Clueless In Bangkok

I guess this has gone on a lot here in Thailand. I, as is generally the case, was completely clueless. There hasn't been a real government here since the Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, resigned in a fit of pique last February.

Here's some background from BBC.

The "caretaker government" however, seemed to be doing fine. Even managed to add an entire new layer to the bureaucracy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Probably at other ministries as well, but MFA is the parent of the Immigration Department, where I go quite often and generally find out I've done something wrong, again. There hasn't been a coup here in The Kingdom since 1992, a long time as such things go around here. Since the first Constitution in 1932 (in which the King ceased to be a God and became a constitutional monarch), there have been 17 coups. Eighteen now. The constitution, the new one (1997) has been suspended. It's going to be given an upgrade.

General Sondhi and Admiral Satiraphan

Thaksin Shinawatra

Army Tank at Government House Bangkok

While I have been clueless, My Students

seem to have known something. Yesterday I was asked by some of them what I thought of PM Thaksin and of General Sondhi. I think (hope) I navigated the suddenly stormy waters all right. I don't believe it was a loyalty test.



It's enough to make one wonder; is this the first of many military takeovers? How long will it take for the United States Army to realize that it need not fight an endless series of lost wars overseas - it can fight one short sharp winnable war right at home? Not that I believe for a moment that is going to happen. I think the United States Constitution is more likely to suffer the death of a thousand cuts, as has been happening lately, than to be tossed on the rubbish heap of history by a group of disgruntled Generals.
But then, as I have already admitted, I am clueless!
I have to go to school now. It's the last week before

Final Exams