Showing 1 - 10 of 11
Plot twist in Asia's energy story
Oped, Lidy Nacpil, Published on 18/09/2025
» Asia's energy story is one of persistent energy poverty, while communities grapple with the health, climate, and economic impacts of fossil fuels. The rise of renewables may prove to be a transformative plot twist in the making. Asia's shift to renewable energy is already underway, and progressing faster than many realise. From rooftop solar panels in suburban Pakistan, to vast offshore wind farms along China's coast, to utility-scale projects electrifying farms in Bangladesh, renewable energy is showing potential to redefine energy security across Asia.
US hard power must get harder
Oped, Todd G. Buchholz & Michael Mindlin, Published on 05/06/2025
» In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Harrison Ford gets his biggest laugh when a desert assassin twirls a scimitar with menacing bravado. Following this brief performance, Ford's character cracks a wry smile, takes out his pistol, and shoots the man dead. In a potential contest with China, the United States looks more like the medieval assassin, deploying young sailors and soldiers equipped with perilously outdated, vulnerable technology.
The Houthi threat to global shipping
Oped, John J. Metzler, Published on 28/03/2025
» Amidst the unpredictable arc of crisis shadowing the Middle East, the systemic and sustained merchant shipping attacks in the Red Sea persist. The culprits are a shadowy but lethal Iranian proxy force, the Houthis, who use their control of mountainous parts of the Yemeni coast to launch missile, drone and speedboat attacks on vital shipping lanes connecting the Mediterranean with the Gulf of Aden.
Keep toxic waste away
Oped, Editorial, Published on 23/08/2024
» Thailand just won a small battle against illegal toxic waste smuggling. Finally, two cargo vessels loaded with toxic waste were forced to return to their original destinations -- suspected to be Albania and another country in Europe -- after local officials blocked the ships from docking.
Thai Human Rights Council aspirations
Oped, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 17/05/2024
» Thailand's quest for membership of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), Geneva, for the period 2025-2027, is rightly gaining interest among the general public. With a new foreign minister today, it is intriguing to prospect whether there will be more (or less) momentum in the competition towards the winning post -- with elections for the HRC due in New York in October.
Manchin's small step a big leap for mankind
Oped, Antara Haldar, Published on 03/08/2022
» On a celebratory night in late 2016, the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower were lit up in green to remind the world to implement the Paris climate agreement. Yet in recent years, climate legislation in the United States has been stuck at a red light, most recently because Joe Manchin, a conservative-leaning Democratic US Senator from West Virginia, single-handedly made a hostage of America's commitment to the Paris agreement's decarbonisation targets.
Measuring poverty appropriately
Oped, Nurul Izzah Anwar, Published on 18/02/2022
» The 2019 Oscar-winning film Parasite attracted a global audience for its arresting portrayal of South Korea's stark income inequality. The movie's rendering of a low-income household's acute sense of alienation resonated widely, no doubt because similar sentiments are palpable in many other countries. And the gap between the haves and have-nots is growing, thanks to the dual challenges of Covid-19 and climate change.
Credit Abe with Japan's middle power evolution
Oped, Mark S Cogan, Published on 31/08/2020
» After a record stint at the helm, Shinzo Abe is resigning as prime minister because of health complications. His departure comes in the middle of an epic security dilemma with China and could signal the end of a long pursuit of constitutional changes that would normalise Japan. His tenure in office can be assessed by assertiveness, pragmatic diplomacy, and the creation of partnerships that have propelled Japan from a reluctant sycophant of American foreign policy priorities to a more "proactive" and reliable regional partner.
Themselves to blame
Oped, Postbag, Published on 14/05/2020
» Re: "Police extortion racket in the crosshairs", (BP, May 13).
Parties strangely silent
Oped, Postbag, Published on 14/05/2018
» The Bangkok Post is constantly giving prominent space to all the "failings" of the current government, pressing for elections, and seemingly assuming that any elected government would be preferable to what we have now.