This evening (November 30) here in Kuwait, I called Pong’s cell-phone and learned that Thai Airways has been able to have him placed on a Qatar Airways flight to the Philippines for December 3—arriving nearly a full-week after the original departure day (i.e. December 5).
Meanwhile, wealthier Kuwaitis and American travelers have been transferred and been brought out of Bangkok on special Kuwait Airlines (and other countries’ national and private airlines) flights in the past few days. Meanwhile, travelers from countries, such as the Philippines have often had no such means of getting their landsmen back home in a timely manner.
Similarly, thousands of Muslim Filipinos and other South Asians who have been intending to come to undertake the Hajj in the Gulf this 2008 (scheduled for next week) are also feeling abandoned by the authorities in Bangkok.
This is because many officials in Bangkok have not been fully willing to retake their airport from the well-funded Thai protestors, who appear to have no other goal than to topple the present government—despite the fact that the government(however-corrupt) was legally elected twice in recent years by popular vote, the last-time less than a year ago.
http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MzI1NTcyMTI3
THE KING OF THAILAND NEEDS TO END THE SEIGE
Imagine if, in America, some political forces were to take-over a pair of U.S. airports and declare they are doing so in the name of the peoples who live in the largest cities, i.e. those who have traditionally ran the country!
This is the audaciousness these 3000-plus protestors of Thailand as they appear to the world while they continue a somewhat unpopular siege of the main national and main international airports now in November and December 2008.
The peoples of most of Thailand, i.e. outside of Bangkok, as well as travelers and investors from around the world today ask the King of Thailand to speak out and end this nonsense before his birthday this next week, December 5, 2008.
Consider poor travelers and citizens throughout Thailand and in South Asia. Consider the billions of dollars being lost each week due to trade endangered by fanatics who have no real political agenda but to topple things and government—i.e. not to build society.
These protestors are not revolutionaries with a vision; they are just revolutionaries of terror and anger—men and women without plans for how to build a better Thai society.
Finally, give Pinoy Pong and others in Southeast Asian an opportunity to enjoy the holiday Season--as your supporters are doing this December.
NOTE: The author has traveled in or through Thailand regularly since December 1992.
NOTESBowman, Dylan, “Gulf May Ban Filipino Laborers,” http://www.arabianbusiness.com/13589
Clarence Henderson Consulting, “Leaving on a Jet Plane, Expatriate Filipino Workers”, http://www.apmforum.com/columns/orientseas12.htm
“More Maids Facing Abuse”, http://www.lookingglassnews.org/viewstory.php?storyid=2075
