sorry for the history lesson

Just a final thought on that last post, and the reason why I wanted to tell you about it in the first place. I remember sitting in a restaurant in Surat Thani watching the horrible events of Mumbai unfold on a television screen, when I struck up a conversation with a Thai woman sitting at the bar who looked particularly somber about the attack. I came to find out that she had some relatives living and working in Mumbai, and they were trying to get back home to Thailand but were unable to do so because of the PAD shutdowns of both BKK airports. India didn't have any other flights to Thai cities, though the Thai and Indian governments were trying to orchestrate something to fix this.

I then asked this woman, who I'll call Pui, what she thought about what was going on in her nation's capital, aside from the obvious effects it was having on her family.
"At first, I like what the PAD is trying to do. That they have the Royal Family's best interest in mind. But now that this business in India has been happening for three day's now, and they won't open up the airports to help their fellow Thais, it makes me feel as though they have only their best interests in mind." (This isn't verbatim, of course. I polished up the broken English for you)

Those were the same sentiments I was beginning to have. It was hard at first not to pull for a group that called themselves the People's Alliance for Democracy. But the more I found out about these people, the more I realized they were just a group with a large middle- and upper- class following that didn't have the power, and wanted to do so for mostly financial reasons.
"The thing that worries me the most is that they don't have a plan for government in case their mission succeeds," Pui told me.
This was clearly evident to most people, Thai and farang alike. The PAD knew who they wanted in the Prime Minister's office, but they had not told their countrymen how Thailand would be better off if their plans came to fruition.

After witnessing so much friction between the PPP and the PAD, what interests me most is how this country is going to survive once, Buddha forbid, the King is no longer with us (I mean, he's like 83 years old and has had some very recent health problems). I hope to all that is holy that such a thing does not come to pass during my stay in this country. I remember one week at school when every single normal routine came to a halt to honor the passing of the King's sister, and my school, Thidamaeprat, convened SOP a lot sooner than most schools and businesses, and this was only in honoring the sister's cremation (she had passed away a few months before my arrival). I truly believe this nation will be lost without their patriarchal figurehead. His son is widely regarded as an adulterating nimbus, and I'm not confident that the heads of state will allow his Queen or daughters to hold much sway in his absence, respected though they may be.

Sorry, I didn't mean to give anyone an international relations lecture, nor did I presume that anyone would really be interested. But I just wanted to let y'all know, because I hear about this shit every day, and it's so hard to relate to people who not only refuse to talk to me about it, but also refuse to try and better their country's future in the face of such imminent chaos.

Like I said, happier stories to follow, including scuba in Koh Tao and schooling in Surat.