Showing 1 - 10 of 47
SMOP is a flop
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 08/10/2017
» Last Sunday night, an anti-drug squad caught two men carrying 400kg of crystal methamphetamine from Myanmar, ya ice worth 400 million baht on the street. On Monday and on Tuesday, police in Udon Thani and Mukdahan busted two cross-Mekong shipments of compressed marijuana from Laos, now Japan's major weed supplier. Combined, they weighed a tonne.
The kids are all right
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 28/10/2018
» <i>Prathet Ku Mee</i> is no slapped-together concert song. It wasn't made, so much as crafted. The accusatory lyrics are set against the shameful, hovering background of the 1976 dictators' massacre at Thammasat University. The rap song's finale brings the background image of the hanged, beaten student to the front of the picture, before fading out to the hopeful message, "All people unite".
The hand that feeds them
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 03/03/2019
» When the columnists and panjandrums and degree-clutchers come to analyse the state of Thailand in mid- and late May, it's probably this past week that will fascinate them.
Promises, promises
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 19/08/2018
» The general prime minister is off to the South this week. The trip to Chumphon has been planned for a while, so the irony is coincidental.
Rough road ahead
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 21/01/2018
» The general prime minister, aka the politician who used to be a soldier, is strolling into a battleground and exhibits no sign he is aware of it.
No, really, Big Brother is watching
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 25/06/2017
» The Big Three of International Computing have convinced tens of millions of customers to spy on themselves. Considering this, what's the big deal when the government listens in too -- well, apart from the going-to-jail part -- at least?
The Intimidation Game
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 22/10/2017
» The military government has a propaganda unit. People know this, including reporter-people, which includes us, and editor-people. But they still call the chief manipulator of regime propaganda a "government spokesman". A two-star general whose sole task is to justify military actions without ever admitting an error was possible is also, on all front pages and news broadcasts, a military "spokesman".
A mad, mad week
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 20/05/2018
» Week Three of the 2019-2020 election campaign was Crazy Week. There always is at least one.
The war bringer
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 12/03/2017
» The southern rebellion against the government begins its 58th year tomorrow. It will be the first time the anniversary is marked without any of the original 1960 instigators but in particular it will go on without its primary leader, better called the godfather of the southern conflict.
Out of the box
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 20/01/2019
» For kakistocrats who have failed for four years-plus to organise reconciliation, bring back happiness, fight pollution in the air and on the beaches or even to organise so much as a date for an election, our all-male green-shirt regime sure has a lot to criticise about the rest of us.