Showing 21 - 30 of 34
Film fete case shows glacial pace of reform
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 08/08/2015
» It’s about time. The case has been cold but not closed, and justice delayed is more consoling than justice abandoned. After eight years, the Office of the Attorney General finally charged Juthamas Siriwan, ex-governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), for allegedly taking 60 million baht in kickbacks from an American firm in exchange for a contract to run the ill-fated Bangkok International Film Festival between 2003 and 2007. She has 15 days to show her face at the Office of the National Anti-Corruption Commission, or face an arrest warrant.
Spare Nepal our black arts, crass barbs
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 02/05/2015
» The Kathmandu earthquakes shocked us all. Once again, we are reminded that while some disasters are unnatural, it's natural disasters that wake us from our slumber with such frightening impact. After every quake, after every aftershock, after watching television feeds and looking at pictures on Facebook, we're nudged to reflect on the insecurity of life, even the fragility of civilisation.
Into the sublime
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 27/11/2014
» Swami Yoganand twists his rubbery legs and crosses them behind his neck in a geometric composition. Boneless? Shape-shifter? Of course not, it’s just that his lithe, 106-year-old body — the centenarian yogi is a vegetarian and his food is always uncooked — has reached the level of physical suppleness that most of us stiff-jointed urbanites can’t even imagine. The swami, an honorific for a religious teacher, has taught yoga for 86 years, and he’s still doing it almost every morning at a school in Rishikesh, a northern Indian town by the Ganges.
Don’t they know it’s ‘our’ Songkran?
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 22/03/2014
» Your Honour, ladies and gentlemen of the tribunal of the International Court of Universal Justice. I’ve come to this court today to represent the Cultural Watchdog and Tourism Authority of Thailand, and I henceforth present to the esteemed tribunal the grave, scandalous, hair-raising offence committed by a group of people in Singapore (I think) against the splendid and extremely wet Siamese tradition known as Songkran.
God forgives, Bangkok doesn't
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 19/07/2013
» Handcuffed to Ryan Gosling in the nightmare that's my home city, let me walk you through the checklist.
Chopin lives yet
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 14/05/2013
» Poland has the blessing of a succession of great composers. This year the country is celebrating the centenary of Witold Lutoslawski, and that has helped revive the interest in the Polish mid-century avant-garde, the likes of Szymanowski, Penderecki and their contemporaries with a musical penchant for mystifying dissonance. But among Poland's finest, one name from the 19th century towers above all: Fryderyk Chopin.
Asia's alter ego
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 29/03/2013
» Two upcoming film showcases explore the many faces of Asean and offer a close look at Thailand.
Love and other nightmares
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 08/02/2013
» What's more vicious than a ghost, as we Thais know from folklore and legends, is a female ghost wrecked by motherly love (in the Thai version, she would've been locked up in a clay pot). The gnarly, ferocious banshee in Mama is driven as much by post-humous rage as by fearsome tenderness, and save for some moments of dread up until mid-way, she scored slightly below-average on our fear-hardened scare metre.
Paradise lost as evil rears its ugly head
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 05/01/2013
» In my heyday, I was at the fabled Koh Phangan's full moon parties - three times - where I practised English, Swedish, Spanish, German and Hebrew, then walked the moonlit, vomit-strewn beach, enjoyed (meaning eating) local mushrooms, lit a bonfire of international camaraderie and watched the psychochemical clouds drift like memories into the dark Gulf of Thailand.