Showing 1 - 10 of 2,115
'Paris of the East' turns 'Concrete Oven'
Oped, Drew B Mallory, Published on 29/04/2026
» If you stand on the banks of the Khlong Saen Saep today, near the glossy high-rises of Wireless Road, you are witnessing a battle for the soul of Bangkok. On one hand, you see the future: concrete embankments and new walkways, part of a government push to connect the city in the vein of European capitals or our neighbour, Singapore. On the other hand, you see the ghosts of the past: fresh stumps of rain trees that stood for decades, severed to make way for the very cement intended to "beautify" the city. It is a paradox that defines modern Bangkok. We are a city desperate to be green, yet addicted to grey.
The deafening silence about offshore wealth
Oped, Frederik Obermaier & Bastian Obermayer, Published on 28/04/2026
» When John Doe, the anonymous whistleblower behind the Panama Papers, approached us, he handed us an opportunity. When the resulting investigation into the offshore finance industry was published on April 3, 2016, the world was handed a test. As investigative journalists, we seized the opportunity. Sadly, the world has failed the test.
Volunteer firefighters left to plight
News, Sanitsuda Ekachai, Published on 27/04/2026
» They die quietly, one by one, doing the forest officials' job, rewarded with little more than praise that masks state hypocrisy.
Visa change misses mark
News, Editorial, Published on 27/04/2026
» The government's plan to cut visa-free stays from 60 days to 30 is more than a routine policy adjustment. The U-turn exposes a deeper uncertainty at the heart of its tourism strategy.
The lesson that was all over the map
Roger Crutchley, Published on 26/04/2026
» Last week's item regarding the wonderful world of maps and atlases sparked memories of how a map played a key cameo role during my early days in Bangkok. It was 1969 and I was teaching at a commercial college. One of the subjects I was assigned was geography. After the first lesson it was clear there was a language problem. None of the Thai class understood a word I was saying.
Borrowing blindspot
Oped, Postbag, Published on 23/04/2026
» Re: "The question is not borrowing", (InQuote, April 22). Indeed, that is a golden bar of borrowings as expressed simply by our Financial Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Ekniti Nitithanprapas. If no care is taken on how we spend someone's money once in their hands, then disaster can be expected if accountability in due time to bondholders on how they spend it and follow through is not seriously there.
Chokepoints expose fragility of our global order
Oped, Todd G Buchholz, Published on 22/04/2026
» Most schoolchildren learn that the Earth is roughly 40,000km around. They do not learn that the global economy depends on just 160 of those kilometres.
Is the Iran war America's Suez or its Gallipoli?
Oped, Yanis Varoufakis, Published on 21/04/2026
» When Egypt closed the Suez Canal for five months in 1956, it triggered events that shrunk the global standing of Britain's pound sterling, inaugurated the petrodollar age, and demonstrated how a small country can inflict serious damage upon the economic power that had subjugated it decades earlier.
AI hits academia
Oped, Postbag, Published on 21/04/2026
» Re: "Universities face age shift", (Editorial, April 18).
Opening Hormuz is the easy part, restoring oil flow is not
Reuter's columnist Ron Bousso, Published on 20/04/2026
» LONDON - The stop-start shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz underscores the profound uncertainty hanging over the world’s most critical oil and gas chokepoint. But one thing is already clear: even if the guns fall silent, flows through the narrow waterway will take months – and possibly years – to recover to pre-war levels.