Showing 101 - 110 of 147
When in doubt, gag the dissenters
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 27/09/2014
» Banning is the oldest trick in the authoritarian playbook, dating back to the pre-Medici, pre-Bolshevik, pre-YouTube era. It's placebo, and yet the illusion of efficiency still works like drugs among jittery leaders and strongmen who fear papers, images, testaments and sometimes truth.
Nationalism loses out to Hello Kitty
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 30/08/2014
» Two headlines caught my attention over the past week. First, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha wishes to see more movies that promote Thai values and historical education. Second, Hello Kitty is not a cat.
Art helps us see through the fog of war
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 16/08/2014
» Her mother is Christian. Her father is Muslim. What is she?
Fear of social change a step back
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 09/08/2014
» Those who live permanently in the past can't see the inevitability of the present. Those who worship the stegosaurus would do something so comical, so anachronistic as banning a computer game that most people have never heard of, prompting nearly everyone to hear about it and wanting to play it — just for kicks, just for a slap to the face, just to prove that techno-terrorism will leave the dinosaurs behind. In the world of bandwidth, in a time when information always slips through the iron fist like water or like pus, in short, in the downloadable, Wiki-leakable 21st century — banning data is the practice of ants trapped in prehistoric amber.
A passport to happiness is all you need
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 26/07/2014
» Like a sinner praying for salvation, I pray that the Ministry of Education will launch the "good deeds passports" project before the next full moon. Kids, parents and disciplinarians are dying to wave it around like a diploma of sanity, or an amulet against ghosts and anarchism. The Education Ministry is so educated that it has tapped into the zeitgeist: moral bookkeeping, and control of the happiness barometer (check out the military carnival at Sanam Luang), will guarantee the bright future of democratic Thailand.
All we can do is learn from Gaza's grief
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 19/07/2014
» ‘This twilight war involved two entire communities, two peoples, two tribes, two nations, fighting each other without a frontline, neither one really made any distinction between civilians and soldiers… Relations between Israelis and Palestinians became so thoroughly politicised that after a while, there was no such thing as a crime between them, and there was no such thing as an accident between them — there were only acts of war.”
Play by the rules, stop biting back
Oped, Kong Rithdee, Published on 28/06/2014
» If I were to rob the most heavily guarded bank in Switzerland, I wouldn’t pick Luis Suarez to be on my team. He has the courage, but he would spoil the plan, bite the tellers, thrash around on the floor and throw our operation into disarray. Sinking his teeth into an Italian defender, Suarez was slapped with a four-month ban, starting from the match between his Uruguay and Colombia. He’s forbidden even from entering the football stadium. It’s a provisional excommunication, a Fifa coup de grace.
Open up to spur cultural revolution
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 21/06/2014
» Alarmed by the sight of zombies stampeding to get free tickets to see the film Legend of King Naresuan 5, former Culture Minister Nipit Intarasombat, of the Democrat stripe, lamented aloud about the need for a “cultural revolution”.
Footie ecstasy prescription won't last long
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 14/06/2014
» Tell me, what’s happiness? Football, of course. Not playing it, not qualifying for it, but consuming it. Precisely, happiness is watching the 64 matches of the highest-level football played in the far-flung Amazonian longitudes, the broadcast signals being sucked live from space to the tubes of 65 million Thais at the expense of — a bargain, I believe — 427 million baht paid for by tax money from the public purse straight to a private firm. They should make it a policy to distribute ecstasy pills to accompany our late-night viewing, just to be certain maximum happiness is achieved, sustained and thanked for.
Ferrari boys drive us all to distraction
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 03/05/2014
» The Ferrari boys have made our blood boil. Cruising Bangkok’s streets in their super-steeds, the two kids with rich dads, speaking in faux English accents, expound their beliefs on how the country is being ruined and how it should be run, how immoral the Thaksin regime is and how their friendship, forged in battle, is stronger than steel, or something like that. It sounded like they rehearsed the script in front of a mirror for days, for they were so happy to hear the sound of their own voices, to show the world how great it is to be themselves.