Showing 1 - 10 of 22
Forgetting what democracy is for and all about
Oped, Published on 10/07/2025
» On June 2, I got a sense of history coming full circle in the Polish town of Sopot, on the Baltic Sea just a few kilometres from the Gdańsk Shipyard. Sharing a stage at the Plenary Session of the European Financial Congress with Lech Wałęsa, the legendary trade unionist who led the 1980 Solidarity strike at the Lenin Shipyard and later became Poland's first post-communist president, I felt I was witnessing the end of an era.
The late Pope Francis and the soul of economics
Oped, Published on 06/05/2025
» Pope Francis redefined the papacy in profound ways. As the leader of the Catholic Church, he worked to make it more inclusive of women and the LGBTQ+ community. As the first Latin American pontiff, he became a voice for the Global South. And by taking his name -- and inspiration -- from St Francis of Assisi, he positioned himself as a champion of the poor and marginalised.
The fake bookshop
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 22/04/2025
» Almost every wall, corner and even the staircase of a century-old two-storey shophouse is covered in books. Nestled in the historic community of Tha Tien, a new bookshop just opened its door to visitors in need of escape from the daily grind. They can grab soul-searching books, wind down or start a deep conversation. It looks like a real bookshop, however, everything is fake.
Big day for England's 'lost souls'
Sports, Nobby Piles, Published on 06/07/2024
» The Euro 24 quarter-finals are already under way and unbelievably England are somehow still in the mix. Their performances have been so uninspiring they are going into tonight's match against Switzerland as underdogs. This is a team England would be normally be expected to beat comfortably.
Cultural resistance
Oped, Postbag, Published on 13/06/2024
» Re: "Know your history", (Editorial, June 8).
Still haunted by Washington Consensus
Oped, Published on 11/06/2024
» In 1989, the British economist John Williamson christened what was to become the defining intellectual export of the era of globalisation: the Washington Consensus. Initially a reference to the policies adopted to tackle macroeconomic turmoil in Latin America, the term quickly morphed into a canonical "ten commandments" of development.
Gorbachev -- the greatest democrat Russia ever had
News, Published on 05/09/2022
» 'We all need to have perestroika," Mikhail Gorbachev would often say. The Soviet Union's last leader lived by that credo. After becoming the general secretary of the Communist Party in 1985 and implementing his programme of restructuring and glasnost ("openness"), he even changed his job title, preferring to be called president.
Biden to give prime-time warning on US democracy
AFP, Published on 30/08/2022
» WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden will sound the alarm on threats to US democracy in a rare prime-time address to the nation in the key swing state of Pennsylvania Thursday as his party fights to hold on to Congress in the midterm elections.
Technology and the global struggle for democracy
Oped, Published on 13/01/2022
» The commemoration of the first anniversary of the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by supporters of former president Donald Trump showed that the extreme political polarisation that fuelled the riot also frames Americans' interpretations of it. It would, however, be gravely mistaken to view what happened as a uniquely American phenomenon with uniquely American causes. The disruption of the peaceful transfer of power that day was part of something much bigger.
Keep up the supply
Oped, Postbag, Published on 18/07/2021
» Re: "Thailand's jab fiasco needs an inquiry," (Opinion, July 16). The government continues to order Sinovac as it is the only vaccine available for immediate delivery. Still, the immunisation rate would be much lower without Sinovac.