Home … a Red Shirt carries a fan after returning to Chiang Mai from Bangkok.

Many armed themselves with catapults and wooden clubs but also, in some cases, with automatic weapons and grenades. Dozens were killed in Bangkok in recent days, but Mr Somphong said he did not know how many of those who died came from Udon Thani. He said the deaths would inspire more resistance. ”We won’t give up; we will keep fighting for democracy,” he said.

That feeling of difference is reinforced by the fact that Isaan is the poorest region of the country, with low levels of literacy that lead some into low-paid work in Bangkok as maids, drivers of spluttering three-wheeled motorcycle taxis known as tuk-tuks and, for many women, as prostitutes.
The perception that a Bangkok elite looks down on them as crude and uneducated exacerbates a sense of injustice over the 2006 removal of Thaksin, who was in power for five years.

See the full article from “Brisbane Times”




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