Showing 1 - 10 of 77
Smoggy Bangkok gets a badly needed breath of fresh air
Published on 12/05/2024
» For more than half a century, Thailand’s state-owned tobacco monopoly mass-produced cigarettes at a sprawling industrial estate in Bangkok. A steady stream of heavy trucks brought raw tobacco into the heart of the city and hauled millions of cigarettes away.
Memes of dissent
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 14/08/2023
» It is not as whimsical as it seems. After the onset of the largest pro-democracy movement since the military coup in 2014, university and high school students cuddled hamster dolls and ran around in circles. "Delicious tax!", hundreds of them sang, from a cartoon jingle at Democracy Monument in late July 2020. Crowdsourced from a social media platform, Hamtaro, a shorthand for caged mice demanding freedom, spawned many internet memes, including a greedy caricature of junta leader Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha.
The tough road to democratisation
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 03/10/2022
» Taiwan has been hailed as a textbook example of a successful transition to democracy. At the end of the civil war in 1949, Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Kuomintang (KMT), lost to Mao Zedong's communist forces and fled to the island. After almost four decades of martial law until 1987, Taiwan eventually held its first presidential election in 1996.
On the road to equality
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 13/09/2022
» Joyce Teng remembers the day when Taiwan's parliament passed the same-sex marriage bill in 2019, making it the first country in Asia to recognise such a union. Thousands of supporters erupted in joy outside the parliament building in the capital.
K-pop cheerleaders: the 'flowers' of South Korean baseball
AFP, Published on 03/05/2022
» INCHEON: In baseball-mad South Korea teams of professional cheerleaders pumping up players and fans with elaborate K-pop routines are as integral to the games as beer and fried chicken.
Remembering the history that some want forgotten
Life, Chris Baker, Published on 11/03/2022
» Royalist history paints 1932 as a coup by a self-interested clique which thwarted King Prajadhipok's wish to introduce a constitution and led Thailand to militarism and fascism. In 2017, the plaque commemorating 1932 was ripped out of the Royal Plaza -- symbolising the wish to cancel all memory of the event. Democratic history claims 1932 as a revolution which launched Thailand towards democracy and a modern society in which the majority can participate and benefit. In 2020 the youth activists reinstalled the plaque in cyberspace and called themselves the New People's Party. The event matters, one way or the other, down to today.
Art exhibit chronicles Myanmar resistance
Life, Published on 20/01/2022
» "Defiant Art: A Year of Resistance To The Myanmar Coup In Images" brings a series of 13 boards with artworks by artists from Myanmar and beyond to display on the curved wall on the 4th floor of Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Pathumwan intersection, until Jan 30.
Lessons learned from the October uprising
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 14/10/2021
» When the Oct 14, 1973, uprising culminated in the collapse of the military dictatorship, Sutham Sangprathum, the former deputy interior minister who joined the protests at the age of 19, felt that it was the great victory for people, but gradually learned that it had not challenged the status quo.
Lessons of history
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 13/10/2021
» After decades of military authoritarianism, student demonstrators in Bangkok began to call for the restoration of constitutional rule and a return to democracy. In the face of the challenge, the entrenched generals refused to negotiate and arrested the protest leaders, claiming they were influenced by communism. It paved the way for the popular uprising of Oct 14, 1973.
The fight for equality continues
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 21/06/2021
» All eyes are set on the Constitutional Court who will soon decide whether to accept a watershed case in the battle for marriage equality. Permsap Sae-Ung and Puangphet Hengkham have lived together for over 10 years but their marriage registration request was rejected by the Phasi Charoen District Office. In response to this, they filed a complaint with the Central Juvenile and Family Court, which forwarded the case to the Constitutional Court for ruling on Section 1448 of the Civil and Commercial Code that allows only heterosexual couples to tie the knot.