Showing 1 - 10 of 12
Congo: Where the tail is still wagging the dog
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 26/03/2025
» 'Joseph Kabila boycotted the election and is preparing an insurrection because he is the AFC," said President Félix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo last October, and lo! It is coming to pass just as he predicted. But you can't tell the players without a programme, so a little bit of explanation first.
The winner-take-all economy is ruining art, too
News, Allison Schrager, Published on 06/05/2024
» I was on the whole disappointed by this year's Whitney Biennial -- it was hard for me to tell if one video installation was art or an HR training video -- but as an economist, I have to admit the exhibition was successful in at least one respect: It did what art is supposed to do, which is to hold up a mirror to our society and economy. And this year's biennial shows how America's elite institutions are stifling innovation and creativity.
It's a good time to be working
News, Allison Schrager, Published on 07/03/2024
» The pandemic was so bad for working women, especially mothers, that it was known in some quarters as the "she-cession". But the recovery -- and can we please not call it the "she-covery" -- has been pretty good for them.
Thailand should legalise prostitution
Oped, Chattrika Napatanapong and Ratsameechan Saowakhon, Published on 20/07/2022
» Thanks to the hit biopic Gangubai Kathiawadi on Netflix, the plight of Thai sex workers and their needs for legal protection are back in the spotlight.
When education supports rape culture
News, Sanitsuda Ekachai, Published on 18/05/2020
» School rapes in Thailand happen so frequently they no longer shock. But not this one. Not when underage schoolgirls were repeatedly gang-raped by their teachers. Not when other teachers callously defended the rapists and paedophiles as "good teachers and family men", dismissing the heinous crime as consensual sex and blaming the victims as "bad girls".
What, we worry?
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 18/02/2018
» Last week filled out the cast of the least-awaited drama in Thai TV news history, The Untouchables: Bred Men Walking, starring the Watchman, the FAT man and the Catman.
Elections, corruption and Thai democracy
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 16/02/2018
» People at home and abroad are calling for elections in Thailand on the premise of returning democracy to a country that has been under nearly four years of military government. But elections cannot bring genuine democracy if blatant corruption rears its head in open daylight with utter impunity. No doubt elections will be needed to get rid of the current set of military rulers but democracy in Thailand requires the strengthening of its democratic institutions that are so shoddy and woeful.
There's devotion
Oped, Postbag, Published on 11/02/2018
» Re: “Ex-park staffer ‘aided hunting group’,” (BP, Feb 10). Not only the defence on the 25 “borrowed” wristwatches worth 39.5 million baht (“NACC vows to wrap up Prawit probe”, BP, Feb 10) challenges common decency of logic but your latest news of the deputy police chief considering charging Wichien Chinnawong, chief of the Western Thungyai Wildlife Sanctuary, for not having collected admission fees from the influential tycoon has given me a mixed feeling of either to laugh or cry.
Lost in the dark?
News, Postbag, Published on 08/02/2018
» Without doubt the Thai public is about to witness an extravaganza worthy of a Disney cartoon epic that will clearly demonstrate the innocence of a magnificently wealthy construction tycoon caught up in a hunting event (BP, Feb 7).
Somyot loans expose patronage roots
News, Soonruth Bunyamanee, Published on 07/02/2018
» The admission of former national police chief Somyot Poompunmuang that he borrowed 300 million baht from a fugitive massage parlour tycoon reminds us how deeply the patronage system is entrenched in Thai society.