Just Another Military Coup Monday in Bangkok

Thailand’s Political Turmoil Has Slowed Traffic and Complicated My Sartorial Choices. But For My Family and Most Everyone Else, Life Goes On.

I’ve been in Bangkok through the 2008 “yellow shirts” demonstrations against the government of now-deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, through the 2010 “red shirts” protests that supported him, and, as of May 22, my first military coup.

The takeover of the government by Thailand’s army followed six months of street demonstrations aimed at bringing down the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, the sister of Thaksin, who was himself overthrown by the military in 2006. The army says this most recent coup was necessary to restore the peace, as the opposing …