Paradise Lost

Almost exactly three years ago I few home from Thailand after having spent nine months living in Bangkok.  Not a day has gone by since that I haven't missed my time there and wanted to return even if only as a tourist.  To say that the country and its culture had a profound impact on me would be an understatement on the level of "I have positive feelings about deep-fried and smoked foodstuffs."   Which is not to suggest that everything about the country is sunshine and unicorn smiles, but even many of the things which the western world finds strange or unacceptable about Thailand are integral to the country's exotic charm.  

So it has been hard to watch the news coming out of Thailand for the last few months as the Red Shirts escalated their protests and the Thai "government" such as it is, has increasingly turned to the military as a method of conflict resolution.  It can only be described as heartbreakingly surreal to see photos like this:  

From the Boston Globe's Big Picture. Click for more. 

And this is made all that much worse by the fact that these are by all accounts a gentle people with a predilection for pacifism.  My personal experience with Thais has been that not only do they find violence abhorrent (Muay Thai kickboxing excepted) but also that they avoid direct personal conflict whenever possible.   They are exceedingly polite, even to the foreigners who flood their markets, butcher their language, and act like idiots in their temples.  Sure, some of that good-naturedness comes from the fact that tourism is their primary industry and a Thai who made a habit of being rude to the tourists would be seen as a liability by his countrymen, but there is definitely a deeply ingrained desire to "all get along" in Thai society.   I was in Thailand for the Coup of 2006 (the same coup that ousted then Prime Minister Thaksin, who the Red Shirts would like to reinstate) and while it was certainly unnerving at first, I can honestly say without the slightest pretense of machoism that never once did I feel threatened or unsafe during that event.  I bought this t-shirt in Bangkok just weeks after the 2006 coup d'etat.Here's what I wrote the following morning.  It was difficult to get too worked up about it when the Thais were going about their business a few days later as calmly as they had the night before the coup.  The Coup of September 2006 was called a bloodless coup, and that was true for a time, but since one could easily draw a line between today's violence and the events of 2006, I think we ought to consider that a misnomer now.  This is a culture that is so emphatically conflict-averse that it took them four years to react to a coup!!  Knowing that, witnessing even this level of unrest amongst them is horrifying. 

Perhaps most disturbing of all is the fact that there is unlikely to be any swift resolution to this conflict.  In fact, it has the potential to get much worse.  The current "government" is flailing and has failed to do anything other than act like a group of people desperately clinging to power.  The red shirts, on the other hand, are no more fit to lead the country, and their political champion, Thaksin Shinawatra, is the Thai version of Richard Nixon.  Not exactly the devil, but not exactly the guy that makes you want to start a civil war just to get him back.  

The much beloved King Bhumibol is 82 years old and has been in poor health for some time now.  In fact, no one really seems to know just what his condition is, as it is a well guarded secret that the Thai media would never dare dig into.  Worse, the heir apparent, Prince Vajiralongkorn, is considered by much of Thailand to be unfit for his father's throne.  Though this is all opinion that is held in private because of the country's laws against criticism of the Royal Family.  

Thailand's decades of brain drain, lack of competent civil leadership, and ailing monarch with an unworthy heir are the perfect stage for continued bloodshed if not all-out civil war--though it seems almost laughable to even consider such an outcome based on the country I left three years ago.  I am anxious for the people of Thailand--not just because I desperately wish to go back to eat their street food and drink Singha--but because the potential damage done to their society would be irreversible and a terrible loss to the world.