Thailand’s ‘Bad Students’ are rising up for democracy and change
The air was filled with excitement and hope as I stood in front of the Education Ministry compound in Bangkok among hundreds of schoolchildren, some as young as 10 and most in school uniforms. They were busy helping one another tie white ribbons in their hair and around their wrists, putting on face masks to both guard their identities and protect themselves against the novel coronavirus, and placing duct tape over the names embroidered on their uniforms. Once they were all ready to go, they lined up on the street and raised their arms in “Hunger Games”-style three-finger salutes.
These children, the new masked faces of political dissent in Thailand, satirically call themselves the “Bad Students” because they refuse to be submissive in the face of what they consider to be arbitrary hierarchy and classroom abuses by teachers and school administrators.… Seguir leyendo »