No picture today, because all the pictures you'd need are on the international news. A state of emergency has been declared here in Bangkok. There's a curfew, but apparently the curfew is more of a strong suggestion that one stay home tonight, rather than a warning that you can be arrested or shot just for walking the streets. Given that, I'm still going over to my friends' apartment at Nana, since they say there's nothing at all unusual going on outside in their neighborhood. Apparently Siam and Victory Monument are sites to stay away from tonight, though. I heard there are tanks out there, although you shouldn't believe it just because I heard it.
The state of emergency, if you're confused, is due to the escalation of the UDD (red shirts) protests in Pattaya, and here in Bangkok. Pattaya, 2 hours from here, was the site of the 14th ASEAN summit, until it was "postponed indefinitely" because of the red shirt anti-government protests.
Anyway, I'm fine. Have a good evening.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Thursday, April 09, 2009
More Protests! And the Day off Work to Boot
I've been in Laos for 4 days, but more about that later. What's more interesting is that when I got BACK from Laos into Bangkok last night the anti-government protests had escalated and Sukhumwit Road was blocked by "red-shirts"* right in front of my apartment. They were friendly - I walked right through - and it didn't feel dangerous or uncomfortable, but it did help me understand why it had taken the van I was in twice the normal time coming from the airport. Sukhumwit (Sukhumvit) Road is the major thoroughfare of Bangkok, so blocking it is a big deal, although given the traffic conditions in Bangkok (especially on Sukhumwit) on a normal day, one might be tempted to say it wouldn't make much of a difference. Here's a pretty boring video.
They're just hanging around, cheering, being spoken to through a bullhorn, and generally being peacefully disobedient to the public order. I could hear them from up on my 9th-floor balcony too. I'm not sure if they're still out there this morning, but my boss called at 9am and said not to bother coming into work, so I guess wherever they are, they're still doing a pretty good job of disrupting things. Apparently the prime minister has actually called an official holiday today, too, to ease the situation. On the one hand, even more protests are bad for the economy (particularly tourism) but on the other hand, I do kind of feel like it's the red shirts' turn, to be fair. They oppose the "yellow shirts", who shut down the airports for a long time in November and December. Now the party supported by (though not directly affiliated with) the yellow shirts is in power, and naturally the red shirts want to make their own disapproval known. Shutting down the city is an unfortunate way to do that, but it's true that the yellow shirts set the precedent. To sum up: I have the day off work. Yay!
*The red shirts are more properly known as members of the U.D.D.: "United front for Democracy against Dictatorship". The yellow shirts are members of the P.A.D.
They're just hanging around, cheering, being spoken to through a bullhorn, and generally being peacefully disobedient to the public order. I could hear them from up on my 9th-floor balcony too. I'm not sure if they're still out there this morning, but my boss called at 9am and said not to bother coming into work, so I guess wherever they are, they're still doing a pretty good job of disrupting things. Apparently the prime minister has actually called an official holiday today, too, to ease the situation. On the one hand, even more protests are bad for the economy (particularly tourism) but on the other hand, I do kind of feel like it's the red shirts' turn, to be fair. They oppose the "yellow shirts", who shut down the airports for a long time in November and December. Now the party supported by (though not directly affiliated with) the yellow shirts is in power, and naturally the red shirts want to make their own disapproval known. Shutting down the city is an unfortunate way to do that, but it's true that the yellow shirts set the precedent. To sum up: I have the day off work. Yay!
*The red shirts are more properly known as members of the U.D.D.: "United front for Democracy against Dictatorship". The yellow shirts are members of the P.A.D.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Watching The Presidential Inauguration
Did you guys know that 'inauguration' is 'assermentation' in French? Well dig it. Now you do.
I'm in my apartment in Bangkok. It's after midnight, early Wednesday the 21st of January, and I just finished watching Barack Hussein Obama's inauguration.
Some good quotes:
From Barack: "...but we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." (I forget exactly to whom that was addressed, but you get the picture. It's a nice image.)
Poet Elizabeth Alexander, sadly, seems to be one of those poets who reads her own poetry pretty badly. I thought she was pretty bland, anyway.
The benediction by Rev. Joseph E. Lowery was pretty awesome.
"...I'm equally certain that we will continue to pray for justice to roll down as waters, and for that day when there will be peace in the valley, and for that day when every man and every woman will sit under his or her own vine and fig tree and none will be afraid, and for that day when black will not be asked to get back, brown can stick around, yellow will be mellow, the red man can get ahead, man, and white will embrace what is right!"
Hahaha. I liked him a lot. Happy inauguration day, United States of America.
I was surprised when one of the commentators of Fox News (that's right, I watched it on Fox. MSNBC also, but their video was less smooth) anyway, when he said that Obama was actually going into the White House directly after the inauguration to continue working. It made me think of this Onion article: Black Man Given The Nation's Worst Job. Seriously. Ouch, Barack.
In musical news, I've decided to do an entire inauguration-themed week over at the Rise Up Singing Project. Today's offering is here.
I'm in my apartment in Bangkok. It's after midnight, early Wednesday the 21st of January, and I just finished watching Barack Hussein Obama's inauguration.
Some good quotes:
From Barack: "...but we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." (I forget exactly to whom that was addressed, but you get the picture. It's a nice image.)
Poet Elizabeth Alexander, sadly, seems to be one of those poets who reads her own poetry pretty badly. I thought she was pretty bland, anyway.
