<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Hi Justin,<div><br></div><div>Below are some articles and blog entries on the unfolding Thai crisis.</div><div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div>Maureen Hickey Putnam</div><div>Doctoral Candidate</div><div>Department of Geography</div><div>University of Washington</div><div>Seattle, WA USA<br><div><br></div><div>Newsweek has an interesting piece on the broader meaning of events in Thailand. A little simplistic, but still interesting:</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; "><div class="BlogPostPreHeader" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 10px; line-height: 10px; font-family: arial; ">Posted <span class="BlogPostDate" style="font-weight: bold; ">Monday, April 13, 2009 9:59 AM</span></div><h4 class="BlogPostHeader" style="font-size: 20px; line-height: 23px; font-family: arial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">The Rise of Red-Shirt Capitalism</h4><div class="BlogPostAuthor2" style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px; color: rgb(71, 69, 55); font-family: arial; ">Michael Hirsh</div><div id="BlogPostContent" class="BlogPostContent" style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="BlogPostWords"><div style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span style="font-size: 12pt; "><font face="Times New Roman"><o:p></o:p></font></span></div><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">Watching the protests in Thailand over the weekend brought back some distant memories for me—of covering the pro-democracy protests in that country nearly 17 years ago, in May of 1992. Then, as now, the country was paralyzed, but the story line was a lot simpler in those days. Then it was a nascent middle class clamoring for Thailand’s emergence from military autocracy, making use of technologies like fax machines and cell phones to spread the word and undermining official state TV. It was all part of that simplistic “end-of-history” model we were enthralled with back then. Once people got a taste of prosperity, they wanted open political expression. And boy, were they becoming prosperous in the ‘90s, or so we thought. Western-style open-market economies had dominated in the great cold war contest of alternative ideologies. Even Vietnam found itself surrounded by Asian Tigers -- the cold war dominoes had fallen the other way. The end of the cold war was nigh, as was the collapse of the Soviet Union (that would take place six months later). The ultimate victor, we all knew, would be freedom. And not some abstract concept of freedom -- instead, we all were coming to the belief that the freedom to think and vote and act freely was intrinsically linked to the freedom to invent some hot new technology or to start up your own business. It was a moment of history when the truth really did seem simple.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">Now we know better. And nothing demonstrates how complex things have become than the travails of Thailand. The latest protests, after all, are not just a story of brave freedom-seeking demonstrators versus evil authoritarians. Yes, the target of their immediate ire is the latest military coup, the one that toppled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006. But Thaksin was also corrupt, and the economic inequalities he did little to ameliorate during his increasingly authoritarian tenure have become acute with the latest economic crisis. And as Thaksin faces charges at home, the former telecom magnate has been funneling money to the protesters, known as Red Shirts, who have their own satellite TV channel. Many Thais genuinely want a return to democracy, but Thaksin is hardly the hero of the future.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">The deeper problem is the flaws in that rapidly obsolescing old globalization model—free-markets produce democracy which in turn produces general happiness—still need to be addressed. The model is long overdue for rethinking and rejiggering. In the wake of the subprime mortgage fallout, we have realized that simply letting capital flow freely—the global financial system we have depended on—isn’t working. We’ve also known for years that while free trade is generally good, the world is not flat, that globalization has deepened income inequalities rather than narrowed them. Overall globalization is still the way to go: No country, not even would-be rogues like Iran and Russia, has found a way around the iron law of the post-cold war global order: in order to be influential or powerful, a nation must be prosperous; and in order to be prosperous, its economy must take part in the international system. But simply coasting on those verities won’t cut it any more. I’m not sure what the answer is exactly, but to try to find out I’ve begun reading a book by Joseph Stiglitz that for too long I’ve ignored: “Making Globalization Work.”