Showing 1 - 10 of 22
The death of vote-buying
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 25/11/2018
» The government announced a brand new and unexpected Big Welfare Aid Programme (BWAP). Cynics, sceptics, anti-regime critics and even honest people wondered if the sudden decision to help the least-advantaged Thais just possibly has something to do with that other government programme -- so tantalisingly unspecified -- of an election that for the fourth year in a row has been pencilled in for, in the highly familiar phrase used by the general prime minister, "next year".
Devout groupies and a band of terrorists
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 23/09/2018
» After a very organised group of terrorists hijacked the Kuwait Airways jumbo jet Flight 422 from Bangkok to Kuwait City for 16 days and killed two of their hostages in April of 1988, there was an investigation.
A rough landing
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 13/08/2017
» The media treatment of the Don Mueang immigration mess made it seem like a new and unexpected event. As in <i>Casablanca</i>, officials were shocked -- shocked -- to find gambolling in the arrivals hall.
Serious comedy
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 02/04/2017
» Just 32 years old, Vorayuth "Boss" Yoovidhya leads a hectic, globe-trotting life. You have to understand that he can't just be on hand every time prosecutors want to get his views about his connection to the hit-and-run killing by his Ferrari more than four years ago. In fact, he has missed eight appointments in the past year.
End of an era?
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 25/12/2016
» Planning for the third Cobra Gold war games since the 2014 coup d'etat is pretty much complete, and it is going to show better than any other public event the diminishing passion of the long US-Thailand affair.
The Big Issue: How horrid
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 09/10/2016
» Last month, taxpayers wrote a cheque for 3.3 billion baht when Russia delivered two VIP long-range Sukhoi Superjet 100s. The junta tried to claim they were "transport planes", because carrying important people and their aides is transport, right?
The big issue: The terrorists who didn’t
Alan Dawson, Published on 27/03/2016
» The suicide bombs at Belgium brought heightened alert to Bangkok’s airports and embassies, while police on overtime patrolled tourist-friendly areas of the country, just in case.
The Big Issue: An unwelcome visitor
Alan Dawson, Published on 21/02/2016
» Just before Christmas 2014, a United States Embassy attache in Bangkok received a phone call. The caller told him that an American man who was known to have sexually abused a 14-year-old boy in Pattaya had contacted the youth via Facebook to try to score another sexual date six months ahead.
The big issue: Passports, please
Alan Dawson, Published on 14/02/2016
» All newspapers carried this big story of the week, with the <i>Bangkok Post</i> cutting immediately to the chase.
The big issue: When terror spreads its wings
Alan Dawson, Published on 22/11/2015
» The first time Airports of Thailand announced a spiffy new security system, the top song was Change Clothes by the exciting new rapper Jay-Z. George W Bush was not only US president, but he was in Bangkok, and he urged prime minister Voldemort (later Lord Voldemort) to put in this new system and bring Don Mueang, the official international airport, up to date with the rest of the world.