In the majority of protests around the world, there is always an element there to cause trouble. They have nothing to do with the main protest at all. Some are even professional protesters.
Take the G8 summits, for example, or even football supporters. Very small minorities of supporters are not supporters at all but will go to the away matches just for the fights they like to cause.
Take the protest of this past weekend. Were the trouble-makers truly protesters or only there to cause trouble? I believe the latter.
Please do not categorise all people as the same. The vast majority of red-shirt supporters are not arsonists, thugs or killers.
JOHN
Beware blind apathy
With a little imagination, it is possible to envisage the future of Thailand resembling North Korea.
It is blatantly obvious that the Pheu Thai government, the red shirts and the police are all one political movement, lead by one man; one family. If that is not totalitarian, what is?
Such a nightmare is being enabled by the synergy of apathy and ignorance.
Faced with a peaceful democratic demonstration, the police force on Saturday at Royal Plaza suddenly grew to 20,000.
Two years ago at Ratchaprasong, faced with the anarchy of their red-shirt colleagues, they were not even to be seen and the military did their job for them.
When approached by monks on Saturday to allow people through a barrier, the police responded with tear gas. Two years ago when faced with Bangkok being wrecked and set alight, they remained out of sight.
The democratic demonstration at the Royal Plaza on Saturday clearly showed the direction Thailand is taking. Thousands of police shepherded peaceful people like school children with disdain and arrogance. They lined up behind concrete barriers backed with razor wire, armed with riot gear and tear gas.
But out of a population of 65 million, where were the people who claim to be dissatisfied with corruption and undemocratic governance? Where were all those people in Bangkok who voted against Pheu Thai?
To blindly worship a leader, albeit in exile, rather than the freedom offered by democracy is myopically dangerous, but this together with the gross apathy and lack of awareness of those claiming to be enlightened, will take the country down a dangerous path from which there will be no return: just like North Korea.
J C WILCOX
Bangkok's khlong snags
There was a very interesting article in the Bangkok Post last week about the system of canals in Bangkok.
Bangkok has been called the ''Venice of the East'' but I am curious about a comparison to another city with canals, Amsterdam. My last time in Amsterdam I was impressed when a tour guide explained that canals are flushed out on a regular basis when gates are opened at high tide.
With some regularity I walk past a small dead end khlong near the intersection of Asok and Sukhumvit. That khlong looks and smells terrible.
Yet sometimes I see a cart with strings of sausages hanging on it next to the end of that filthy khlong. It seems the sausages were made there although no one was around. Maybe they are left to dry or age as part of the manufacturing process.
Whatever the reason, it is an incongruous picture that dampens my interest in sausages. Lots of people live and do their work near similar stale, smelly unnavigable khlongs.
I wonder if Bangkok does anything to flush out khlongs, as Amsterdam does? I'd like to hear about that if there is another article.
JOHN KANE
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