BANGKOK — American expat John Merryman is hoping for Thailand’s political tensions to flare into a nationwide inferno of violence and bloodshed so that he can again enjoy the attention of friends and family overseas.
At the height of the recent troubles, as images of the bloody assault on the red shirt encampment were broadcast around the world, Merryman was receiving up to a dozen messages a day from worried acquaintances back in his home state of Illinois.
By frequently posting images and video clips of the protests to his Facebook page, the 32-year-old freelance web designer was able to ratchet up the fears and worries of his friends and family and bask in their concern for his safety.
“I didn’t even have to pay attention to what was going on, I just copied and pasted some lines from some blogs that made me look really knowledgeable,” Merryman said.
“The last day when they shot all those guys and burned the mall, that really got me a lot of Facebook comments,” he continued. “This one really hot girl I knew from college even sent me a message hoping I was keeping safe. When I told her I could hear the gunfire from my apartment, she got really worried and wrote me back twice!”
The attention paid to Merryman for simply residing in Thailand was first given a dramatic boost by the events of the 2006 coup. “All my friends back home kept emailing to ask if I was in danger, and telling me they were thinking about me. That’s when I realized how much I could work this for myself.”
While on a visit home in 2007 Merryman was able to exploit Thailand’s misfortunes to great personal benefit. During a get-together he impressed his friends with descriptions of the political turmoil, none of which he actually witnessed first-hand. By exaggerating both the dangers of the situation and his exposure to them, he was able to have sex with a female friend who was fooled by his phony bravado and genuinely fearful for his life.
“It was so easy,” he recalled. “You just have to mention that you saw some tanks on the street and everyone thinks you’re living in a war zone like Iraq or something. I never even saw any tanks.”
The recent clashes in Bangkok were a great boon for Merryman’s ego. As he and several companions watched the events unfold from his high-rise apartment near Lumphini Park, he sent out dozens of worrying messages by Twitter and Facebook, venturing out only to replenish supplies of Heineken. He received a flood of responses from anxious acquaintances around the world.
While the Bangkok curfew was imposed, he traveled to Phuket for a relaxing beach holiday but was still able to stoke his parents’ fears with posts on the aftermath of the violence and the developments in the Northeast.
But when the violence died down, so did the attention to Merryman. “It’s gotten quiet lately,” he complained. “I’m hoping something really ugly happens so I can start getting messages again. Maybe some bombs in Bangkok, near Democracy Monument or some place I never go. What would be really cool is a full-on civil war. As long as it doesn’t spread to Sukhumvit or the beaches.”
