Showing 1 - 10 of 144
When infrastructure meets AI
Oped, Bertrand Badré & Saurabh Mishra, Published on 16/01/2026
» Infrastructure investment is booming. Around the world, governments are pouring trillions of dollars into roads, power grids, data centres, water systems, and housing, with many responding to intensifying climate shocks and the growing need for adaptation. Yet the construction industry -- the single largest force physically reshaping the planet -- is among the last major sectors to unlock all the benefits that digital technology offers. As a result, it accounts for about 21% of greenhouse-gas emissions, produces half of global landfill waste, and overspends by US$1.6 trillion a year.
‘Mai pen rai’ paradox: from kindness to toxic silence
Juranan Soranet, Published on 07/01/2026
» "Mai pen rai" (It’s okay/never mind) is perhaps the most classic Thai phrase, symbolising kindness, compromise and a go-with-the-flow attitude. It is the hallmark of Thai charm. However, in a modern world driven by consumer rights and accountability, the harmless phrase is becoming a double-edged sword. We are witnessing the rise of "Toxic kreng jai" — an excessive form of considerateness where we suppress our own rights just to avoid being labelled "demanding".
Humanity's alignment problem
News, Antara Haldar, Published on 06/01/2026
» It's lunchtime on top of the world again. Time's annual "Person of the Year" issue released two weeks ago has revived the iconic Depression-era photograph of steelworkers casually lunching on a beam suspended over Manhattan. With the city rising beneath them, the image portrays risk as normalised, even glamourised.
Scrolling to stress in the filtered world, social media and mental health
Rattanan Wangkanjana, Published on 22/12/2025
» Social media has many benefits, providing entertainment and information and connecting people around the globe, but its overriding influence is far more complex, more insidious than it appears.
Gates' 'truth' about climate change
Oped, Peter Singer, Published on 14/11/2025
» Ahead of this year's United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), now underway in Belém, Brazil, Bill Gates, who chairs and funds the foundation that bears his name, released an essay entitled "Three tough truths about climate". The first of these truths is: "Climate change is a serious problem, but it will not be the end of civilisation."
Marking time at the COP30 climate summit
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 12/11/2025
» Populist parties are already in power in some developed countries and waiting just outside the door in many more. The key trick of populist politicians is to tell the voters what they want to hear, and the voters definitely do not want their lives to be disrupted by global heating, so they are told it is not happening. It's "the world's biggest con", in Donald Trump's words.
Fading city spirit
Oped, Postbag, Published on 11/11/2025
» Re: "Bangkok's clean streets, empty souls", (Opinion, Nov 10).
Let's just try leaning into your morbid curiosity
Oped, Coltan Scrivner, Published on 30/10/2025
» Film critics Gene Siskel and Johnny Oleksinski have called fans of slasher films like Friday the 13th and Saw "very sick people" and "depraved lunatics who should not be allowed near animals or most other living things". Public outcry around the video game Mortal Kombat in the early 1990s was so extreme that it led to a special US Senate hearing on the topic. Similarly, the recent rise of true crime entertainment has some people wondering if we are becoming desensitised to the horror and seriousness of the events themselves.
30-baht scheme needs attention
Editorial, Published on 12/10/2025
» If we are to listen to what the National Health Security Office (NHSO) has told us, everything has been running smoothly with the universal healthcare programme, better known as the 30-baht scheme.
