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A stunning first-hand account from the streets of Bangkok. Incredible photos that shock, move, entertain and inform. A superb contribution to the documentation and analysis of Thailand’s recent political history. And this is just the first volume!
Published by White Lotus Press
UPDATE: Book launch details are here.
Congratulations to Nick! Come to the launch @ FCCT on the evening of Wed. 15th . Everyone’s welcome – good food @ reasonable prices, & a GREAT bar (journos, dontcha know!) – you don’t have to be a member, and no cover charge for this event. The book will be on sale @ 895Baht. Chris Baker will be there for Q & A. Mr A Khan will not be there – he’s been barred – & videos will NOT be on sale…
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Nick
I love your works, big fan. You have done a great job. I’m “red-shirt” of course. The other side of situation has never been printed or published in Thailand. So many Thai are brain-washed by local media and black propaganda from the invisible hand.
I’d like to make it clear here, the Red-Shirts is the combination of many groups of people, who have the same top objective, that is the true democracy.
For those Yellow Shirts, some of them are my friends or known ones, I understand and respect some of their opinions. They have been brain-washed for long long time.
It’s good to have your newly-published book, this one. I just hope it would open the blinded-eyes.
Sorry for my poor English. Just want to say, you have done good job and you’re a good journalist.
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Unfortunately I can’t make the launch and the book doesn’t seem to have a pre-order or be for sale on the White Lotus site yet.
How/when will it be available ‘in stores’, if it is to be available in stores…?
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Thank you all. đŸ™‚
So far, I know that Kinokunya has ordered the book, and also the bookstore in Chula University. We are still waiting for Asia Books to order. I have seen so far one online store where it is available – http://www.dcothai.com . You can also order it directly from the publisher, his website hasn’t been updated yet, just send an email.
Who knows me personally can give me a ring, i have a copies for sale as well.
The regular price is 995.-, the 895.- baht is for the launch evening at FCCT only.
Thanks.
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Congratulations Nick!
Judging by the popularity of your posts, White Lotus have landed a good deal on this I am certain (and hope you do benefit too – for the sake of continued quality journalism from you)! I will buy a copy on my next trip to Thailand.
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I have the book and can tell you it is a courageous, gripping and very fair-minded photographic documentary of the tumutuous past few months. For those of you uneasy with Nick’s political sympathies, don’t let it put you off looking at this book – the photos alone are unrivalled.
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Hi Nick
Great job !!!!!!
Red shirt ever.
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Congrats to Nick ! đŸ™‚
I think though that eventually (in future Volumes – like 2, 3 etc) perhaps some other “colors” would be added – as Blue, white, etc ? đŸ˜‰
(I mean, now it is more than simply “red Vs Yellow”.
oh, and don’t forget “Khaki Vs rainbow bunch” đŸ˜‰
hahaha )
another curious aspect to consider (which so far I haven’t seen discussed much or at all on blogs of Forums) is : how this whole “Color” thingy corresponds with … the “color revolutions” in some other countries in some past several years (say, as “Orange” in Ukraine, “Pink” in Georgia, then recently attempted one in Moldova, and the most recent one – so called “Green” / aka “Twitter revolution” in Iran …. ).
I mean – perhaps it helps to try and look at this whole “colors parade” here in LOS from a broader (or distant?) angle of view : that there is a certain pattern in the modern world of duping people into “color coded” so called “democratic movements” … (and thus distracting them from some other well concealed issues which are going on meanwhile)
BTW Ellul has mentioned this “color” usage as one of means of Propaganda. although nowadays I suspect there is a more sophisticated design at play – those “color coded”
sh1tstuffs flying around are more than just some sort of primitive propagandistic attributes.and in the West there are already quite a lot of people who do realize that. although of course here in LOS people are still being led by nose into this or that “colored” camp.
so, I think eventually, sooner or later, guys like Nick and John (photo-Journ) are gonna point that out and provide the facts about the ” True Colors ” so to say ! đŸ™‚
(I mean – the “colors” which the only really matter – as here in Thailand it is surely “khaki” of the military, and what’s the color for Amart / banksters – grey ? )
otherwise, once again – RESPECT to Nick and all those guys out there who do this awesome job of at least attempting to do “investigative” journalism ! I’ll try to look up for this book in Kinokuniya. (BTW – have noticed that SO MANY books are about PAD, by PAD and pro-PAD in Thai lang. section in Kinokuniya branch of Siam Paragon ! PAD guys are very prolific, huh ?)
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THIS WEBSITE ARE RED TERRIOIST !!
1. stack badside news effect to yellow shirt
2. inter news website having alot of redshirt site ?
or administration can’t making domain in thailand due laws
3. news on this website aren’t show to anywhere and news which presentative on thailand didn’t in this website
4.noobest book making
i want to know
who will buy this magazine
i see title and font
so boring !
