my thoughts on the political turmoil.

being an outsider to the political turmoil here in thailand, I really have no desire to get involved. but having lived here in bangkok for the last 10 years, you cannot help but get exposed to the viewpoints from both sides of the turmoil.

so, what does this lounge lizard think of the whole thing, you ask?

my thoughts...

there is a class struggle going on. not everyday, but often I see obviously rich thais pushing their status to get in front of others in line. with no concern for "fairness". this obvious mentality is reflected in the prices of foodstuff sold in all the stores. during the recent oil crisis, when the price of oil increased, prices of everything else increased. this in itself is understandable. but what doesn't make sense is - WHEN the price of oil plummeted, why didn't the price of food also go back down?

besides the class struggle, you also have this element of a vast population of confused individuals who have been brainwashed into believing that they are fighting for the right side for the right reasons. yet when questioned about their motives, they cannot argue intelligently with hard facts to back their claims.

as I see it, this phenomena is happening on both sides of the struggle.

everybody is looking for change, but not sure how to go about obtaining it.

the end result is that everybody will get hurt because of the turmoil.

so, what is the solution, you ask?

in my eyes, the solution lies in dealing with the basics..

feed the people, provide jobs, provides shelter, provide entertainment. and everybody will be happy.

who cares who is the president or the prime minister if everybody is happy. right?

if I was elected PM of thailand, the first thing I would do is - force prices on all foodstuff back to pre-turmoil levels. then, I would start building dams all over the country to control the yearly floods that logically should not be allowed to persist. with these new dams, I would built canals which would allow one to transport the water to those areas in the country that have no access to a storage of water. dams also mean hydro-electric power. building these dams require people. jobs will be created.

in an effort to become energy independent, I would get the universities into focusing on ways to implement green technology into the country. rather than spend all their time on making robots, I would get the students to focus on how to take advantage of the tremendous amount of sunlight that thailand receives each year.

people built these heat shields on top of buildings all over the place. maybe they could convert these shields into solar energy collecting platforms. thailand has been blessed with many beaches, sources of silicon,... silicon that can used to make solar panels. another job producing industry really to start up.

when the dams and the solar strategic implementation is underway, later on, some of the electricity generated can be used to separate hydrogen gas from water through electrolysis. perhaps some research can be done by the universities to see if hydrogen gas can be used to replace the LPG tanks currently used on tuk-tuks, and cars. you don't need to come up with a tank that provides fuel to transport a vehicle 300 miles. 150 miles is ok since thailand is so compact. current gas stations which are all over the country and not more than 100 miles apart can also be used as refill stations for replacing depleted hydrogen canisters. yet more jobs.

I have other ideas. but for the moment, I have to run. so, I will leave it for another day to expound on them.

I just got a call from da brain. time to meet up and eat.