Where The Buffalo Roam

This is a cartoon from a Pro-Government newspaper, describing the weekend protests by the mostly rural "Red Shirts".

Monday to Friday the streets of Bangkok are filled with the cars of Bangkokians going about their business.

But, on Saturday and Sunday the streets are packed with herds of Buffalo - a strong derogatory reference to the Red Shirt protesters, who are viewed as slow, stupid, lazy, and better suited for farm-life.

I suppose it's all fair in a democratic society where everyone has the freedom of expression - no matter what color shirt you wear.

Well, that was the case until the government shut down the Red Shirt's television station. Soon after, Red Shirt protesters gathered at the Thai Telecom satellite station and demanded that the People's TV channel be turned back on.

Here are some pictures of the clashes between protesters and soldiers that were guarding the station.







In the end, the soldiers retreated and the station was turned back on.

Here are guns taken by the red shirts and then, returned.



Watermelon. Green on the outside and Red on the inside. This is slang for a soldier that secretly supports the Red Shirts. Being that most soldiers are from the rural parts of Thailand, this is, apparently, a fairly large contingent within the military.

Meanwhile, in downtown Bangkok the protests continued....

Police protecting McDonald's at all costs.