Showing 41 - 50 of 107
UN General Assembly must assert itself
Oped, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 20/04/2022
» The recent vote in the UN General Assembly (GA) suspending Russia from the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), due to its conduct in Ukraine, in early April 2022 is a rare instance of the GA asserting its powers with binding force. Generally, only the UN Security Council (SC) can adopt measures; these are exemplified by sanctions adopted by the SC periodically against errant states, non-government armed groups and individuals. Is there then room for a more assertive GA, especially when the SC is dysfunctional?
Tackling the pandemic of inequality
Oped, Published on 12/04/2022
» After two years of human devastation, the world is learning to live with Covid-19 while trying to balance the protection of public health and livelihoods.
Is struggling Sri Lanka salvageable?
Oped, Published on 08/04/2022
» Last Sunday -- with two notable exceptions -- Sri Lanka's cabinet resigned en masse in protest against the government's handling of the worst economic crisis to hit the island in decades, which has sparked widespread rioting, unrest, and arson attacks on police property.
Will Putin's war slow China's economic growth?
Oped, Published on 23/03/2022
» On March 5, China announced a GDP growth target for this year of about 5.5%, the lowest target since 1991. But that should not come as a surprise. In 2013, World Bank economists and the Chinese State Council projected that China's annual growth rate would decline to 5% by 2030. This may still be an overestimate, given that growth rates during 2010-16 have been found to be inflated by 1.8 percentage points and that average growth in OECD economies is around 3%.
The recipe for reforming pensions
Oped, Published on 07/01/2022
» Pension reform is a thankless but necessary task. Pensions are a difficult and emotional subject that affects every citizen, and changing how they are calculated or when workers can retire involves negotiating a complex web of rules, habits, and entitlements that neat academic models do not capture.
The guardians of civil society and democracy
Oped, Published on 16/12/2021
» When global leaders gathered virtually last week from Dec 9-10 for US President Joe Biden's Summit for Democracy, they ought to have asked themselves a simple question: What can we do to help democracy's bravest advocates, like the protesters who are risking their lives in Sudan?
Cities need to be smart
Oped, Editorial, Published on 04/11/2021
» So-called smart cities have become aspirational for governments around the world and the government has been among them with its 12th National Economic and Social Development Plan (2017-2021).
A vision for global cooperation
Oped, Published on 28/10/2021
» The world faces a range of serious threats -- from exclusionary nationalism to great-power competition to growing inequality -- that are preventing the international community from working together to solve other complex challenges, such as the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines and the accelerating pace of climate change. But global crises require global solutions, and with his highly anticipated report, "Our Common Agenda", UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has outlined a new vision for multilateral cooperation.
Migrants face red-tape nightmare
Oped, Published on 13/10/2021
» Before the Covid-19 pandemic, migrant workers made up more than 10% of Thailand's labour force and generated 4.3% to 6.6% of the country's GDP, according to information from the International Labour Organization in June.
Long Covid is the hidden pandemic
Life, Arusa Pisuthipan, Published on 27/09/2021
» Covid-19 has changed people's lives drastically in many ways. For one, masks have become essential items now while hybrid workplaces, remote learning, and cashless shopping are normal practices. We will also never feel at ease riding in an elevator with strangers the way we did before.