| April 9, 2010 |  Email to a friend  Permalink |
Unrest in Thailand
Its great to see whats happening.
Its also great to see press photographers prepared for the worst. Thanks for putting your lives at risk to show the world whats happening.
Even with the violence, you still see humanity with protesters and police attending to an injured person like in #16...
What amazes me, in these photos, is the civility shown to the soldiers and riot police by the protesters. While there is no shortage of violence, including thrown rocks, fire bombs, and so forth, simultaneously you see protesters assisting injured soldiers, and allowing them to retreat peacefully when it became necessary.
It makes for an interesting contrast when compared to the events in Kyrgistan.
Nice to see to protesters returning the weapons that were seized from policemen. Big UP! to the journalists risking their lives to take the pictures.
Year of the unrest?
We are living in interesting times - these images will reach far further than those rocks... I think perhaps this protest might work. The civility shown to fallen soldiers and the return of captured weapons are very clever tools to win the minds of the soldiers. Soon they will not want to stand in the protesters way.
I'd love to see #25 on the larger scale, showing the Monks between the two battling parties.
Excellent photos; can't help but be glad there were no "click if you'd like to view this image" photos. I'll take a bit of hope anywhere I can.
Nice to see the protesters are making their point and then giving the guns back. Good on them. It certainly helps their cause.
Of course we can see some of the violence that is expected in such events, but I am very impressed to see people helping each other, regardless of the color of their clothing. The fact that the protesters left peacefully 20 minutes after taking parliament, and have been returning the weapons they have taken from the police is incredible. Also, notice that most of the soldiers' rifles are not loaded (there are no magazines in any of the G3s or M16s).
Compare this to this www.wikileaks.com ( warning: may contain shocking images.)
kind regards, love you all
amazing photos, especially to see such humanity in a riot scene. such black and white contrast to how the riots went down in kergyzstan. I applaud the repsect the protestors have for the riot police and armed forces.
Come on Thailand! you can do better than that. not one graphic warning.
you are not trying hard enough
Thank you for this small window into what is happening in Thailand. There seems to be great differences between the story told by these pictures and the ones told by the collection of photos from Kyrgyzstan.
Congratulations to photographers able to capture the spirit of two very different protest groups.
Kudos to Big Picture for showing us such great breaking news photos on the same day these events are happening, on the other side of the world from where I sit -- both these today and the ones from Kyrgyzstan on Wednesday.
I love Thailand, how great is Buddhism! People protect each other while protesting, they know life is so precious to lose. Politics is essential and good, only if it takes no life.
This is the second article about political protest in less than two weeks that gives no background on what is really happening. Lets pick up the journalism side of photojournalist a little bit.
I don't like when protest people attack soldiers. It's only their job to protect buildings etc. And they throw to them rocks etc. And then they complain that police must use brutal attack to stop them. It's my opinion.
thanks yopu, good photo collection
displaying the photos in chronological order would make it easier to comprehand events...
note unarmed protesters... except rocks and the fire bombs which were new to me... and very fully armed (but not loaded) riot control soldiers
its a class war in Thailand... the government and commanders on one side, the protesters and most of the soldiers in sympathy
note the government has moved soldiers back in to Thaicom satellite station and switched the protesters station off again
note an Israeli satellite services company has been forced to cooperate with the Thai government because their other channels have been affected by the switch off... Thaicom believe this violates international law
We were in Bangkok during the last clash in Nov/Dec 2008 when the yellow shirts (red shirt opposition) successfully protested to remove the prime minister. The yellow shirts closed down both Bangkok airports stranding 10's of thousands of tourists for 11 to 12 days. An election was hastily held to elect the current prime minister that the red shirts are now trying to oust. A continuous cycle. Elections have little merit. The unrest has had a significant impact on tourism - the #1 industry in a very poor country.
Love the country . . . the culture, the people, the food. I would love to return.
Great photos but i'm scared about the photos that we will see tomorrow. I have a very bad feeling. You can't move 100000 soldiers (1/3 of the whole thai army) and expect nothing to happen.
Pretty pictures. I think you need to be made aware of how this is being view from here by most long term expats best explained as below. Quoted in full without any changes from the Thaivisa.com forum for expats. (For those unaware Madoff equals Taksin the former ousted and now convicted PM).
"Let me break it down for the Americans out there. The Red shirts are like hillbillies from the Ozarks and Appalachians. Poor, not well educated and a bit marginalized by the rest of the country. They idolize a corrupt billionaire named Bernie Madoff, they thinks he's the cat's ass. Bernie is in jail for his misdeeds but sees these rubes as his ticket to freedom and the restoration of his ill gotten fortune. He tries to enlist the help of a million of these fine folks, but through bribery and angry rhetoric he only manages to get 50,000 to participate in his scheme. He has them march on Washington, he even puts gas in their pickups so they can make the journey. They occupy the streets of the nation's capitol. They piss on the sidewalks and make a nuisance of themselves. They loiter and block intersections and hang out at the Lincoln memorial. They hope by doing this that Obama will not only pardon Bernie, but that he'll declare him the new President. Sounds insane doesn't it? What about the other 300 million or so citizens? Shouldn't they get a say? No, all that matters is that Bernie Madoff gets rich and powerful once more. And when he does his protesters can go back to moonshining and marrying their cousins.
And that in a nutshell is what it is like to live in Thailand these days."
Please, check out my blog and spread it as much as you can. It's a response to demonizing of Reds.
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