A personal view of the troubles here. The rural poor definately feel as though they are being ripped off. Thaksin was sly enough to tap in to their latent discontent and gave them a few crumbs from his banquet as he siphoned off millions. With his enormous talent, he could have become a truly great leader of this country, however with the endemic greed and corruption that plagues both sides here, it was par for the course that he would govern for his own profit. These people welcomed me as one of their own, I had arrived at their protest site on the back of a redshirted motorcycle taxi driver which seemed to be enough to grant me access. They were polite, welcoming and actually quite festive, which is usual for Thai protests. Unfortunately, I think they are being used as pawns in a much bigger game play and I hope the King does not die in the midst of all this, otherwise, it could get seriously ugly very quickly. Where do the red shirts go when factions within the ruling government (yellow shirts) want to disenfranchise the rural poor? But this is more than a simple Bangkok elite versus the rural poor.

DAY 2
I went back to their gathering place this morning (13th April) and the mood had changed. Now large groups of mostly young male Thais were gathering together with sticks and metal bars etc. They were still polite towards me and provided me with free water. However back at Victory Monument, things had changed markedly, the streets were very quiet with groups of people standing around looking on. I had managed to miss a savage confrontation by about half an hour between Victory Monument and Din Daeng (story of my life lol). The army were setting up and these men were from Lop Buri, not sourced from the northern provinces and seemed to be well set up and in control. It was interesting watching the professional world press journalists prepare themselves with helmets, water bottles, masks and ... bullet proof vests.

Day 3
The troops and police have control and, for the moment the immediate state of unrest is settling back into conventional Thai politics where blame will be acknowledged. The deeper issues plaguing Thai politics is rooted in their cultural mores where we have a society largely based on a patronage system. I don't believe this is the end of the problem, only driven underground to emerge later. Thais need to reasess the structure and institutions within their society if lasting change and stability are to come to this beautiful country. I wish them well.