The Revolution Will Be Televised/Make Water, Food Scarce For Two Weeks

So I was all set to write a totally frivolous post about the three shirts I got for my birthday and I probably still will but not today.

On our way back from JJ Market I was carrying two of the three said shirts plus a traditional Thai triangular pillow, chaise lounge thing (that I love). We were crossing over the main road outside our home on the footbridge and what should we see cruising north, right underneath us? A tank, an armored personnel carrier (with one of those giant machine gun turrets in the front), a couple of jeeps, and a truck that presumable was filled with soldiers. This was not a parade or a drill. They were being deployed within the city in anticipation of a showdown with protesters on Monday.

We don’t really understand what the issues are behind the ongoing protests. As best as well can tell the middle/upper class doesn’t like the current government, which is elected with overwhelming support from the lower classes. Whether there are specific laws or budget allocations that the protesters are upset about, we can’t say. But they’ve been protesting for months, there have been clashes and deaths, and on Monday the protesters have vowed to shut Bangkok down. What we saw rolling north was part of the government's planned response.

The US Embassy has suggested we have two weeks of food and water stockpiled. We’re pretty close to that already and we’ll grab a few more things tomorrow. If things go crazy the embassy knows where we are and I’m sure they’ll send a helicopter or a SEAL team to extract us or something (that’s how it works in the movies). Failing that we have a comrade who lives in a walled compound not even a kilometer away so we run over there and hide. But we’re, like, 10-to-15 kilometers from where the heaviest protest and responses will take place so the odds of anything untoward happening in our neighborhood are remote.

As a matter of fact until that moment on the bridge I’d been pretty lighthearted about this whole thing. It was hard not to be because seemingly all of Bangkok is. Unless you knew that this protest was coming to a head on Monday and that it will almost certainly end in violence you’d never know. The streets and malls are packed with people out and about living their lives. On the rare occasions it does come up people tend to shake their heads in the “what are you gonna do” dismissive fashion that Americans do about California or Florida or both (depending on your political persuasion).

Not that I want there to be violence or a coup--apparently a distinct possibility--but some little part of me thought, “Wow. I could live in a city while a military coup overthrew the government. What an experience that would be.” After seeing that tank and that armoured personnel carrier cruise up our street I’m not interested anymore. Not in the least.

Yesterday was my birthday and I went to the Buddhist temple to pray and be blessed by a monk. I started my prayers by running through some specific people I hoped things would go well for (Dr. Dre, Mawardi, Susie, Amira, Messi, Anpanchan, Kelly & Ven...) but after a while it seemed silly to think that I somehow had the infinite wisdom to know how things should go for people. What the hell do I know? I’m just some guy, as foolish and blinded by my circumstances as anyone else. So I changed my prayer and let Buddha know that I hoped everything would go the way it was best to go and that human beings, individually and collectively, continue toward something enlightenment-ish (or whatever you want to call it; you know, being mindful and making choices that maximize good and minimize less-good).

I doubt there is a deity Buddha out there in the aether totting up prayers and getting ready to tip scales. But if there is, I say again, “Lord Buddha, I pray everything goes the way it needs to for the maximum number of people to move in the direction of enlightenment-ish. And that on Monday when the protesters and military square off that cooler heads prevail to the extent possible. But, you know, I know that I don’t know so, you know, it’s going to be what what it must. But pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty please with Nirvana on top: let the headlines include the word ‘bloodless.’”

Up next: a totally frivolous post about some shirts I bought. Oh, Buddha, I hope that's next. 

Let's hope this stuff works.