Chapter 28 - Bangkok Revolts, Thailand

The Happy Protesters

Well I'm stuck in Bangkok for a week waiting for my Indian Visa. It's alright, because I have a bunch of reading to do before I'm even familiar with India. The Lonely Planet book is about 6 inches thick. I suspect that the stuff I'll see there will make Southeast Asia look like Spring Break in Cancun.

To give myself something to do, I went to a big protest against Thailand's Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinuwatra. Here's the reason they don't like him: He is a billionaire and owns most of the telecommunications industry in Thailand. He recently sold a major firm to Singapore in such a way that he won't pay any taxes. He saved himself something like 300 million. It wasn't illegal, but it was greedy. So now his opposition are leading big protests until he resigns; which he probably won't.

I had been reading about the civil unrest in the papers and thought it might be good blogger material. I had a morbid desire to see some rioting and destruction. Maybe burn a few flags or a Danish embassy. No luck. These were the happiest damn protesters you can imagine. Everybody was smiling and cheering as if Thaksin had already stepped down. Later I was watching CNN and the reporter described it as "tense" and had "potential for violence." He was full of crapola. It goes to show you, don't believe what the reporters tell you. Here are the pictures of the happiest protesters on earth.

This is one of the main guys organizing the protests.

So that's my first attempt at journalism.

For more info on this stuff you can got to:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4775926.stm

"This is Brian Anderson reporting from Bangkok, Good night."