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A rice deal that never existed in the first place
- By Veera Preteepchaikul
- Sunday, November 25, 2012
The truth is out, that the Commerce Ministry's claim of a 15-million-tonne government-to-government rice deal with China over three years is anything but real.There is a popular Thai saying that goes along these lines: “A dead elephant cannot be covered up by lotus leaves.”This is exactly ...
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Honour your maid, fight for women's rights
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, November 23, 2012
Charity begins at home. So do women's rights and gender equality. That's why who is doing the dishes at home is for me not a petty personal issue, but a political one. But whenever I raise this topic _ that a couple's equal share of household chores is an an indicator of gender equality in ...
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This very fishy business
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Wednesday, July 18, 2012
What do you do when big trawlers violate the law, annihilate the seabed with their destructive fishing gear, and wipe out marine life from our coastal seas? What do you do when they fake the licences of their trawlers to carry out illegal deep-sea fishing in other countries' waters? What do you do ...
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Foreign land grab threat not just an illusion
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, May 25, 2012
Remember the news three years ago about some Saudi sheikhs trying to buy up paddy fields in central Thailand to ensure a steady rice supply for their oil-rich but food-scarce countries? Back then, the authorities could not deliver any evidence of the buy-ups, and blamed foreign men with Thai ...
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Forest dweller's fight for justice
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, May 11, 2012
People kept staring at No-ae Mimee when he turned up at the Civil Court. And you cannot really blame them. No-ae's long hair was tied in a bun covered by a red turban. His lips were reddened and teeth blackened from betel nut chewing. His cotton shirt looked commonplace, but definitely not the ...
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Ombudsman barking up the wrong tree
- By Veera Preteepchaikul
- Thursday, March 15, 2012
Although an increasing number of foreigners now own land in Thailand through nominees or their Thai spouses, the ombudsman's claim that foreigners now own one-third of the country is simply just not credible. Ombudsman Siracha Charoenpanij (Photo by Kitti Woraranchai) And if the truth be ...
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Women's plight in men's war
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Having lost her husband in the southern violence and forced to struggle for her son's freedom from detention in the Tak Bai crackdown, Yaena Salaemae has only one wish for International Women's Day. "It is peace," says the widow. "I just want peace back." Women suffer when their ...
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Berlin and the Bolsheviks
- By Kong Rithdee
- Saturday, February 11, 2012
Berlin, Feb 10Overthrown kingdoms mark the first two highlights of the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival, commonly known as the Berlinale. On Feb 9 the festival, taking place amidst the temperature so cruel to tropical creatures that I'd venture to nickname the event the Brrrrrrlinale, opened ...
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Water agencies just can't seem to communicate
- By Veera Preteepchaikul
- Friday, February 10, 2012
An old man sits on a makeshift wooden plank used as a walkway over flooded ground on Feb 8, 2011 after a flash flood in tambon Nom Kho of Sena district, Ayutthaya. (Photo by Sunthorn Pongpao) The conflicting statements from the various agencies about the current, unseasonal flooding in Sena ...
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Buffet cabinet and New Thailand
- By Veera Preteepchaikul
- Wednesday, January 25, 2012
About 100 Pheu Thai MPs are lining up, waiting for their turn at a cabinet seat, redolent of a large group of diners eagerly lining up at a buffet table which can seat only 35 people at a time.Pornsak Charoenprasert who? The name may not ring a bell with most of us, not even people in the media. The ...
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The unlikely tale of the two dead elephants
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Things keep getting fishier and fishier at the Kaeng Krachan National Park, following the slaughter of two wild elephants, one burned to cinders and the other left rotting in a field, minus their tusks and sexual organs. Scandalous? Let's look at the news chronologically. Shortly after New Year, two ...
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Patients ailing without justice for malpractice
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, December 23, 2011
The quest for justice is never easy. It is also very expensive. Bang-on Sangchote knows that painful fact first hand. But she has chosen to give up her kidney rather than her fight for justice. An ordinary housewife, Bang-on fought like a tigress when her husband Sanoh became nearly blind and ...
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Drowning in prejudice
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, November 04, 2011
External threats usually unite a quarrelling country. That is the rule of thumb, isn’t it? Joint efforts to help ease the suffering of victims in times of natural disaster also usually trigger the best in ourselves, doesn’t it? I used to believe this was the case. I am not so sure any more. If ...
