Bangkok Bombs

Thailand’s tourist industry has been living on borrowed time for the last two years. On New Year’s Eve it seems the long foreseen attacks on Bangkok have finally materialised. At the time of writing the situation is confused. What is clear is that there have been six or more bombs in targets all over the Thai capital. The Bangkok Post newspaper reported a second wave of coordinated devises exploded seconds after the new year count-down; deliberately aimed at areas where tourists are known to frequent. At least two people have been killed and many more injured: the Thai press is reporting a foreigner who had a limb ripped off by the blast. At the time of writing no organisation is claiming responsibility. The army have been put into the streets and all official celebrations for the new year immediately cancelled.

The Thai government and local media keeps under wraps the tensions within Thailand that may have lead to the bombs. The reason is to protect the tourist dollar, or in this case the tourist baht. They have been very succesful, because the serious civil unrest in the extreme south of Thailand over the last 3 years has gone largely unreported in the western media. The result is Thailand is a major destination for western tourists who are almost totally unaware of the potential risks in their chosen holiday destination.

A little background: the four provinces of Satun, Yala, Narathiwat and Patani were only absorbed into Thailand only 100 years ago in an effort to stop the expanding Federal States of Malaya under the British taking over these four independent statelets themselves. Thailand is a Buddhist country who speak Thai. These four provinces have large Moslem majorities, and the population mainly speak Bahasa, the official language of Malaysia (and Indonesia). The independence movement has been bubbling under for a hundred years, sometimes coming to a boil and sometimes cooling down. When the ultra-nationalist government Thai-Rak-Thai (Thais who love Thais) of Thaksin Shinawatra came to power in 2001, Dr Shinawatra’s policy in the southern provinces was to stop all negotiations and tell the army and police to take off the kid gloves. These policies combined with the radicalisation of young Muslims throughout the world post 9-11 has led to the deaths of over two thousand and many more injuries on both sides, with innocent civilians caught in the middle of the radicals on the one hand and the Thai authorities on the other.

But to return to last nights bombs. Who is responsible? The Thai military authorities seem to be pointing the finger at disillusioned members of Thai-Rak-Thai, ousted in the recent coup d‘etat. The military reacted by saying they will sequester the any assets in Thailand of deposed Prime Minister Dr Shinawatra. The Thai Rak Thai party has denied any involvement, and in their defence, bombs in the streets is not their style, assassination is more their modus operandi. The army has only been in power a couple of months and I do not believe that as yet there are groups sufficiently frustrated to cold-bloodedly kill their countrymen for the restoration of democracy. At this point my money would be on the Muslim Resistance from the South, who may have finally realised that blowing up a few high-profile sites in tourist Bangkok, killing one or two foreigners will have much more effect, both in the international media and apply more economic pressure on the new government, than killing hundreds of officials, police officers and army rookies down south, which has been their policy until now.

I have written this over both before and after midnight of the dawning New Year, so I wish you a very peaceful 2007.

Hotels' Environmental Hypocrisy

In surveys about the nights spent in hotels in a year I tick the 'more than 50 nights a year' box, or whatever is highest. I was recently in a travelodge hotel (which are pretty good value for money) in beautiful Epping Forest on the on the edge of London, and saw a sign in the bathroom. I have seen the sign a hundred times before, in different hotels all over the world, but it has finally spurred me into becoming a blogger. The sign says something along the lines of “We care about the environment; washing towels needlessly wastes electricity and pollutes the environment. Help us to help the environment - if your towels don’t need to be washed leave them on the rack - if they need to be washed place them in the bath.”

What bugs me about this is the hypocrisy of it. I will tell you the truth: Travelodge (and all the other hotels that do this) do not care one jot about the environment. What they care about is their profits. These hotels have external contractors who collect the towels and charge them for each towel washed. Every time they don’t wash a towel they hear not a pristine bubbling brook but the sound of the cash register. They are playing on their guests’ sensibilities as surely as putting a sign saying “This towel contains no cholesterol” or “ No children or animals were exploited in the washing of this towel.” If they were truly sincere about the environment they would say “We care about the environment. Washing towels is not only damaging the environment but also costs us money. If you do not need your towels to be washed put them on the rack and we will discount £1 from your bill. Help us to help the environment together."

I am going to send a copy of this blog to each of the hotel groups I see with this sign. How much do you want to bet that they all reply saying they are committed to the environment and then come up with a good reason why it they cannot share the saving with their customers? If they wanted to do it they can do it. I will keep you posted.