13. Bombing in Bangkok?

Nope, it was actually a few hundred miles south of Bangkok, if I could figure out how to post pictures, I would stick a map of Thailand in here - ugh! Technology bites.. Anyways, here's the scoop:

Security forces have been on high alert since Sunday when alleged Muslim insurgents in southern Thailand launched a series of bombings, including one at an airport in Songkhla province that killed two people and wounded 70 others.

Attacks have occurred almost daily since. In the latest attack, a bomb exploded Friday at a municipal office in southern Narathiwat province, (way down south near Malaysia) wounding a security guard.

Violence blamed on separatists in Thailand's predominantly Muslim south has claimed nearly 800 lives since January last year, when an insurgency thought for years to be dormant revived.

The southern provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani are predominantly Buddhist Thailand's only region with Muslim majorities. Southern Thai Muslims have long complained of discrimination by the central government. Security forces are accused of heavy-handedness in cracking down on the insurgents. (They were telling us here how some Muslims armed with machetti's and knives tried to attack a police station down south and all 200 of them were gunned down and killed. In a later, similar incidence all of them, mostly young men, were rounded up, literally piled on top of one another, and driven several hours away. 80 of them died from suffocation. Sad, huh. So basically, yes, violence breeds violence. Why do they have to be so violent in the first place, chill!).

So basically there IS a lot of violence in the south, but it is nowhere near us, and has spared tourist places like Phuket, etc. - so far. The Muslim sects here are being pressured by those in Malaysia to press the issue of Islam. They want to teach their religion in the schools here, but Thailand is 95% Buddhist and simply won't stand for it. The prime minister is pretty hard core. In fact when they started their "war on drugs" about 3 - 4 years ago it was just a little different here than in the US, when they say war, they mean right out war. They just rounded up all the big drug dealers and shot them. There used to be a big drug rehab center here where I am, but now everyone is either dead or too afraid to seek help, that's sad...

In short, we are very very far from the violence (we are in very Northern Thailand, Bangkok is sort of like central Thailand) - and don't sell drugs in Thailand or the Prime minister will shoot and kill you...
This is your brain. This is your brain after you did and sold drugs - spilling out a hole in the side of your head after you've been shot - any questions?
Now wouldn't that have made a more effective commercial?

Now that my friends, is a war on drugs...