Showing 1 - 10 of 13
Living in Thailand's age of impunity
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 17/01/2026
» There's no place like Thailand. Joyscrolling TikTok and Reels reveals dozens of clips made by international visitors lamenting having to leave our lovely country and return to dreary Europe or joyless America. "Nobody talks about how hard it is to go from this" -- insert a cut of a wonderful beach in Krabi -- "to this"--cut to a drab, damp suburban street somewhere in the West. Add a crying-face emoji. "I want to move here!" the traveller announces. True, everybody loves Thailand.
Humanity's alignment problem
News, Antara Haldar, Published on 06/01/2026
» It's lunchtime on top of the world again. Time's annual "Person of the Year" issue released two weeks ago has revived the iconic Depression-era photograph of steelworkers casually lunching on a beam suspended over Manhattan. With the city rising beneath them, the image portrays risk as normalised, even glamourised.
Beneath Tak Bai's calm, scars remain
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 15/10/2025
» 'I went out after dark to help my friend. Luckily, his phone still worked when he called. On the way from my house, there were corpses floating in the water, face down, shot dead. I'm sure there were more deaths than what they reported. The sound of gunfire kept going late into the night. I remember earlier that day, when the soldiers opened fire, I'd seen people's heads blown to bits as I was running home. I'd never forget what I saw."
When societies rise, fall, and face catastrophe
News, Antara Haldar, Published on 11/10/2025
» When the United Nations emerged from the rubble of two world wars 80 years ago, it represented humanity's most ambitious attempt ever to turn catastrophe into cooperation. But while the scarred world of 1945 had hope following the Allied victory, that optimism has since curdled. The UN today is underfunded, risk-averse, and paralysed.
More missiles, memes, and the new resistance
News, Imran Khalid, Published on 19/07/2025
» There was a time, not so long ago, when Walter Cronkite's sombre baritone could turn battlefield dispatches into moments of collective reckoning. Even the first "television war" of 1991, piped in grainy bursts from Baghdad, felt slow enough for shock to sink in. These days, the missiles that streak above Natanz or Esfahan arrive on TikTok between latte art tutorials and kittens sliding off sofas. The effect is less shock-and-awe, more scroll-and-shrug.
Apocalypse won't happen tomorrow
News, Veera Prateepchaikul, Published on 17/06/2024
» The unprecedented convergence of four major court cases tomorrow is causing widespread apprehension among quite a few people, particularly among stock investors, as political uncertainty is running high.
It all began with Rhett and Scarlett
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 27/03/2022
» With the Oscars upon us this weekend it seems an apt time to recall choice lines from past films.
Gen Z: poorer and more depressed than any before them
News, Sarah Jaquette Ray, Published on 25/07/2020
» According to polls, Generation Z -- people born between the mid-1990s and early 2010s -- share startling characteristics. They are more lonely, depressed and suicidal than any previous generation. They are more likely than earlier generations to be poorer than their parents and they are the first generation expected to live shorter lives than their parents. They also care deeply about racial justice and led the largest climate strikes last year.
Malls' days numbered
News, Published on 30/09/2019
» Why is Thailand not heeding the global economic trends where retail stores are closing at far greater numbers than opening? The "retail apocalypse" is the direct result of the technology transition connected to online shopping. The USA is slated to have 12,000 retail store closures this year due to the convenience of online shopping and the widening wealth gap. Both issues apply here.
This climate of doom may be unscientific
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 13/09/2019
» Jonathan Franzen has finally seen the light. Unfortunately, it has blinded him.