Showing 111 - 120 of 340
A slap in the face for hopes of an egalitarian society
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 19/03/2017
» My heart goes out to Anusawn Chirapongse, the high-ranking government official who inflicted grievous bodily harm on a Greyhound Cafe waiter. "Grievous bodily harm" may be a little over the top. After summoning the waiter, Mr Anusawn slapped him after he gave a deferential wai, bent down and said: "Yes, Pa?"
Thailand 4.0 hits a dead end
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 12/03/2017
» Last Tuesday the inaugural Thailand International Business Awards were held in a glittering ceremony at the Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit, celebrating innovation and excellence in local businesses.
Set zero: The Krabi power plant is ded-sa-molay
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 26/02/2017
» Environmentalists have cautiously hailed a victory of sorts after the government agreed to set zero the proposed Krabi coal-fired power plant. Don't worry, dear reader. It is not necessary to understand that first sentence. I was just testing you. Or rather, I was testing myself.
A lesson from the deep south
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 19/02/2017
» Anubal Narathiwat is one of the largest primary schools in the provincial capital of Narathiwat, the southernmost province of Thailand, right on the Malaysian border. Every morning at 8am assembly, the 1,437 children in Years 1 to 6 line up in front of the flagpole and sing the national anthem.
One banana, two banana, three banana, four ...
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 05/02/2017
» It was a perfect storm of diseased relatives and lovers. The first phone call came at 5.30am, so early that my consciousness was battling the effects of sleep and three quick Chardonnays prior to bedtime.
A difficult birth for new skincare fads
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 22/01/2017
» There was a time when, on returning to Thailand after a trip home to Australia, I would dole out small assorted gifts and souvenirs to my staff. This is an established tradition in Thailand and one any expat working here, legally or illegally, should abide by.
Suffer the little children
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 15/01/2017
» It's the morning after Children's Day. It is testament to how deeply I am entrenched in Thai culture that I hardly bat an eyelid when Children's Day comes around. There was a time when on hearing of an impending Children's Day I would throw up my exasperated hands and exclaim: "We have a Children's Day in this country? Whatever for?"
How I lost my past but found nirvana
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 25/12/2016
» Dateline Brisbane, Australia: A reunion of cadet reporters is under way at the iconic Breakfast Creek Hotel. It is a feel-good gathering; each of my three friends produces old photographs and paraphernalia harking back to the alleged good old days of 35 years ago when we had our whole lives ahead of us. We gasp and scream and realise that despite what we thought, we really have changed physically over 35 years.
Turning over a new leaf
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 18/12/2016
» Art spent last weekend clearing the bracken in the corner of his local school. By lunchtime the area had been cleared, with weeds and unwanted ferns and creepers strewn across the ground. A quick call to his home nearby ensured his 12-year-old son was on hand to help gather the foliage and toss it into the giant waste containers on the other side of the school. This task was largely undertaken by his son; Art sat under a tree, smoking self-rolled cigarettes, drinking a krating daeng.
Another tree falls in our rootless society
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 11/12/2016
» It was a majestic tree, sitting on the bank of a small canal. Waves of progress rose and fell around it. A convenience store was built right next to the tree; a brothel across the canal. Those two enterprises grew and prospered just like the tree but as we know, Buddhism teaches us that everything is transient; the convenience store withered, as did the brothel, and they eventually closed down. Our tree continued to grow.