"How are things in Bangkok these days?"
That's the question we're asked whenever we travel outside of Thailand. It's difficult to know how to answer. On the surface, everything is back to normal ... more or less. On the Sunday after the week of violence, thousands of Bangkok citizens came out to literally scrub the streets clean in the areas where the Red Shirt protesters had their camps. Half of Central World is still in ruins, but the workers have already started to clean up and rebuild. Meanwhile, the city authorities have set up special pedestrian zones for small shopkeepers to set up stalls and sell to the seemingly insatiable shoppers of this city.
But beneath this return to normalcy, the issues that gave rise to the Red Shirt protests remain. On 19 June 2010, one month after the Red Shirts set fires throughout the city, the front page of the Bangkok Post read: "Reforms Meet Red Rage." While most of the Red Shirt leaders are in custody, others have taken up the cause. The mysterious deaths of several protesters who had taken shelter in a temple -- holy ground, normally inviolable -- are under investigation. Two foreigners -- a Brit and an Australian -- are in custody for having taken part in the violence. The farmers of the northeast look for rain that doesn't fall, crops that don't grow, and an income gap that only seems to expand. And the bullet holes around the city remain.
In retrospect, one of the most perceptive opinion pieces we've read about the situation here came from Sawai Boonma, a development economist, who wrote "A Guide to the Perfect Thai Idiot."
What will happen next? No one really knows. Thai society is going through some major changes, and that's going to be difficult. We're hoping for the best.
