.

Is this just the calm before the storm?

Photo of a Red Shirts procession in Pahonyothin Road, Bangkok, by Fabio Pulito

General feeling of paREDnoia in Bangkok

Some of the most curious pieces of news on the first day of protests in Bangkok:

A merry journey out of town: "Some members of the Shinawatra family have just left the country. According to Thaksin's legal advisor they aren't running away, as they had planned the trips in advance."

Thousands of poor people take to the streets to protect his interests and what does he decide to do? He turns stingy all of a sudden: "Protest leaders only managed to gather hundreds at each spot. A reason could be that the organizers have requested Bt500 million from Thaksin for a five-day campaign, but Thaksin cut it down by half." A government backed commission just ruled that a 46 billion baht share of Thaksin's assets must be seized."

Emergency related chauvinism: "According to the Phuket Gazette, due to the unstable situation in Bangkok and the bomb blasts reported today in Surat Thani city, foreign tourists are to be routed to the island-province of Phuket."

And the last smelly (but politically correct) gem: "A Red Shirt leader claimed that three different types of excrements will be used against Prem, Abhisit and Suthep. Men's excrements will be thrown at Abhisit, women's excrements against Suthep. And the "third sex" excrements against Prem." What a demonstration!

Photo of Red Shirt demonstrators, from the Bangkok Post

Diplomatic mess - Bangkok, Thailand

When everybody was starting to believe that the situation was finally getting back to normal, that the political deadlock and the Bangkok unrest was only a bad memory of long time ago, the Cambodia-Thailand dispute over the temple at Preah Vihear, so far a totally separate issue, has surprisingly managed to revive the polemics. Thailand has asked Interpol cooperation to arrest the former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. And what was the latter's next move? He managed to be appointed economic adviser to the Cambodian government led by Mr Hun Sen.

To make things worse an interview  with Mr Thaksin appeared in the newspaper "The Times". The content of the article was considered offensive to the Monarchy by many in Thailand. Mr Thaksin stated that "The Times" report was distorted and now both he and the Thai government are asking explanations from the newspaper editor.

According to the latest news the Thai government is ready to fly its citizens out of Cambodia should the diplomatic row between the two countries come to a head.

In the meanwhile, in the expats forums, people seem to be relieved because the border hasn't been closed and their visa runs are still guaranteed. 
Well, if they are happy with that...

(Image from wikipedia.org)