Popagandhi

As of SGT 0145 hours, I don’t think anybody really knows what the hell is going on in that city I call my second home. My friends in Bangkok say they were watching TV and suddenly all channels started playing patriotic songs with pictures of the king, mobile coverage is dying in the city, the good for nothing Prime Minister declares a state of emergency from New York, and apparently there are tanks surrounding Government House. Rumours abound in the streets that troops loyal to Thaksin are mobilizing… this is an absolute nightmare.

So far, all anybody knows is (in this armchair correspondent’s words):

The army took control of Bangkok, formed a “Council of Political/Administrative Reform” (with the king remaining as head of state… is this sounding familiar to history students yet?), have stormed Government House and are presently in control of it. All television channels have stopped broadcast, even foreign cable channels. Phone lines are dead in the city. This, if it is indeed a coup attempt, is the country’s 17th since 1932 and first in 15 years; also the latest and most significant act in the long running public people-against-Thaksin episode.

Here’s a video of tanks rolling through Bangkok, and CNN is running eyewitness reports here, while news flow in from all major agencies, this one being one of the more detailed at the time of writing, and because I can’t get through to a number of my friends, and I’m frankly panicking over this, this foreign daughter of Krung Thep (I was supposed to be there tonight, while my parents have only been back from there a few hours ago) is going to sleep praying the city she loves, and all her friends in there, will wake up safe and in non-violent circumstances. Long live His Majesty the King.