Showing 1 - 10 of 45
Will gentrification respect city's people?
Oped, Kong Rithdee, Published on 28/06/2023
» We've lived for over a century in the shadow of grandeur: near the Customs House, known to Thais as rongpasi. "We" means my maternal family and the community of Haroon Mosque. Each day before sunrise, the muezzin's sing-song call rings through the neighbourhood, carried on the river wind towards the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, the French Embassy and Assumption Cathedral.
We need less 'content' and more journalism
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 25/01/2020
» Content, as media gurus keep preaching, is king. But such PowerPoint pep talk is shallow: "Content" -- an increasingly bastardised term that has come to signify TV newscasts, podcasts, movies, viral videos, Netflix series, memes, news articles, editorial features, real advertising, covert advertising, tweets and Facebook posts, organic or boosted -- is also an anaesthetic. It dulls the senses and kills meaning, then proceeds to belittle essence, promote shallowness and eventually undermine the practice of journalism.
Religious fervour serves no god well
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 07/04/2018
» Aformer rock musician has embraced the role of online preacher and denounced, above other things, rock music. In fact, he objects to most kinds of music, deeming it against Islam. Weerachon "Toh" Sattaying, once the high-pitched frontman of the band Silly Fools (love the name), has over the past six years quit his former lifestyle and became a born-again Muslim. Bearded, skull-capped, fiery-eyed and charismatic, Weerachon runs a dry-aged beef business and hosts an online religious programme that has cultivated quite a following.
New political bloods meet baptism of fire
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 10/03/2018
» The right is thrown into panic, like a sick man visited by an apparition of death. Sealed in a cage of obliviousness, they fear the galloping sound of apocalyptic horsemen. Or in their mind, the barbarians at the gate, rattling the rusty chain of power.
Last night at the Scala -- or is it?
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 17/02/2018
» We have the latest update on the Scala Theatre: Its closing date is now set for May 31.
'Mad clown' a mascot for failed govt PR
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 02/12/2017
» In a rough week for the military government, the best response they could come up with was unveiling a nightmarish mascot right out of a horror movie. In a week that called for deft public relations manoeuvring, the government spokesman riled the Muslim South with disgraceful doublespeak. In a week that required a calm port in a storm, the prime minister's infamous blustering blew the top off every lid of decency.
Saint Toon carrying the cross for all
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 11/11/2017
» Saint Toon carries the cross for the entire nation as he runs from the deep South to the high North.
Look ahead after a grand farewell
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 28/10/2017
» The yarn of history has spun its fine threads. History is the majestic pageantry that took place on Thursday, the likes of which we'll never see again. It is the centuries-old chariots dripping with gold, the festooned processions and severe steps of solemn marchers, the sorrowful magnificence of the royal crematorium. History is the elegiac trumpet salute to the beloved King, the fabulous cosmology of heaven recreated on Earth, the stunning synchronicity of the masked dance performers, and finally, history is the invisible fire and the grey smoke in the night sky, signalling that everything must return to ashes.
Armed to the teeth, with no battle to fight
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 15/07/2017
» When everyone else is dead, the arms dealers will sip champagne and cuddle Playboy bunnies. Why? "Because everyone else will be busy killing each other," said Yuri Orlov, the arms dealer in Lord of War as portrayed by Nicolas Cage. When his client orders him a shipment of machine guns used in Rambo, Mr Orlov, an award-winning salesperson, asks, "Rambo part 1, 2 or 3?"
Conscripted to fight an invisible war
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 08/04/2017
» Until April 12, the biggest annual lottery will keep Thai men on edge: the military draft.