It was quite a weekend. Connor McGregor broke his ankle, England lost the Euro Cup, and the democracy caravan honked and yelled, “Prayut, get out!”
Meanwhile, singer Jirayut “Joe Nuvo” Watanasin appealed to the nation, “we are all in the same boat.” Social media went nuts, but the singer is correct, we are in the same boat.
A boat that crashed into an iceberg because of a lack of foresight and preparation. A boat divided people into classes, caged and locked the working class when disaster struck, while the privileged escaped.
Prai (peasant) Jack got uppity thinking he’s a social equal by romancing Elite Rose, only to be chased down and shot at by Elite Cal. Eventually, the boat broke in half, both Salims and Three-hooves ended up freezing to death in the ocean.
The 1997 film “Titanic” is riddled with metaphors fitting for Thailand.
Like Joe Nuvo, General Prayut Chan-o-cha is also correct. “We are all in this together. We must help each other.”
In the first lockdown, May 2020, barring a small number of people, we kept our guards up, the contagion was contained, we opened back up, and the world gave us kudos for a job well done.
In this second lockdown that’s not called a lockdown, the people will do the same. We will keep our guards up. But what will the government do?
In Las Vegas’s UFC event and London’s Euro finals, people attended by the tens of thousands, maskless. Meanwhile, in Thailand, people queued up overnight at hospitals and the Bang Sue Station to get tested for COVID-19. Vaccines are still missing, including the 1.5 million charity Pfizer doses from the US.
So while the people, happily or grudgingly, lock ourselves down for the next two weeks, the government must save this sinking boat with two things: test kits and vaccines.
But at the moment, like in the movie, it’s everyone for himself/herself, because the captain is clueless.
The 1999 New Radical’s hit song “Someday We’ll Know” asked, “Did the captain of the titanic cry?”
In Thailand, the captain of the Thai-tanic isn’t crying (just whining), but the passengers are dying.
We need a new captain/boat.
2021-07-12