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  • News & article

    Sucking the wind out of the elections

    News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 05/05/2018

    » The verb of the week is "to dood".

  • News & article

    A not-so-mundane history

    Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 27/06/2018

    » A lampshade, elegant and shiny, bears a distinct image of the Siamese constitution over the map of Thailand. A nielloware cigarette box, in solemn brass and black, also features an engraving of the constitution -- the emblematic figure of a folded scripture on a tray. Next to it are matchbox labels, pins, a glass bottle, a bowl, a water jar, an ashtray, a vinyl record. All of them carry the symbolism of the seismic transformation that took place 86 years ago.

  • News & article

    Stop the tall tales about election dates

    News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 26/05/2018

    » There's no way round it and there's no time for subtlety: The past four years have been a sham, a false dream stage-managed by false prophets.

  • News & article

    Beauties and the beasts of coup regime

    News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 28/04/2018

    » It's just too rich to pass up, too weird and symbolic to ignore. The summit of the week between members of the girl group BNK48 and Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha was the moment when politics met pop-culture, when new met old, when cuties met coupmaker, when teens met tank, when beauty met … whatever.

  • News & article

    Writing’s on wall for our democracy

    Oped, Kong Rithdee, Published on 27/01/2018

    » The other day I saw some graffiti in a public toilet. It read, ars longa, vita brevis. Art is long, life is short, as the popular translation goes. Like a street artist, I decided to vandalise it, scratching out and changing the first bit with my poor Latin: dictatura longa, vita brevis. Dictatorship is long, life is short.

  • News & article

    A comedy likely to end only in horror

    News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 03/02/2018

    » The junta can read the stars and history and they must know this isn't going to end well. As frustration grows, as protests form, as their support ebbs even their idol Gen Prem Tinsulanonda flat-out said so they amp up censorship and tighten the squeeze, not with gusto but with desperation. With Deputy Prime Minister Gen Prawit Wongsuwon looking increasingly like a plump Chinese deity on the verge of losing his worshippers, the regime reacts with force, gagging tactics and plain old bullying.

  • News & article

    Wake me up when Thaiism rings true

    Oped, Kong Rithdee, Published on 10/02/2018

    » It has been widely translated as “Thainess”. But “Thainess” may not be accurate when describing Thai Niyom, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s latest catchphrase and sort-of policy. The correct term in English, I propose, should be “Thaiism”, just like populism ( Pracha Niyom), nationalism ( Chat Niyom), conservatism ( Anurak Niyom), authoritarianism ( Amnat Niyom), or alcoholism, you know, the excessive use of alcohol to drown out grief and the pain of broken promises.

  • News & article

    The Faustian promise in a blaming game

    News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 16/12/2017

    » Through a tangled web of pride, vanity, moral superiority, Nietzschean negativity, Faustian promises and pseudo-Jedi cool, the junta keeps to its playbook by blaming everyone except themselves.

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