Opinion

Seeing the historic handshake between the leaders of South and North Korea, Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un last week, I couldn’t help but wonder...

Last week, I was doing my routine run at my usual track. Afterwards, sinking into a chair, sweat drenching from every pore, I overheard a group of elderly puu yai gentlemen talking nearby. These were businessmen, captains of industries, and they were complaining about corruption that oozes out from everywhere, just as the sweat from my every pore. I’ve been running here for the past 20 years, and I’ve heard the same complaint over and over. No matter which political party was in charge, and now with the military government. So, if governments change, why does corruption remain? There’s a number of reasons for this, one of which is the constant that remains despite the parade of different governments: the bureaucrats (kah-racha-karn), the nucleus in the day-to-day management of Thailand.

April 11 saw the untimely death of a prominent advocate for the homeless and the dispossessed, a great loss to those communities and those who care about the less fortunate.

History is written by the victor. This is true in every society. In Thailand, history is written by the Culture Ministry’s Fine Arts Department...

Statistics be damned. Every New Year and Songkran were the last holiday for 300 to 400 people who die on the roads.

The narrative of Thailand’s political conflicts is changing. For over a decade, it has been the old establishment versus the Thaksin Shinawatra network, and the drama has been difficult for audiences to stomach.

Music nurtures the soul, except when it's pathetic propaganda.

Ever since Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit of the Thai Summit Group declared for politics and unveiled the Future Forward Party, the phenomenon has gripped Thailand, or more accurately, Bangkok.

The most dangerous individuals are those who can rally people to wondrous achievement or horrible atrocity. The most extreme and easy example is Adolf Hitler. Maybe if he hadn’t gone “Hmm… how about them Jews?” or said, “You know, that Poland over there…,” then he might have gone down as a great leader rather than mass murderer.

Extremism of all kinds is dangerous, but religious extremism has been a most reliable motivator for people to rape, pillage and slaughter in the name of one god or another.