bangkok on fire

actually, its not on fire and there is no civil war. there hasn't been
much violence stemming from the protests in bangkok these last few
weeks. to recap: a ton of protesters first marched on government
buildings and shut down government activities. then they expanded
their protest to the airports in bangkok, shutting down all flights in
or out, which got the international attention they planned on. you all
probably know more than i do from newspapers- we've been totally
insulated from it since we've arrived. we're down on an island in the
gulf of thailand (ko phangan) and the thai's here don't seem to give a
rats bum about any of it. except that there are few tourists arriving
now.

from what i hear, there has only been some fighting (and a bomb or 2)
on the front lines of the protests... nothing around the backpacker
areas we pass through. so. we're fine. how are you?

an american/thai guy living here gave us the best explanation of whats
going on... we met him on the beach and he used some sand diagrams to
convey the information. here's a go at it: if the thai population were represented by a 5 gallon jug of water, half a gallon would be the social economic elite (1), one gallon would be the educated middle class (2), and the remaining majority would be the lower class pobres (3).

the social/economic elite (1) had power with the PM Thaksin over the last 10+ yrs. they obtained and stay in power in large part by providing for and getting the support of the pobres in the lowest economic (and social?) class (3). the slightly larger, educated middle class (2) also tries to court the the pobres (3) but has been less successful in doing so. some things went downhill last year, the PM got ousted, but the elite class's party stayed in power. after some shifting around, they recently placed Thaksin's brother in law in the PM spot. which enraged the middle class. so, here are the protests. and the thai courts ruled that the governing party is... no longer governing.

this made more sense on the sand.

so i'm not sure whats happening. but in the last 20ish years, thailand
has not had a violent coup, which is reassuring. we're on the island
for another day, then we make our way to cambodia. headed to siem
reap, angkor wat, hopefully to balang to help out on an engineers
without borders project (EWB), and then to phnom penh through xmas.
we'll be away from all the controversy for the forseeable future once
we transfer through bangkok via train or bus.

my dad sent me a great line that his brother - my tio pat - had used
often when bolivia would go through periodic unrest. its pure pat, and
good advice in times like this:
"keep your head down and your beer cold"