Showing 1 - 10 of 85
Abbot's dramatic fall from grace
Oped, Sanitsuda Ekachai, Published on 01/09/2025
» Faith built his empire. Fraud destroyed it. Luang Por Alongkot's fall from grace leaves Thai Buddhism reeling, demanding long-overdue reform.
Thai EV bets in a changing landscape
Oped, Ye Yuan, Published on 28/08/2025
» In late July, electric vehicle (EV) company Omoda & Jaecoo announced it would increase investment in Thailand after pledging to build a manufacturing plant.
Future utopias stumble over governance
Oped, Joe Mathews, Published on 20/08/2025
» In 2020, the rapper Akon declared he would build his own eponymous city on the site of the coastal village of Mbodiène, Senegal.
New tourism path for climate survival
Oped, Kamphol Pantakua, Published on 20/08/2025
» Hotel bookings are vanishing. Tour buses sit idle. Empty beaches. The culprit? Not mass protests. Not pandemics. But smoke, dust, and heat. Tourism fuels Thailand's economy, yet smog, heat waves, and flash floods are rapidly choking it. Can paradise still sell if it's unbreathable?
Taking on parks graft
Oped, Editorial, Published on 21/07/2025
» For a decade, Hat Noppharat Thara–Mu Koh Phi Phi National Park, especially the world-famous Maya Bay, has stood as a jewel of natural heritage tarnished by corruption. Despite repeated public outcries and half-hearted reform efforts, fee leakages and graft run wild.
How to rebuild a community following the fire
Oped, Nicole Lambrou, Published on 09/07/2025
» When a wildfire burns through a community, the initial concern is identifying what is lost: businesses, homes, landscape. Reports tally the damage in raw numbers -- hectares burned, buildings destroyed, dollars lost. Similarly, wildfire recovery success is overwhelmingly measured by how closely the post-disaster housing count compares to pre-disaster numbers. But rebuilding, for people displaced by fires, is not measured in claims settled or roofs repaired.
UN turns 80 amid wave of global crises
Oped, John J Metzler, Published on 02/07/2025
» Amid wars, global strife and massive refugee dislocations, the current global scene is overwhelmed with crises ranging from the Middle East to Ukraine and a dozen African conflicts, which rarely make the news. The contemporary world situation in many ways resembles 1945 and the end of WWII. There's a strange deja vu of a history most people do not know or would rather forget.
Gambling on Singapore's model
Oped, Kevin Clayton, Published on 26/06/2025
» Hindsight can help define the future. In 2005, Singapore was coming to terms with a need to reinvent itself as a tourism attraction in the face of plummeting arrival numbers and increasing regional competition. This was no time to feel intimidated but to strike out and be inventive.
Thailand to navigate a shifting world
Oped, Kavi Chongkittavorn, Published on 29/04/2025
» The Thai negotiating delegation's failure to meet with their American counterparts last week in Washington, DC, confirmed that Thailand is a low-priority country for the US. That should be a wake-up call for the Paetongtarn government -- the relationship between Thailand and the US is no longer what it used to be.
Leveraging Thailand's superyacht exposure
Oped, Pun-Arj Chairatana and Andy Treadwell, Published on 19/04/2025
» The feature of the 117-foot (35.7-metre) catamaran Spacecat in the television series The White Lotus Season 3, set in the Gulf of Thailand and in the waters around Phuket, highlights the potential of Thailand's superyacht charter market. Delivered in November 2022 by Silver Yachts, the vessel showcased luxury against the backdrop of Thailand. This visibility presents an opportunity to further develop Thailand's luxury tourism and service industry, moving beyond glamour to build a sustainable sector that could drive economic growth. Thailand has significant assets; strategic support can help this industry thrive.