Showing 1 - 10 of 36
Hedgehoppers in search of good news
Roger Crutchley, Published on 01/02/2026
» Being the very first day of February it would have been nice if there was some good news worth celebrating, but unfortunately nothing immediately springs to mind. Cheerful news is an increasingly rare commodity these days. It all seems to be gloom and doom and hardly portends a joyful 2026. It can get a bit wearying grappling with news reports featuring contradictions, cover-ups and cock-ups, often accompanied by half-truths, prevarications and porky pies. But this is the world we now live in.
What did we miss in run-up to Assad's ouster?
News, Slavoj Žižek, Published on 23/12/2024
» The downfall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria surprised even the opposition, led by Abu Mohammad al-Jolani's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, offering fertile ground for conspiracy theories.
Kabul collapse emboldened global despots
News, John J. Metzler, Published on 16/08/2024
» The collapse of Afghanistan to the Taliban three years ago on Aug 15 signalled an inflection point on the geopolitical scene. While the appalling stupidity of the Biden/Harris administration's botched and humiliating withdrawal of US forces from this South Asian land stained and sullied the reputation of the United States, the fiasco equally opened the floodgates to the deluge of refugees fleeing the toppled Afghan government in Kabul.
The true cost of our 'wars' and 'wreckonomics'
Oped, David Keen & Ruben Andersson, Published on 16/02/2024
» In Constantine Cavafy's poem Waiting for the Barbarians, the much-feared barbarians never turn up. "Now, what's going to happen to us without barbarians?" the poem asks. "Those people were a kind of solution."
Talking sense with the Taliban?
Oped, John J Metzler, Published on 02/02/2023
» It seems like a profound contradiction; trying to convince Afghanistan's Taliban authorities to accept foreign humanitarian help for their own starving population. Thus as beleaguered Afghan civilians endure a brutal winter, the sanctimonious Islamic fundamentalist regime in Kabul has largely restricted international aid agencies because they employ women.
A big farewell to a fine Thai journalist
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 09/10/2022
» It was sad to learn of the passing of former Bangkok Post colleague Anussorn Thavisin earlier this week at the age of 79. I had known Anussorn for 50 years and apart from him being a really nice chap with a lovely sense of humour, he was also an accomplished journalist widely admired by everyone in the profession.
Afghan humanitarian crisis widens
News, John J. Metzler, Published on 12/09/2022
» One year after the appalling collapse of Afghanistan in August last year into the hands of the Taliban insurgents, the humanitarian crisis in that beleaguered South Asian country has gone from bad to worse.
No justification for engaging with Taliban
Oped, Brahma Chellaney, Published on 19/08/2022
» In the year since the United States' disgraceful abandonment of Afghanistan to the Taliban, the country has gone down precisely the path any logical observer would have predicted: a medieval, jihadist, terrorist-sheltering emirate has been established. The US will incur costs for betraying its Afghan allies for a long time to come. But nobody will pay a higher price than Afghans.
Afghanistan newborns in peril
Oped, Christine Cipolla, Published on 12/08/2022
» Nearly a year ago when I visited Afghanistan, the medical system was about to shut down. The country's dedicated medical staff hadn't been paid in months, and the needed drugs and equipment for quality care weren't available.
Afghanistan faces famine, it can't be ignored
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 18/02/2022
» Because the Taliban have been designated as "terrorists", it is possible for the United States not only to embargo American aid and trade to Afghanistan, but also to block or at least seriously hinder efforts by other countries to send humanitarian aid. As a result, more than half the country's people -- 23 million at last count -- are suddenly near starvation.