It looked little worse for wear - if you leave aside the fact it had no head. This chicken went on to live another few days before it keeled over. That Life photograph came back to mind as I was sitting in the office of the watchdog National Counter-Corruption Commission in Bangkok just before the Thai election. Thailand may be about to lose its head. Commission head Opas Arunin was explaining to me in his normal cool, calm way that he had a job to do, that the law is the law, that if the Constitutional Court really does find the man primed to be the next prime minister of Thailand guilty of falsely declaring his assets, then they will have no choice but to axe the head of the country.
Farmers understand a thing or two about chickens.
Quite a few will cough over their rice and fish sauce at such news. For once, farmers have a man who seems to care for their needs during this fallow time of economic crisis, when the price of rice is low and their debts are high. Thaksin faces the prospect of fighting his case in the Constitutional Court. It could take months, a year, or even, he has suggested, two years to wade through the mountain of paperwork and witnesses. Naturally, there is a chance that Thaksin could win and the charge is thrown out.