• News & article

  A right royal confusion

  News, Alan Dawson, Published on 10/02/2019

  » So a petite, 67-year-old woman stood against the tanks and the many-starred green shirts of the Royal Thai Army, and she whipped them. Public opinion agreed on that, and public opinion is how the nation's going to settle it on March 24.

• News & article

  Rule by law

  News, Alan Dawson, Published on 18/11/2018

  » As RoboCop said to arch villain Clarence Boddicker in the climactic scene of the original movie: "I'm not arresting you any more." Rather than bringing them to justice, the green shirts now hope to be able merely to bring the world's only brother-sister fugitive ex-prime minister duo to heel.

• News & article

  A complicated man

  News, Alan Dawson, Published on 11/09/2016

  » He was no man for all seasons so much as a man of many faces.

• News & article

  The big issue: Wrecking ball

  Alan Dawson, Published on 05/07/2015

  » The website PainScience.com explained last week that a "perfect pain spot" is the Shins. They are “plenty sensitive if you press on them” but “Shins probably will suffer in silence”.

• News & article

  The big issue: Sparing country [redacted]

  News, Alan Dawson, Published on 14/12/2014

  » In 2002, in the wake of the 9/11 terrorism and US military pushback, the CIA opened a secret facility in central Thailand. The agency brought two high-level al-Qaeda operatives, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, to the site and launched a new programme of "enhanced interrogation" techniques on them including physical assault and waterboarding, distressing many US officials.

• News & article

  The big issue: The safe house

  Alan Dawson, Published on 10/08/2014

  » In March, 2002, a joint operation in Faisalabad by the Pakistani police, CIA and FBI cornered, shot and seriously wounded the Saudi terrorist and former anti-Russian mujahideen Zain Abidin Mohammed Husain Abu Zubaydah. He received the best medical care for his wounds because he was needed for an important experiment in Thailand.

• News & article

  The big issue: After the honeymoon

  Alan Dawson, Published on 29/06/2014

  » Much was made last week of a couple of opinion polls that showed the coup authorities in general, no pun intended, and the head of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) in particular are pretty popular guys right now. "Guys" because a glass ceiling is part of the new administration.

• News & article

  The big issue: The end of the beginning

  Alan Dawson, Published on 18/05/2014

  » If you start with "Prime Minister" Yingluck and she becomes "caretaker Prime Minister" Yingluck who turns into "acting caretaker Prime Minister" Niwattumrong, what is the person after him called?

• News & article

  The big issue: Tick-tock

  Alan Dawson, Published on 04/05/2014

  » For six months, it has been a death match, but politics has suddenly taken on the air of a death watch. In a matter of days, the actions of caretaker prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra will be judged by two bodies generally seen as critics or worse, and the top man at either one can literally throw her out of office as easy as snapping his fingers. Easier.

• News & article

  The Big Issue: Cleansing the deep South

  Alan Dawson, Published on 13/04/2014

  » The week before Songkran was no holiday for Yala. The provincial capital was hit by coordinated bomb attacks on Sunday, and more on Monday. The large, destructive bombs killed one person and wounded 28. Clearly, the attacks had goals other than murder.

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