The Upsetting News Thread

[justTripn]

HA HA!!! I enjoyed that story. I confess I revert to stereotype with regard to DVD players and computers and printers and VCRS. I start yelling at the thing and whimpering that it's IMPOSSIBLE! and Tony (or one of my boys) always runs to my rescue. I figure these guys don't do any other type of work around the house so why not?

[honeybee]

RIP Dixie Carter:

A great actress and she and Hal Holbrook, who found each other later in life, were very much in love:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV86kehw ... re=related

[Alelou]

Awww. She was great.

(Hal Holbrook too.)

[justTripn]

I probably shouldn't even post this without formulating a coherent message first, but the news out of Thailand is very distressing. A usually peaceful country has erupted in violence for reasons that are very complicated. But the current government is putting down antigovernment protesters and some of the protesters are burning buildings to the ground (TV stations, large stores and banks, and, in the provinces, city halls) and preventing the firefighters from getting to the buildings. Some people even died in a burning temple. The scenes from Bangkok look like 9/11 in NYC. Much of the smoke is from burning tires, but many beautiful buildings have been burned to the ground. I can't even post the links because some of the scenes are not rated PG-13 or less. The posts and tweets from the scene are like "I can't believe this is happening" "I am heartbroken. This isn't Thailand" One TV station burned to the ground playing a new song by Khun At (the singer I had in my avatar) until the signal went dead. Doutbless the song was calling for peace. I also feel like this is unthinkable. It is night there now and so perhaps not much is happening and it will be calm in the morning.

[justTripn]

I probably shouldn't even post this without formulating a coherent message first, but the news out of Thailand is very distressing. A usually peaceful country has erupted in violence for reasons that are very complicated. But the current government is putting down antigovernment protesters and some of the protesters are burning buildings to the ground (TV stations, large stores and banks, and, in the provinces, city halls) and preventing the firefighters from getting to the buildings. Some people even died in a burning temple. The scenes from Bangkok look like 9/11 in NYC. Much of the smoke is from burning tires, but many beautiful buildings have been burned to the ground. I can't even post the links because some of the scenes are not rated PG-13 or less. The posts and tweets from the scene are like "I can't believe this is happening" "I am heartbroken. This isn't Thailand" One TV station burned to the ground playing a new song by Khun At (the singer I had in my avatar) until the signal went dead. Doutbless the song was calling for peace. I also feel like this is unthinkable. It is night there now and so perhaps not much is happening and it will be calm in the morning.

Oh, and last week one of my Thai facebook friends said her friend, who was a peace activist, had been shot in the street.

[Alelou]

Is there some weird ominous underground threat going on here? This is something you expect from Burma, not Thailand.

[Rigil Kent]

Aliens. They're setting everything up for the invasion in 2012.

[honeybee]

Thailand is a mess! Very, very scary that such a peaceful country that was until recently very much trying to get its act together could devolve so quickly.

[justTripn]

Well, I knew I would be spreading rumors by posting without formulating a coherent message. The temple was not burned. When the government tried to disperse the prostesters, a thousand of them crowded into the temple and there were some skirmishes. When the temple was emptied there were like 9 dead bodies found in the temple (presumably from the fighting on the streets). I read these accounts at Paknam Web Forums, where many foreign correspondents living in Thailand post. The media was targeted by the protesters (newspapers and TV stations) because the protesters didn't like the coverage they were getting. There was alot of sympathy for the complaints of the protesters going into this. (They are pro-poor and calling for new elections), but it all turned ugly at the end with class warfare type actions. The burned building that everyone is mourning today was called "Central World" a beautiful shopping mall. The protesters cheered as Central World burned to the ground and some even gathered the next day to cheer. There abandoned stage read "Peaceful Protesters, Not Terroists." Very eeiry. On my facebook someone posted a picture of a police officers whose arm and leg were blown off in an attack along with a portrait of this person prior to the attack. Oh, and things seem to be generally quiet today, which is good.

[panyasan]

It's horrible news about Thailand, JT. I have friends living there and I visit this beautiful country four years ago. Strange to see how things can change. I feared for a militairy coupe, but I sure hope to be proven wrong.

[justTripn]

Oh, and Channel 3 is back on the air, so it did not burn to the ground. Many banks and other buildings did.

[Aikiweezie]

There's very little coverage on this situation. Nothing on FOX, MSNBC or CNN's front pages. Usually I look to the BBC Website for International news if it's lacking in the U.S. press and even they have nothing today.

[justTripn]

I am looking in vain for a link that is rated PG-13 or less. Here is a link to the Paknam Web Forums, from there you can click on the links at your own risk.

The unfolding of events (last page of thread):

http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthr ... 61&page=18

The aftermath:

http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthr ... 61&page=18

Also, panyasan, the current government was put in place by a military coupe. It seems that military coupes are at least as common as elections in Thailand. There was at least one military coupes in the two years I was there. The military coupes have always been bloodless, or nearly so. They just roll the tanks down the street and take over a TV station. I think one foreign reporter died in the coupe when I was there. That is the usual way.

[honeybee]

The situation is getting more coverage here than in America. It's in heavy rotation on the BBC and covered by The Guardian and The Times.

Daily Mail is busy with the mother-kills-her-child/father is alleged pedophile story. Which is also way depression but not nearly as important as Thailand.

[justTripn]

Things seems to be going back to normal in Thailand. The two peole I know there will be returning to Bangkok soon and are beginning to post about events other than the the recent crisis. The Prime Minister promises that elections will be held after a cooling off period. We can hope that will happen.