Mapping the Protest in Bangkok

New events in Bangkok highlight the public-ness and private-ness of spaces of protest.
The above mapping highlights the "area" under control of the "red shirts"

The top horizontal line is Rama 1 Road, home of the gigantic malls like Siam Paragon.

Cities all over the world are privatizing their gathering spaces under the guise of consumerism. These become likely sites of protest for this disruption of financial systems - now having international/global repercussions.

Grounds for Free Speech

image credits: Thailand's Suvarnabhumi International Airport + the Acropolis of Greece

Recent news headlines have been displaying images of public spaces in connection with locally occurring protests. In Thailand, its the Democratic Alliance Against Dictatorship protesting Mr Somchai's People Power Party, locating themselves finally in both airports Bangkok, disrupting travel amoung other things. In Athens Greece, protesters asking for mass protests across Europe in responce to a local teenager shot by police, unvail banners on the walls of the Acropolis.

These are peaceful acts of communicating distaste for local governments, inaction by governing bodies. People are coming together to show and express their opionions. These acts culimate in public places, national/city gathering grounds. Space to express, to rally...and to disrupt.

These two examples highlight the changing arena of our new grounds for free speech. They are not sites of governmental policy making, not capital steps, houses of parliments... They are very visual public spaces...and most interestingly they are sites of international attention, places of high tourism and visability.

They are globalized sites. Local displeasing actions are now fed directing into global conversation. Using sites of recongnition (airports, monuments) that identify nationality (who and where it is) or homogenity (could be anywhere).