5.identity ?
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Hi Nick Nostitz
Sorry for my poor English,
You have done the great job. Do you think we can have this book available in Australia?
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“Lek Sydney”:
Thanks a lot.
I don’t know if the book is available in Australia in any book store, but you can order it directly over this internet store:
http://www.dcothai.com/product_info.php?cPath=68&products_id=1004
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Review
History at street level
A photojournalist’s record of Thai protest politics
Writer: CHRIS BAKER
Published: 31/08/2009 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: OutlookOn July 31 last year, a post with just six photos and three paragraphs of comment appeared on the New Mandala blog run out of the Australian National University. The comment noted that Sondhi Limthongkul and Chamlong Simuang had recently claimed that the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) had the “right to take up arms” in self-defence. The photos simply showed PAD guards armed with sticks, pipes and slingshots. Some were scarcely adult. One was sharpening a pole on a kerbstone. The intimation of looming violence was very powerful.
RED VS YELLOW Volume 1: Thailand’s Crisis of Identity Nick Nostitz White Lotus 158 pp, 995 baht ISBN 978-9744801500
The post recorded a critical moment in Thailand’s history of protest – an end of innocence. On the blog site, it provoked a storm of controversy, with pro-yellows sacrificing all logic and sense to argue that the PAD was truly non-violent despite the visual evidence.
Over the following months, several follow-up posts appeared, with growing numbers of pictures, and more voluble comments from the author-cameraman. The most dramatic covered the long, bloody clash outside parliament on October 7. For anyone (such as myself) following these events through the heavily self-censored channels of conventional media, these posts were like a third eye.
Here, Nick Nostitz has turned his recording of the recent history of street protest into a stunning book. It begins with a little background on Thai politics, but really gets moving once Nick is down on the street with the first demonstrations by the revived PAD in March 2008. From there on the narrative shifts between the headline political story of military intrigue and demolished governments on the one hand, and Nick’s diary of the street on the other. The book ends with the yellow shirts’ occupation of the airport and the red shirts’ protest against the new Abhisit government on December 28. In the postscript, Nostitz promises a second volume to cover the events that climaxed during Songkran and their aftermath.
Nostitz came to Thailand in 1993 as a backpacker and has scraped together a living as a writer and photographer. He speaks Thai well and has friends both in the protest groups and security forces who helped to keep him safe when the bullets were flying. He is open in his political views. He doesn’t like the yellows. He thinks they used dishonest propaganda to whip up support. He believes they started the violence though, as his words and pictures show, they had no monopoly on it. Most of all, he can’t take the yellow leaders’ sanctimonious self-righteousness. In his view, the movement “resembled more a militant cult than a protest group”.
His sympathies are with the reds as the representatives of the underdogs in Thai society. He knows the story is not that simple, but he still prefers to wear his heart on his sleeve. His final take is: “If the government and the old elites cannot compromise with the aspirations of the common people, then the likelihood of further and maybe worse violence that might shatter the fabric of Thai society at some point in the not too distant future is extremely high.”
The text is good, but the pictures hold the real meaning of the book. They are not striving to be beautiful. They do not go out of their way to shock, though a few are horrendous to look at. They capture the rough and tumble of the protests, but also some of their humour and humanity. A policeman who has just been given Jakraphop’s jacket grins from ear to ear. A girl beside her father’s corpse is just on the point of breaking into tears. Policemen nap on the hard marble floor of government house. A vendor with a trolley of her petty wares waits in exasperation to get through a PAD barricade to go home.
The pictures also capture the ritualism of the protests with coloured shirts, bandanas, neck scarves and clappers. In perhaps the book’s most atmospheric shot, a King Taksin warrior stands guard in Sanam Luang, decked out in embossed belt buckle, massive amulet, mediaeval helmet and red plastic whistle.
The dominating motif of the whole photo-essay is weaponry. A captured submachine gun lies on a police station’s table. A red shirt rides pillion with a shotgun over his shoulder and a spare cartridge in his mouth. A taxi driver carries a lethally spiked pole. A policeman adds another captured golf club to an immense pile. Lads draw back slingshots from the cover of a motorway pillar. A PAD lieutenant drilling a new detachment of recruits holds behind his back a fearsome hooked stick bound in yellow cloth.
Very few foreign journalists have had the inclination to write books on Thailand. Most of them learn a lot and then leave, without much trace. Over the last 40 years they have bequeathed only a couple of personal memoirs, a couple of current affairs surveys, and one outstanding work of history. This book is a welcome break from trend. It works both as a superb record of an extraordinary chunk of history, and as a passionate contribution to the debate.
The book has been quickly and elegantly produced by White Lotus. The paper is good enough not to discolour, and the cover hard enough not to curl. It’s a pity that the text and the pictures are as far from one another as reds and yellows. In the second volume, some reconciliation of the two would be good. And on the street.
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