State of emergency in Paad Thai Land

[Chuck Bao]

With all the love of Thai food on this board, I thought it important to tell you guys that there is a stir-fry crisis going on in the home of Paad Thai.

The update: the leader of the September 19 coup and head of the Council of National Security, army commander Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin has asked Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont to impose a state of emergency in Bangkok.

I love how those juntas come up with such proper sounding names. I have to concede to these latest guys that their Council of National Security moniker is way better than the 1991 coup leaders’ National Peacekeeping Council. Of course, way back then there was no reason to keep the peace until the NPKC tried to stack the constitution and extend its power legitimately. And that ended, not so…ummm….peacekeepably.

Okay, so this big army dude is publicly asking the prime minister to issue a state of emergency so that they can stop an anti-coup / pro democracy rally planned for this Friday.

This does not look good anyway you dice it, twist it or spin it. Last Friday, the protest at the park brought out a grand total of 1,000-2,000 people. A state of emergency is just going to make more people wonder “Huh? What’d I miss?”.

So what is a state of emergency? Anyone? The newspapers say that means the government can ban public gatherings, impose curfews and censor local news reports.

Are they insane? A curfew? I will not give up my barhopping ways on Fridays and Saturdays, EVAR!

The prime minister, who was also a big army dude and hand-picked by the Council of National Security last September, is going to meet up with the other army dudes today to figure out what to do.

Meanwhile, the Thai stock market is heading south in a hurry and I’m planning on protesting against that and that state of emergency thing this Friday, if that’s what they really want.

Stay tuned.

[sooner_born_1960]

Try not to get shot.

[Rogue]

Chuck Bao never met a protest he didn't like.
Or protest against. :D

[Rogue]

Try not to get shot.

Or beaten up by a tranny!

[sooner_born_1960]

Or beaten up by a tranny!
I kinda' wanted to forget that thread.

[SicEmBaylor]

Chuck, were you Noze?

[Chuck Bao]

SicEm, I assume that you are referring to a poster at Baylorfans.com. I remember some poster there by that name. The answer is no. I have less than 50 posts there and most of those were on football game day threads.

[SicEmBaylor]

SicEm, I assume that you are referring to a poster at Baylorfans.com. I remember some poster there by that name. The answer is no. I have less than 50 posts there and most of those were on football game day threads.

No, I meant...were you a Noze brother?
You have the wit.

[olevetonahill]

The next dude that shoots at your *** , May not be a limp wristed homo
Just sayin

[Chuck Bao]

Point of clarification here.

NOBODY IS SHOOTING AT MY ***!!!

EVAR!

[Rogue]

Not even a good lookin' and very tough tranny? ;)

[OCUDad]

Don't drop the soap.

[Jerk]

Now I've got that song in my head...

"One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster"

Bangkok. Huh huh huh.

I said Bangkok.

[Ike]

PEOPLE ARE GOING TO SAY BAD THINGS ABOUT US!!! CALL IN THE TANKS AND PLANES!!!

[OklahomaTuba]

They better figure this shiat out soon, before I have to go there again. They also need to figure out that islamic insurgency going on there.

I have some big deal with PTT going down in Rayong next month. Maybe I should just stay in S'pore instead?

[GottaHavePride]

Chuck Bao never met a protest he didn't like.
Or protest against. :D

I said I wasn't going to do this, but if we could all say it together just once... that we're NOT gonna protest...

http://www.lazydork.com/movies/pcu.jpg

[yermom]

this isn't going to affect the Padthai supply is it? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v60/harleysgal62/Smilies/New/bitenails.gif

[soonerboomer93]

Point of clarification here.

NOBODY IS SHOOTING AT MY ***!!!

EVAR!


shooting at, or shooting on?

because if it's on, well, howzit won't ever want to meet you



and they better calm down before I book my trip there in July...

[Fraggle145]

I like to bangkok and shoot. JMHO.

[yermom]

NTTAWWT

[C&CDean]

You know what's cracking me up here? Chuckie keeps saying "big army dudes." There ain't no "big" any dudes in Thailand. He should be saying "most powerful and ninja-sweet kung fu dudes."

