Tuesday, November 25, 2008

spotlight on Thailand

Oh dear, protesters in Thailand have shut down Bangkok's International Airport. This drawn out struggle between the anti-government protesters, the government, and the pro-government protesters is becoming ridiculous. It's hard to know what's really happening just reading BBC News and the Bangkok Post and trying to understand the situation as best as I can, but even though I am all for people power, it seems to me that the anti-government protesters' demands might actually decrease democracy in Thailand and especially further marginalize the voices of the rural poor (check out this article, in which the region I grew up in--Isaan--is mentioned!). But I don't know for sure. Your thoughts?

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Sounds like that may be true...on the other hand it seems like the PAD don't really trust those voices to put someone who's not corrupt into office given their past experience with the dude that got exiled. First time I've heard of this so could be wrong, but that's what I gathered from reading some articles.

Prongs said...

What really annoys me is the people that said the rural Thais are too ignorant to vote. Hopefully this conflict can be resolved peacefully and quickly. Hopefully....

Roi Et Mom said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
doug said...

...doubt the PAD people are focused on putting someone who is not corrupt in office... just having people in office who take care of the interests of the PAD folks... power!!
... and way too many oversized personalities

Prongs said...

I heard they just took over Don Muang airport as well.... This is way out of hand....