Showing 1 - 10 of 10
Heritage is not soft power
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 02/05/2022
» Harvard University Professor Joseph Nye coined the term "soft power", or the ability to obtain preferred outcomes by attraction, rather than coercion or payment, in his book Bound To Lead in 1990. However, he has since seen his brainchild, scribbled out on his kitchen table, grow in scope of application and distance.
Bureaucracy still baffles
News, Published on 25/07/2021
» All the requirements of bureaucracy in this country have not changed in more than 100 years.
Govt leaves Thamanat sore to fester
News, Veera Prateepchaikul, Published on 16/09/2019
» Deputy Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Thamanat Prompow must have been a valuable asset of the government to justify both Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam coming to his defence over his criminal past in connection with a drug trafficking case in Australia about three decades ago and over his questionable educational background while other cabinet ministers keep their distance from the scandal.
Manacled again
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 08/04/2018
» It has been quite an early summer harvest for the regime combines baling up inconvenient voices.
Stop press intimidation
News, Editorial, Published on 02/01/2018
» The Thai Journalists Association wound up the year by issuing a depressing statement. It rated 2017 as yet another year where the free press was regulated and intimidated by the military government. The TJA said the regime hinders the media by restricting freedom of expression. And it says this causes public harm by not allowing examination and by barring criticism of the junta, collectively and individually.
BBC not very convincing about station
News, Erich Parpart, Published on 13/03/2017
» Even though the government has insisted it was the BBC's own decision to not renew the 20-year lease of a major shortwave broadcast station for Asia in Nakhon Sawan, many see it as the latest jab that the junta has carefully landed on the face of the British broadcaster.
PM must act on lawsuits
News, Editorial, Published on 02/08/2016
» Authorities moved ahead on lawsuits last week that never should have been accepted. Three of the country's leading human and civil rights defenders have been charged with criminally defaming the armed forces, specifically the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc). Coincidentally, a similar case saw the formal arrest of a determined young woman protesting against the brutal killing of her uncle during army training.
The politics and poetry of private jokes
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 28/05/2016
» Let's compare scores. In Thailand, a python had a wrestling match with a penis. In Myanmar, a dissenting poet was punished for a poem allegedly written on his penis. In the Philippines, the newly-elected president, aged 71, announced last month that he didn't want to "hang" his penis, and that "when I take Viagra, it stands up".
Same story with Tibet
News, Postbag, Published on 26/02/2016
» Re: "China not in the wrong", (PostBag, Feb 25).
This carefully plotted soap opera called life
Life, Melalin Mahavongtrakul, Published on 10/12/2015
» During the last three-day weekend, many of us were stuck at home while half the country was out travelling. At least it wasn't too boring. We had Father's Day on Saturday and political corruption and TV dramas to occupy ourselves with during the brief no-work period.