Tweet
Wednesday is a big day in Thailand. Every T.V. in the nation will be turned on for a court ruling which will either strip former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra of his enormous assets or allow him to keep some or most of them. The country has been at a political impasse for several years since his ousting.
The country has divided along color lines, not to be confused with racial identity. The yellow-shirts who brought Bangkok to standstill and forced Thaksin’s handpicked successor to resign, have been countered by the red-shirts, Thaksin supporters.
I was riding home with my Thai mechanic friend yesterday and I asked him for a prediction. He said Thaksin had possibly been a good business man, but he was absolutely horrible at running the government. Prior to election, “the more money he made, the more he influenced the government to give him monopolies in more and more sectors. Then he became the head of the government, and became a billionaire or a trillionaire.”
Another Thai friend whose main business is growing hydroponic lettuce confirmed this when I asked him why there aren’t any good cheap local apples in Thailand anymore. “Thaksin made a deal with the Chinese. They cut down all the orchards in the north of Thailand so Thais would have to eat apples from China. Sick, but true, and of course the apples are of poor quality.”
The red shirts have staged huge rallies. If you are in Bangkok on a weekend when one of their demonstrations is about to happen, a third of the people on the subways and trains are wearing red.
“But,” said my mechanic friend, “Thailand can’t go back to the way it was. I don’t think even Thaksin has enough money. Each rally is costing him almost 20 million baht. Ten million doesn’t work anymore. One red shirt now costs him 1,000 baht per day. (30 dollars)”
The country has divided along color lines, not to be confused with racial identity. The yellow-shirts who brought Bangkok to standstill and forced Thaksin’s handpicked successor to resign, have been countered by the red-shirts, Thaksin supporters.
I was riding home with my Thai mechanic friend yesterday and I asked him for a prediction. He said Thaksin had possibly been a good business man, but he was absolutely horrible at running the government. Prior to election, “the more money he made, the more he influenced the government to give him monopolies in more and more sectors. Then he became the head of the government, and became a billionaire or a trillionaire.”
Another Thai friend whose main business is growing hydroponic lettuce confirmed this when I asked him why there aren’t any good cheap local apples in Thailand anymore. “Thaksin made a deal with the Chinese. They cut down all the orchards in the north of Thailand so Thais would have to eat apples from China. Sick, but true, and of course the apples are of poor quality.”
The red shirts have staged huge rallies. If you are in Bangkok on a weekend when one of their demonstrations is about to happen, a third of the people on the subways and trains are wearing red.
“But,” said my mechanic friend, “Thailand can’t go back to the way it was. I don’t think even Thaksin has enough money. Each rally is costing him almost 20 million baht. Ten million doesn’t work anymore. One red shirt now costs him 1,000 baht per day. (30 dollars)”