Hurray, free water! (The high-pressure cannons just cram in more icy-cold refreshment!)
The wife was a captive audience in a taxi yesterday, the driver playing the live broadcast from the red-shirt rally. The speaker up on the stage was saying the US assistant secretary of state meeting with the red-shirt leader was proof positive that the US fully supported the red shirts, that it was a clear signal the US backed them 100%. What a crock! And of course, the faithful believe this. The Thai government was right to reprimand the ambassador over that.
So, wait - the full-throated support of an overbearing superpower, most of whose citizens couldn’t find Thailand on a map, is viewed by the redshirt faithful as a good thing?
Good grief, your red-shirts can’t even do jingoism right. Perhaps we should send some teabaggers, show them how it’s done?
(Seriously, could we send some teabaggers to Thailand? Couldn’t make your situation any worse, and you’d be doing us a solid.)
The US has always been popular over here. This is a good country to be an American in. Even George W. Bush was liked, same as in most of Southeast Asia. The locals would even thank me for him!
It was just announced on the local television news that water and electricity would be shut off to that area at midnight tonight (Wednesday night). (We’re seven hours ahead of GMT, so you can think of us then.) Skytrain service too, although it normally shuts down at midnight anyway. I guess that means it may not run in that area tomorrow morning at 6am like usual.
Ah, I see the Bangkok Post is carrying this. See here. Also says food supplies will be denied, and other transport too, such as buses and canal taxis. Good! Starve these fuckers out.
For my part, I’ll be inspecting Nana Plaza tonight, to assure myself that the bars are remaining calm.
And BBC TV just carried it, too.
The wife sent an e-mail off to the ruling Democrat Party this morning, telling them what a pathetic bunch of gits they are. And this from a lifelong Democrat supporter!
One other thing I keep wondering about. One of the affected shopping centers is Siam Paragon, the largest shopping center in Southeast Asia. In the basement is Siam Ocean World. I wonder how the critters there have been getting on. They have penguins too, as I recall. We’ve only been once, it’s so godawful expensive, but I hope the keepers have been allowed in to care for them. And I wonder how the water shut-off will work for them. (Before they opened, they tried to bill themselves as “the largest aquarium in the Southern Hemisphere,” displaying the typical local lack of geographic knowledge. Uh, we’re NORTH of the equator, guys.)
I’d expect the sea food stalls inside the Red Zone to be well stocked in fresh fish…
Mmmm, pass some of that fried penguin, please. But we shouldn’t laugh. There was a news item some years ago about a Thai laborer in Israel who cooked and ate his employers rare tropical fish. Worth thousands of dollars, if not tens of thousands. Similar stories pop up from time to time. The unrepentant laborer was like: “What’s the big deal? It’s just a fish!”
Well, it’s late Thursday morning, and unsurprisingly the government backed down from it’s threat to cut off all utilities and transportation to the Ratchaprasong area, site of the red-shirt rally. They said they “need time to gauge the impact on local residents.” Jesus Fucking Christ! Just when you think the government cannot be more incompetent, they prove you wrong! The wife is livid. There does seem to have been an uproar by local residents who would have been affected, and one engineer said it was not possible to cut off power to only that area (which I find hard to believe), but come on people! Bite the bullet for a couple of days and let’s get this scum out of here.
The red shirts just thumbed their noses at the authorities anyway. Pointed to their generators, and said their water was coming from a hydrant or hydrants that for some reason could not be cut off; that sounds dubious, but the wife confirms she heard the same thing from an independent source, that it could not be cut off. What’s up with that? There have been times when our area was without water for a day while the city did some work. I find this hard to believe. But you’d think the government would have looked in to all of the issues before announcing they were going to do something like this, then looking like fools yet again by backing down yet again. What a bunch of mopes! And the agencies involved, in charge of electricity, water etc, all said they never received shut-off orders after the government made their big announcement.
The election offer for November 14 is now off the table, though. There will be no elections this year. Let’s see if they back down from that one.
Meanwhile, the bar areas were the emptiest I’ve ever seen them last night. I did not make it to Patpong, which is right by the rally and very close to the recent attacks. But Nana Plaza was empty, as was the small bar area in Sukhumvit Soi 7/1. One armed soldier was at Nana Skytrain Station when I disembarked from there, still some soldiers on lower Sukhumvit Road. I know it was a Wednesday night, but still, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the place that deserted. Even the illegal sidewalk bars were empty. Soi Cowboy too, but I did not get there until about official closing time, so it may have been busier earlier. But the after-hours places were not exactly jumping.
A good analysis: PM Risks Becoming Laughing Stock with Ultimatums.
I think pertinent to point the followers of this thread to this video in Youtube to see for themselves what the red shirts stand for.
Considering that and the huge fuel soaked tire barricades in and around the highest value real state in the city I don’t think it would be wise to cut the water to the hydrants in the area.
Specially ironic is the giant billboard behind their main stage saying in English “Peaceful protesters not terrorists”
Soldiers are closing streets around the Red Zone, armored vehicles and all. Just now seems that TV news channels have been pulled off the air…
Emergency decree extended to another 15 provinces…
Things are picking up speed now.
The area over the protest site has been declared a no-fly zone after an unidentified plane was seen circling overhead.
Talk about adding a new dimension to the problem.
I just heard that the crazy general Sae Daeng (of “throw a hand grenade dance” fame), has been shot. No idea by whom or his condition.
Seh Daeng confirmed shot in the head, in ICU at the moment.
Reports of gunfire and injured people arriving at hospitals.
Unconfirmed reports of other red shirt leaders desperately looking for unsoiled underwear.
Seems that the proverbial shit hit the proverbial fan tonight.
Sae Daeng dead, I still don’t know under what circumstances.
Hmm, apparently he is mostly dead.
Short report from the New York Times.
Shot while giving an interview for an international newspaper, nice timing there. :dubious:
I’m leaving the office in a few minutes, luckly there aren’t any hot spots in between here and home, but my girlfriend heard gunfire on the way back from work.
OMGWTHBBQ things really just explode when you aren’t looking. I hope not many are hurt.
Well, this changed fast. Oh, god, this can’t be good.