Bangkok

I don't know how closely the situation in Bangkok has been watched in the US news, but being as how Thailand is one of our next door neighbors, we have heard quite a bit about it. I am no expert on the situation, but if you don't know much, here are a few basics: there has been a strong anti-government group in Thailand for some time. This group has staged many demonstrations and done things like surrounding the Thai Parliament building in late November so that the parliament could not longer continue their session. A week ago, the anti-government group filled the two Bangkok airports with protestors, effectively shutting down all airport operations. This had a fairly major effect--imagine if all air traffic in and out of Chicago was halted--planes in the air enroute to Chicago would have to be rerouted to land elsewhere (other cities or military airstrips),people in the airport would be stuck there or would have to find lodging in the area and alternate forms of transportation out of the city, no air freight or shipping could move along, and so on. All of this happened in Bangkok. And because Thailand as a country is wealthier and more developed that most other South East Asian countries, Bangkok served as a major hub for the entire region. So, in Cambodia, this meant that American expats trying to fly home for Thanksgiving often had their travel plans changed at the last minute or spent some extra time in Bangkok (although the Thai government, the Thai protestors, and the airlines themselves all did quite a lot in providing free lodging, food, water, blankets, and ticket changes to those affected). Cambodian mail and imports/exports ship through Bangkok, so these services have been on hold all week. As you can imagine all of this has a huge and immediate impact financially in many ways, and a future impact as well: what blow has this dealt to the Thai economy when the worldwide ecomony is already in recession? Will Thailand be judged too unstable for tourist flights and shipping to continue to be routed through Bangkok as a major hub, and will these operations shift to another country and another city? We shall see! Here's a news link that just came up on Yahoo--the anti-government protestors got their wish and the Thai government has been dissolved:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081202/ap_on_re_as/as_thailand_political_unrest;_ylt=AvSSPWHgYYC2G99_cj93VCBvaA8F