There was blood spilled on Bangkok sidewalks today.
The anti-government Red Shirts collected blood donated by the protesters. Then they poured it on the sidewalk outside the Democrat Party headquarters. If this sounds like voodoo, well, it is. To understand this ceremonious blood-letting is to understand the kind of magic the Red Shirts were trying to invoke, and the motivation behind it.
It is a kind of magical thinking, the magical thinking of the desperate and the disenfranchised who want the power of instant redress, to force regret from the lips of their enemies, and to return honor to their names. Yet, it seems such a criminal waste, all that blood. Blood is life, after all, and blood transfusions saved Titi's life even though they couldn't cure his cancer.
The protesters pouring away their blood is a symbolic act. It doesn't mean disregard for life but certainly they have made a graphic point that the government, at the very least, belittled and disregarded their voices. Could they have accomplished their aims in some less graphic manner? Could there have been a win-win outcome for both government and anti-government forces? Both sides need to sit down at a table and talk about their differences. There are bound to be some commonalities.
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