[Okla-homey]

I would head immediately to Rick's American Cafe, see the nice German bartender and enquire about a letters of transit in order to catch a flight to a neutral country.

If Rick claims he forgot where he put them, ask him to check Sam's piano.

But that's just me.

[Hamhock]

i bet with all of this activity, it is much easier to get a tee-time. no?

;)

[Chuck Bao]

I promised to provide an update. Besides, I don’t want anyone to think Bangkok is in a state of emergency, when it clearly isn’t.

The prime minister dude really pulled a fast one on the big army dude (sorry, Dean, I mean the most powerful, ninja sweet, kung fu, two-wife, coup maker dude). The PM basically said that “Bangkok isn’t really in a state of emergency and while I’ve got everyone’s attention let’s just go ahead and set the date for the next election. Hey, is everyone free for middle to late December?”

So, the PM immediately went from scapegoat to hero.

The newspapers said that the most powerful coup maker dude, who had handpicked the PM dude, was a bit miffed. One newspaper even reported that most powerful coup maker dude only wanted to issue the state of emergency decree to stop the protestors from mentioning that he has two wives and he didn’t want that little bit of personal history to stop his political ambitions.

WHAT???? Most powerful coup maker dude has political ambitions????

There is some sort of unwritten rule in Coupland, I mean Thailand, against just that sort of thing. One stages a coup to right the wrongs, to stop corrupt governments, to provide peace and stability before returning power back to a democratically-elected government, NEVER to go into politics.

Oops about the two wives thing. But really! In this day and age, why would anyone be surprised that a politician or an army general has more than one wife?

And, I wonder how his wives feel about that state of emergency thing. One can only wonder how many states of emergency he has had to issue in his own household.

The PM pulled a fast one on the protestors as well. He banned the construction of stages and loud speakers in the park just outside the Grand Palace where the protest rally was supposed to be. He said that people could still go there and walk around and voice their opinions if they want, but their voice better not be amplified.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Government stepped up and invited protestors over to the plaza in front of city hall. I think there was a condition on that invite though, something like the protestors had to stay put at the plaza and not go marching off somewhere else and disrupt traffic and inconvenience people.

So it was on.

I got to the protest late because my office colleague drew the map to city hall upside down. Actually, I could handle upside down, but he got east and west correct and north and south reversed. Gee, in the next performance review, I’m writing “can’t draw map worth ****”.

It turned out okay though because I had to stop for directions and had a beer. Stop for more directions and another beer.

I think I should explain about these protests. Everyone there was old, really old. These people have seen more than their fair share of coups. With Thai TV news always heavily censored, listening to some fiery orators dishing out some dirt is their idea of a fun night out. They bought or rented a mat, purchased food and beverages from the hundreds of street vendors around the protest and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

http://img5.ranchoweb.com/images/kanunu/crowdshot1resized.jpg

The speakers were pretty good too. I don’t know if it is a cultural or language thing, but the speakers all had that natural near-rhyming, often repeating cadence to their speech, like Al Sharpton, with a lot of funny zingers. The crowd seemed to spend more time laughing than cheering.

http://img5.ranchoweb.com/images/kanunu/speakerresized.jpg

There were no signs in the crowd. No rabble rousers. No fights.

Honestly, I’m a bit disappointed. Where are the students? Do they not care anymore? Where were the souvenirs? When I go to a protest I want to at least be able to validate my protest with some cool counter-coup merchandise, like a hat, headband, scarf, flag, banner, bumper sticker.

The only one dressed up for the occasion was a little dog. Before you ask, I don’t know why he was rigged up with lights. But, I just had to put the caption on him.

http://img5.ranchoweb.com/images/kanunu/dog4resized.jpg

[Rogue]

Great update CB. So a protest there is like going to a Rolling Stones concert here? Good clean fun on a weekend night? What's with buying "mats." Are these to sit on in the park? Like a picnic-protest?

I'm gonna have to re-read this to remember what was being protested.

And this gem cracked me up:
I got to the protest late...


There were no signs in the crowd. No rabble rousers. No fights. So, no tranny fights. But were there trannies? :D