Thailand's Unstable Geography

 Like most places on earth, Thailand has had a strange year. Its largest city Bangkok is the world's number 1 most visited city, measured by international arrivals. As the pandemic spread across the globe, it felt an even greater impact than other well-traveled cities like Paris, London, and Dubai. 

Markets, nightclubs, and temples were now suddenly, empty, after teeming with foreigners for years non-stop. But only after a brief calm period of strictly enforced curfew, were the usual swarm of the visitors replaced with a new one: Pro-democracy protesters. Thousands of loosely organized students flooded the streets of Bangkok, defying the emergency lockdown orders to incite change long overdue. They ask for the resignation of the Prime Minister and reform to the powerful monarchy. 

Currently, anyone found to have"defamed. insulted or threatened" Thai royalty can be jailed for years, while the king spends much of his time relaxing at his villa in Germany- paid for by the Thai public. 

One of the country's vocal opposition parties was legally dissolved by the courts in February. But while Thailand's current lack of tourists is highly unusual, these protests are not the least bit.  One of the few consistencies in Thai politics is their turbulence- the country has cycled through more governments than almost anywhere else in the modern world. This timeline shows every coup and attempted coup since 1910- roughly twenty-one though there have been so many that experts disagree on the precise number.  The longest a single government has maintained power is fifteen years, and just twice in the entire period. Only three other nations have had more constitutions- Haiti, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic. But there's a less obvious reason for Thailand's instability --one that has nothing to do with the monarchy. democracy, or even politics whatsoever. 

Looking at a map you can tell a lot about a country. Take away all labels, markers, and otherwise human-generated data, and you still can identify ingredients of a nation: How big or small it is, which rivers or oceans it has access to, who its neighbors are, climate, latitude, forestation, shape, and so on. All of these things can affect a country's political stability. 

Bangkok is home to two large airports- one serving as the hub for international flights, and the other for shorter regional ones. Its fifty districts reportedly grow by as many as a million people during the day, as workers commute from their homes outside the metropolitan area. The city is also home to nearly all of Thailand's major universities, along with the vast majority of its hospitals. Altogether, Bangkok contributes 29% of the national GDP. In 2010, it accounted for 80% of all urban land. It houses the headquarters of all its major banks, multinational corporations, the National Stock Exchange, national newspapers, broadcast media, publishers, and, most importantly, branches of government. 

The latest round of protests has broken the decades-long seal on criticizing royalty, opening the door to honest and open debate. When structural progress is eventually made, it will be thanks to the hard-fought protests of today.