Endings and Beginnings

The semester ended with my crumpled body melted to the mattress, from where I did not rise until 7pm, when it was dark and cool enough to venture out for red pork noodle soup. Winter here will be cooler but nothing resembling western winters. Thais have a joke that goes like this: “We have three seasons — hot, hotter, and hottest.” We’re about to enter the hot season.

I’ve acted like a recluse for the past couple weeks, carrying out my tasks and eating many of my meals by myself — just since the end of the semester felt nearer. No, I have not sworn myself to hermitdom, nor would it be a path I could follow for very long: I’m too often comforted by voices that aren’t my own. With October off, I am going north by myself for most of the month. I’ll bounce around the province until I’ve run out of money or interest, then I’ll traipse a ragged beat back to Bangkok where my body may crumple once again thankfully into my covers, and I’ll sleep until November heralds the beginning of the second semester. Is taking my meals by myself practice for my month in solitary? Not quite. When you spend a great deal of time with a small group of people, sometimes your own company becomes easiest. There comes a point when all conversations converge into same one you’ve had already for the past six months: “my kids are crazy, I’m doing this and this on my October break, so and so has the Bangkok belly, I can’t stand rice anymore, I look tan, but that’s actually just pollution, this happened my sophomore year in college and now I’m never allowed in FAO Shwartz again.” We need new stories. October may be the solution.

My train leaves tomorrow evening at 6 pm. Oh ho, here we go.

PS. Photos updated. Check out the slide show. Click here

People’s Alliance for Democracy not doing much for democracy

The International Herald Tribune has published a very accurate analysis of the PAD protests. Seth Mydans writes, “[T]he protest is more like a counterrevolution by the Thai establishment against the rising electoral power of the mostly rural poor.”

Most of the western news coverage I’ve read on the political problems here are garbage, but this is a breath of fresh air. If you’re curious check it out: http://iht.com/articles/2008/09/12/asia/12thai.php?page=1

School’s Back, but the Coup might be too.

Another week and the protesters remain poised for their great victory. The threat of the Army evicting them is next to null as they have refused to use force to remove the protesters, basically showing Prime Minister Samak an extended appendage any way you look at it. However, the promise of suffocation from the build up of their own fecal methane is creeping closer, closer, closer.

The leaders of the protesters spent a few million baht for porta-potties, but even potent portables aren’t making a dent into nature’s realities. You put 3,000 people inside a space, you better have a place for them to lay down their personal business. September’s daily rains aren’t doing much for the protester’s fortunes, either. The downfall of the PAD may not be measured in threats or boots on the ground, but rather, in poo.

But just as the night is darkest relief for the anti-government crusaders may come in another — much more whispered — form: a coup d’etat. Samak has announced he will make his way to New York City to address the UN about the instability in Thailand. Flash back to 2006 and you will notice that ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra made this same exact trip with the same speech in mind when the Army rolled into Bangkok with yellow ribbons tied around the turrets of their tanks.

What’s more, the Bangkok Post is reporting that it has a source saying another coup is possible, despite assurances from both the Prime Minister (the very last person to know about a coup in this case) and the leader of the Army, who says effectively that coups in Thailand are over (though this has been said many times before).

Either way, democracy in Asia has seen better days.

Thailand has seen 19 coups since 1932

School Canceled, but no Coup D’etat just yet

Protesters in the street. Interesting fact: The Thai word for protest is mob. Photo from The Nation

In the dark protesters met protesters on the bridge leading to the government house and violence bloomed. One protester was killed and a few dozen more injured, some of them shot. Following the violence the Army moved in and the groups went back to their lines. On Samsen Road, a few miles from the action, morning found everything peaceful, but St. Gabriel’s would take no chances. The boys were sent home.

Since then the Prime Minister has declared a State of Emergency.

While we’re still a few miles away from the action, tensions between the two groups are still high and no one is willing to take the chance in case violence stirs again. The two groups are the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) and the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), the former is an anti-government activist group and has been holed up on the Government House lawn (Bangkok’s equivalent to the White House) calling for the resignation of Thailand’s Prime Minister.

After months of hearing PAD’s accusations against the government, the UDD gathered this past week in a show of support for the Prime Minister. While initially they said they did not wish to confront the PAD, last night’s events prove otherwise. Neither the police nor Army has pushed into the Government House to rout the protesters with conviction, memories of past violence staying the government’s hand against use of force. The UDD seems to want to evict the PAD from the Government House themselves, since the police and Army will not.

Thai Police in riot gear. Photo from The Nation

What does this mean for us? Not too much. The teachers know to stay away from the areas where the protests are going on. A State of Emergency does not mean imminent danger for Bangkok, it’s just a tool for the Prime Minister to try and wrangle more control over the situation, which for him, has spiraled too far from his already weak grip. As it is, we have a day off to catch up on work or relax on a rainy Tuesday. I might grab an American Style breakfast at a local hole in the wall. I’ll keep this updated if anything else occurs.

Above all, never listen to what CNN tells you. They have a tendency to get a little over-zealous.