• LIFE

  Not in our best interest

  B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 09/06/2019

  » It was only meant to be a courtesy call. Last Monday I packed my bags and headed off to Australia for a quick visit. As usual I contacted my bank to inform them of my travel plans so that when they started to see overseas entries they would not suspect anything untoward. You see? I really am thoughtful and even sensible at times.

• LIFE

  To hell with the middle ground

  B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 24/03/2019

  » The public's right to know has always been a fundamental tenet of media ethics that needs to be treasured and protected.

• LIFE

  Signs of the times

  B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 10/06/2018

  » A brand new community mall opened at the end of my soi in leafy Samut Prakan.

• LIFE

  Dinosaurs must confront reality

  B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 14/05/2017

  » The whole country, from the prime minister down, has been talking education, bandying about two words in particular: "innovation" and "technology". This culminated in an education fair entitled EdTex, held at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, where the consensus was that for Thailand to survive, it needs an education system that is both innovative and technological.

• LIFE

  A slap in the face for hopes of an egalitarian society

  B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 19/03/2017

  » My heart goes out to Anusawn Chirapongse, the high-ranking government official who inflicted grievous bodily harm on a Greyhound Cafe waiter. "Grievous bodily harm" may be a little over the top. After summoning the waiter, Mr Anusawn slapped him after he gave a deferential wai, bent down and said: "Yes, Pa?"

• LIFE

  Out for the count

  B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 29/01/2017

  » I met Owen on my recent trip to Nakhon Phanom, a border province way, way up in the far Northeast. Owen is eight years old. He's in Grade 4 at the local primary school. Owen sat with his mother and when the novelty of having a farang in the house started to wear off and conversation waned, I turned to Nong Owen and asked in Thai:

• LIFE

  Where there's smoke

  B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 06/03/2016

  » I have a staff member whose name is Jerd. Jerd is one of my information channels into the Thai working class. He used to raise his family on the minimum wage of 300 baht a day as a rubber plantation worker. Being a benevolent employee I naturally raised that figure substantially when I hired him, and these days he is earning that amount plus an extra four or five percent; the joys of a foreign employer.

• LIFE

  Zen and the art of metropolis maintenance

  B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 14/02/2016

  » One of my earliest observances of Bangkok life was made from the second floor of a Klong Toey guest house, from the window of a room festooned with linoleum and cockroaches.

• LIFE

  The ABC of HBD

  B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 20/09/2015

  » HBD. Those three letters coursed relentlessly across my smartphone screen last weekend. The message came from students, friends and acquaintances.

• LIFE

  Playing at the fringes

  B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 07/06/2015

  » Last week I attended a stage play here in Bangkok that gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

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