quote:Bangkok, Thailand (CNN) -- Thailand braced for anti-government demonstrations that began Friday and were expected to peak over the weekend with as many as 150,000 protesters on the streets. In anticipation, the government has mobilized 50,000 security forces.
The "red shirt" opposition protesters include supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a bloodless military coup in 2006.
Extra tidbit; the anti-protester loyalist camp's colors are yellow/gold. It's true. I hope the government soldiers set their gear to stun. I'd be laughing at all this if my brother wasn't going over there two weeks from now, and me joining him in May.
Of course, both the protest leaders and the government have vouched that things will be kept as peaceful as possible, here's hoping.
Registered: Aug 1999
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Teh PW
Self Impossed Exile (This Space for rent)
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Of course they say that, NIM. they want your money and patronage, after all. Here's my suggestion: Give your concelet (or what ever the equivelant to the State Department is for your homeland) a call and ask if it's safe to travel over there.
I think there has been enough movies made about such travels (usually resulting in jail time, organ havesting, justing Pot cults that usually end badly, spending time in jails that you wouldn't wish to your greatest adversary... you know, the usual things that happen when you least expect it...) to make you think twice or practice a little Risk Management before you travel to 4th world countries.
i mean, the ONLY movie that ended up with a happy ending was Harold & Kumar excape from G-B. any other idea is Midnight Express... or that organ harvest movie from a couple years ago (name eludes me)... ST-V?
hope i didn't spoil your plans (hope i reminded you to be careful, at least)...
at the VERY least, try to avoid taking pictures that -require- you to swirl the image...
posted
It's not my first time in Asia, but I appreciate the concern Damar. At this point we're just hoping we don't have to reschedule anything. Crassness aside, I of course hope the poor Thai won't start whacking eachother's brains out. The largest part of the trip will be spent out on the islands off the east coast, none of which are political hotbeds. But someone needs to care for the redshirts!
Registered: Aug 1999
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Teh PW
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... Did i just get complimented? o.O is my name now PWD? *giggles*
quote:Crassness aside, I of course hope the poor Thai won't start whacking eachother's brains out.
Well, the poor Thai have commenced whacking eachothers' brains out.
After the large protests two weeks ago, which left 25 people dead and 800 injured, the Redshirts have continued to regroup and do different stuff every day.
The people from the rest of the country, tired of the Redshirts, are working too;
From Bangkok Post:
quote:The "volunteering civil network for national protection" on Wednesday announced a mass rally of people who are opposed to the red shirts of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) at the Royal Plaza on April 23 from 4pm-7pm.
Network leader Tul Sithisomwong, a lecturer at the faculty of medicine of Chulalongkorn University, expected the rally to draw up to 100,000 people of different colours, except red.
Our prepaid hotel is located two minutes from Khaosan Road, a location the redshirts like to use as starting points for demonstrations. (we bought the rooms two months ago)
As if that's not enough, we now also have to pray that Eyjafjallajökull refrains from having any more volcanic eruptions for at least two months. I'm not really keen on going to Thailand by cruise ship.
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
So, er, maybe not so much with the not erupting. Sorry if this bungs up your trip, Nim. So, Sweden to Thailand by cruise ship sounds just fantastic to me. I mean, minus the prospect of violent protests and consequent police backlash at your destination.
Registered: Sep 2000
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Hm, our largest newspaper updated at 9 am today, reporting no new eruptions, and only the lowest 5% of Sweden has any trace of ash in the air from the first one, so full flying schedules have been resumed. Finland also has green light, which will be my only transit point.
I'm more worried about the redshirts, yellowshirts the "multicolored" (Saruman) shirts and the military having a battle of four armies in Bangkok in the coming two weeks...
Registered: Aug 1999
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Teh PW
Self Impossed Exile (This Space for rent)
Member # 1203
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again. check with your concellet about if it's safe to travel there...
posted
As of yesterday our embassy and foreign affairs ministry formally advise against staying in Bangkok, as does all other embassies, due to those grenade attacks against the Skytrain station. So we'll be compromising and switching to a hotel outside Bangkok, closer to the airport, for the first few days, until going to Kho Samui.
Oh and if that volcano decides to do an encore, we'll take the boat over to eastern europe and fly from frigging MOSCOW if we have to. In the words of Jack Colt; "It's gonna take a helluva lot more than a couple of car bombs to get us off of this case."
Registered: Aug 1999
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Hey, apropos that, my cousin and her husband are in town, inbetween their moving from Switzerland to Oregon, and her husband is white South African, we joked about Lethal Weapon 2 and Gods Must Be Crazy over a dinner, and I showed him Star Trek and District 9 on Bluray this sunday, he liked both. He told me about District Six in Cape Town, that was infamous for the same reasons as in the movie, and then the apartheid government suddenly came in and leveled it with the ground just like that.
Also, after finishing Star Trek (2009), we immediately followed with "Balance of Terror" Remastered, because he hadn't seen any TOS, and boy was that a good combination. It had a lot of parallels with the movie, and the new effects were awesome, especially the surface work on the Warbird.
Back to thread topic, I really hope the people crying "Civil War!" re: Bangkok will be wrong, it's really going nowhere diplomatically between the PM and the Redshirts, but many are waiting for the royal family to voice their concern and step in. Even though I think the Redshirts don't have a good case, I really admire their spirit, donating hundreds of liters of blood to use as a tool, and then after dozen of their people are shot down in the street, going back the day after and having barbecue on the curb. That takes balls.
A european demonstration would at most entail digging up a few cobblestones to throw in the direction of the riot squads, face covered in a scarf, then scattering like bunnies when they move toward you, and writing about it on some faggy narcissistic blog while pouring an ice latte.
Registered: Aug 1999
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