Showing 1 - 10 of 35
It's the economic history, stupid
Oped, Iker Saitua, Published on 14/01/2026
» Every year, I walk into a first-year lecture hall in Bilbao at the University of the Basque Country (EHU) and watch shoulders slump. The title of the course I'm teaching -- "Economic History" -- draws a similarly dejected reaction from my students: "Meh." "Boooring." "What's this even for?" Some call it "the history class", as if it belonged to another century.
The politics of taste in our election season
Oped, Kong Rithdee, Published on 26/12/2025
» Hell is other people's tastes. Hell is when we passionately hate what people unconditionally love. Hell is when we can't fathom how anyone on the face of the earth can like someone or something we find revolting -- a food, a film, a style, an opening ceremony, a politician, a president.
Talk, don't fight
Oped, Postbag, Published on 12/12/2025
» Re: "Cambodia talks ruled out", (BP, Dec 11). I was saddened to see that there is no room for diplomacy in the dispute with Cambodia. To quote Churchill: "To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war."
Give Trump's Gaza peace plan a chance
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 08/10/2025
» When a bad man does a good thing, we should honour him for it, even if his motives are selfish.
The postwar era's first democratic authoritarian
Oped, Antara Haldar, Published on 08/09/2025
» The 78th anniversary of India's independence last month offers an opportunity to recall one of the most insidious moments in the country's post-independence history: prime minister Indira Gandhi's 1975 decision to declare an emergency and suspend civil liberties. A new book by political scientist Srinath Raghavan, Indira Gandhi and the Years That Transformed India, not only revisits that fateful move, but also traces its lasting impact half a century later.
Thaksin could still escape jail time
Oped, Veera Prateepchaikul, Published on 16/06/2025
» What does it mean for former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra now that Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsuthin's last-ditch attempt to shield his master from the prospect of being sent back to jail to serve his one-year jail term was crushed by the Medical Council of Thailand at a crucial meeting last Thursday?
Bread, butter and bikes
Oped, Editorial, Published on 04/06/2025
» The government's latest campaign to arrest and fine motorcyclists and pillion riders for not wearing helmets has hardly seemed to inspire hope among the public that it will have a positive impact, nor scare potential law breakers.
Sudan's war and the Africa we don't see
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 19/04/2025
» Last Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: "Many have given up on Sudan, but that is wrong. It's morally wrong when we see so many civilians beheaded, infants as young as one subjected to sexual violence, more people facing famine than anywhere else in the world.... We simply cannot look away."
How Italy managed to beat fascism after WWII
Oped, Mark Gilbert, Published on 22/01/2025
» Americans are alarmed by their country's stark political divisions. But they shouldn't despair. After WWII, Italy was even more politically polarised than today. Yet by the mid-1950s, it had succeeded, against the odds, in turning the page on its fascist past and constructing a contentious but functioning democracy.
Trump's return presents an opportunity for India
Oped, Arvind Subramanian, Published on 10/12/2024
» It might be tempting to assume that Donald Trump's return to the White House augurs stability in US-India relations. After all, there is strong bipartisan support in Washington for deeper ties, particularly as a counterbalance to China's growing economic and geopolitical influence.