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Surin Situation


gladius69

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Cent and Friends,

 

I just want to get a thread going to monitor the situation in Surin. I know it's peaceful, but my sis in law (govt) said there have been small scale protests at Surin City Hall, but quiet and peaceful. She told me that most seem to have contempt for them and wish they would go away.

 

We will be there in two months and we have no intentions of altering our plans.

 

What's it like at the army based and helo base?

 

Thanks Chaps,

 

BW

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Gladius,

 

The situation here was odd. There was little red shirt action, just some protest at the city hall/gov house. Nothing violent. Though there was no curfew up here in Surin the city was extremely quiet for the days preceding and during the rioting in BKK and other cities that surround us that are virulently red. There may as well have been a curfew here for how quiet and deserted the streets and shops were. Sort of a self imposed curfew here actually.

 

It seemed many Thais (and farangs as well) stayed in and watched the TV waiting to see what would happen. I suspect some were hoarding/supplying up some food, saving money just in case things went to total shit, and basically just holding their breath in anticipation of full scale civil war. My family was glued to the TV news for days. Everything was monitored and talked about among them and friends, our workers, etc. Many I feel did not go out because there were police road-checks everywhere around the city, and no one wanted to risk being extorted by the cops more than they usually are here. :-) Many times over the past few months the cops set up roadblocks and checked everyone's IDs and papers. Suspected red shirts were giving a thorough going over and questioning.

 

I also think most of the red shirt people that are from here may have been down in BKK already, so less of a presence here during the past couple of months. The city itself I think is mainly yellow shirt leaning (being mostly middle class here in the city itself), but the villages around us in the countryside are more red shirt leaning and thinking.

 

But, though slow and quiet earlier, I suspect now the red shirts are back here rather than in BKK that things may take a different turn in the future and become more local.

 

My family told me one reason that the red shirts protesting here in Surin were rather quiet and civil is that they fear the cops here. (Why that is so I have yet to fully deduce, but I was told the cops here just will not stand for much civil disobedience. Shoot first and ask questions later is the impression I got.) Possibly the cops here lean more yellow than red? I'll delve deeper, but I always keep an open mind with what family here tell me, as they are just as easily swayed in their opinions by propaganda as the next Thai. And their TV 'news' is basically slanted by the gov anyway, so what they see/hear is not the full picture most of the time. My wife/family here in Surin is yellow shirt supporters, but family in the village lean possibly toward the red shirt, or at least have more sympathy that way. My wife and her sisters/cousins voted for TRT/Thaksin in the first election. Subsequent elections after his first term they voted against him, as he was seen as very corrupt and 'gin baht too mutt'.

 

They do understand English fairly well if not too complicated a usage, and they did like to see the BBC and CNN pieces reported that I was watching. They were upset at the 'hard talk' (?That the name?) interview of Abhisit by the BBC skinny black chick whose name I don't remember at the moment. They thought she was a bitch and hated her interviewing technique, thought it disrespectful, and saw that she kept interrupting Abhisit and repeating herself/questions trying to get him to say things he had already explained and answered. They said she did not listen to his answers. They say the same to me at times ("You don't listen to us!") :-)

 

Cent

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I think that kind of hard-hitting interview show like Hardtalk would be considered impolite by most Thais. No point telling them it's done for entertainment. ;)

 

 

 

Exactly. Surely not the Thai way. :crazy::rolleyes::doah: Though I also thought the woman interviewing Abhisit was being a jerk and not listening to the answers but going by a prescribed list of questions that had little to do with an actual interview question and answer session. She seemed ill prepared and with little true knowledge on the situation.

 

I prefer true entertainment, not idiotic 'news' personalities trying to somehow score points and be seen as hard core newsmen. There are a few who are actually entertaining and informative. The rest, like the woman interviewing, are wannabes with little skill or personality.

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Ahbisit knew what he was getting into. They tend to go for the 'gotcha' moment. Much too in-your-face for Thais. Agree Badawi wasn't right for the topic. Maybe Sackur didn't want it for some reason.

 

 

 

 

I thought Abhisit handled himself well in that interview. Didn't lose his temper. 55555. Answered the questions posed over and over again. Seemed to know how to handle western style news interviews. He comes across well, intelligent, well spoken, in control of his emotions and thoughtful in his answers, and has excellent English. He comes across as truthful and sincere.

 

I do feel he is ambitious and wants to stay head of state, and may be selling his soul bit by bit to be/stay the leader he feels he CAN be to lead Thailand into the future. Personally I think the fact he was born outside of Thailand and raised and educated outside of Thailand plays against him with the rural voters. They see him as privileged and barely Thai, more a farang than a Thai.

 

I like him though, and feel, under different circumstances, he could have been an effective PM further down the road. This was not a good time for him to come to the forefront.

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