Showing 1 - 10 of 13
An unexpectedly successful protest
Oped, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 23/09/2020
» A new generation of Thai protesters has broken into the open, and while their defiant self-image as the generation that will finally fix things may be naive, they have already left their mark with the unexpectedly successful demonstration at Sanam Luang in the heart of old Bangkok on Sept 19-20.
Hope, history are out of tune in Tiananmen Square
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 04/06/2018
» When hope and history are out of tune, what is there to do but wait? The tyranny of our decimal number system and ingrained media habits have as much to do with the thundering silence about the June 4 anniversary this year as the tyranny of China's ruling party and propaganda apparatus. Anniversaries generate more sympathetic vibrations in even-numbered years than odd, and decades carry a resounding clout of their own, at least in media terms, so it's unlikely much news will be made of the 29th earthly orbit since the tanks stormed into Tiananmen Square.
An Ithaca idyll with Surin Pitsuwan
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 04/12/2017
» During Surin Pitsuwan's visit to Ithaca, New York, this past September, a barbecue party was arranged by long-time family friends who live on the edge of town where the still lush and green rural surroundings could at a glance be mistaken for rural Thailand. Chickens cackled in a nearby coop and birdsong was everywhere in the air.
Ajarn Ben's Southeast Asian analyses still enlighten
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 15/12/2015
» When I studied with Benedict Anderson at Cornell University in 1974, he seemed the quintessential absent-minded professor; at once erudite and bookish, idealistic and dreamy-eyed. The fact he had just been kicked out of Indonesia only added to his aura. Giving lectures about coups and counter-coups and revolutionary martyrs, he'd pace the front of the classroom in clunky boots and mismatched outfits, captivating class attention with his soft but mellifluous Irish-accented voice.
US hubris has real-world consequences
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 23/12/2014
» The Interview is based on a deeply-flawed conceit rooted in American exceptionalism: that a film about the killing a leader for the fun of it is funny as long as the target is unpopular and foreign.
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.
Time will not weaken Snowden's legacy
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 28/12/2013
» Edward Snowden was for a while considered Time magazine's most likely candidate for "Person of the Year", but in the end the editors yielded the man-of-the-year slot to the Pope, the third pontiff so named.
Thanks to the media, the US can get away with murder
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 15/10/2013
» The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Peter Higgs and Francois Englert this month for helping the world understand how a background field can cause phantom particles to acquire mass. The relatively irrational world of politics, riddled as it is with contradictions, offers its own version of the Higgs Field in terms of divergent national narratives.
US snooping scandal risks stunting internet's growth
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 14/09/2013
» The US is at a key crossroads, trying to regain the trust of its citizens and friendly nations around the world even while it continues to lie and dissimulate in defence of National Security Agency (NSA) overreach.
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.