I am very fortunate to be in the far northern village of Chiang Dao for the week celebrating Chiang Dao's 100th year as a separate district, Easter, and Sangkran. Here things are wonderfully undisturbed, joyously ruckus with water fighting everywhere, pageants, contests, a fair, and more smiles than you can imagine. But the news from Pattaya and Bangkok is very grave. At least 2 people have been murdered by the red mob simply trying to protect their businesses. Government troops acted well, but they were way behind the curve. The red mob has seriously damaged relations with all of the Asean nations as the military did not act to protect their diplomats who were visiting for the Asean summit in Pattaya. I do not believe in any way that the red mob wanted to hurt these foreign diplomats although it does seem a part of their focus to drive out all non-Thais. They are a mix of communists, poor, and uneducated who are opposed to the current government and apparently the monarchy. I myself am loyal to the King. His spiritual leadership has kept this nation in peace during an era on the planet filled with war. I can not believe that the red mobs philosophy of distributing the wealth could possibly be coming from the Taksin they are following. He was always Thailand's richest man, well at least once he had a few years to rule the nation, strangely his fortune TRIPLED while he was in office.
From the news this appears Taksin's desperation to be back in power mixed with a communist group that has been ignored for decades of financial success here in the Kingdom. In general the red shirts are taxi drivers, farmers, and poor folks who are being given a little cash to make trouble, but this is very dangerous. The yellow mob was noticeably different in its makeup as it was made up of middle age ladies, college professors, students, and were peaceful for hundreds of days in a row. They gave lectures and talked about their complaints with the government. These Reds are blowing up stores, throwing fire bombs and killing Thai merchants who just want to go to work the next day. This group is wrong!
