Patrick Winn

Based in Bangkok, Patrick Winn produces written and video dispatches on Thailand and Burma for Global Post. By capturing street revolts, a gruesome Muslim insurgency and even transgender beauty...

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Patrick Winn's Notebook:

January 15, 2009 09:29 ET

Thai PM's iTunes playlist revealed. Yes, he rocks.

The Foreign Correspondent's Club of Thailand threw a swank party last night for the kingdom's new premier, Abhisit Vejjajiva. Following custom, they welcomed him into a large ballroom, fed him and invited him onstage for an anything-goes Q&A session.

Abhisit — 44, Oxford-educated and well-spoken — performed well for the crowd of journalists, embassy folk and others who came to see his most-public grilling so far. He won't satisfy Thai voters looking for a spitfire politician like deposed ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra, who seemed to inspire love-him-or-hate-him reactions.

Abhisit comes off as pragmatic and soothing, something that may serve Thailand well in the wake of massive political unrest. He also didn't offer any surprises last night... until the end.

The last question went to an Associated Press reporter, who requested Abhisit's  top five music picks for 2008.

"I look around the room," Abhisit said, "and a lot of you were born too early." Then, in his posh, British-accented lilt, he responded:

1. The latest from The Killers, an pop-indie outfit from Nevada.

2. The Last Shadow Puppets, a side project by U.K. rockers The Arctic Monkeys.

3. Comeback albums from Oasis, Metallica and Guns 'n' Roses.

There you have it.

 

January 14, 2009 11:23 ET | Updated: January 14, 2009 11:25 ET

The death of Thailand's "Joe the Plumber"

In the weeks following Thai Prime Minister Abhisit's rise to power, the premier has made several overtures to the kingdom's struggling northeast Isaan region.

Among the more theatrical gestures involved "Grandma Niam," an 84-year-old matriarch living in the far-east borderlands. During a campaign tour last year, Abhisit ended up on Niam's farm, where she handed him a ring from her childhood that would "wed" the urban politician to rural Thais. After his December appointment, Abhisit held the ring before cameras and renewed the vows, so to speak -- promising to always remember Niam and her rural kin.

In this recent GlobalPost piece, I equated Niam to America’s “Joe the Plumber.” Now, pointing out contrasts between a bald plumber from Ohio and a grandmother from upcountry Thailand is easy. But I think the parallel is there. Politicians have used both to put a face on the working class whose support they aggressively court.

This decade has proven that you can’t win America without Ohio and you can’t hold on to Thailand forever without a little love from rural Isaan.

Sadly, Grandma Niam recently passed away. The former balladeer died from cancer in a hospital near her home.

Niam was always an unlikely supporter of Abhisit, the posh-speaking Oxford grad who was born into Bangkok’s circle of wealth. Many in Isaan, or at least a very vocal faction, regard his Democrat party as effete and oppressive. Isaan also produces many so-called “red shirts,” a protest group that opposes the Democrats’ new grip on power. (They’re the counterpoint to the “yellow shirts,” who stormed Bangkok’s airport in November.)

In a disturbing twist, the Bangkok Post reports that a red-shirted mob surrounded Niam’s hospital in her last days and even rushed her intensive care unit to taunt her. Heartbreaking.
Protesters who hoped to stop Abhisit from attending Niam’s funeral, dropped their plans and the PM attended the funeral flanked by police.
 

January 12, 2009 07:13 ET

A Raucous Beginning

Sawasdee and welcome to Reporter's Notebook Thailand. I hope it proves more legible than the one I keep in my back pocket.

My decision to trade a D.C.-based reporting job for foreign correspondent work in Thailand was fully vindicated in late August. I had only recently relocated to Bangkok with photojournalist Pailin Wedel, also a GlobalPost contributor.

I was awake at 8:30 a.m., watching state-owned TV channel NBT in my underwear. A screaming mob, color-coordinated in bright yellow, was converging on the station's grounds. Only an iron gate manned by a dozen cops prevented them from storming the studio. NBT was broadcasting the riot live via a cameraman filming from the station's glass lobby.

Soon enough, the protesters had pried the gate loose and I watched cops scatter as it fell to the cement. In they rushed. The live feed went shaky — panicky cameraman? — and within minutes the station's signal went staticky and then black.

I went upstairs to shake Pailin awake. By lunchtime, we were walking over the felled gate, stepping lightly over its latticework, and entering the station grounds to cover our first protest since arriving to cover Thailand. The protesters numbered into the thousands. Some roaring with anger, others danced gleefully — high on victory. A more hardline faction, toting clubs and iron bars, held off the helpless police. These were likely some of the same enforcers who later stormed the prime minister's compound and two of Bangkok's airports.

These are the details that often stray too far from a dispatch's narrative. Writers are taught to kill their darlings — the bits, while too juicy to let go of, can't find their natural home in a particular story.

I hope to use this blog a repository for my "darlings." For example: the bomb scare that erupted mid-interview with a protest leader that sent both of us crashing to the pavement. (Probably high-grade fireworks.)  Or the latest on a recurring Bangkok governor candidate who recently attacked an anchor on live TV. (He went with the elbow jab. Very Muay Thai.)

And, believe it or not, Bangkok life does not generally revolve around political upheaval. Thais know how to have fun and so should this blog. If I find a 20-something Thai nightclub crooner who has trained his voice to sound EXACTLY like Michael Bolton's, I'll try to upload video. (If you can't wait, head to Old Leng bar and ask for Jack Sparrow.)

Stay tuned. Thailand is pretty riveting these days, so I don't think you'll be bored. And, please, feel free to talk back with the comments feature.