Can Bangkok’s former “Brothel King” bring political tension to a happy ending?
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Playing godfather to a brothel empire may seem an odd springboard to becoming an anti-corruption crusader. But any Thai living in Bangkok can recount Chuvit’s path to fame, chronicled in soap opera detail by the Thai press.
In the early 2000s, Chuvit began publicly accusing senior police officers of milking him for an alleged $350,000-plus in monthly bribes. It was protection money, Chuvit claimed. [Brothel bosses can escape prostitution laws through a flimsy legal sleight-of-hand: They rent out masseurs but claim ignorance of in-room activities.]
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People still think of you as the “Brothel King.” But in 2005 you smashed a jacuzzi bathtub in front of parliament to show you’re out of that business. Are you still connected in any way to the massage trade?
See the full article from “GlobalPost”
… He found himself involved in the Red Shirt (anti-government) protests in Bangkok and he was more or less living in a red shirt compound,” Mr Whisson said.
“He wasn’t at the Red Shirt camp when there was a crackdown there last Wednesday. He managed to escape that and managed to move to an apartment.
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It is understood Purcell received similar advice from the Australian Embassy in Bangkok. Mr Whisson said he last heard from his friend “three or four days ago”.
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“Looks like the government wants to make clear its threat that it would show no mercy to foreigners who got involved, they want us here only buying beer and prostitutes,” he wrote.
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Bangkok is returning to normal after a dramatic few weeks in which anti-government red shirt protesters established a fort in the city’s centre and agitated for fresh elections.
See the full article from “WA today”
In the period since March, thousands of his red-shirted followers have been occupying central Bangkok with demands that the government call fresh elections and implement overdue reforms. A brief but forceful crackdown has brought this protest to an end, leaving dozens dead and hundreds hurt. Bangkok and more than 20 provinces are under a state of emergency, which involves an overnight curfew.
According to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, these regulations have to stay until full normality is back. The leaders of the red-shirted rioters have given themselves up. Those with involvement in terrorism, looting or arson are going to face justice. Residents who suffered injury or damage are eligible for compensation. King Phumiphon Adunyadet is being widely looked forward to for a judgment on the situation.
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Russia and some 60 other countries have cautioned nationals against visiting central Bangkok. All other Thai areas, including all popular beach resorts, are absolutely safe. My friends there tell me about crowded restaurants, beaches and massage parlors. As for central Bangkok, it is sealed off, and there is no way you can get there for the time being, said Alexei Ionov,
Russian official in Bangkok.
Home … a Red Shirt carries a fan after returning to Chiang Mai from Bangkok.
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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.
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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.
A mask of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Red rose and banners are left by anti-government red shirt protesters after clashes with the country’s security forces in central Bangkok May 20, 2010.
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Last night, survivors of Bangkok’s bloody week were scrambling home to the north and north-east on buses and trains.
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Mr Somphong did not know how many of those who died in Bangkok came from Udon Thani, but he said the deaths would inspire further resistance: ”We won’t give up. We will keep fighting for democracy.”
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The feeling of difference is reinforced by the fact that Isaan is the poorest region of the country. It has low levels of literacy that lead some into low-paid work in Bangkok as maids, motorcycle taxi drivers and, for many women, as prostitutes.
See the full article from “The Age”
The Gion nightclub, named after the historic geisha district in Kyoto,
usually teems with Japanese tourists intent on experiencing Bangkok’s
pleasures of the flesh. Just across the street is a rather more decorous
building, the private residence of Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
The proximity of the Thai leader’s home to a glorified brothel not to
mention the attendant street vendors selling grilled fish, iced coffee and
chili-spiked papaya salad to Gion’s working ladies exemplifies the easy
contrasts of this city of 10 million people. Bangkok, wrote author Alec
Waugh in 1970, “has been so loved because it is the expression of the Thais
themselves, of their lightheartedness, their love of beauty, their reverence
for tradition, their sense of freedom, their extravagance.”
See the full article from “TIME”
BANGKOK, THAILAND (ANS) — A ministry worker in Bangkok says she woke up to the sound of helicopters and explosions as Red Shirt demonstrators held out against government forces in their demands for early elections to replace a government they deemed illegitimate and elitest.
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“This morning, Bangkok is a war zone. The Red Shirts have taken their riots to different areas of the city and have been burning tires, cars, and buildings. This morning a group of 30 teenagers set the Narcotics control building on fire. That has now been put out. A hospital building and a couple banks have also been set on fire this morning. Black smoke fills the sky. The army has run out of patience with the rioters and this morning they have brought tanks and are breaking through the barriers set up at the Red Camp. The sound of explosions and gunfire has become a regular background noise in our environment.”
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In Bangkok, Nightlight operates as a business (NightLight Design, Co. Ltd) and a non-profit (NightLight Foundation). In the United States, NightLight operates as a 501(c ) 3 with branches in Los Angeles and Atlanta.
See the full article from “allvoices”
Bangkok – Bangkok may have been convulsed with its worst political violence in a generation over the past five days, when 37 died in bloody street fighting, but in much of the capital it is business as usual, albeit with less traffic.
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Until Thursday, when the de-facto military leader of the so-called red shirt rebellion was shot in the head by a sniper, the demonstrations had been confined to the Ratchaprasong commercial district. It existed as a city-within-a-city with its own makeshift restaurants, souvenir vendors, pharmacies, black-shirted police force and even massage parlours.
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An order to shut down government offices this week and delay the reopening of some 400 schools in Bangkok has disrupted the business-as-usual attitude of many Thais outside the red zone.
But within the red zone at Ratchaprasong, life goes on as usual despite the government’s efforts to place a stranglehold on the neighbourhood, which is normally Bangkok’s prime hub for upscale shopping malls and five-star hotels.
When observers talk about how the bloody crisis in Bangkok is a clash of two different Thailands, they have two particular places in mind.
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Lamoon was perhaps being a little unfair. Abhisit did try to visit the nearby town of Nong Khai back in March, but hundreds of red shirt protesters sent him scurrying away by helicopter. Crowds in several north-eastern provinces have in the past months blocked roads and rail lines to prevent reinforcements to Bangkok.
To many middle class, urban Thais, Isaan is a place of rustics and bumpkins and many have shown a stunning lack of sympathy for the deaths in Bangkok, dismissing protesters as ‘buffalos’—slow, stupid and in the thrall of Thaksin. For the protesters, this perhaps rankles more than anything else. On the streets of Bangkok, many protesters have proudly worn the label of ‘prai,’ an antiquated term roughly meaning commoner. In Isaan, red shirt supporters are fully aware that subsequent governments have continued many of Thaksin’s pro-poor policies. But this isn’t the point.
See the full article from “The Diplomat”
Agnes Dherbeys for The New York Times The entrance of the Four Seasons Hotel in Bangkok, which has been closed for about a month, was blocked Monday by a barricade of razor wire.
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“Patpong is the sex entertainment center of Bangkok,” he said. “The red shirts have basically closed it down because it’s located near of the center of their protests.”
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Charoen Wangananont, a spokesman for the Federation of Thai Tourism Associations, told The Bangkok Post: “What is certain is that the recovery process will be long and costly. This is the worst crisis ever faced in the history of the Thai tourism industry.”
Bangkok is already planning its cleanup operation once the protesters move out of the high-end shopping area they have occupied. The city administration said it would clean roads, sewers and water mains; remove garbage; and bring in 1,000 monks to chant and accept alms. Surveillance cameras, disabled by the protesters, will be repaired.