You’re welcome. It’s some weird days here, but Bangkok is never boring anyway.
And the government has just banned gatherings of five or more people deemed to be trying to incite unrest. Uh huh. Yet another rule for the protesters to flout.
Why had I not heard of this until now? Is it not being widely reported in the US?
It’s all Iran, Irag, and Afghanistan here. And some stories about Sudan.
The US media reports on Iraq and Afghanistan any time somebody stubs their toe.
The Ukraine is currently “trending up” in terms of media attention.
Iran, Syria, and South Sudan have received a low level of coverage for a while now.
They seem to totally ignore the violence in the Central African Republic and Thailand.
Yeah, that’s pretty standard for the US media. Thailand is off their radar unless something really colorful happens. And I don’t really blame them too much, because stuff like this happens in so many places and doesn’t touch on too many Americans’ lives. But still, you would think there could be a little more mention. I guess it works both ways, because if it weren’t for the Internet and foreign-news TV broadcasts like the BBC and CNN – all of which were unavailable to me here in the 1980s – I wouldn’t know a lot about what’s going on in the US. In the '80s, I had the local English-language press and VOA and sometimes BBC on shortwave radio, but the coverage wasn’t all that extensive. And the Thai-language media gives only a brief overview of doings in the US. Fortunately in this Internet age, it’s fairly easy to take a look at parts of the world one might be interested in on one’s own since just about everyplace has at least one English-language newspaper with a website even if it is just a government mouthpiece like in Laos.
Meanwhile, the government yesterday (Thursday) issued a total of six protest edicts including that one banning group gatherings. They do seem to be lining up their legalities before taking some sort of definitive action.
The Constitutional Court has promised to rule today on whether the Election Commission has the authority to postpone the February 2 election like it wants to.
Why do they want to postpone the election?
Because the ruling party will win again. Albeit largely from paying off voters and other corruption. All sides do it, but Thaksin has deep pockets, and no one can beat his brand of corruption.
Just to mention, Justin Bieber’s arrest is getting saturation coverage here, so don’t worry about that.
Actually, I shouldn’t make it sound so simple. The ruling party will win, no one doubts that, but the ruling party is bankrupting the country with its ill-advised bread-and-circus schemes aimed at keeping the common man happy. Plus there is a lot of anger over the ruling party attempting to ram through a general amnesty last year whose sole purpose was pardoning Al Capone … er, I mean Thaksin from all past crimes and convictions (he’s a fugitive on the run now from a two-year prison sentence for a corruption conviction). The amnesty attempt ultimately failed, but the ruling party could try it again. Those are just a couple of factors. This is one place where democracy’s not really worked. Even the big revolution in 1932 against the absolute monarchy was staged because many of the military officers involved didn’t understand the concept of “democracy” and thought it just meant having things like modern trains that run on time like in Europe, that sort of thing, and it’s pretty much stayed that way. “Democracy” = “goodies for me.” The army was clearly too quick too relinquish control after the 2006 coup, and that allowed Thaksin’s slimeball forces to wheedle their way back in.
Ha! Good one: A group of white shirts tried to make a peace symbol but inadvertently ended up with a Mercedes-Benz symbol. Oddly appropriate for this materialistic society.
(The white shirts are new. They’re red shirts in disguise, adopting white to emphasize their “purity.”)
well the state of emergency is now officially bad for business. I work at a creative studio in BKK that works on international jobs (tv commercials mainly) for the regional market. We just had a client cancel a job that was in progress because it’s been shifted to a studio in Hong Kong because of the current state of emergency.
A few cases like this is no big deal but they better sort out this mess by mid feb or it’s going to seriously crash the Thai economy.
Suthep claims he has enough funding to last all year long if necessary. 
The Constitutional Court yesterday (Friday) ruled that contrary to what the government has been claiming, the February 2 election can be postponed legally. However, it said the Election Commission and the government will have to hash it out between them which one has the authority to postpone it. (The EC wants it postponed, the government doesn’t, so more wrangling ahead.)
Sam, this is a silly question, but what time zone is Thailand in? I’m in Central Standard time, which is GMT-6. Are you 16 or seventeen hours ahead of us?
We’re GMT+7 and never change our clocks. Right now it is 5:38am Saturday morning, so we’re 13 hours ahead of Central Standard Time this time of year.
When you guys change your clocks again, we’ll be 12 hours ahead of you.
Thanks! I thought it was even more than that, but I must have been remembering the time zone I was in while I was stationed in Korea.
Korea is two hours ahead of us, GMT+9. They don’t change their clocks either.
It’s all settled into a steady routine for now. Not much going on except the authorities intercepted a military-weapons haul they suspect may have been coming in for use against the protesters.
That would be hard to say though, because these types of weapons are more common in Thailand than many people realize. A lot of them come across the border from Cambodia. I still remember July 2000, when we were living out in the 'burbs and a taxi driver was discovered dead on a nearby main thoroughfare one morning after daybreak, his taxi having been riddled with what was described as “war weapons.” They figured he had cut off the wrong person while driving. Case never solved, nor was it pursued too heavily from what I could tell. It was just a taxi driver after all, and the perp could well have been someone influential.
You’re missing something fairly significant. Advance voting for the Feb 2nd election is going on today and protesters have stopped election officials being able to enter polling places at 39 out of 50 locations in Bangkok.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/391555/voting-cacelled-in-39-bkk-districts
Something has to give by next weekend. The government can’t hold an election like this, but delaying it is admitting they have lost control of the situation, and calling in the army to clear protesters from polling stations stands a very real risk of them not having orders obeyed.
Yes, I just saw that. I forgot there was to be advance voting today. And yes, 39 of Bangkok’s 50 districts have had their voting shut down. Looks like it’s going smoothly in the North and Northeast – what a surprise! – but it’s been called off in some provinces of the central and southern regions and along the Eastern Seaboard.
Myself, I’m still expecting a delay from next Sunday.
Doesn’t look like the government is going to back down, unless the courts (or the army) forces them to. They’ve issued arrest warrants under the emergency decree for protest leaders that blocked polling places and are saying they’ll be carried out on monday. Personally I’m doubtful those warrants will ever be carried out. We’ll see.
whoops, now saying they’re going to arrest Suthep as well, this should be interesting:
http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/699470-suthep-will-be-arrested-soon-should-surrender-to-avoid-violence-chalerm/?utm_source=newsletter-20140126-1113&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news
They keep issuing arrest warrants. Must be a gazillion out for Suthep by now. I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Just to show it’s not just Thailand that’s having problems over here, the police are busting heads in Cambodia today, part of a lengthy dispute there. If the Thailand troubles are making little news in the US, I’ll bet Cambodia’s are nonexistent.