Wednesday, December 04, 2013

The Protest, The Cool Weather, The Nice Traffic

The escalating protest seemed to be building up and headed towards absolute mayhem when suddenly, it was interrupted by peace. Yeah, you read correct - PEACE. For some reasons, the police made a surprising move to allow the protesters to encroach on both police and government compounds, clapping and welcoming the protestors in the process. Opposition caught completely off guard with the turn of events. It's kind of a "if they want it then let them have it easily". What followed for the protestors was "ok... so we got in.... and then what.. .. ??". They protestors ended up hugging and shaking hands with the law enforcement officers in contrast to the fights that went on for two to three days since the recent Saturday. The outcome is definitely a welcome relief. At least no more lives will be lost and no more injuries on both parties.

No Traffic!!!
So what have my clients been doing? One reported that he went chameleon, brought some red supporters items and wore it on his wrist. He went in to the stadium where the red congregation were. "Why you do that?" I asked. "To see the truth because we cannot trust the media" he replied. What he saw in the compound was a party, alcohol and beer sold and many people enjoying. See, the party spirit of Thais will always be there no matter which side. The only negative thing that he mentioned was a conversation he had with an elderly he spoke to buying food. The elderly lady mentioned, she will never come again because they were not allowed to go home. Anyways, they all went home already since the shooting began. An engineer of my client who joined the mob also told me of some rather interesting details. Testosterone packed teenagers from different institutes who would normally taunt and kill each other on sight were actually holding hands going against the police. This is the proverb "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" in action.

So Cool
Some of my clients had been at the protest almost every day after work, thus coming in late always the morning after. Now I know why the traffic is so good in the morning. I had been wondering why the morning traffic these few days was so terrific, no jam, so fast to get to work. But yet in the evenings when heading back home, it was terrible as usual. In fact these few chaotic days, mornings have been absolutely wonderful. I need not go work two and a half hours in advance, the weather is a cool 20 degrees as I have my hot tea in the garden.

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