And in other news...

...just by the way, this country is in the middle of an extremely serious political crisis, as you may have heard.

A few days ago i wondered why everyone was wearing yellow shirts with the royal insignia. Apparently it's a kind of insurance policy against riling anyone up, as everyone agrees that the King is Good. Even those who think he's bad - by law, they agree, he's good.

As of last week protesters have been occupying the Government House, refusing to let the elected government function unless the PM and his whole cabinet resigns.

On Tuesday the government declared a state of emergency after someone died in the streets (quite a few others were injured) when the protesters came up against anti-protest protesters.

The protesters are acting under the banner of the "People's Alliance for Democracy", and are mainly middle and upper-class Bangkokians. They've been protesting for months (during which time the Thai Baht and stock market have plunged), but there's only a few thousand of them, and from what i can gather, their main gripe is with popular democracy. They want to change the constitution so that most of the representatives currently elected by popular vote are appointed instead. They say the uneducated rural poor always votes for vote-buying crooks like Thaksin who buy poor people's votes with their crooked pro-poor policies like microfinance, rural health care and village university spots.

That name again - People's Alliance for Democracy!

I'm suspicious about General Anapong of the army's pronouncement that "the door is closed" to a coup. Despite the fact that gatherings of more than 5 are banned under the state emergency, the PAD continues to swarm around government house and no security forces are stopping them.

Some links if u care to know more:
Al Jazeera: Profile - Thailand's P.A.D.
Time: The battle for Thailand
Bangkok Post: End of emergency near
Bangkok Post: Totally isolated PM