Showing 1 - 10 of 36
Accepting all forms of family
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 26/06/2023
» Her family is made up of two mothers and a daughter. Matcha Phorn-In believes that homophobia fuelled a villager to set a fire near her home in San Kamphaeng in 2016. It occurred several times and although she reported these incidents to the police, they did not take any action because damage did not result in loss of life or property. Hence, they decided to move out and live downtown for safety.
Tales of queer migration
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 19/06/2023
» There is a border that defines the contour of his identity. Only by crossing it can Jaokhun Promchana be the man he wants to be. After moving to the US, he studied a new language and toiled in the kitchen. Holding a dream close to his heart, he went the extra mile to join the US Navy and police. Currently, he is running a restaurant with his wife. From the outside, he looks no different from other men, but in his expired documents, a name and its title are a reminder of the former self that he already shed.
Temperatures soar, headaches rise
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 01/05/2023
» Like other early birds, Dao Dul, 35, goes on duty at first light. For her, time is literally money. Her office is not a well-built weather-proof skyscraper. It is a makeshift cart that provides affordable dishes to hundreds of community residents from dawn to dusk.
Giving evidence
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 20/03/2023
» Under authoritarian rule, truths are silenced, censored and mutilated. Yet, many people find ways to tell their stories. It is an irony, though, that a repressive regime is a precondition of creative resistance.
When art gets stifled
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 21/11/2022
» 'Art is short, a case is long," read a banner. Students apparently hijacked the well-known motto "art is long, life is short" by Prof Silpa Bhirasri, the father of Thai modern art, in protest of Chiang Mai University's legal action against its own lecturers and a student who "trespassed" on the art centre to exhibit works, some of which might challenge those in power, last year. It is a case in point for stifling democracy in Thai art.
Give mental health a chance
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 18/10/2022
» A string of mass shootings by officers in recent years may involve many factors, but they highlight the need for an improvement in mental health services, experts say, following the nursery massacre in Nong Bua Lam Phu's Na Klang district that left 36 people dead, mostly young children, and others injured.
The tough road to democratisation
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 03/10/2022
» Taiwan has been hailed as a textbook example of a successful transition to democracy. At the end of the civil war in 1949, Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Kuomintang (KMT), lost to Mao Zedong's communist forces and fled to the island. After almost four decades of martial law until 1987, Taiwan eventually held its first presidential election in 1996.
In a king's footsteps
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 26/09/2022
» The sea breeze blew in as a group of visitors arrived at Mrigadayavan Palace, the former summer retreat of King Vajiravudh (Rama VI) in Cha-am district of Phetchaburi. After more than two years since the beginning of the pandemic, the heritage site remains closed for a restoration project that unveils traces of its early days.
Thailand's Big Brother is upping the ante
Oped, Thana Boonlert, Published on 06/08/2022
» In the late 18th century, British philosopher Jeremy Bentham visited his younger brother, Samuel, in Russia, who arranged unskilled factory workers in a circle so that he could supervise them. Inspired by this principle, Bentham developed "the panopticon", an inspection tower surrounded by cells. Its uniqueness was that it enabled a watchman to monitor prisoners without them knowing they were being watched.
In pursuit of academic freedom
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 07/02/2022
» A temple is more than a place of worship. Located on a bank of the Chao Phraya River, Wat Thong Noppakhun is offering food for democratic thought. Surrounded by leafy trees, its library is now home to a large number of non-official history books, some of which are controversial in what remains a conservative society.