Showing 91-100 of 288 results
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A tower of our glory, except the foreign bit
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 03/09/2016
» I happened to be there at the opening of the sparkling corn-cob skyscraper, the trophy of high-capitalism and symbol of wealth. No fireworks at the launch of the MahaNakhon Tower, that would have been tacky, but we had the beam-me-up light dance and iridescent sky painting, cued to booming music. Jose Carreras sang arias.
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A backpack, bombs and a land of fear
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 10/09/2016
» The photo just broke your heart: A little yellow backpack with a cartoon pattern, crumpled on the road in Narathiwat after a bomb. We can imagine the rest. A few minutes before, it must have been slung on the back of a five-year-old girl before a deadly blast knocked it off. She was killed along with her father, Mayeng Wohbah, at 8.25am outside a school in Tak Bai, a place that has seen too many deaths, adults and children, over many years.
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Hanuman help us from a 'happy' ogre
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 24/09/2016
» The crusader has returned to the gate, ready to crush the infidels. I thought the new buzzword was "Thailand 4.0", whatever that means, and yet this week we're still arguing if a portrayal of a mythical ogre in a music video is blasphemy, a transgression against the high culture of Siam, the culture that stares down from a pedestal, that exists like a taxidermied animal on the altar of an abandoned temple.
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For a ghost of a chance, use your talisman
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 01/10/2016
» On Wednesday Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha talked for 135 minutes at the Bangkok Post Forum, more than Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton on Monday combined. And this isn't even an election campaign. A good soldier, he's unfazed by the presence of enemies and microphone. From the podium, arms outstretched, the PM touched on a lot of topics: Thai education, the economy, Section 44, Thailand as a "developed" country, the 20-year prophecy, etc. But what struck me like a hammer was when the general mentioned ghosts.
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Going S44 cold turkey is going to hurt
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 27/08/2016
» There's a Thai phrase, fon lai chang, the rain that chases out the elephant. But the heavy rain on Wednesday night managed to chase out something bigger than an elephant: the Bangkok governor. I hear people popping champagne corks.
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Army 'image' trumps the people's truth
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 30/07/2016
» Her uncle was beaten to death in an army camp and now she has been sued for revealing what happened. On Monday, Naritsarawan Kaewnopparat was arrested and charged for defamation and disseminating "false information" -- meaning the details of her uncle's harrowing death at the combat boots of his drill sergeants, who caned and kicked him from evening until past midnight back in 2011 at a Narathiwat barracks. Ms Naritsarawan, who has been fighting for a semblance of justice for six years, denied the charges and was released on bail.
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Breaking into song on the big vote day
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 06/08/2016
» Tomorrow is the day. Are you ready? Really, are you ready?Keep calm, get dressed, put on your Sunday smile, and head out to … No, not the referendum booth, or maybe later. First you really must go to the Scala Theatre in Siam Square, where for the first time in Thailand in decades, The Sound of Music will play on the big cinema screen with its historic overflowing of saccharine -- and with one of the strangest anti-dictatorship sentiments ever shown on film.
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Pokemon goes on run from state capture
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 13/08/2016
» No, they will not ban Pokemon Go, though it's not hard to tell how tempting that idea must be in the post-referendum landscape where peace, order and national security have been constitutionally enshrined.
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Serving up cruelty, a taste of 'Thainess'
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 20/08/2016
» The debate on the meaning of "Thainess" always fills me with patriotism and stomach ache. After last week's bombings, the army chief warned us to look out for people who wore hats, glasses and carried backpacks, because "Thais don't do that". The general meant well -- that we should watch out for suspicious agents of terror -- but the way he framed it was a crass, militaristic way of monopolising the definition of something that is shifting, malleable, even undefinable.
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IS a threat even if they aren't here
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 09/07/2016
» Ramadan has ended, and what a bloodied Ramadan it was as the godless terror of the so-called Islamic State (IS) -- though I prefer Daesh -- spilled innocent blood and soiled the spirit of the holy month.
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