The Parallel Dimension

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REUTERS/Adrees Latif

Perhaps this is the reality of civil war.

Life in Bangkok has entered a parallel dimension. It's like looking at one's reflection in a crooked mirror: everything is there but suddenly it looks strange and different.

We wake up in the morning to the usual blazing sunshine, to the habitual heat and to reports of last night's death toll. Time is measured out in news updates informing us of the latest skirmish, the latest wounded, the latest hot spots.

Our screens are filled with images of soldiers, guns, black smoke, protesters and the glum, expressionless faces of government spokesmen who punctuate our days with monotone assurances that they are bringing the situation under control, that they are just doing their jobs. "Not to worry," they chant, "we don't mean for anybody to get hurt."

How quickly the shocking has become familiar and our senses anesthetized to the tragedy represented by each death and injury. Forty lives lost and over one thousand people injured. As I write news breaks on twitter that a 10 year old boy has been killed by gunfire. Minutes later a grenade lands in a police station. Human disasters soon to be lost in the statistics.

In today's Bangkok the difference between normalcy and life threatening violence can be a few hundred meters up or down a street...or a wrong turn. The city is breaking into pieces. Suddenly you find yourself thinking about the safest route to take. There are zones: red zones, no go zones, safe zones, live fire zones.

The future used to be something one planned for with confidence. Nobody saw these dark days in their crystal balls. Coups yes. Sporadic political turbulence for sure. But a meltdown that could degenerate into civil war?

Witness the deadly lure of power, the politician's ultimate high. Unbound by rules or arbiters, Thailand's leaders will go to any length to obtain or retain it. It's an "I win you lose" game with no middle ground.

There was a time when power struggles were played out in parliamentary debates, in shady corridors of influence and through elections. I remember those days fondly now. If there weren't quite rules there were at least agreed upon limits. And there was at least one ultimate arbiter to whom the nation could turn when the power brokers got out of control.

Today those self-set boundaries have evaporated, the facades of civility have fallen and we are left with the brutal law of force. Bangkok, erstwhile icon of Asia's progress, now looks more and more like the jungle from which it rose.


Photo by Thibault Camus/ABACAPRESS.COM Photo via Newscom

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