Showing 1 - 10 of 165
A 14th century warning for the 21st century
News, Published on 12/02/2024
» A history student told me recently that he loves researching the 20th century but can't see the point of the Middle Ages. I responded that it can be a big help to understanding our own times -- very troubled times -- to view them in the context even of the remote past.
A country so different to anywhere else
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 22/08/2021
» The dramatic events in Afghanistan inevitably sparked memories of my own brief experiences of the country more than 50 years ago while on an overland trip from London to New Delhi and beyond.
Aid cuts hurt equality spending
News, Published on 24/08/2023
» Aid cuts could put more women and girls at risk of domestic violence, unsafe abortions and dropping out of school as rich nations' spending to fight gender inequality stagnates for the first time in a decade, charities and policy experts say.
Gorbachev -- the greatest democrat Russia ever had
News, Published on 05/09/2022
» 'We all need to have perestroika," Mikhail Gorbachev would often say. The Soviet Union's last leader lived by that credo. After becoming the general secretary of the Communist Party in 1985 and implementing his programme of restructuring and glasnost ("openness"), he even changed his job title, preferring to be called president.
Don't be a bystander to mass famine
Oped, Peter Singer, Published on 16/08/2022
» In March 1964, The New York Times reported that 38 witnesses saw or heard a brutal, drawn-out, and ultimately fatal attack on a woman called Kitty Genovese, but none did anything to help her or even summoned the police. The report was later shown to be erroneous, but the "bystander effect" is real. As many psychology experiments have shown, an individual is less likely to come to the aid of another if they can see that other people who could help are not doing so.
Migrating giant honey bees need their rest stops
News, Published on 07/02/2022
» I'll bet you this, from this remote ranch 13,000km from Thailand: there's no buzz filling my favourite Thai mango orchard now.
Will the planet be less crowded?
News, Published on 21/07/2020
» If you wanted evidence that reasonably competent government -- not great, just not awful -- produces good results in the end, here it is.
A letter from Mumbai during the time of coronavirus
News, Published on 11/04/2020
» On local trains, I used to overhear phone conversations. Fights, flirtations, and often the question: Khana khaya? Did you eat?
Fifty fascinating years in Wonderland
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 14/04/2019
» Having first arrived in Thailand a few days before Songkran, each year the festival approaches it sparks memories of those early days in the Kingdom. This year is slightly more significant because earlier this week marked my 50th year in Thailand, or to put it another way, roughly 18,250 days. That sounds decidedly scary. The frightening thing is that I can remember those early days better than the events of last week. The immature youth is now an immature wrinkly.
Global turmoil and Thailand's political reset
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 21/12/2018
» As the world moves into 2019, there is a consensus that the roughly seven-decade-old rules-based liberal international order no longer works. Either it has to be fundamentally revamped to suit new realities and the international distribution of power and wealth, or it will be increasingly violated and marginalised. In a remarkable parallel, Thailand's hitherto political order that lasted about seven decades also requires adjustment and recalibration.