Showing 1 - 10 of 29
Living in Thailand's age of impunity
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 17/01/2026
» There's no place like Thailand. Joyscrolling TikTok and Reels reveals dozens of clips made by international visitors lamenting having to leave our lovely country and return to dreary Europe or joyless America. "Nobody talks about how hard it is to go from this" -- insert a cut of a wonderful beach in Krabi -- "to this"--cut to a drab, damp suburban street somewhere in the West. Add a crying-face emoji. "I want to move here!" the traveller announces. True, everybody loves Thailand.
Humanity's alignment problem
News, Antara Haldar, Published on 06/01/2026
» It's lunchtime on top of the world again. Time's annual "Person of the Year" issue released two weeks ago has revived the iconic Depression-era photograph of steelworkers casually lunching on a beam suspended over Manhattan. With the city rising beneath them, the image portrays risk as normalised, even glamourised.
Beneath Tak Bai's calm, scars remain
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 15/10/2025
» 'I went out after dark to help my friend. Luckily, his phone still worked when he called. On the way from my house, there were corpses floating in the water, face down, shot dead. I'm sure there were more deaths than what they reported. The sound of gunfire kept going late into the night. I remember earlier that day, when the soldiers opened fire, I'd seen people's heads blown to bits as I was running home. I'd never forget what I saw."
When societies rise, fall, and face catastrophe
News, Antara Haldar, Published on 11/10/2025
» When the United Nations emerged from the rubble of two world wars 80 years ago, it represented humanity's most ambitious attempt ever to turn catastrophe into cooperation. But while the scarred world of 1945 had hope following the Allied victory, that optimism has since curdled. The UN today is underfunded, risk-averse, and paralysed.
Are we headed for the crypto apocalypse?
Oped, Hilary J Allen, Published on 07/10/2025
» With the passage of the Genius Act, the United States will allow all manner of companies to issue their own money in the form of crypto assets known as "stablecoins".
Journalism is the first victim in a conflict
Oped, Kong Rithdee, Published on 31/07/2025
» In times of chaos, to call for calm seems naïve. "Imagine there's no countries." Sure, John, I know your utopianism was well-intended, but try telling that to the blood-hounding jingoists running rampant online in Cambodia and Thailand.
More missiles, memes, and the new resistance
News, Imran Khalid, Published on 19/07/2025
» There was a time, not so long ago, when Walter Cronkite's sombre baritone could turn battlefield dispatches into moments of collective reckoning. Even the first "television war" of 1991, piped in grainy bursts from Baghdad, felt slow enough for shock to sink in. These days, the missiles that streak above Natanz or Esfahan arrive on TikTok between latte art tutorials and kittens sliding off sofas. The effect is less shock-and-awe, more scroll-and-shrug.
Sudan's hell of devastation and despair
Oped, John J. Metzler, Published on 24/04/2025
» The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are stalking Sudan: brutal civil conflict, widespread devastation, humanitarian disasters, and the displacement of millions of refugees. Now add the Fifth Horseman, the darkness of global indifference.
Present from Putin
Oped, Postbag, Published on 22/03/2025
» Re: "Putin call 'a test' of deal-making skill", (World, March 19).
Be wary of the TikTokalypse on the radar
Oped, Todd G Buchholz, Published on 31/01/2025
» When the United States president, Congress and Supreme Court are all in a tizzy at the same time, the topic under discussion is usually a global meltdown or, at the very least, income taxes. Today, the concern is dancing cat videos. In his first day back in the White House, Donald Trump launched a strike against the Court and Congress by signing an executive order to pause the ban on TikTok, earning applause from the Chinese-owned company. TikTok's online content creators are relieved, too, for many warn that a ban (or a forced sale to a US company) would devastate them. I call it the TikTokalypse.