The benediction by Rev. Joseph E. Lowery was pretty awesome.
"...I'm equally certain that we will continue to pray for justice to roll down as waters, and for that day when there will be peace in the valley, and for that day when every man and every woman will sit under his or her own vine and fig tree and none will be afraid, and for that day when black will not be asked to get back, brown can stick around, yellow will be mellow, the red man can get ahead, man, and white will embrace what is right!"
Hahaha. I liked him a lot. Happy inauguration day, United States of America.
I was surprised when one of the commentators of Fox News (that's right, I watched it on Fox. MSNBC also, but their video was less smooth) anyway, when he said that Obama was actually going into the White House directly after the inauguration to continue working. It made me think of this Onion article: Black Man Given The Nation's Worst Job. Seriously. Ouch, Barack.
In musical news, I've decided to do an entire inauguration-themed week over at the Rise Up Singing Project. Today's offering is here.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Just Hanging... Blogging Elsewhere
I'm sorry I haven't been posting here more than once a week, but I'm just that into my new blog: riseupsingingproject.blogspot.com
I know it's not personal enough for those of you who don't like singing or playing guitar and just want to know where I am in the world and what I'm doing, but... well, no excuses. I understand. But that's the way it is. It's taking up a lot of my blogging time. I do ramble about personal stuff over there once in a while too. It's not like you couldn't stalk me a little from those videos. You'd just learn songs too.
For those to whom that's a really undesireable prospect, here's a simple update. I'm still in Bangkok. I live here. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. So there's no need for messages being all "Where in the world are you these days??" I'm in Bangkok.
1414/257 floor 9, tower B, Sukhumvit Plus, Sukhumvit Road, Prakhanong, Klong Toei, Bangkok 10110 Thailand
Just hanging at home. Being a homebody. Learning songs in Rise Up Singing.... riseupsingingproject.blogspot.com
I'll be around here from time to time. In the meantime, guys, seriously? 2009 is going to be the best year ever. Remember that.
I know it's not personal enough for those of you who don't like singing or playing guitar and just want to know where I am in the world and what I'm doing, but... well, no excuses. I understand. But that's the way it is. It's taking up a lot of my blogging time. I do ramble about personal stuff over there once in a while too. It's not like you couldn't stalk me a little from those videos. You'd just learn songs too.
For those to whom that's a really undesireable prospect, here's a simple update. I'm still in Bangkok. I live here. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. So there's no need for messages being all "Where in the world are you these days??" I'm in Bangkok.
1414/257 floor 9, tower B, Sukhumvit Plus, Sukhumvit Road, Prakhanong, Klong Toei, Bangkok 10110 Thailand
Just hanging at home. Being a homebody. Learning songs in Rise Up Singing.... riseupsingingproject.blogspot.com
I'll be around here from time to time. In the meantime, guys, seriously? 2009 is going to be the best year ever. Remember that.
Monday, January 05, 2009
Christmas Present: The Frog
I didn't get many Christmas presents this year, but what I did get was more than enough. Here's a favourite, from David, in Santa Barbara: the grows-in-water frog.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Christmas Pageant in Bangkok
Megan brought me yesterday to Mater Dei the all-girls Catholic school she teaches at weekday mornings. They were having a "Christmas party", which actually turned out to be a Christmas pageant, followed by a Christmas ballet, no mingling or punch-drinking, or any of the things normal for an event you might refer to as a party. Still, it was interesting and festive. They had the school choir singing "O Holy Night" and "Let There Be Peace On Earth" and the pageant narration was all in Thai, but it wasn't too hard to follow, it being the nativity story and all. The ballet that followed was "Sleeping Beauty", we were told, although you wouldn't know it from the performance. They had brought in one guy to dance the part of (I assume) the charming prince. At one point during the nativity pageant, all the kindergarten girls Megan teaches hopped out on to the stage wearing bunny suits and did a little hopping dance to an instrumental version of "Let it Snow", if I'm not mistaken. See pictures below.
Merry Christmas, everyone! I'll post pictures of more festive stuff tonight or tomorrow.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Christmas in Bangkok 1
This Sunday evening, Dec 21st, Megan and I went out to the Anglican church in Bangkok to attend an evening hymn sing they were having. Neither of us is Anglican (Episcopalian, for you Americans), but the carols were lovely, and it was really great to have a Christmassy religious service to go to and a carol sing wrapped into one. On Christmas eve, we'll probably be attending that same church's midnight communion. I've done that a few times back in Saint Lambert with some of my brothers on Christmases past. One time everyone was called up for communion, but we were told that if we weren't baptised we could just put our hands palms-down when it came our turn, and the minister would just bless us instead. My brother Richard apparently missed the memo, though, because we all went back and sat down afterwards and was like "hey, that was a good wafer".
It was funny at the time. I do miss Christmas in Quebec, but Christmas in Bangkok is actually shaping up to be a pretty lovely substitute, so far. See my other blog for all the carols I've been singing lately.
It was funny at the time. I do miss Christmas in Quebec, but Christmas in Bangkok is actually shaping up to be a pretty lovely substitute, so far. See my other blog for all the carols I've been singing lately.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Montreal
Je viens de Montréal. De la Rive Sud, c'est à dire. Des fois ça me manque. Ça, c'est la vue de mon ancien appartement sur Papineau. On peut même voir la Rive Sud. Aujourd'hui, l'hiver, ça me manque.
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