Thailand Tuesday--A coup is underway

Link to Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/John.Purcell.3rd/ThailandMondayAndTuesday
Thailand Tuesday
On Tuesday, we met with several representatives from Mercer Consulting, a global provider of talent and workforce strategy solutions and a number of other specialties and services. They have a lot of experience in Thailand in guiding US companies through various issues, including labor relations, etc.

More and more companies seem to be outsourcing some of their HR functions in Thailand as they gain trust in the ability of the 3rd parties. I guess it’s all part of the “flattening” of the world, or globalization.

One of the more interesting facts I learned in this meeting was that no banks from outside Thailand can have more than one headquarters in Thailand; in other words, the outsiders can not have retail branches. It’s an example of how some of the countries that seem to be somewhat free trade still clamp down on certain areas for protectionist purposes or for control reasons.

Of our two speakers, one clearly did almost all of the talking. He was somewhat atypical of what I’d come to expect from Asian business people as he did not portray himself very modestly; I thought that was interesting. Perhaps it is the new generation, I don’t know.

Overall, the meeting was very informative. Another nugget is that there’s an American company in Thailand who is struggling with its Thai labor union, and there were several arsons set in the factory.

I think there’s an interesting parallel of sorts in this—when the US was developing its workforce rights, this type of thing happened. Likewise, in earlier times, as in Asia, the US used lead in our products, polluted rivers and oceans (oh, right, we still do), and had kids working in factories.

The cessation of these types of activities happens as countries further develop, and while we may think it’s horrible that some of this happens “in this day and age,” we need to remember that this day and age is not quite the same everywhere. And really, when this day and age is everywhere, the COGS is going to be really high. So, in a sense, we need to appreciate what we have today, because tomorrow, it won’t be here.

The U.N. trip was quite an adventure. WE’d be warned on several occasions about “the protestors.” Apparently, there was a group of people who’d been protesting for a long time and voicing their opinions about the current prime minister. I think it was on our first day that our tour guide said something to the effect of, “over in that area are the protestors, they keep them contained. The only problem they create is traffic.” (That’s a pretty close-to-accurate paraphrase. Anyone who was present, please feel free to post a comment if you have a better recollection).

But, by the time UN day (our visit on Tuesday) had arrived, things were changing. Almost all of the unions had shut down their production and encouraged their workers to go to the protest area on Tuesday. It was shaping up to be quite an event. And, it was just our luck that the protest was in the same area as the U.N. building in Bangkok. However, that morning we felt that it was safe and departed for the UN.

Along the way, the streets were filled with people in yellow shirts. Thailand has a neat custom of having a different color each day, and on those days you can see people wearing the color of the day. Monday is the king’s favorite color day, and that is yellow. However, on Tuesday, the day of the protest, all the protestors wore yellow. They really love their King in Thailand, or at least that’s what most say (we didn’t find any dissenters, but one classmate (or someone from fellows, I don’t remember) found someone that said, “we’re supposed to say that.”

However, it did seem to me that people feel the current monarchy is genuinely interested in the good of the people. And, most people believe that the King ordered the first coup that happened about 2 years ago or so (forgive me, I’m on a plane and I don’t have the date). That coup ended in the latter part of 2007, and the new PM was installed in December. Unfortunately, the people believe he’s a puppet of the former PM, who was a crook. You can see the pictures that show he is wanted in Thailand (and is now living in exile in England).

So, back to our trip into the UN: We had a somewhat slow commute (traffic there generally is pretty bad, but the protest made it worse. As we got closer, the amount of people in yellow shirts increased, until we came to a blockade in the road. The protesters (Or the police?) had blocked off access to all roads leading in and we were stopped, along with the other bus carrying Loyola students and faculty, at the blockade.