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Nazism in our brainwashed upbringing
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Tuesday, October 04, 2011
Who is not shocked to see teenage girl students happily dressing up in full Nazi regalia, outfitting themselves as Adolf Hitler and SS Guards to celebrate their Sports Day -- totally unaware that they were also celebrating the world's murderers who killed six million Jews in a state-sponsored ...
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A matter of revenge or correction? You decide
- By Veera Preteepchaikul
- Wednesday, September 14, 2011
'No revenge but correction (mai kaekaen tae kaekhai)!" Such was the mantra vigorously preached by the Pheu Thai Party during the election campaign to assure its opponents, real or perceived, that they would not be avenged by the party through abrupt transfers out of their positions, ...
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A different war in the deep South
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Tuesday, September 13, 2011
There is another kind of war raging in Pattani. It is not the fight for power in the restive South. Nor is it for the locals' right to an ethnic identity. It is the struggle of ordinary fisherfolk to be able to make a living from their seas.Not a tall order, is it? What the Pattani fisherfolk want ...
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Thanks Alphabet
- By Saritdet Marukatat
- Monday, September 12, 2011
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra knew all along that which country she wanted to visit first in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. It's Brunei. The problem was she got to have better reasons to break the tradition set by past prime minsiters who always went to Laos first.Alphabetical ...
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"Faust" won Golden Lion in Venice
- By Kong Rithdee
- Sunday, September 11, 2011
It rang like a false alarm: despite pre-screening expectations, hardly could you detect Thomas Mann's "Doctor Faustus" in the new re-reading of "Faust". I raise this particular point since it could've been a perfect night at the 68th Venice International Film Festival when ...
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Youth angst in Venice
- By Kong Rithdee
- Friday, September 09, 2011
Sept 8 Venice hosts the world’s oldest movie festival, but what has throbbed and bubbled in the past few days is young angst. It’s a grim world for youths, from the Greek meltdown in ‘Alps’ to the post-tsunami moral anarchy in ‘Himizu’, and the radical romance of the latest adaption of ...
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In Venice, Mr. Neaw and Mr. Fassbender
- By Kong Rithdee
- Monday, September 05, 2011
Venice, Sept 4Briefly here. Yesterday Rirkrit Tiravanija, emiment visual artist and maestro of live museum curry-cooking, premiered 'Lung Neaw Visits His Neighbours' in the Orrizonti section. The 149-minute film -- which presents nothing more than the uncle of the title walking, talking, farming, ...
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In Venice, Jung, Freud, and Glory of Prostitutes
- By Kong Rithdee
- Saturday, September 03, 2011
Venice, Sept 2A wounded physician is the best physician, said Carl Jung. And thus a madwoman makes a perfect psychiatrist -- someone who's gone over the threshold and come back, clutching the precious knowledge of which those who remain safely on this side would never know. Or so it is sugested in ...
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In Venice, Madonna and her movie
- By Kong Rithdee
- Friday, September 02, 2011
Venice, September 1 The sun, as expected, is fierce. The movies, so far, have been lukewarm. The 68th Venice International Film Festival opened on Aug 31 with George Clooney's The Ides of March, in which Ryan Goslin plays a press secretay to Clooney's presidential candidate. And in the past two ...
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Transparency call for new women's fund
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Women's rights groups are watching closely the one-province-100-million-baht fund for women's development. And they should. In her policy address, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra kept the women's fund promise she made to the National Council of Women of Thailand, where her elder sister and a ...
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Small parties can always win, at a stretch
- By Saritdet Marukatat
- Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Does the name of the Thai Rubber Party ring a bell? It isn't a surprise if no is your answer. And you shouldn't blame yourself that you've heard of this party for the first time right now because you're not in the minority.So why do we care about this minor party? Is it a laughing stock in politics ...
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When monks still have the answers
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Fed up with rogue monks? Losing hope in ability of the lax and closed clergy to lead the way? Meet Luang Por Ang, Luang Por Chair, and Phra Kru Somsri. All Isan monks. All dedicated to lift the livelihood and spirituality of their villagers. All are living examples of why monks still matter. ...
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Brunei has a white tiger in its tank
- By Saritdet Marukatat
- Tuesday, August 23, 2011
It's time to take Geography 101 about Brunei. Until recently, nobody here cared too much about this country. Suddenly, it turns out to be one of the most popular destinations for Thai politicians.Why is this country so attractive, despite minimum efforts on tourism promotion? Why should it do that ...
