We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, February 21, 2014

Thailand’s political crisis: Time up for Thaksin?

Click here to access article by Nile Bowie from RT

After some criticisms I received from one of my readers residing in Thailand about my posting of Tony Cartalucci's last article entitled "Why Occupy Bangkok is Working and Occupy Wall Street Didn’t", I have done further research and found this article which provides a much more nuanced view of political conditions in that country. 

I don't think that there is any doubt that Western agents are working in Thailand to pave the way for neoliberal "reforms" which will permit corporations to access their markets, plunder their resources, and exploit their labor regardless of consequences to the people of Thailand. The fact that elections established the current administration of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra does not by itself establish the legitimacy of her government, and the people who are currently battling on the streets of the major cities in protest of government policies are strong evidence of that fact.

Astute people must understand that Western agencies have developed the engineering of elections into almost a science. They know how to play on the fears and wishes of the vast majority to get their neoliberal candidates elected, and once in office they are rudely awakened to a different government than what they thought they voted for. People in the US are no less gullible having voted in George Bush and Barack Obama; and although Obama was packaged as a candidate of change, we have seen him pursue precisely the same policies, only using different rhetoric. Thus, people who are devoted to elections and see them as the purest form of "democracy" are easily led down the path to support the rule by global corporations, a neoliberal world order.

However, political frameworks can get in the way of seeing facts that don't fit neatly into them. This, I believe, is the case with Cartalucci's one dimensional view of events in Thailand. This article, I believe, offers a much more balanced understanding of what is currently happening there.