some Thai politics
so I'm going to keep this entry vague, because honestly I do not understand everything that is going on.
Today is "D-Day" for the protests in Thailand, where they have decided to congregate and march to the Government House in Bangkok.
Different sources say different things. One online source says 2,000 protesters while the other says over 1,000. I don't think that it matters what the number is, just that its a lot of people.
So.. right now some people are nervous that the protest will turn violent. In the past these situations have been peaceful, but its hard to predict what will happen. The leaders of the march have promised peace.
In my opinion, Thailand is a peaceful country, and I doubt that anyone,
on either side would like for this situation to turn violent.
Other people are just worried that the demonstration will back up traffic.
Reference article about peaceful protest= http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=128368
Now, the reason. Why are the people protesting?
This is my understanding, and may not be correct...but this is what I've gathered so far.
Remember a couple of years ago when there was a military coup in Thailand? Yeah, that was to get the prime minister Thaksin out. Rumor has is that Thaksin went to great lengths to try to privatize many businesses in Thailand, and make money off of it in the process. Many Thai people didn't like that, so they over threw him.
Thaksin is very VERY rich. He buys big things, (i.e. Manchester United). He can influence large sources of media (i.e. buying Thai television channels, giving misinformation to the BBC), he can also influence people (i.e. paying rural Thais to vote for him/his party). The current party now, although it is not Thaksin, is rumored to be run by him behind the scenes (i.e. he's the puppet master pulling the strings of the current government)
So...what do the protesters want?
Again, my understanding is that they want to over throw the government again and replace the current leaders with a democratic election.
My thoughts though... even if the protesters get what they want, how can they guarantee that the people that replace the current government leaders are not yet another group of people under Thaksin?? This man has a lot of power and a lot of money.
That's all I've got for now. So..if you want to know more.. you can go to http://www.bangkokpost.com or http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
and really...take everything that I say with a grain of salt. What do I know? I haven't been here for very long, and really know very little about these sorts of things.
Today is "D-Day" for the protests in Thailand, where they have decided to congregate and march to the Government House in Bangkok.
Different sources say different things. One online source says 2,000 protesters while the other says over 1,000. I don't think that it matters what the number is, just that its a lot of people.
So.. right now some people are nervous that the protest will turn violent. In the past these situations have been peaceful, but its hard to predict what will happen. The leaders of the march have promised peace.
In my opinion, Thailand is a peaceful country, and I doubt that anyone,
on either side would like for this situation to turn violent.
Other people are just worried that the demonstration will back up traffic.
Reference article about peaceful protest= http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=128368
Now, the reason. Why are the people protesting?
This is my understanding, and may not be correct...but this is what I've gathered so far.
Remember a couple of years ago when there was a military coup in Thailand? Yeah, that was to get the prime minister Thaksin out. Rumor has is that Thaksin went to great lengths to try to privatize many businesses in Thailand, and make money off of it in the process. Many Thai people didn't like that, so they over threw him.
Thaksin is very VERY rich. He buys big things, (i.e. Manchester United). He can influence large sources of media (i.e. buying Thai television channels, giving misinformation to the BBC), he can also influence people (i.e. paying rural Thais to vote for him/his party). The current party now, although it is not Thaksin, is rumored to be run by him behind the scenes (i.e. he's the puppet master pulling the strings of the current government)
So...what do the protesters want?
Again, my understanding is that they want to over throw the government again and replace the current leaders with a democratic election.
My thoughts though... even if the protesters get what they want, how can they guarantee that the people that replace the current government leaders are not yet another group of people under Thaksin?? This man has a lot of power and a lot of money.
That's all I've got for now. So..if you want to know more.. you can go to http://www.bangkokpost.com or http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
and really...take everything that I say with a grain of salt. What do I know? I haven't been here for very long, and really know very little about these sorts of things.