cavanami Posted April 13, 2009 Report Share Posted April 13, 2009 ...the locals here in the 'hood still love Mt. T but are not happy with the Red Shirts... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian2 Posted April 13, 2009 Report Share Posted April 13, 2009 The vast majority of the Red Shirt supporters are royalists - including my university educated wife. What Thaksin has managed to do is convince many poor upcountry folks that those who "have" are somehow responsible for their poverty. They expect some sort of socialist programme, which the multi-billionaire Thaksin and his cronies is sure as hell not going to give them. The proles of both colours are definitely being used. I feel I am almost back in the 1970s again. Thailand doesn't go forward, it goes in circles! p.s. Taxi drivers often point out to me how much money they were making under Thaksin - 2,000 to 3,000 baht a day. They say they were plenty of tourists and they were living high on the hog. Since Thaksin has been gone, there are very few tourists coming and they are lucky to make 1,000 baht a day. The fact that the whole world's economy is farked and tourists can't afford to go anywhere is simply beyond their comprehension. Bangkok taxi drivers aren't alone in blaming their current governments for the worlds problems. Any news from the provinces? Chiang Rai seems to have the major entrance roads blocked and I heard the municipal offices have been broken into and occupied by protesters. As the first day of new year celebrations it will be interesting to see what will happen when the populace gets on the Lao Khau tonight. (Or should I say continues). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torneyboy Posted April 13, 2009 Report Share Posted April 13, 2009 He is very much loved ..by the Thais we mix with here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drogon Posted April 13, 2009 Report Share Posted April 13, 2009 None of my Thai friends/relations love Mr T...although some of them don't love much more the current government. -> they just all agree that violence will solve nothing and that Thailand was slowly changing...some believe it needs time for big changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian2 Posted April 13, 2009 Report Share Posted April 13, 2009 Your Thai friends don't love Mr T because they live in Bangkok drogon, he has got plenty of admirers up here in the north, and in the north east.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted April 13, 2009 Report Share Posted April 13, 2009 My Mrs is in Chiang Rai right now, staying in the old home in her mother's village. She's putting the finishing touches on her doctoral thesis and just wanted some piece and quiet. But the Thaksin mafia has closed down the road in amphur muang and is demonstrating and the muang office. That's all I've heard. Note that a lot of Isaan folks have moved to CR in recent years. My wife's birth village is surrounded by new homes built by Isaan folks. Isaan folks are everywhere now. I know a woman from Yala who told me there were plenty of them down there too. She frowned and said, "Khon Isaan khamoy prathet!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian2 Posted April 13, 2009 Report Share Posted April 13, 2009 There is practically full employment up here, but the vast majority, agricultural and building workers, don't pay income tax. Any attempt to make them do so would REALLY result in civil war. Subsequently the Bangkok middle classes, who Flash works with, resent this... and possibly rightly so. So they support the Democrats, preferring, for some reason, that their taxes go to support the non-taxpaying rich, rather than the non-taxpaying poor. An interesting aside... anyone agree with my suspicion that the xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Suthep Thaugsuban is actually running the country at the moment? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drogon Posted April 13, 2009 Report Share Posted April 13, 2009 Agree Julian2... strangely, the mother of my missus is fully pro red shirts... Fortunately, she is against any violence hence the reason she is not in BKK now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coss Posted April 13, 2009 Report Share Posted April 13, 2009 An interesting aside... anyone agree with my suspicion that the xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Suthep Thaugsuban is actually running the country at the moment? My wife agrees with you.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted April 13, 2009 Report Share Posted April 13, 2009 The taxation issue is one of the main things Bangkok and other urban folks have against Mr T. He was the richest man in the kingdom, but he gave away very little of his own money to charities or scholarships, unlike Bill Gates and other western filthy rich-onaires. Instead, Mr T took the tax money collected from urban residents and gave it to the upcountry proles in the guise of government handouts. It really burned folks in Bangkok to see him using THEIR MONEY to buy votes from people who don't pay taxes. Note that in the last election Thaksin held before he got the army boot virtually all urban areas voted against him, even in the north and Isaan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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