Thai police seem to deserve some credit for dealing quickly and efficiently with yesterday’s Valentine’s Day bombings in Bangkok, perhaps preventing more people from being hurt. But the hero in the eyes of much of Thailand’s Twitter community was a member of a very different tribe of men who work the streets of Bangkok: a motorcycle taxi driver.
@motorcyrubjang was right on the scene on Sukhumvit 71 when one of three explosions went off, blowing the legs off a man reports suggest was plotting a terrorist attack. The perhaps-unlikely citizen journo took some extremely graphic pictures of the carnage (now blurred out, sorry gorehounds), uploading them to his blog and beating the mainstream media to the event by some way.
The switched on motosai uses his Twitter feed to promote the services of his win (motorcycle taxi driver gang) – as well as post pictures of cool stuff he sees in the city. At 10.20am yesterday he was tweeting a picture of some “delicious” pork blood soup he enjoyed in a shop on Soi Thong Lor. Three hours later, he was on the scene of yesterday’s carnage, tweeting this disturbing image, which was the first the world saw of what happened. “Foreign suicide bomber in front of Kasem Phittaya School, Sukhumvit 71, legs [blown] off but he didn’t die,” read his tweet.
Shortly afterwards, our two-wheeled media hero uploaded a load of pictures to the blog mentioned above. It’s not clear whether he was also responsible for this video (warning: this is extremely graphic and not for the faint of heart).
Coconuts hasn’t been able to work out how many followers @motorcyrubjang had when he woke up yesterday morning. But it’s safe to say it was a lot fewer than the over 1,800 he has now. And some tweeple were more than a little impressed with his handiwork. “Today is the grand opening of @motorcyrubjang”, tweeted @00100446 (Translated by Coconuts). “You make me amazed at where you are. You are very good you are my idol,” wrote @marthada_ace. “u r so amazing kaaaa :’) happy valentine’s day na ka ,,,lucky and healthy ka,” gushed @YunniesNam.
The rise of social media has prompted many a pundit to ask whether professional hacks are an endangered species, under threat from the citizen journalist. With thousands of motorcycle taxi drivers covering every corner of the city, perhaps Bangkok’s media corps should be worried.
