A round up of words, pictures and video from this morning.
Some people justify the UDD’s campaign of blood-pouring rituals, saying the practice has a spiritual or mystical significance that is largely impenetrable to foreigners. That may well be true but none of the Thais I’ve spoken to were impressed by the gaudy and unhygienic waste of a potentially life-saving resource of which the Red Cross never has enough.
Furthermore, we are well into the age of the internet. Quite apart from shrill TV news anchors injecting the disturbing spectacle into living rooms around the world, cheap high-resolution cameras, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter herald a popular revolution in immersive digital connectivity. The rest of the world, too, is unlikely to be impressed.
The Red Shirts seek the moral support of emancipated electorates abroad but voodoo rituals, threats of violence, ethnic slurs, homophobia and rivers of blood are unlikely to appeal to Western notions of civility or democratic freedom. Whatever the opaque reality of the UDD’s strategy (assuming they have one, of course), I am surprised that basic pragmatism has not tempered the tendency to do things “differently” in Thailand.
After all, should peaceful and persistent egalitarian struggle ever manage to right all of the constitutional, judicial and systemic wrongs alleged by the UDD and return Thaksin Shinawatra to the premiership, how will he explain to inquisitive journalists and other national leaders the tactics of his supporters (many of whom, presumably, would then be in his cabinet) or the wide-ranging insults of his own phoned-in speeches?
However, I digress from the avowed aim of this blog, which is to avoid analysis, opinion or supposition and focus instead on distilling a relevant and compelling mix of nuggets from the noise. So, to borrow from a bastion of “fayre and balanced” journalistic excellence, I’ll bring you the reports and you can decide…
WARNING: if you’re the squeamish type or suffer nightmares at the sight of blood, you may want to avoid these links. Even some soldiers and police were visibly taken aback by the sight of all that blood being splashed about.
Patrick Winn: Video: Dousing Thai PM’s Home in Human Blood
American Patrick Winn is the Thailand correspondent for Global Post and his work has been carried by, amongst others, The Christian Science Monitor, USA Today and CNN GO. His latest report provides graphic pictures and video of the blood assault on the home of Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva (FINAL WARNING: lots of blood!).
Nirmal Ghosh: Pushing and shoving in the rain
Thailand correspondent for the Straits Times, Nirmal Ghosh always provides insightful, well-written news coverage. He’s been maintaining a semi-live blog of protest developments. In his latest post, he provides an excellent account of the protesters’ morning at the PM’s house.
Newley Purnell: Thailand blood protest: images from the prime minister’s house today
We’ve featured the work of Newley Purnell before, so there is no need to introduce him. in his latest blog post, Newley brings us a slew of photographs giving us another view of this morning’s activities.
Posts from earlier today
Finally, if you haven’t been following the blog today (shame on you – it’s as easy as Twitter or RSS), we featured some non-blood photographs earlier in the day in Bird’s-eye view of protesters on Wireless Road and Latest pix of protesters outside US embassy in Bangkok.
Bangkok Rally Backgrounder.
What exactly is the cause of all this ruckus? Read some of the background in an earlier post.
