Showing 1 - 4 of 4
Sizing up the Kra Canal opportunity
News, Sawai Boonma, Published on 02/12/2015
» Thailand and South Korea started implementing accelerated development programmes about the same time as the United States started its urgent quest to land men on the moon. In that quest, the Saturn V rocket was the game changer, for its ability to take a heavy payload, including a moon lander and three astronauts, out of the Earth's gravity to the moon's orbit. It enabled Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to land on the moon's surface and return to Earth safely more than four decades ago.
Big ideas like Kra Canal take guts to follow through on
News, Sawai Boonma, Published on 07/01/2015
» With attention focused largely on holiday celebrations in the past couple of weeks, most Thais probably missed the news about a milestone event in Nicaragua just before Christmas. The event was a groundbreaking ceremony, commencing the construction of the Nicaragua Canal linking the Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean.
Eating less rice benefits farmers, the environment
News, Sawai Boonma, Published on 01/10/2014
» Growing up in a typical rice-farming family — my mother was also a rice noodle vendor during the dry season — I am accustomed to eating rice or rice noodles three times a day and have a lot of empathy for rice farmers whenever rice prices are low. But instead of eating more rice and rice noodles to help increase demand — and hopefully the price — I now eat far less rice and almost no rice noodles. I believe this not only helps rice farmers, but also reduce my environmental footprint. It will also make me relatively healthier.
Pawning rice is worse than pawning Thailand
News, Sawai Boonma, Published on 05/12/2012
» Since the launching of the rice-pawning scheme a few months ago ("pawning" is not only a correct translation of the Thai word jam nam but also reflects the sense of the scheme better than the "pledging" that many writers have used), two areas have been analysed most thoroughly: its potential impact on the budget and national debt, resulting from the large losses that will occur, and the corruption that is due to happen at various steps of the scheme. Some analysts go so far as to say that losses from this scheme will bankrupt the country and pawning rice is tantamount to pawning the country.