Tuesday
News is coming through of a coup in Thailand. Good blogs to check out include 2Bangkok.com and BangkokPundit. Thailand has a historical tradition of army takeovers, but it has not had one for fifteen years or so. A disappointing setback to what I have been told is a quite delightful country.
Scott, can you recommend a place for the uniformed to learn about who the players are and what this means for Thailand's future?
I see things like
Coup Spokesman with Statement 3:
* Cabinet and other government suspended
* Constitution gone
and think this is a bad thing. Is it?
Posted by Midwesterner at September 19, 2006 07:07 PM
I'm afraid to say I don't know much about the country at all. I'm hoping that notorious lazybones James Waterton will pop by at some point today and make a contribution- he's much more up to speed with events in Asia then I am.
All I know about Thailand is the girls are pretty but there's a nasty lil Religion of Peace insurgency in the south of the country that doesn't get reported on much.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at September 19, 2006 08:07 PM
Then maybe you can help me on something else. My brain betrays me.
"One night in Bangkok and the world's your something or other..."
Now that line of the song is stuck in my head and will neither stop or play on. It's annoying the heck out of me. What band? What song? What year? (and what will make it stop?)
Posted by Midwesterner at September 19, 2006 08:35 PM
One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but their pearls ain't free
Murray Head in the musical Chess, 1985. Written by those guys from Abba.
Posted by Mike at September 19, 2006 08:45 PM
Thank you. Maybe now it will stop. Is kinda catchy, though.
Posted by Midwesterner at September 19, 2006 08:53 PM
"A disappointing setback ... "
Why do you instinctively (that is without actual knowledge) throw the phrase "setback" ??
Sometimes the civil government is so incompetent and corrupt (seems that was the case) that the military rightly step in to save the country.
Sometimes the military men are incompetent and corrupt too... but at other times they indeed do save the country...
I don't know what the case is in Thailand, I only protest the knee jerk reaction "A disappointing setback". Maybe it isn't...
Posted by Jacob at September 19, 2006 09:58 PM
From the NY times:
"Thailand has been embroiled in a political crisis for months. Huge street demonstrations in April forced Mr. Thaksin to step aside and call a snap election, which his party won easily when the opposition boycotted the vote. A court later annulled the result."
"Mr. Thaksin’s government has also been accused of rampant corruption, a charge repeated by the general announcing the takeover on Tuesday."
Posted by Jacob at September 19, 2006 10:22 PM
All I know about Thailand is the girls are pretty...
Yeah, but it's a bit of a roulette spin because they aren't all girls...
My brother had an unfortunate incident once...
Posted by Nick M at September 19, 2006 11:11 PM
Oh come now, Nick M, no fair- you can't stop there...tell all!
Posted by Scott Wickstein at September 20, 2006 01:14 AM
It was no big deal. Alas. He just ran away from a Thai "girl" who'd taken an interest in him. Then he began to get suspicous. Maybe she was, maybe she wasn't. But anyhows he high-tailed it through the streets of Bangkok and hailed a cab. If there are any more sordid details he didn't tell me. He wasn't that drunk when told me about it....
Sorry to have got you lads hopes up.
Me. I think I might have been curious... Hell, 50-50 is better odds than the lottery. And I can be reckless in my cups.
To be honest I'd have made up a storming tale for y'all instead of the somewhat dull truth but it's getting late UK time.
PS I suspect the details may well have been more sordid. All will come out in the wash.
Posted by Nick M at September 20, 2006 11:46 PM
