• OPINION

  Buddhism is always oddly political

  Oped, Published on 16/03/2024

  » This year, His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn Phra Vajiraklaochaoyuhua is turning 72. Following the sexagenary cycle, the Thai government organised a month-long royal procession of the Buddha's relics from Feb 24 to this coming Monday including tours of four major Thai cities -- Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Ubon Ratchathani and Krabi.

• OPINION

  Green efforts need backing

  News, Editorial, Published on 06/12/2023

  » It is good news that the Soil and Fertilizer Society of Thailand won the King Bhumibol Soil Day Award 2023, which is an official United Nations award.

• OPINION

  Protect Si Thep's people, not just site

  Oped, Published on 28/09/2023

  » The deal is done. Si Thep has officially become Thailand's seventh official Unesco World Heritage Site. However, the Unesco listing is only half the battle. Now, work must start on rolling out the government's conservation plan, which should be improved.

• OPINION

  Unesco label half the fight

  Oped, Editorial, Published on 21/09/2023

  » Without a doubt, the decision by Unesco's World Heritage Committee to list Si Thep Historical Park as the nation's seventh World Heritage Site brought smiles to many Thai faces.

• OPINION

  Making Asean more relevant to youth

  Oped, Published on 31/08/2023

  » International Youth Day is celebrated annually in August. Growing up as a young person in Singapore in the 1980-90s, I was more in tune with the arts, music, and literature of American and British influences than I was with local and regional popular culture. I was also more familiar with Western-based landmarks, for example the Eiffel Tower, than I was with those in Southeast Asia, such as Borobudur Temple. That was how oblivious I was of the region I was living in.

• OPINION

  Syria: The rehabilitation of dictator Assad

  Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 17/05/2023

  » There is no justice. Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator whose membership even the Arab League suspended 12 years ago, is off to Riyadh this week to celebrate his re-admission to the organisation. He will pay no price for his many crimes against humanity: the name of the game now is not retribution but 'rehabilitation'.

• OPINION

  How Putin's war ended dream of another Russia

  Oped, Published on 25/02/2023

  » It has now been a year since Russia, my birthplace, invaded Ukraine. For 365 days, we have been waking up to news of Russian missile strikes, bombings, murders, torture and rape. It has been 365 days of shame and confusion, of wanting to turn away but needing to know what is happening, of watching Russians become "ruscists", "Orks" or "putinoids". For 365 days, the designation "Russian-American", previously straightforward, has felt like a contradiction in terms.

• OPINION

  In Iran, all options to curb crisis are bad

  Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 25/10/2022

  » 'Death to [fill in the blank]!" has been the slogan of choice chanted by Iranian protesters since the glory days of the Islamic Revolution in 1979. ("Death to the Shah!", "Death to America!", etc) It's now forty-three years later, however, and the content has become a bit more nuanced.

• OPINION

  Sri Lanka: A bad 'Band of Brothers'

  Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 16/07/2022

  » 'How did you go bankrupt?" Bill asked (in Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises). "Two ways," Mike said. "Gradually and then suddenly." Sri Lanka is much the same.

• OPINION

  No justification for Smith's actions

  Life, Tatat Bunnag, Published on 25/04/2022

  » Ironically, despite many important things happening in our world, people have spent more time in the past few weeks talking about superstar Will Smith and his "Oscars slap heard round the world" than the Russia-Ukraine war, the pandemic or climate change.

1 2 3 Next Last