</p></span></div></span></div><div>Here is the link:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/wealthofnations/archive/2009/04/13/the-rise-of-red-shirt-capitalism.aspx">http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/wealthofnations/archive/2009/04/13/the-rise-of-red-shirt-capitalism.aspx</a></div><div><br></div><div>Also, New Mandala (<a href="http://rspas.anu.edu.au/rmap/newmandala/)">http://rspas.anu.edu.au/rmap/newmandala/)</a> out of ANU has some interesting things up right now, including a link to this article:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2009/04/13/thailands-songkran-crisis-of-2009-2/">http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2009/04/13/thailands-songkran-crisis-of-2009-2/</a></div><div><br></div><div>and a link to the Thai Photo Blogs which has some interesting images up (warning, some are graphic):</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.thaiphotoblogs.com/">http://www.thaiphotoblogs.com/</a></div><div><br></div><div>They have also posted a first person account from a reader:</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10px; "><h2 style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; "><a href="http://rspas.anu.edu.au/rmap/newmandala/2009/04/13/battle-at-dindaeng-bangkok-13-april-2009/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Battle at Dindaeng, Bangkok, 13 April 2009" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); text-decoration: none; ">Battle at Dindaeng, Bangkok, 13 April 2009</a></h2><h4 style="font: italic normal normal 1.2em/normal Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; color: rgb(136, 136, 136); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.25em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; background-image: url(http://rspas.anu.edu.au/rmap/newmandala/wp-content/themes/cutline-3-column-split-11/images/hr_title_sep.gif); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: 0px 100%; ">April 13th, 2009 by Nicholas Farrelly · <a href="http://rspas.anu.edu.au/rmap/newmandala/2009/04/13/battle-at-dindaeng-bangkok-13-april-2009/#comments" title="Comment on Battle at Dindaeng, Bangkok, 13 April 2009" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(136, 136, 136); text-decoration: none; ">6 Comments</a></h4><div class="entry" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.65em; "><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; ">We received the following account from a <em style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">New Mandala</em> reader in Bangkok. It provides a very personal perspective on the events around Dindaeng earlier today.</p><blockquote style="font-style: italic; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 30px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 30px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 10px; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: white; font-size: 1em; "><div style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Around 4.19 am. I was woken up by the sound of something like gunshots but I wasn’t sure. I live near the junction between Rachavithi and Rachaprarop Roads - not far from the Dindaeng triangle. So I went out to have a look. I saw many taxi drivers taking their cars to block the roads and a number of red group protesters around. Some of them told me that the sound I heard was that of the soldiers throwing tear gas at the red protesters at the triangle. I saw two ambulances went in and not long later they came out with some people inside. The people there seemed to be very angry and when one of them shouted “‘one of us is dead, brothers”, the rest ran along shouting with anger. Someone came along with something that looked like a container of fuel and not long after I saw a fire being lit not far in front. But it didn’t look like the news of death was true. It was clarified later that the soldiers used tear gas but still people did not back off. One of the taxi drivers got off his car parked in front of me and opened up the rear, took out a baton and a piece of cloth then wrapped it around his face and then walked up to the frontline. Another taxi driver told me soldiers fired tear gas at people protesting in other parts of town too. People asked each other was there any members of the media around and got no answer. Then something happened in the front and people started to run. I did too - back to my room. More gunshot-like sound was heard again and again - just now - in fact- but I stayed inside feeling all ashamed that may be people are killing each other out there but I can’t do anything.</div><div style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </div><div style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I checked the television and got no news. There were programs on someting about the royal visit to somewhere on the Thai PBS, the public television and channel 11 has a monk preaching about how bad it is to block the roads. He said people who did this invited trouble on themselves because there might be someone too angry to control themselves and throw a bomb at them. “Even me, sometimes I thought - let’s get them. You see. Even a monk. But I can suppress that thought.” I changed the program and checked out some websites and got into a chat room of the red group. They were complaining about the media. One of them said ‘”I hope they rot in hell. They let us die and are not even reporting on it.” Outside I hear more of the gunshot-like sounds again. I hear people shouting and someone urging people to join others at Government House. </div><div style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Dawn now.</div><div style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div></blockquote></div></span></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div></body></html>