It it an intervention? Is it a move to restore law and order? No, it's a coup.

COUP TV
Since we moved into our new house in November, we have been receiving free cable TV, an interesting package which is mostly Vietnamese and Thai soap operas, pop music and news but also includes CNN, BBC World, CNBC, Al Jazeera and TV5 Monde. We also get HBO (Alfred: All hail, Game of Thrones!) and Fox and a variety of sports channels which, very occasionally, actually show something I want to watch (Alfred: You notice the use of 'I' there - there not being anyone else in the house with the slightest interest in the sports channels, except possibly Robin and that is only as an excuse to get into the house. Robin? Haven't I mentioned Robin before? OK, we'll get to that later).

Anyway, as the world knows, the Thai Army launched a coup about a week ago now, once they eventually got around to admitting it actually was a coup (Alfred: It was rather like when you confront a sulky teenager about something they have done wrong, wringing out the reluctant, gradual admission of culpability:
a)   It's definitely not a coup!
b)   Well, it is kind of a semi-coup
c)   Yeah, OK, it's a coup all right).

For foreigners living here, the first concern was for those people who do not have permanent visas and have to travel regularly to Thailand (once a month) to get their tourist visas renewed. This now seems to be OK as the troops on the border are really only concerned with Thai political leaders and agitators who may be trying to flee to Laos (Alfred: Though various embassies did point out that it might be better to wait a few days if possible as the mixture of soldiers, police and customs officials rushed to the border are, not surprisingly, a little unsure of who exactly to check/allow/detain. That and the incredible queues and traffic jams!).

For us, the first obvious sign was turning on the BBC News and seeing instead the logo for the National Peace and Order Maintaining Council. A quick trawl through the 51 channels normally available gave us about thirty to thirty-five of these, accompanied by the kind of music that reminded you of when Soviet leaders died and Soviet TV played solemn music, though the Thai version did have a little bit more of an upbeat rhythm to it. Interestingly, while all the news, sports and other channels were replaced with this, Vietnamese and Chinese channels were not and neither was Al Jazeera.

(Alfred: We have also been puzzling over the five symbols. Presumably it is army, navy, air force and police - but what is the fifth?  Given that every time the new leaders appear on TV we see five of them, presumably the fifth is ... customs? Intelligence services?  Who knows?)


By yesterday (Friday 23rd) all these channels were now showing the same station, Thai TV 5, which alternated soap operas with documentaries about Thailand as a tourist destination (Alfred: In the interests of editorial accuracy, Ruairí only checked twice during the afternoon. This may not be a completely accurate representation of Thai TV output). And today everything is back as normal, with a few small exceptions. BBC, CNN and CNBC have a sign saying 'Transmission will resume shortly' and two other channels have the logo above. And, strangest of all, a third channel (Channel 16 which I think was True Visions Fashion Channel!!) has a picture of the King of Thailand and a recorded message in Thai playing on a loop.

On a more serious note, the developments are worrying for a number of reasons. From a Lao point of view, Thailand is our biggest trading partner, thousands of people work on both sides of the border and a huge proportion of Lao imports come in through Thailand. Any serious unrest would have major repercussions here. But from Thailand's own point of view, the outlook isn't great. The economy is already in recession in a region where everyone else is doing at least reasonably well, the country is divided between two extremes with little or no middle ground and the prospects for a settlement are limited. This article in The Economist gives a good idea of the problems, especially as regards the position of the royal family - well worth a read http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21602759-sudden-move-army-brings-only-near-term-calm-path-throne (Alfred: And, yes, we know The Economist  can be very right-wing and conservative in its coverage of many issues but this article is pretty bang on).

(Alfred: Those not particularly interested in Asian or Thai politics may wish to skip the next paragraph. I certainly did. But I threw in a few Thai cartoons to try and liven up what is becoming far too serious a blog entry!)

And my opinion? The opposition represents the ruling elite with the tacit support of the army, courts and royal family and have been used to being in power. But every election held recently has resulted in a win for the party representing the poorer and more rural sections of the population. This is why suggesting a new election is being turned down by the opposition - they know a majority will vote for the present government, so they want an appointed government that will, presumably ignore the wishes of the majority and give power back to the ruling elites. Reminds me a little bit of the early years of Chavez' rule in Venezuela (Alfred: An unfortunate comparison, given how that turned out).


BOWLING IN LAOS
Well, yesterday saw a brand-new experience - we went bowling!! There is one bowling alley in Vientiane with 12 lanes and we stumbled across it on the way to ... actually, not sure where, maybe the swimming pool. Anyway, we checked it out and decided to grab some lunch before coming back.

Photo taken when there were actually people there

Now, it would be fair to say that neither Martine nor I are expert bowlers (Alfred: Please check dictionary definition of 'litotes'  http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/litotes. Actually, it's worth looking up and Irish people are not reluctant to use them). I think I have only bowled three times in my life and I spent lunchtime trying to look up the scoring system on the internet. So, when we returned, the fact that we were (initially) the only people there was actually just fine with us. On the plus side it was cheap (one euro per player per game), they had air-conditioning (Alfred: Of a sort. But to be fair, they only turned it on when the first players arrived so it took a while to have an effect), the shoes fit - in  fact, mine were far too big and I had to get smaller ones, a definite first in Laos. And they sold cold beer. But if you were a serious player, you might get a little frustrated by the technical flaws - skittles falling over when being replaced, equipment freezing up, bowling balls with holes designed either for pianists or Mafia mob enforcers. But it was great fun and we didn't even mind when others turned up who, while also being absolutely terrible players, were still miles better than we were! We will be back.


ELECTION RESULTS

Never has a malfunctioning pixel done such a great job!

As my family and friends know (Alfred: All too well ... sigh) I am passionate about elections of any sort. The time difference means I was actually able to follow the results of the UK local elections without having to stay up all night and thereby was able to witness Nigel Farrage's triumph at first hand. Depressing but not unexpected. I was hoping the Greens would do a little better having topped 10% consistently in national polls but the UK system doesn't really lend itself to that.

So tomorrow I look forward to immersing myself in the wonderful world of Irish local politics, which I probably won't share with you guys as I doubt you are very interested. (Alfred: Amen) And, if you are, you won't need me in Laos telling you what is happening. I just hope Mary Hanafin gets in just to really turn the screw on Micheál Martin!!

FRUIT
As regular readers know, we do produce a lot of fruit in our garden (Alfred:  Yeah, pretty much every post, actually. No, I'm calling a time out on this one. I KNOW you are going to talk about cats later, cats AND fruit in the same post is too much, you can have one or the other. Or combine them - catfruit!

Disclaimer: this is not our cat.

CAT UPDATE

While we are still officially a one-cat family, we now have a second cat who is extremely intent on adopting us. The fact that Robin (as we call her) actually belongs to the family next door doesn't seem to matter to her and she spends all her time on our verandah, trying to steal Obélix's food or sneak into the house when we aren't looking and gobble down whatever she can. There is a sense of inevitability about the process - even Obélix has given up chasing her away!!