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Scapegoats in helicopter crashes
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Monday, August 15, 2011
When three army helicopters crashed in the space of nine days, killing altogether 17 people in the heart of the Kaeng Krachan jungle along the Thai-Burmese border, a stunned country struggled to understand why.One crash is already a big enough tragedy. But three in a row? On the same mission, in the ...
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Bias against ladyboys adds to hurt
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Tuesday, July 26, 2011
What should you do when your son turns out to be a ladyboy? Ask Dem Jinakul, a photographer at Bangkok Post. His answer would make any transsexual teen green with envy. "Give your child love and acceptance," says Dem emphatically. "It's his life. Your job as a parent is to make ...
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Next foreign minister in for a testing time
- By Saritdet Marukatat
- Wednesday, July 06, 2011
The highly sensitive Preah Vihear temple issue will make the Foreign Ministry's top post one of the toughest jobs for the Pheu Thai Party-led coalition.Buoyed by the landslide victory over the Democrat Party, Pheu Thai, with 265 seats in the bag, does not intend to share key ministries, one of them ...
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Emerging clout at IMF
- By Saritdet Marukatat
- Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Knock, knock, knocking on the IMF's door. Developing countries, call them emerging economies if you like, have been doing just that at the world lender's.The move started with Agustin Carstens. Hats off to him. Mexico's central bank governor knew from the onset that he was fighting a losing cause. ...
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Stop the hazing
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, July 01, 2011
Lying face down en masse in the scorching sun. Crawling on one's abdomen. Running until one vomits. Shouting at the top of one's voice for hours to declare love and loyalty to one's university. Like their predecessors, the first-year students at Maha Sarakham University this year had to undergo ...
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Look Who's Blocking You?
- By Saritdet Marukatat
- Wednesday, June 15, 2011
It's clear now that army chief Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha is standing in Yingluck Shinawatra's way.His televised comments on Wednesday implicitly reminded voters of which party they should vote for on July 3. Gen Prayuth made clear his position, as several polls showed the Pheu Thai Party is coming ...
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Sisters in Buddhist spirituality
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Has the clergy's stern frown on female ordination stopped women's determination to pursue a monastic life? If you drop by the Sathira Dhammasathan nunnery-cum-dhamma centre this week, you will realise how the clergy's attempts to keep women down are ineffective and irrelevant. For one whole week ...
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Absurd policy to 'kill off' small schools
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Tuesday, June 14, 2011
This is absurd. To win votes, they promise 15-year free education for all. Yet they will punish poor children in remote areas by closing down their schools and force them to travel long distances to study far from home.We are talking about more than 500,000 children in more than 14,000 small schools ...
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These strange political times are a-changin'
- By Saritdet Marukatat
- Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Asakura Keita, a rural school teacher in Fukuoka prefecture in the popular TV drama series "Change," is devastated when his father and elder brother die in a plane accident.Yingluck Shinawatra commanded SC Asset Plc at the time when her brother, Thaksin, was deposed by a military coup ...
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Winner Becomes Loser
- By Saritdet Marukatat
- Friday, June 03, 2011
The July 3 poll is predictable. Or it isn't.A consensus among Interior Ministry officials is Pheu Thai will triumph the election. But like what Newin Chidchob predicted the other day, it will be short of 250 seats in parliament. That means a chance to form a new government will be slim or none at ...
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Gender blindness in election policies
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Wednesday, June 01, 2011
A commodity prices guarantee. A farm chemicals subsidy. Flood insurance. Credit cards for farmers. Financial aid for first-home owners. Debt refinancing. Five years' income tax exemption for first jobbers. An increase in the monthly support for the elderly from 500 to 1,000 baht... The list goes ...
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Women's progress or men's pawn?
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, May 27, 2011
She's got it all. The right looks, the right education, the right family name. And most importantly, the right brother. Yingluck Shinawatra is certainly woman of the moment. But is she a woman with a mind of her own? Perhaps. Give the business executive some credit. Unfortunately, her ...
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Day 12: The winners
- By Kong Rithdee
- Monday, May 23, 2011
Let's keep it simple here: The 64th Cannes Film Festival winnersPalme d'Or: "The Tree of Life" by Terrence Malick.Grand Prix (secon prize): "The Kid With a Bike" by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, and "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia" by Nuri Bilge Ceylan.Best Director: ...
