Bangkok, Monday.
– Did you get something to eat?
This is the most common question I have received from Thais lately. No wonder because it’s a way to greet each other in Thailand. Food is important for Thais. It should preferably be eaten all the time. Everything from small skewers, fried bananas or small bunches of palm leaves stuffed with rice and something sweet. The list is almost endless of foods that can be bought pretty much everywhere in Thailand. You do not have to go far before you find a bench or small cart where you can buy something to still the craving in the stomach with.
The locations of the ongoing protests here in Bangkok and around Thailand is no exception. The demonstrations have attracted tens of thousands of people and in Thailand you can not demonstrate on an empty stomach. Therefore, it is not entirely wrong to compare the demonstrations with a large food festival. Often the food vendors stand there with their carts with gas kitchens even before the first protesters have gathered. Dishes from virtually all of the country’s different provinces are available to choose from.
A few weeks ago, one of the largest protests so far took place near the Royal Palace in Bangkok. It was pure Christmas Eve for the food vendors. Thousands of people who would have food for almost two days. When I was on my way to the area, I counted over seventy mobile kitchens that were pulled by hand, with bicycles or mopeds that all had a goal in mind, to challenge those who had gathered to protest. Suddenly my colleague disappeared from my side. She was gone for almost an hour before returning with a big smile.
– I found a cart that sells food from my home village, here to taste, she said, and handed out a salad with pomelo fruit, nuts and chili. Her hour-long excursion was definitely worth it.
Late in the evening, the raw materials began to run out for some of the mobile kitchens. Then came a new caravan with refills of everything that hungry protesters want. No one should have to protest hungry.
I experienced the same thing when I was in southern Thailand and met villagers demonstrating outside the town hall in a town called Songkhla. Before you put up your banners and started shouting slogans, you unpacked all the food you had brought. It was seafood, fish, curry stews, rice, vegetables and lots of goodies that were served on a large blue tarpaulin that was folded out so that everyone could sit on the ground without getting dirty. The villagers invited everyone who passed by and soon there were villagers, officials from the town hall, police and other passers-by and a pile of what was offered. Everyone was happy and enjoyed the food. When everyone had had enough food, it was time to start the demonstration.
– We can not demonstrate hungry, Now it will be good and no one will be angry, said Yah who had invited me to follow the demonstration. She’s probably right, a measured protester is a nice protester.
In addition to the availability of food, I am quite convinced that there is another thing that distinguishes demonstrations in, say, Europe and the Western world, from those that are now taking place in Thailand. It is here in Bangkok that the protesters are making sure not to leave any rubbish behind. According to the protesters, they do not want the authorities or opponents to be able to say that they are littering and destroying the environment. Something that protesters in other countries should learn something from.
Peder Gustafsson, Bangkok
[имейл защитен]
Източник: ИСЛАНДИЯ НОВИНИ