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Teachers Arm Themselves in Thialand

It seems as if there isn't a country left in the world where muslims aren't ruining everybodys' lives. In a few provinces in Thailand, teachers are the targets and they're fighting back. From the International Herald Tribune:

"When you pull the trigger, you've got to keep steady," the instructor sternly told the elementary school teachers. "If your hand is shaking you can't shoot."

Teachers have one of the deadliest jobs in southern Thailand, with 44 killed by the bombs and bullets of an Islamic insurgency since 2004.

So the teachers are learning how to shoot back.

The Chulabhorn naval base, on the Gulf of Thailand in Narathiwat province, opened its heavily guarded gates on a recent Sunday to a training course for 100 public school teachers, mostly Buddhist men and women who say bringing a gun to school has become essential.

"You'd never see a teacher anywhere else in Thailand carrying a gun," said Sanguan Jintarat, head of the Teachers' Association that oversees the 15,000 teachers in the villages and towns of the restive south. "But, we need them, or we'll die."

That teachers — not to mention Buddhist monks, bank tellers and motorcycle mechanics — have become targets in the insurgency illustrates how badly law and order has degenerated in southern Thailand since the violence flared in January 2004.