One day, when I was in Bangkok, I looked over the edge of the Skytrain walkway near Asoke station. Traffic was snarled as usual, and as always in Bangkok it was disciplined in an anarchic way, ie there are rules and understandings that allow the traffic to barely flow, rather than come to complete gridlock.

And then I saw a big, black, polished Mercedes pull out of the snarled traffic and drive down the other side of the road. Oncoming traffic gave way to it. No one hooted. No one tried to follow it.

That was truly the arrogance of power …