Showing 1 - 4 of 4
From eating junk food to hydroponic farming
Oped, Zachary Quang Mills, Published on 25/11/2023
» I am probably like any other teenager when it comes to food. I just want my hamburger to have crisp lettuce and thick-cut fresh tomato slices. I enter one of the thousands of 7-Eleven's in Bangkok and -- like a magnet -- I am drawn to the rows of well-advertised and brightly coloured packages of fat-filled snacks and artery-clogging sweets.
A story of cannabis, my father, and me
News, Zachary Quang Mills, Published on 25/05/2023
» When my father asked me if I had plans on a Sunday evening several months ago, I expected it was going to be his standard way of ensuring we would have dinner together, something we both cherish. When he instead said, somewhat hesitatingly, "So, how about if we smoke pot together?" I thought he was joking. I looked around, fully expecting a camera crew to pop out of our apartment's shadows to capture the shocked expression plastered on my face. "MY father?" I thought to myself, "The man who is supposed to protect me from the world's darkest influences and offerings is saying that he wants to smoke pot with me, his 16-year-old son?"
Path to economic progress: A tale of two nations
News, Peerasit Kamnuansilpa & Le Anh Khanh Minh, Published on 17/04/2020
» The present pandemic, which has generated concerns over Asean countries' economic sustainability and global food supplies, reminds us that Thailand and Vietnam are primarily agrarian societies, competing with each other as major rice-exporting countries. In the 1960s, both were classified as economically less developed countries before moving a notch higher to "developing countries". Presently, both countries are ranked as middle-income, although Thailand is slightly ahead since its advancement to the category's upper tier in 2011, while Vietnam has remained in the lower tier since 2013. It is expected that Thailand will not be able to progress much over the next 20 years, while Vietnam could achieve high-income status by 2045. Still, this relative decline is not inevitable.
Thailand's 'wicked' development trap
News, Peerasit Kamnuansilpa and Le Anh Khan Minh, Published on 19/09/2019
» For almost five decades now, Thailand has been a victim of the middle-income trap. From the 1970s to the 2000s, the country was ranked by the World Bank as lower-middle-income, advancing to upper-middle status in 2011. Considering the ongoing political uncertainty and weak governance institutions, the prognosis is that Thailand will likely remain at this ranking for many years. This has become a "wicked problem" for the country's economic and social development.