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Day 11: Palme Dog
- By Kong Rithdee
- Sunday, May 22, 2011
Day 11, May 21It's almost over! The Bangkok tin mine is waiting for me! The Palme d'Or will be announced Sunday night around 8pm (1am in Thailand). The Palme Dog, however, was already announced -- yes, there's a prize for best canine performance in film, a kind of adorable spoof that should please ...
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Day 10: Of Lars and other demons
- By Kong Rithdee
- Saturday, May 21, 2011
Day 10,A stupid joke stole the headlines the last two days in Cannes, and in the absense of a dazzling movie that might have shifted the discussion elsewhere, the bewildering swirl of the latest Lars antics remains a saucy topic as we queued up in lines. Freedom of expression? Didn't France ban ...
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Day 9: Drive, Ryan, Drive!
- By Kong Rithdee
- Friday, May 20, 2011
May 19, Day 9I was wrong. I thought he would come and go peacefully. But Lars Von Trier managed to get himself into a bewildering scandal, again. This afternoon, Cannes officially "condemned" the Danish filmmaker for his Nazi-related remarks and declared him a "Persona Non ...
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Day 8: Love! Honour! Revenge! In 3D!
- By Kong Rithdee
- Thursday, May 19, 2011
May 18, Day 8Cosmic calamity is the in thing. While Terrence Malick sees astrophysics as a Biblical wonder, Lars Von Trier, never one to let himself be outdone, has literally thrown a planet into his characters. LVT's new film, "Melancholia", consists of one long wedding scene (Kirsten ...
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Day 7: Aki
- By Kong Rithdee
- Wednesday, May 18, 2011
May 17, Day 7Report from a spurned viewer said he was shut out from the reprise screening of "The Artist", Michel Hazanavicius' silent, black-and-white confection that has become the most-loved film of the festival. He queued up 40 minutes before showtime, and there were over 100 people in ...
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Day 6: That mysterious tree
- By Kong Rithdee
- Tuesday, May 17, 2011
May 16, Day 6The boos came almost with pre-meditated atrocity. Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life", a metaphysical rumination on Life and God and Natural History, among other things, has divided the critics and sent the Croisette abuzz. Apparently, the boos began even before the ...
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Is this country ready for a woman prime minister?
- By Veera Preteepchaikul
- Monday, May 16, 2011
The notion that Thailand may have its first woman prime minister after the July 3 election has not been warmly greeted by many among us. Initial reactions have ranged from scepticism and criticism to contempt and outright rejection. Which is not unusual for something quite unprecedented and ...
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Day 5: Bordellos!
- By Kong Rithdee
- Monday, May 16, 2011
Day 5, May 15Usually by Day 5 it should've happened, at least once. But so far booing, another Cannes tradition, hasn't entertained the international press corp so hungry for scandal. There was a feeble attempt this evening after the screening of the dreamy bordello tale, "L'Apollonide" ...
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Day 4: The kids are not all right
- By Kong Rithdee
- Sunday, May 15, 2011
May 14, Day 4 I have a funny feeling that there are probably about 12 people reading this, you know, the Dirty Dozen of insomniac cinephilia, holed up in some dark Siamese caves, half-drugged by the rotting enchantment of artistic cinema. OK, Dirty Dozen, as they say in American movies, let's ...
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Day 3: Holy father help me
- By Kong Rithdee
- Saturday, May 14, 2011
Day 3, May 13 It's only three days, and nobody is going to jump off the cliff or flee to North Africa for not having encountered a cinematic revelation. There is NO cinematic revelation, as long as you're clamouring for one. Let's take it easy, for the big guns will start smoking on Sunday and onto ...
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Day 2: Thai Night and a haunted supermarket
- By Kong Rithdee
- Friday, May 13, 2011
Day 2, May 12First thing first: The Thai Night.Playing a patriot and freeloader, I missed Faye Dunaway and the screening of her 1970 movie "Puzzle of the Downfall Child" by opting instead to attend the Thai Night, a showcase party sumptuously held at Hotel Majestic (wow!) and lubricated by ...
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Cannes Day 1: Sleeping, Beauty
- By Kong Rithdee
- Thursday, May 12, 2011
May 11, Day 1In Cannes there are a number of strange practices that have matured into some sort of tradition. For example, at a press screening somebody in the audience would shout "Raoul!" right at the start, provoking a throaty laugh from the rest. For what, I have no idea, and who's ...
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Daily Cannes Blog from Kong Rithdee Begins!
