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Bangkokban is 10 millióan élnek, a metró és a skytrain mégis jobb ...
Imádtam ott élni. Nincsenek hajléktalanok az utcán, nincsenek koldusok.
Igaz, árúsból van dögivel.
A metró fantasztikus, tiszta stb. Majd megpróbálok felrakni képet.
Bár tény, hogy az autóközlekedés az gáz.
Ez erdekes mert a bangkoki rendorseg szerint 10,000 hajlektalan el Bangkok utcain.
Kivancsi vagyok hogy hova teszik oket.
Ezt az erdekes cikket talaltam.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3115668.stm
Na meg ezt.
The big boys are in town. George W, John Howard and a number of Asian leaders are here in Bangkok to discuss how to make this part of the planet a less attractive place for everyone. Money and terror top the agenda. Surprise, surprise. More money and more terror I suppose. Thanks.
The Thai government has been pro-active in the last weeks to make George's visit a huge success - for the Thai government. Bangkok has had a multi-million dollar facelift that alleviates none of the city's problems but will do to make it look semi-reasonable (only in the eyes of the Thai government) for all of four days.
The roads have been cleared of stray dogs, hookers, garland sellers, beggars and homeless.
The homeless, according to Bangkok's Governor Samak, are much like the stray dogs and building shelters for them would only encourage more vagrancy. Prominent shanty towns have been hidden behind temporary billboards, Cambodian beggars have been loaded onto army planes and flown back home. NGOs and-anti globalisation protesters have been denied entry to the kingdom. The taxi drivers have been told to look out for people who carry wires and batteries around - terrorists apparently. Muslims have been rounded up and harassed. Tourists who look like Muslims (goatees, tan) have been harassed. 'Poor' foreigners with dodgy visas have been arrested and deported, plenty of Westerners amongst them. The Tourism Authority of Thailand has reiterated its current friendly announcement that low-budget tourists were not welcome any longer. (Most of the tourists who come to Thailand are backpackers. Most of the rest are old white men who come here to have sex with young women - these continue to be welcome). Prime Minister Thaksin, the real star of this show, personally threatened journalists not to project anything negative about Thailand in the international press.
The army has been pinning signs that read 'NGO' on the dummies they use for target practice to facilitate the soldiers' intellectual ascent to nationalist brain-death. The rest of the population has been admonished to smile more at foreigners and to wave as many flags as possible. Bangkok is covered in flags.
The real coup is the traffic solution. Bangkok has shut down. Several main roads have been closed for four days to keep Mr Bush safe and sound (though not of mind, it appears). All civil servants have been given the week off and told to leave the capital to reduce the worst traffic in the world to more acceptable dimensions. All hospitals have closed. The expressways that run above Bangkok's clogged traffic arteries have also mostly been shut off.
Twenty thousand police and hundreds of US security goons are worried that Muslims with RPGs would take a pop at the devil.
Lumpini Park, the only bit of green in the city, will be closed in the mornings so John Howard can go on 'powerwalks'. The other joggers, aerobic freaks, dog lovers and anyone else who uses the park can always try and relax in the middle of one of the many six-lane highways that cross the city.
The only anti-Bush demo pulled just 600 demonstrators and as many cops. Many of those were in plain clothes, tried to over-listen every single conversation I had and photographed me all afternoon, along with everyone else present. None of the NGO activists wanted to be quoted by name. Everyone I spoke to was scared, really scared. In fact, this pitiful show of force, in front of one of the city's largest shopping centers, was one of the scariest situations I have ever experienced. The fear was almost visible, at least as much as the cops with their digital cameras. But it was also subliminal, under the surface. It felt as if everyone present there was setting themselves up for future trouble. While all the main TV networks were present, there were few of the several thousand foreign journalists that have descended on Bangkok this week to be seen. They are presumably all enjoying free foot massages or are blowing the 3,000 Baht's worth of coupons the government has handed out to them to keep them happy (most of these, it has turned out, have been changed into beer - thumbs up to the hard-working journos, walking that extra mile for a free drink). Thailand is, of course, a free and happy country, that's why Mr Bush will deepen the long-running military and economic relationship with the kingdom.
The Thai PM, like Mr Bush, is a true believer in human rights and a free world. Like Mr Bush, he is desperate to make peace with the Muslims in his country and like Mr Bush he strives to exterminate poor people and anyone with unreasonable opinions. After all, the Thais followed the US into the Vietnam War 30 years ago, were recently the first Asian country to accept the US exemption from the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, and were the first to send human cannon fodder to Iraq. If nothing else, Mr Thaksin appears to be consistent with history.
To be honest, though, I don't think Mr Thaksin really gives a squirt about the US. The Thai PM basks in the moment of being the high profile host at this ridiculously opulent and fake spectacle. The repressive measures undertaken by the government in the run-up to the summit will probably stay in place. It's all good stuff, convenient and smooth, an opportunity to broaden the power base and squash a few more opponents like so many pieces of dogshit.
But when the US try to muscle PM Thaksin on his own turf (on Burma, for example - The Thais are well known for supporting the crooked regime in Rangoon), he turns the Asian shoulder (can be very cold) and gets on with business. PM Thaksin is already the richest man in the country. I don't suppose he really cares too much about the wider world. He is happy enough that the countries around him - Cambodia, Laos, Burma - remain unstable and poverty-ridden so he can be the biggest kid on the block (after Malaysia of course, a Muslim country, equally repressive internally, but far more critical of the West's neo-colonialist policies than the Thais). Thaksin Shinawatra, Asia's Berlusconi used to sell mobile phone technology. Before that he was a cop. With a degree from Houston, Texas. Now he is PM. Way to go. He has achieved the impossible - multiple reincarnation in a single life-time. Enlightenment for the entire nation is only just round the next corner and can be achieved if they only let him stay in power for another 20 years.
Back at the demo, the cops have started harassing a photographer I work with. First they deny they are actually police. But Thai cops are easy to spot, they look brutal and cruel in uniform as well as out. My friend (who covered the end of Suharto in Jakarta and is used to uniforms with murder in their eyes) flashes his work permit when they start ask him personal questions and loudly complains that he has a right to cover this demonstration and even the right to demonstrate. The cops retreat and shoot at us - with the DV-cams.