Showing 1 - 10 of 10
Gaza is being offered a big historic chance
Oped, John J. Metzler, Published on 27/11/2025
» The UN Security Council has approved a landmark American-sponsored resolution which just may give long suffering Gaza its final chance for peace and reconstruction. The US resolution enshrines Washington's 20-point plan for Gaza; the current ceasefire, the establishment of a Board of Peace and backs the creation and deployment of an international stabilisation force for the war-ravished territory. There were 13 votes for, none against, and two abstentions, Russia and China.
UN picks rights council members with bad records
Oped, John J Metzler, Published on 23/10/2025
» In a ritual of near-farcical folly, the UN General Assembly has elected 14 new members to join the Geneva-based Human Rights Council on Oct 15.
Education priority
Oped, Postbag, Published on 25/03/2025
» Re: "'Back of the Class' graphic", (BP, March 22). The Bangkok Post graphics frequently shake up one's fixed thoughts. From the latest graphic of the World Population Review ranking the education of 203 countries, there are the following shocking and surprising revelations.
Let's design a future-fit world
Oped, Soohyun Kim & Pio Smith, Published on 12/03/2024
» With digital technologies rapidly advancing across the world's most populated region, now is the time for Asia and the Pacific to lead the charge for empowering women and girls in science and technology.
Myanmar eyes return to Asean fold
Oped, Kavi Chongkittavorn, Published on 13/02/2024
» To understand the current game plan of Myanmar's military regime, it is perhaps a good time to remind ourselves of the letter written by former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to Senior General Min Aung Hlaing on Aug 19, 2022. The rather blunt personal letter urged the junta leader to implement the Five-Point Consensus (5PC), saying that if he fails to do so, his Asean colleagues might ban Myanmar from all meetings and recognise the National Unity Government (NUG). In short, Asean would give the seat to the NUG. The letter angered the general, and Hun Sen's practical advice was ignored, including his call for amnesty for four activists who had been sentenced to death. For the past three years, Myanmar's seat at Asean's high-level meetings has been left vacant. Then, on Feb 29, the seat was occupied temporarily.
UN's Security Council selects 5 new members
Oped, John J. Metzler, Published on 15/06/2023
» In one of the more predictable rites of spring at the United Nations, the Security Council has elected, or actually selected, five new non-permanent members to serve on the powerful 15-member council. While this year's contest lacked some of the drama, debate and deliberation of the past, there were some positive outcomes to the current vote nonetheless.
The populist climate threat
Oped, Izabella Teixeira, Ana Toni and Laurence Tubiana, Published on 04/10/2022
» Reactionary populism is now the biggest obstacle to tackling climate change. With outright climate denial no longer an option, populist politicians have increasingly positioned themselves as climate doubters and delayers, and this new approach is proving to be quite insidious. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that global greenhouse-gas emissions must peak within three years to keep the Paris agreement's 1.5° Celsius target in reach; by slowing effective action, the tactics of today's populists are becoming an existential threat.
A vision for global cooperation
Oped, Maria Fernanda Espinosa & Danilo Turk, Published on 28/10/2021
» The world faces a range of serious threats -- from exclusionary nationalism to great-power competition to growing inequality -- that are preventing the international community from working together to solve other complex challenges, such as the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines and the accelerating pace of climate change. But global crises require global solutions, and with his highly anticipated report, "Our Common Agenda", UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has outlined a new vision for multilateral cooperation.
English speakers feel Covid's wrath
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 26/02/2021
» To those who obsessively followed Covid websites over the past 11 months, one thing demanded an explanation above all: Why were the worst death rates-per-million in the richest, most developed countries, and in the United States and the United Kingdom most of all?
Graft in schools stunts the nation
Oped, Editorial, Published on 10/06/2018
» While graft by political office-holders is an outrightly dishonest act that betrays public trust, corruption by schools and the education system is a dishonourable act that robs children of their rights and welfare and it should be treated as a serious crime.