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  • News & article

    Singing along in poll wait purgatory

    News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 07/01/2017

    » Splendid 2017 begins with Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha gifting us the year's first new song. Saphan, "bridge", his sappy ballad is called.

  • News & article

    For a ghost of a chance, use your talisman

    News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 01/10/2016

    » On Wednesday Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha talked for 135 minutes at the Bangkok Post Forum, more than Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton on Monday combined. And this isn't even an election campaign. A good soldier, he's unfazed by the presence of enemies and microphone. From the podium, arms outstretched, the PM touched on a lot of topics: Thai education, the economy, Section 44, Thailand as a "developed" country, the 20-year prophecy, etc. But what struck me like a hammer was when the general mentioned ghosts.

  • News & article

    Youth strike fear into old, cold hearts

    News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 08/10/2016

    » We can imagine the scene: Twenty policemen mobbed a 19-year-old boy arriving at the airport immigration. They took him to the detention quarters and kept him there, refusing communication, and consequently sent the entire world into a manhunt frenzy. Where's Joshua Wong? What has he done? Or more directly to the heart of the midnight stealth: What did the Thai authorities fear? Why did the mighty state have to send 20 officers -- not five, not 10, but 20 -- to whiz away a skinny boy on a red-eye flight? A boy whom I bet never won a fist-fight in his high-school yard.

  • News & article

    Toon and Pai, the tale of our two Jesuses

    News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 23/12/2017

    » Let's say, modestly, that Toon Bodyslam is Jesus Christ.

  • News & article

    Armed to the teeth, with no battle to fight

    News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 15/07/2017

    » When everyone else is dead, the arms dealers will sip champagne and cuddle Playboy bunnies. Why? "Because everyone else will be busy killing each other," said Yuri Orlov, the arms dealer in Lord of War as portrayed by Nicolas Cage. When his client orders him a shipment of machine guns used in Rambo, Mr Orlov, an award-winning salesperson, asks, "Rambo part 1, 2 or 3?"

  • News & article

    Knives are out in death penalty row

    News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 23/06/2018

    » To execute or not to execute, the question weighed on Thai society in the past week with the force of righteous anger. It is a tough question, one that lays bare the complex intersection of morality, law, religion, belief, value, and even the position of the country on the spectrum along which the international norm is moving.

  • News & article

    Paper-thin alibi for kids' day gun play

    News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 13/01/2018

    » The irony must have been lost on him and on everyone around him. This Children's Day -- the day of machine guns, tanks and rocket launchers -- Thai kids will also get to take pictures with our cardboard prime minister, 10 standees in fact, in various poses and costumes deployed around Government House as special attractions.

  • News & article

    Thai TV not yet destined for global love

    News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 24/03/2018

    » The soap series Bupphaesannivas (Love Destiny) is all the rage these days in Thailand. I enjoy some parts of it, especially one memorable episode a few weeks back when the female lead, a beautiful vixen in 17th century Ayutthaya, displays her vituperative talent by shouting at her servant, "Shut up or I'll smack your mouth with my piss pot." Neither did we see the piss nor the pot, but we get the picture. There's even a YouTube clip of that.

  • News & article

    Movies shine light on dark Thai truths

    News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 09/12/2017

    » Last week, I watched a South Korean film called A Taxi Driver. Based on a true story, it's the account of a cabby who secretly drove a German journalist to cover the 1980 pro-democracy demonstration in Gwangju, a dramatic uprising that toppled Maj General Chun Doo-hwan, the ruler of the country at the time.

  • News & article

    'Boss', 'Pai' and the casino of (in)justice

    News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 29/07/2017

    » Place your bets on what's going to happen first: Vorayuth "Boss" Yoovidhya being brought to court, or Jatupat "Pai Dao Din" Boonpattararaksa being granted bail.

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