It has been almost three weeks since the Red Shirts arrived in town. The staging area for the initial protests was centered near the Parliament building but, when things didn't go as planned, the Red Shirts began to parade around town, causing massive traffic jams and forcing businesses to close for days at a time.A couple of times we have found ourselves in the middle of a protest march - not by our own doing - and we hurried to find a hasty retreat from the area. We live a couple of hundred yards from a major thoroughfare in Bangkok and the Red Shirts have not been shy to march down this particular avenue to try to get their message across. There are thousands and thousands of people here for the demonstration. Most have come from the smaller provinces around the country and there doesn't seem to be any kind of rush to try to get the situation resolved - either from the side of the government or the protestors.
However, I sense something will be coming to a head fairly soon. Either (1) the prime minister will dissolve the Parliament and the red shirts will win, (2) the red shirts will give up and return to their homes, or (3) there will be some kind of physical confrontation which will precipitate violence. Scenarios 1 and 2 do not seem very viable. However, there is a chance the red shirts will suspend the protest next week and take it up again at a later date. A very important Thai holiday is coming up next week and I imagine most of the Red Shirts will want to celebrate the holiday with their families. One other scenario which seems rather remote would be for the prime minister to relinquish his position so, I would assume, new elections must be held. This would allow both sides to save face - which is so very important in Thai socieity - though this possibility doesn't seem very realistic.
In any event, the protest, up to this point, has been mostly peaceful. There have been a few grenades and bombs and some minor skirmishes between individuals but, for the most part, the protests seem to take on a party atmosphere. But, as time drags on and patience becomes thin, the possibility for expanded violence becomes more of a possibility.
All of our company personnel are safe and take extreme caution to try to not place themselves in a situation near protests that could escalate and become uncontrollable. Pray for the country and the leaders of both groups that clearer heads might prevail. Millions of people are suffering heavy, heavy monetary losses and there is no doubt that it will take a long time for the country to regroup and become united again. It is our hope the Father would somehow use this opportunity to show Thais that are living in the darkness how much freedom there is to live in the light.
