Showing 1 - 10 of 76
Four weddings and a lot of romance
Life, Usnisa Sukhsvasti, Published on 07/12/2015
» With so much hatred in the world going on at the moment, I think it's time to talk about love.
A question of common sense
Life, Usnisa Sukhsvasti, Published on 23/11/2015
» I've been asking the wrong question all my life. From the moment you embark on a professional career, you ask: "How high is my salary going to be?". My starting salary upon graduating was a mere pittance -- a couple of thousand baht for a bachelor's degree entrance level job in government service. That was more than a few years ago, mind you.
The power of the 'written' word
Life, Usnisa Sukhsvasti, Published on 19/10/2015
» Do you believe in signs? I'm sure I do. Each week I look for signs to indicate what the topic of my next column will be. Sometimes they are fragmentary and vapourish, and require further interpretations before they can be distilled into a subject matter that I can tackle.
Teach our children how to think
Life, Usnisa Sukhsvasti, Published on 07/09/2015
» Politics and religion may be taboo conversation subjects, but the subject of education in Thailand is always a great way to get the ball rolling. Everyone has a story to tell and everyone has an opinion to give. Not much of it is positive. The recent announcement by the Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec) that schools are going to reduce class hours from eight hours a day to six in order to give children time for more extra-curricular activities has caused a lot more concern than praise. I don't think the quantity is going to make any difference, if the quality of teaching is not up to standard and you're not going to get quality teaching in the classroom if you can't pay teachers a reasonable salary. You pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Just to put things into perspective, according to figures from the 2015 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Switzerland is the country with the most well-paid teachers.
The social (reading) network
Life, Usnisa Sukhsvasti, Published on 24/08/2015
» I am joining a book club. "How quaint and antiquated that sounds," remarked my daughter when I told her. Is reading truly a thing of the past? Newspapers are fading into oblivion, gradually to disappear off the face of the earth, like the dinosaurs. That's what people in the know have been telling me. At least that's not going to happen within this year, so I assume my job is safe until I retire.
Thumbing your nose at traffic signs
Life, Usnisa Sukhsvasti, Published on 17/08/2015
» The other day a friend of mine asked a taxi driver to drop her off near an intersection. She planned to cross the road to get to the other side, but the taxi driver, being the dear sweet gentleman that he was, insisted on dropping her off on the side she wanted to go, though it meant going a long way further to make a U-turn. To her surprise, he made a quick U-turn right at the intersection.
Little chair of horrors
Life, Usnisa Sukhsvasti, Published on 10/08/2015
» Going to the dentist is an ordeal that I dread. I try my best to avoid having to go to the dentist by brushing my teeth after every meal. And since I'm not a fan of fizzy drinks and sweets, I've managed to keep my teeth intact to a certain extent. I can't remember the last time I was at the dentist's; it must have been at least a decade ago. I have great admiration for those who manage to keep their teeth until they're old. I'm hoping I'm going to be one of those people, but last week, after eating some crispy dried pork, my tooth chipped. It's a horrible feeling, to suddenly feel something like a grain of sand in your mouth which you know shouldn't be there.
Lament for a mango tree
Life, Usnisa Sukhsvasti, Published on 03/08/2015
» Last week, on the night of the heavy rainstorm, a big mango tree in my family compound uprooted itself and keeled over, right over the driveway and on to my fence and poor frangipani tree. The heavy wind in the afternoon might have shifted the weight of the tree and the rain-soaked branches and leaves later that night finally triggered the fall.
Everything changes, yet remains the same
Life, Usnisa Sukhsvasti, Published on 27/07/2015
» Change has come to my neighbourhood and I'm going through a bit of a nostalgic mood.
Playing the numbers game
Life, Usnisa Sukhsvasti, Published on 25/05/2015
» The death of revered monk Luang Por Koon last week was eye-opening in many ways.