• OPINION

  The art of activism

  Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 20/02/2017

  » The Thai arts scene has become more politically engaging in the past couple of years. The 2014 coup, of course, has been the most significant transition point in this respect. Before, it was very much about making sense of the colour-coded divide, trying to get into the mentality behind such ideological conflict. In the post-coup era, however, it can be said that the ideas and interests have become somewhat more unified. Artists have become increasingly aware of and responded more to the authoritarian power and the climate of fear and rights restriction.

• OPINION

  Knockin' on parody's door

  Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 07/11/2016

  » Enough about Bob Dylan and his Nobel Prize in Literature. He took his time but finally accepted the honour and will make it to the ceremony in Stockholm in December if he can.

• OPINION

  A national blindside for contemporary art

  Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 08/08/2016

  » Ten million baht was the sum that 81-year-old Waraporn Suravadi, the caretaker of the Bangkok Folk's Museum, needed to buy the plot of land next to her museum, which was to become the site of an eight-storey building. That construction project could potentially spoil the view and atmosphere of the museum -- a well-preserved war-era teak house that displays rare and valuable items dating back more than 100 years, to the reign of King Rama V.

• OPINION

  In search of a healthy society

  Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 25/04/2016

  » The success of Ratchanok "May" Intanon, Thai badminton star who recently won the Singapore Open and became world No.1, is an exception, obviously. The 21-year-old is slightly built, but according to a recent comment by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, success in sports has nothing to do with size but is due to the lack of conflict in the athlete's country.

• OPINION

  The surreal world we live in

  Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 18/12/2015

  » As the festive time draws near, with Christmas and the New Year, it's not only a time for celebrating and looking ahead, but looking at where we have been and where we are right now. But while the future is all imagination -- all your New Year's resolutions are possibly delusional and bogus -- what's real and inarguable is the past and the now, as we breathe and try to get through the day. Let's not get personal about this as there are plenty of other occasions to talk about your plans to do yoga more regularly, cut down on cigarettes or be nicer to other people.  

• OPINION

  A calendar for the 99.3%

  Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 08/01/2016

  » New year is for new beginnings. This is as much a cliché as it is true. While it is just a new day, we carry the illusion that comes with Jan 1. The past is suddenly forgiven and forgotten, a clean slate: new hobbies, new goals, new habits, new lives, and, of course, new calendars. Now, the first week of January is already over, and if you are still in search for the right calendar to guide you through the year, there's never a more fun place to search for one than our beloved country, Thailand.

• OPINION

  A play with democracy

  Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 29/10/2015

  » A theatre workshop by Indonesian performance collective Teater Garasi took place for five days in Hong Kong last week as part of West Kowloon Cultural District's International Workshop Festival of Theatre. As a participant, the experience for me was both an inspiration and the source of a lingering sense of embarrassment.

• OPINION

  Seeing the world through another's eyes

  Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 13/11/2015

  » As much as Facebook is a virtual space of borderless interaction, it has, for many, undeniably become our most immediate and primary news source. It's a personalised pool of information, which though we have chosen consciously, can transform who we are and the way we think without our even realising it. And I have often wondered what it would be like to live, maybe for a day, in the social media world of other people's Facebook accounts.

• OPINION

  A road map to nowhere

  Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 15/09/2015

  » Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha recently admitted that when he wrote the line "We are asking for a little more time" in the song Returning Happiness To The People, he didn't think it through. Obviously, he didn't.

• OPINION

  Let's get ready to bike for mum

  Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 11/08/2015

  » It all started with a short, reluctant, just-off-the-soi bike trip to buy some eggs for my mum, last month. It was the smile with which she received me at our doorstep as I cycled up to 12mph, some 250m down the soi without cracking a single egg that gave me the idea that I, albeit among the most under-exercised of Bangkokians, might be up for the Bike for Mom event on Sunday.

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