Showing 1 - 10 of 13
A nation of millions can't hold them back
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 29/10/2018
» Rhymes and misdemeanours. Yo, yo. Rappers are threatened to be thrown in a slammer.
A poll date and elephant in the room
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 25/08/2018
» We've heard distant drumbeats and dates are being thrown around. The election will -- may -- happen on Feb 24, 2019, which is the Year of the Pig, if that portends anything. The latest possible date, if things get pushed around by design or by fate, is May. Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe never. Who knows? For a regime that prides itself as rule-keepers, rules and promises have been treated like toilet paper since day one.
Regime trawl for small fry no joke at all
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 20/01/2018
» The big fish hardly ever gets caught, not here. Only the small, the trivial, the nonsensical fish, the clownfish especially. As in school, or in prison, the bullies never bully the big kid. They only confirm their sense of power when they go after the small guys, the nerds, even the girls.
On the ‘right’ side of crime and impunity
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 02/09/2017
» Crime and punishment, or crime and impunity? For most people, the former. For the powerful, the well connected, for those on the right side of history, maybe the latter.
First they came for those who 'twerk'
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 17/06/2017
» The police this week visited several cultural spaces, to appreciate the art and to mete out censorship. Next they'll give out art prizes -- to those who toe the line and serve the official ideology -- like the propagandistic communist states did in the last century.
IS a threat even if they aren't here
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 09/07/2016
» Ramadan has ended, and what a bloodied Ramadan it was as the godless terror of the so-called Islamic State (IS) -- though I prefer Daesh -- spilled innocent blood and soiled the spirit of the holy month.
Violence in South doesn't discriminate
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 07/11/2015
» To give you an update on Buddhist nationalism, Phra Apichart Punnajanto has “temporarily” closed his Facebook page, after the Sangha Council sent him a warning letter in the aftermath of the monk’s call for a crusade against the Muslim South.
Going missing a fate darker than death
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 18/04/2015
» To disappear is worse than to die, because death is at least a form of closure, or at least an answer. To disappear is to be suspended in limbo, to enter the void, to become non-existent. With death, you could become a ghost. By disappearing, you become nothing.
Mindanao offers lessons for South
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 05/04/2014
» There are signs of uncertainty. No, not the red-shirt rendezvous on Utthayan Road or the summit of the Suthep Thaugsuban-led movements at Lumpini Park, both happening with egoistic drum rolling today. As usual, Bangkok politics has the kind of narcissism and surreal influence that monopolises the headlines and consigns other struggles — more real, more fatal struggles — to the attic of our attention. If the way forward is decentralisation, let’s start by at least trying to look further afield than Bangkok’s face-off and the oratory salvoes of Mr Suthep and Jatuporn Prompan.
If Somsak's crazy, why get so mad?
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 15/02/2014
» From heckling to death threats, from trolling to live bullets. From malignant distribution of the enemy’s home address and licence plate number, to good old calls for his head, both real and metaphorical. Burn the witch at the stake: the “punishment” for thoughtcrime in the land of crooked smiles is severe.