Tabloid trash, rich girl's sneer, red rally

‘Jacko’s last wish! Secret notes found in tragic star’s home...’

Farang C took me to Molly Malone’s Irish pub in Soi Convent, which carries the latest copies of Irish and British newspapers.

That was the headline which one screamed at me from from the newspaper stack. I didn't see any newspapers in Thai.

Inside the pub, I saw only farang. A few were eating dishes from the menu.

A vendor was selling noodles from a right outside the front door.

About 6pm, as the skies clouded over and office-workers were heading home, I left the pub and sat down for a bowl.

Here on the street outside, I saw only Thais.

-
Farang C and I walked to Molly Malone’s from the top of the soi on Sathorn Rd, past BNH Hospital, and a couple of Christian schools. We passed Italian restaurants, bakery joints...

I like inspecting wealth. We saw plenty of it, and not just in the shops.

St Joseph’s Convent School was disgorging children to a queue of rich-family cars waiting outside.

Most of the children were pale-skinned Thai-Chinese. Little girls with tight bangs in their hair sneered at us, or at least I thought they did.

'Little bitches!'I exclaimed, for farang C's hearing.

'I haven't been here long enough to tell the difference between ordinary Thais and those with Chinese blood,' he replied.

I passed one father, who was talking to his daughter in Chinese.

This is the Bangkok elite, I thought. they would have little contact with their poorer countrymen from the provinces - many of whom move to Bangkok to earn a living, especially in the off-cropping season.

How many of these people speak to dark-skinned Thais from the provinces in the course of a day, unless they happen to employ one as the office cleaner?

-
One of those dark-skinned workers took me home in his taxi.

A father of five, he lives in Bangkok, but comes from Ubon Ratchathani, where he owns a farm. I shall call him Uncle.

Uncle, 55, has worked as a taxi driver in Bangkok for more than 30 years. His three sons live with him here, and they too ply the streets in taxis.

His daughters live in Ubon. One girl is a teacher, and the other one about to graduate from university. She wants to be a policewoman.

‘My sons weren’t academic, but the girls were,’ he said.

I asked him if he was proud to have fathered five children who are now successful young adults.

‘It’s just normal,’ he said.

His wife lives on the farm with one daughter, the teacher. Uncle gets home once every three months to plant or harvest rice.

‘When my other daughter graduates in a few months, I shall retire as a taxi driver, and return to the provinces full-time. I am tired of Bangkok,’ he said.

Uncle has driven rented taxis for a living since he was in his late teens. He is looking forward to a change.

Like many rural folk from the country’s North and Northeast, he supports former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

‘He ran a government for the poor – the one we have now, Abhisit Vejjajiva, runs a government for the rich,’ he said.

We talked about prominent southerners who support the Abhisit-led government.

Abhisit may be a wealthy Bangkok boy, but his Democrat party is backed by southerners such as Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban (‘Abhisit’s boss’, sniffs Uncle) and Prem Tinsulanonda, head of the Privy Council. Most of the party's support base, in fact, is in Bangkok and the South.

‘Thais are still as divided as ever. When I was a boy, we had unity, but now we are split,’ he lamented.

This Saturday marks the third anniversary of the coup which ousted Thaksin.

The red-shirted United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, which supports Thaksin, will mark the occasion with a rally. ‘I will be there, wearing red. I am from Esan [the Northeast], so I have to go,’ he said.