Sabai Siam

Facebook has started to reconnect me with some Thai friends the same day that one of the red-shirt government protesters was shot while speaking face to face with a New York Times reporter. The unrest going on in Bangkok, and in several outlying provinces, is hard for me to imagine. Historically, the take-over of the government is hastily, but peacefully, accomplished and a new set of officials are ushered in. But the past few years have yielded violent and widespread protests, far beyond the Bangkok-centered squirmishes that have marked Thailand's independence. For a place that is proud of its creature comforts, tantilizing array of food, and beautiful smiles, the violence of the past few weeks are shocking. Of course it is hard to know what the people in the provinces beyond the big city are thinking. Maybe life continues to be "sabai" and talk of family and feasting dominating the day. Or maybe this latest outburst of violence, in such close range of a foreigner, has awoken everyone to the danger of making change with coups followed by corruption instead of slow gains in honest elections.

Whatever the case, whatever will finally end this round of violence inflicted from multiple sides, I'm guessing people are longing for life to go back to normal, corruption or not. To eat a plate of som-tam papaya salad and lightly fried chicken dipped in naam jim sauce under the shade of a tree near a resovoir. To order noodles at a roadside stand and take a break from driving, dabbing off the sweet and sour juices with a half-sheet of pink napkin. To wait calmly, never a sign of agitaion, for a covered red truck to come by and take you where you need to go, for a fair price. To giggle over the sounds of a newly released Thai rock star at the open-air mall, dressed in white shirts, buttoned down with silver buttons decorated with the university's insignia, pressed slacks, and worn flip flops. I hope for my friend, and her little girl, that something of the normal, the sabai, returns soon and leaves in its wake a government committment to transparency and honesty.