Thailand’s Shirt wars

shirt wars

Every time you think it is safe to go out wearing a neutral color shirt in Thailand, someone picks that color to be their banner. If this keeps up much longer going topless will be the only safe bet to not get involved in Thai politics.

Before the shirt wars started in Thailand you could go out and wear any color shirt without cause or concern. It did not matter much if you were a Jedi Knight, or a Tuk-tuk driver, it was ok to wear what you wanted. Virtually all of Thailand was wearing yellow shirts on Mondays that had the King’s Royal insignia on it.

Then the shirt wars started and the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) chose yellow because it most closely identified with their cause of King and country.  The people who opposed the PAD scolded them for wearing yellow, but that fell on deaf ears and backfired.Yellow shirt leader Thailand

So then came the red shirts who saw the yellow shirts as their enemy, and the shirt wars were underway. The red shirts turned out to be a violent lot and frequently where causing havoc around the country.Red shirt violence Thailand

But it did not stop there. On the day The King got discharged from the hospital after an extended stay, he wore the color pink and for the next month or so stores could not keep pink shirts on the shelf.Pink King shirt

Then after that along came the blue shirts who were seen confronting the red shirts in Pattaya. But that is not unusual, nearly everyone confronts the red shirts.Light sabers

Now the latest group to hit the scene is the white shirts who are campaigning for peace nationwide. However that is sure to get them in a spat with the red shirts who only want to overthrow the government and install the want to be dictator Thaksin Shinawatra.

White shirts Thailand

However when it comes to white shirts, there is not a heterosexual male in Thailand that would have bad words about the female university uniforms. Of that there is absolutely no doubt.thai-university-uniform

So that leaves people with a dilemma as what to wear. Short of wearing traditional Thai garments, there is little choice. Eventually the other basic colors will be taken as another group with another agenda decides to join the shirt wars. The monks have already staked a claim on orange, the police brown and the military green. With that thought people dare not think of who will want black. Dark lord

Perhaps black will be reserved for Thaksin the elusive evil politician who is the dark figure behind all of this.

One thing is certain, the tourism catch phrase “Amazing Thailand”  and perhaps ‘The force be with you‘ does apply.Lifesavers candy


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