Bangkok, near MBK shops, in about 2010 - a still remarkable photograph, and the second one is also capturing the moment.

I have put this up again because I do feel it is a photo that shows the seriousness of the downtown Bangkok trouble in 2010 in a remarkable way. It was taken either by Bangkok Post or The Nation newspaper photo-journalists...in the centre of a modern and massive city at a time of great discord.

 

It's very interesting to note that during this high tension and very violent period, with tanks in the streets, Psychological Ops bringing in large trucks fitted with sonic cannons to blow and bleed the eardrums of protestors by playing "Imagine" by John Lennon at massive sonic frequencies, that no one stopped business in Bangkok Chinatown. It was open, happy, the food was brilliant, fresh, the shops were all open and there was no strife at all. No one in their right mind, no matter the passion, no matter the hatred, no matter the ideology, no one stops the Chinese from opening their shops. To do so brings on a very awful and bloody situation with massive reprisals and no end to it. Destroy a temple, a mosque, a Church, take over Government House for 3 months, no problem, but don't fuck with Chinese shop owners, because you won't survive that wrath.