Clappers for Thailand.

By Lucy Williamson BBC News, Bangkok

Many protesters buy bulk-loads of these plastic hands. --->

October 30, 2008

There are lots of things about Thailand's long-running anti-government protests to startle a casual visitor.
The toilet paper stalls that lead down to the tangle of plastic tents inside Government House, for example, or the free haircuts handed out to protesters beside its elegant steps.
But perhaps the most surreal hallmark of this political crisis is the craze known as "clapping hands".
Their noise rises from inside the government compound every few minutes - a sound somewhere between the chattering of insects and the clickety-clack of factory machines.

It is the sound of thousands of protesters waving the latest must-have accessory - hand-shaped plastic rattles, in lurid colours, which clatter loudly when shaken.
The stalls here sell them in every colour, big or small, tied with string to hang around your neck, or carrying slogans: "Clapper warrior!" "Clappers stop the evil!" "My wife is making me do this!"
Buntheung is shopping for a new one. "I already have two," she tells me, "one for the man who betrayed the country, and one for my husband!"
I ask her how effective they are. "Oh it works on the husband," she says.
And the country, which many people feel has been let down by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his brother-in-law, the current leader Somchai Wongsawat?
"We're almost there," she says.
The handy thing about the clapping hands is that they can be used to express either agreement or anger. The daily speeches from the main tent at Government House are punctuated with the rise and fall of the clapping hands.
Protesters, some of whom have been camped out here for months, wave them lazily or vigorously depending on who's speaking, and what's being said.
"When I like what they say I just wave it," says Chin-Noi. "It's easier than clapping my own hands. It's fun and it makes me happy. I use a lot of clapper."

Read more here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7699624.stm

-Jumakae... clapclapclap.