We on the bus were abuzz with comments—some were probably a little nervous, some were joking, some were enjoying the experience, and a few were wondering how the hell we were going to get to the UN. That’s when one of the most amazing things happened; our tour guide grabbed her cell phone, talked to someone in Thai for no more than 5 minutes (and I really think it was much less than that) and then, lo and behold, the blockade was opened for us. Not sure who it was, military, police, or protestors, but nonetheless, our two buses were ushered in to the protest area. The only other vehicles in this area were water cannon (one of whom escorted us through the area), and other official vehicles.

Not knowing what to expect, we rolled through at 5-10 miles per hour, stopping here and there. And the protesters, who hadn’t yet cranked it up all the way, were quite friendly! They all waved at our buses. Ah, it’s the Thai way. If I haven’t said it yet, I should have, but they smile all the time. They’ll tell you that sometimes the smile doesn’t mean anything nice, but in this case, I think a bunch of obvious tourists rolling through in buses was OK with them. After all, it’s still an important part of their economy.

Without any incident (but this isn’t the end of the coup/siege stuff, read on), we made it to the UN, where we had a series of meetings with various speakers, most of whom had some great information for us about UNESCO. We received some briefings, and some general references to the inferiority of the U.S. government (due to our LACK OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT! LOL). It’s interesting to hear mostly liberal European speakers talk about our weaknesses. Don’t get me wrong, I think a lot of the UN’s work is good, but I also am not a huge fan of central government.

After the briefings, we were fed a delicious lunch at the compound, and then we walked outside to the buses. The crowd had grown over the 4 or so hours we’d spent inside; and as I walked through the gates back into the open area, I thought that this was really something to see.

As we rode back to the hotel (we left with no incident), we made plans to meet in the restaurant/pub in the bottom level of the hotel to eat and plan our next steps. A group of us convened and decided to go back to the night market to finish up the souvenir shopping. They really had everything there from a product standpoint, and some other stuff that I guess is a product, but is also a service. Thailand has a reputation for this particular thing, and I’d been led to believe I’d see it everywhere, but really, I just saw it here.

I went to the lobby to exchange some money and take care of room charges. While I was doing that, I bumped into Brad from the fellows class, who told me he’d just been told by two Thais that the protest was turning into a coup that night, and that the protesters had taken over the TV station. They further told him that the rumor was that “word had come down from the top that today is the day.” I was kinda like, “W T F?, a coup?” He just said, yea, do with the info what you want.

We talked to a few other people about it and went our separate ways. Brad’s a cool guy, he asked me to sit down with him one day at breakfast. And, he warned me about the coup. Can’t beat that….

I asked 3 or 4 employees of the hotel what was going on, posing questions such as, “did you hear that they took over the tv station?” and “I hear that the protest is now a coup…did you hear?” and “is it safe to go out?” and “didn’t a bunch of bombs go off during the last coup, one right out front?”

The answer I received from all of these people was the same…a big smile, a shake of the head, and some variation of, “I’m sorry sir, I don’t understand what you are saying” or “I can’t hear what you’ve said.” So, I repeated it once or twice to the first two, and realized that they heard and understood everything, they’re just not talking about it. That was kind of interesting, and it went along with some of the “we’re supposed to say that” and “we have many meanings behind our smiles.”

The guide that was hosting our group came into the lobby, and I asked her about it. She wouldn’t answer my questions about the TV station or the coup, but she did finally say that it should be safe to go out, just avoid the area around the protest.

By this time, most of the group had left me behind because I wasn’t around when they left. Did I tell you about the tuk-tuks? They’re 3-wheeled motorcycles with carriages that carry 2 optimally, but up to 4 (Team APEX is truly insane) people. That was our mode of transport for distance travel because it was faster and cheaper than the cabs. Usually you could negotiate a ride for 100 or less baht, which is about $3. I shared a tuk-tuk to the market with Rita from Fellows, and we caught up with the group there and did some power shopping. Ben, Rita and I got some good Pokemon cards, and I think Nitin got some power rangers.

No problems from the coup, I didn’t even think about it again, until the next morning when the newspapers trumpeted the news of the occupation of the Prime Minister’s compound and the news station. Well, actually, when I got back to the room that night I looked online for some news, but there was very little.