Showing 1 - 10 of 220
Revoke the licence to kill our oceans
News, Sanitsuda Ekachai, Published on 25/03/2024
» Despite efforts to rein in rogue trawlers and overfishing in the past decade, the Thai seas are still in crisis. And if the Srettha government has its way, things will go from bad to worse.
Trump's words seen raising risk of war in Europe
News, Peter Apps, Published on 21/02/2024
» As German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attended the groundbreaking ceremony for a new munitions factory early last week, he warned that Europe must move to mass-producing weapons "because the painful reality is that we do not live in times of peace".
Myanmar eyes return to Asean fold
Oped, Kavi Chongkittavorn, Published on 13/02/2024
» To understand the current game plan of Myanmar's military regime, it is perhaps a good time to remind ourselves of the letter written by former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to Senior General Min Aung Hlaing on Aug 19, 2022. The rather blunt personal letter urged the junta leader to implement the Five-Point Consensus (5PC), saying that if he fails to do so, his Asean colleagues might ban Myanmar from all meetings and recognise the National Unity Government (NUG). In short, Asean would give the seat to the NUG. The letter angered the general, and Hun Sen's practical advice was ignored, including his call for amnesty for four activists who had been sentenced to death. For the past three years, Myanmar's seat at Asean's high-level meetings has been left vacant. Then, on Feb 29, the seat was occupied temporarily.
Rich world raids development funds for climate
Oped, Bjorn Lomborg, Published on 27/01/2024
» Too many rich-world politicians and climate campaigners forget that much of the world remains mired in poverty and hunger. Yet, rich countries are increasingly replacing their development aid with climate spending. The World Bank, whose primary goal is to help people out of poverty, has now announced it will divert 45% of its funding toward climate change, shifting some US$40 billion annually away from poverty and hunger.
Chokepoints could cripple trade
News, Published on 16/01/2024
» When traffic through the Suez Canal ground to a halt in 2021, the extraordinary cost and disruptions to global commerce seemed overwhelming. But 8,000 kilometres from the canals of Suez and Panama lie even more important shipping lanes, chokepoints that could cripple global trade should any disaster befall them.
Student journalists need bigger seat at the table
News, Published on 06/01/2024
» Last year dealt heavy blows to the American news industry -- with turmoil in legacy newsrooms, local papers disappearing, the collapse of BuzzFeed and other digital news giants, and major firings and record-low audiences at cable news outlets.
Time to put brakes on immigration
News, Published on 04/01/2024
» No politician can be expected to tell us all of the truth. If they did so, they would lose an election even for town dogcatcher. Nonetheless it doesn't seem too much to suggest, in this season of hope, that 2024 might go significantly better than 2023 if more of our leaders around the world acknowledged realities about some of the troubles that beset us.
COP28 won't admit real cost of net zero
News, Bjorn Lomborg, Published on 06/12/2023
» The spectacle of another annual climate conference is getting underway in Dubai. Like Kabuki theater, performative set pieces lead from one to the other: politicians and celebrities arrive by private jets; speakers predict imminent doom; hectoring NGOs cast blame; political negotiations become fraught and inevitably go overtime; and finally: the signing of a new agreement that participants hope and pretend will make a difference.
Can Thai passports' power get a lift?
Oped, Kavi Chongkittavorn, Published on 19/09/2023
» At the first cabinet meeting last week, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin announced one of the government's priorities -- improving the power of Thai passports. It is a headline goal that will require extraordinary efforts to achieve. Upgrading a national passport to a higher level involves numerous factors -- economic, socio-cultural, and political -- as well as the general optics of the partnership countries. After all, the large number of visitors to a country is not an indicator of how powerful its passport is. A country might be given more visa-free accessibility and be popular for foreign passports, but its own passport's power can still be low.
The Beijing Consensus offers cautionary tale
Oped, Published on 19/09/2023
» For four decades, "Made in China" has been a defining feature of global capitalism. But a wave of disappointing economic news from China has given rise to increasingly gloomy forecasts, with some going so far as to argue that decline is imminent. There has been much speculation about this reversal's implications for the global economy, but what does it mean for development theory?