Sawatdee Pii Mai
They’re calling it “Songkran Sii Dam” or the Black New Year. Its supposed to be the most festive three days of the year in Thailand; but this year no one feels like celebrating. From a half-empty Khao San road, usually the wildest of the New Years parties, we could look up and see columns of smoke rising from red-shirt controlled sections of the city. Intersections across Bangkok were littered with the remnants of burnt-out buses that the red-shirts had captured, torched and then sent hurdling towards the army barricades. And to cap it off, I came home today to a column of twenty tanks driving on my street, with humvees and groups of heavily-armed soldiers standing at everyone corner.
This city, and this country, are deeply divided. The political and social fabric of the country has been manipulated and torn apart by clashing power factions, leaving the city devasted, blood on the streets and bitterness in everyone’s hearts. There’s no turning back from how far they’ve come but no one knows what happens next. So there’s really no point in saying Sawatdee Pii Mai (happy new year) this year, because no one is looking forward to what’s ahead.
