Bombs Come to Bangkok

Jip and I had a few fine, slow days before and after New Year’s. We set no goals and therefore had no trouble meeting our targets. I got out of town a couple of times, once together with Jip to the farm that our friend Therese invited us to once before. It's a place we both feel comfortable and relaxed.

The peace was shattered when bombs went off simultaneously in Bangkok, early on New Year’s Eve. Jip claims she heard explosions. The best reports I’ve read say that all told there were eight bombs. Each was detonated remotely in a different part of town. These places were not as crowded that day as they are typically, because many Bangkokians had gone away for the weekend. Yet three people were killed, and roughly thirty more were hurt.

Nobody has taken credit for causing this misery, though plenty of analysts have been willing to explain it in ways that serve their interests. We already knew which groups in the region don’t like each other and why (those who lost power in the coup, separatists from the south, the police, Al Qaeda—take your pick), so these events are like sharpening stones for people with axes to grind.

To me what matters is that a certain innocence seems to have been lost here. Bangkok joins the ranks of cities worldwide where people think twice about going out. Violence has happened here before, certainly, but on the whole the place has always felt safer than places I’ve lived before. Crime is rare, walking anywhere anytime is taken for granted, and large scale feuding of the kind that makes international headlines has seemed like a problem reserved for other countries.

I have no reason to think that explosions will now suddenly become common, or even that I should or could take extra precautions. Yet it saddens me that some people think spreading fear in this way is a good way to advance their cause. Especially because it won’t. No message was sent really by this act. Or perhaps countless messages were sent. Because no one has claimed the bombs, we’re all free to assign our own reasons for them, thus fanning the flames of our own personal fires. Quite a shame.