Showing 11 - 20 of 23
Nation's 'peaceful' revolution is not a dinner party
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 04/01/2014
» The New Year's lull offers a chance to pause and take stock of the most recent anti-Shinawatra demonstrations that have energised, empowered and exasperated so many during the last two months of 2013.
Suthep's patriotic vision stuck in an imaginary past
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 05/12/2013
» Anticipating His Majesty the King's birthday today, both sides of the political divide have stepped back from the brink, exchanging flowers and hugs on the battle-torn front lines instead of rubber bullets and tear gas.
Democracy as we know it is being poisoned
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 28/11/2013
» Thai democracy is in crisis because it is producing undemocratic results and practices.
The year of living dangerously, Thai-style
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 13/07/2013
» Bangkok has just become the world's No.1 tourist destination, and it couldn't have come at a worse time - not because the capital and the country haven't earned the accolade, and not because it isn't a fun place to visit, but because Thai society is brimming with contradictions that could break into conflict at any time.
Mystery shrouds the real Jit Phumisak story
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 14/05/2013
» Who was the real Jit Phumisak? The gifted linguist, willing to risk his college career arguing over a single archaic word? Co-translator of the Communist Manifesto? A radical historian who subversively upended centuries of received knowledge with a bold new history of Thailand? Poet? Composer? Loving son? Jungle fighter?
Publicity or propaganda, it's all just a matter of spin
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 02/05/2013
» When Beijing changed the name of the Department of Propaganda to the Publicity Department, journalists snickered at the transparency of the ploy, since the spin and the information control system remained the same.
All crackdowns are not equal
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 27/02/2013
» When politicians stake out the high moral ground and announce a crackdown, it can be a smokescreen for business as usual, or it can mean they really mean business.
Fire in the South poses existential threat to the nation
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 31/01/2013
» Perhaps one day there will be a monument to all the brave teachers who sacrificed their lives trying to keep alive the light of education in Thailand's strife-ridden southern provinces.
The good, the bad and the BBC's ugly Abhisit interview
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 14/12/2012
» A good interview raises more questions than it answers, while a bad one raises more questions about the interviewer than the interview. A mix of both was in play last week when former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was interviewed by BBC news presenter Mishal Husain about murder charges recently levelled against him.
Democracy is the smell of tear gas in the morning
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 26/11/2012
» During World War II, American writer EB White was asked to define "democracy". He went on to scribble a few evocative lines about the sights, smells and minutiae that he personally associated with the hard-to-define term, a term that is almost universally heralded as good, but has long been bandied about with abandon.