Showing 1 - 7 of 7
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the United States looks more like the medieval assassin, deploying young sailors and soldiers equipped with perilously outdated, vulnerable technology.
Time to rethink Thailand's soft power
Oped, Peerasit Kamnuansilpa, Published on 09/04/2025
» For years, Thailand has marketed itself to the world through golden temples, glittering beaches, street food, and warm hospitality. The "Land of Smiles" has become a global brand, but soft power is not a marketing campaign -- it's a long game of developing and nourishing values, trust, and strategic diplomacy. In that game, Thailand is falling behind.
Khashoggi and MBS's blunderers
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 03/03/2021
» If Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, were a burglar, he wouldn't be George Clooney in Ocean's Eleven. He'd be a cartoon burglar in a carnival mask and a top with black-and-white horizontal stripes, carrying a sack labelled "SWAG".
Once upon a time it was smooth as silk
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 27/10/2019
» Judging from what a leading executive of Thai Airways International (THAI) said last week, the national airline is in a spot of bother and needs to turn things around quickly. Quite what the solution might be is unclear, although one suspects a "miracle" would come in quite handy. It is common knowledge that things have not been "smooth as silk" for many years.
Media outlets must not ignore culture of kickbacks
News, Nauvarat Suksamran, Published on 14/09/2019
» As mainstream print and digital media outlets fiercely follow up on certain political scandals rocking Prayut Chan-o-cha's administration, a small but significantly important news item has quietly slipped from most of the newshounds' attention.
English correctness
News, Postbag, Published on 28/01/2019
» English in Thailand has long been construed as a foreign language because it does not have an official status and because it is mainly learned as a school subject. This is changing.
'Yellow vests' just want their aspirations respected
News, Robert Zaretsky, Published on 06/12/2018
» Just over 50 years ago, Jacques Tati's Playtime opened in French movie theatres. In the comedy, Tati once again features his iconic character, Monsieur Hulot, the confused but courtly Parisian who confronts the challenges of a rapidly modernising France. This time, Mr Hulot tries to navigate the shining and sleek newly developed periphery of Paris, suddenly bristling with buildings and streets that are indistinguishable from one another. The camera captures the hopelessness of Mr Hulot's quest when it focuses on a rond-point, or traffic circle, around which slow-moving cars and buses, like brightly coloured horses on a merry-go-round, circle endlessly.