Showing 1-10 of 49 results
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Thai army needs to march to a new tune
Oped, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 13/05/2023
» I always get feelings of fear when I hear the army's famous propaganda song, Nak Paendin, which in Thai means "burden of the country". As a child born during the 1970s, this song reminds me of military putsches.
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Did Apec elite taste enough of Thailand?
Oped, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 26/11/2022
» What lasting benefits will Thailand enjoy having just wrapped up its hosting of Apec 2022 -- a global trade forum held in Bangkok last week? How will the much-touted meeting make Thailand better off in the long run? And will the excited chatter about a "BCG" economy ever amount to more than an acronym few working in those targeted sectors can decypher to give a full name to?
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The light dims in Hong Kong
Asia focus, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 16/10/2017
» Like many Thais, I have always considered Hong Kong my favourite destination. Perhaps it's because I've long been a big fan of the soap operas and martial arts films from Shaw Brothers Film Studio that dominated our television sets and cinemas during the 1970s and '80s. Hong Kong in those days was the epitome of glitz, a unique, vibrant and advanced Asian city where Eastern and Western cultures melted together into an exciting blend.
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Open economy evangelist
Asia focus, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 14/08/2017
» New Zealand has long been known for kiwi fruit, lamb and the invincible All Blacks, the fearsome national rugby team. But in the global economic sphere, the country is also known as a champion of open economies and free trade. Last year, the country was rated the world's second-best place to do business by Forbes magazine. That helps confirm its reputation in the field of trade -- and explains why the British government chose a New Zealander to head its post-Brexit trade negotiating team.
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Trials and tribulations of Bangkok taxis
News, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 20/03/2017
» The cab driver pressed on the accelerator, driving fast and furiously until I felt enough was enough; I ordered him to pull over, gave him the fare and stepped out of the car. Picking up a local passenger like me from a shopping mall on Sukhumvit Road is not a way for him to make much money. I bet he drove straight back along the same road to pick up tourists.
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The case for more female leaders
Asia focus, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 10/04/2017
» During a school swimming class, an East German girl with pale blonde hair stood at the edge of the high diving board, staring down at the pool below for 45 minutes. Just before the class bell rang, she finally jumped. Angela Merkel was determined to overcome her fears, no matter how long it took.
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The fear of becoming a banana state
News, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 15/08/2016
» 'The company changed the pattern of the rains, accelerated the cycle of harvests and moved the river from where it had always been." This vivid line is from the book <i>One Hundred Years of Solitude</i>, a magnum opus written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a Nobel Prize-winning writer.
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Banana split
Life, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 17/08/2016
» High on the list of fruits Thais cannot live without is kluai namwa, or cultivated banana, a tropical strand only grown in South and Southeast Asia. The cultivated banana has long been an affordable, ubiquitous food staple for Thais, the same way apples are for Westerners.
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No rhyme, no reason
Life, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 02/05/2016
» There's a beautiful piece of prose in a Thai poem that reads: "Kavee rue lang laeng Siam" -- (Siam never runs out of poets). Composed over 120 years ago by Prince Paramanuchit Chinoros, the verse is part of Samuta Koj Kam Chan, and it describes the golden age of Thai literary culture, in which poetry was ingrained as part of people's speech. It was a time when rhyme and stanza were infused in normal dialogue. Men wrote poems, or sang them for courtship.
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City train row still in need of a solution
Oped, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 23/12/2021
» After displaying bravado for the past two months, Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob appears to have caved in to mounting public pressure against his plan to close Hua Lamphong station.
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