Tuesday update

The official recommendation from the security company (ASI) is that we need to stay close to the apartment/hotel. Chris is not going in to work today. This sure as hell isn't the vacation we were hoping to take this coming weekend. My vote is that we go out and explore the water throwing and powder throwing Songkran festivities close to our apartment. Chris has other ideas that involve work. Boohoo!

Reports here state that the Red shirt protesters (UDD) have been pushed to one place--Government House. The two dead resulted from a clash between Bangkok locals (who are so tired of this mess) and protesters. There is a big difference between this protest than the one in November that caused the airports to close for 4 days. One thing is that reports have been made that Thaksin is paying these Red Shirts to protest. The rural poor like Thaksin because he gave them money---money that he earned from selling the biggest telecom company in Thailand, which he owned by the way. Yes, he was ousted in the last coup, but what rarely gets reported by CNN and others is that he didn't pay taxes and was convicted of corruption and/or tax evasion. Somehow that part gets left out of the news reports. That's the main reason the PAD (the Yellow shirts) don't like him.

Also, we're seeing reports by local media which differ from those on CNN and BBC where the shots fired by the army and police to disperse the crowd. The protesters are more mob-like than they were in November where violence was not the purpose but peaceful protesting was. Peaceful protesters are making a statement through their actions which are directed by a specific goal. Mobs (which is what we have going on now) are a different beast.

Now, we see on the news that the Red Shirts are handing out red roses to the soldiers in the street. We think the main issue now is that the locals are getting annoyed at the protesters.

Thanks, CNN, for the explanation of the history of the current political situation that didn't explain a darn thing!

Oh well...in for another day. It just really stinks for Thailand. The people revolting are hurting the country in so many ways. Oh, and the worse part of it is that the majority of people in the "middle" are not as passionate as the protesters and yet they are affecting everyone. With all the travel advisories being announced, there is so much money being lost here. It is sad. (and sidenote: I have yet to receive an update from the US Embassy---we have the Canadian one to keep us informed via email!)

In other news: It boggles my mind that 35 degrees Celsius is starting to feel normal. Ugh!