Showing 1 - 10 of 31
Time running out on Tokyo Olympics
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 19/02/2020
» Japan needs to rethink the Olympics. The most pressing reason to postpone or cancel the 2020 Tokyo summer games, which are due to start in late July, is a raging public health crisis of unknown dimensions.
An Ithaca idyll with Surin Pitsuwan
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 04/12/2017
» During Surin Pitsuwan's visit to Ithaca, New York, this past September, a barbecue party was arranged by long-time family friends who live on the edge of town where the still lush and green rural surroundings could at a glance be mistaken for rural Thailand. Chickens cackled in a nearby coop and birdsong was everywhere in the air.
Stress, distress led voters to Trump
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 15/11/2016
» Perhaps the most troubling aspect of a Donald Trump presidency is not the man's big-headed, pig-headed penchant for self-promotion, but the shock wave of hate he has awakened. Americans are stressed and politically distressed, expressing anger in vulgar, bipolar ways.
Ajarn Ben's Southeast Asian analyses still enlighten
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 15/12/2015
» When I studied with Benedict Anderson at Cornell University in 1974, he seemed the quintessential absent-minded professor; at once erudite and bookish, idealistic and dreamy-eyed. The fact he had just been kicked out of Indonesia only added to his aura. Giving lectures about coups and counter-coups and revolutionary martyrs, he'd pace the front of the classroom in clunky boots and mismatched outfits, captivating class attention with his soft but mellifluous Irish-accented voice.
US hubris has real-world consequences
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 23/12/2014
» The Interview is based on a deeply-flawed conceit rooted in American exceptionalism: that a film about the killing a leader for the fun of it is funny as long as the target is unpopular and foreign.
Hope, history are out of tune in Tiananmen Square
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 04/06/2018
» When hope and history are out of tune, what is there to do but wait? The tyranny of our decimal number system and ingrained media habits have as much to do with the thundering silence about the June 4 anniversary this year as the tyranny of China's ruling party and propaganda apparatus. Anniversaries generate more sympathetic vibrations in even-numbered years than odd, and decades carry a resounding clout of their own, at least in media terms, so it's unlikely much news will be made of the 29th earthly orbit since the tanks stormed into Tiananmen Square.
China proved right over Facebook ban
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 24/03/2018
» In retrospect, China did the right thing by saying "no thank you" to Facebook. When gregarious internet evangelists come bearing gifts, it is probably best not to take their wares or let them in the door. Give 'em an inch and they'll take a mile -- and trample on national sovereignty, too, if profits and power are at stake.
America first, and Trump unleashed
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 26/01/2017
» The Trump administration introduced itself to the nation and the world with a bellicose roar of "America first" and some rather petty falsehoods, establishing a strident, truculent tone.
Saiyud proves military and democracy compatible
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 17/03/2016
» At this very moment, we need no further proof to realise that military men and democracy are always on the opposite side. Yet every rule has an exception.
Suthep has mastered the art of hard-to-heart talk
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 03/03/2014
» To borrow a formulation often used to describe democracy, a peaceful overthrow of a rotten regime is the worst possible option, except for all the others.