- By Kong Rithdee
- Tuesday, May 10, 2011
So here we go again. It's been a tradition in the past three years that Yours Truly, by fate and love and obligations, brings you a daily update from Cannes Film Festival, also known as cinematic Purgatory, somewhere close to Heaven as much as Hell. It is, of course, the most respected ...
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Thai women 'mistreated' by physicians
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, May 06, 2011
It is safe. It is fast. It is cheap. It is the standard treatment for miscarriage and incomplete abortion in most countries. Yet the medical profession in Thailand shuns this simple medical technique which could save the lives of countless women. Why is that? Simple answer: "It's because ...
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Paying for what others get freely
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, March 25, 2011
No, I am not glad that the Social Security Office has announced it will consider improving a set of health care benefits.I am furious.In an apparent move to appease public discontent with its longstanding shabby performance, the social security authorities announced last week a plan to improve ...
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Silent deaths in restive South
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Car bombs, ambushes, arson and drive-by shootings. The spiralling violence in the deep South is making headlines every day. Yet we know very little about how this "men's war" is affecting the lives of women and children.The problem at hand is not only about the female victims who account ...
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Fighting for One Community
- By mr.john
- Tuesday, February 15, 2011
By Saritdet Marukatat — How many more border clashes do Thailand and Cambodia need before the Association of Southeast Asian Nations becomes one community? Only Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Cambodian Premier Hun Sen know the answer.The border spat is good for no one. It is embarrassing ...
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Urgent need for land reform
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Monday, February 14, 2011
Is an effort to cap land ownership at 50 rai per household a pipe dream in a country where 90% of the land is already owned by the richest 10%? Is it possible to usher in a ceiling on land ownership and a progressive land tax law when legislators in both the House of Representatives and the Senate ...
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Coup rumours and crying 'wolf'
- By Veera Preteepchaikul
- Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Bangkok has, in the past week, been abuzz with the story of a pending coup spread by a couple of rumour-mongers, just as the political temperature has edged up with more street protests. But is there a real threat of a coup against the government at this time?The Thai military has always seen itself ...
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Wrong move by Photirak
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Monday, January 31, 2011
Many like to criticise capitalism and consumerism but few have the answer as to how to get out of it. Far fewer people actually make their vision a reality and, moreover, turn it into a social movement.But the Buddhist monastic Samana Photirak has done just that.The former TV personality and ...
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Politics of the First Lady's Outfits
- By
- Sunday, January 30, 2011
I love Michelle Obama. Actually, I mean I love her approach to First Lady's dress code. I don't even mean I love 'her style.' No, it's not her style that I keep a regular check once in a while, that's for the likes of my two Kates, and Middleton is none of them. It's apparently Kate Moss and Kate ...
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Therapeutic New Year's cleaning up
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, January 07, 2011
People of my generation are taught to revere books. They are sources of knowledge, our teachers, and later (for books of our choice) our close friends.As a journalist, books have for me gained an additional dimension. A practical one. They provide in-depth information and insight for my work. Simply ...
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No New Year joy for sea gypsies
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Will life in 2011 be better than 2010 for the downtrodden like the Moken and Urak Lavoy sea gypsies of the Andaman Sea?If you had asked the sea gypsies before December last year, they would have been brimming with hope following the June cabinet resolution to protect the indigenous sea gypsies' way ...
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Do not use the grass roots for political ends
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, December 24, 2010
People's Council. Land reform. Community land ownership. Progressive taxation for social justice. Political decentralisation. Welfare state. Mention those terms four decades ago and you'd have risked being labelled a communist, thrown into jail, or made to disappear forever. Not now. All those ...
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Education woes
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, December 17, 2010
Mention any problem in our country - political, economic or social - and you can bet on it that someone will strongly assert that education is the answer.I'd like to believe that, too.But the reality is not that simple, particularly when our education system is actually in a deep mess.True, Thailand ...
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My 2 Satangs: If You’re Abhi And You Know It Clap Your Hands!
- By mr.john
- Wednesday, December 01, 2010
In a small piece of news this week there was good news for anyone who likes the colour blue as the Democrat Party was let off the hook in its dissolution case thanks to a technicality. No doubt this has given prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva cause to clap his hands in glee. Or not, considering ...
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Pregnant and persecuted
- By mr.john
- Friday, November 26, 2010
If Labour Minister Chalermchai Sri-on has his way, all pregnant migrant workers will be deported to their home countries.What would you do if you were one of these migrant women?Imagine, when you have little bargaining power to ensure protected sex with your partner. Imagine, when life is dominated ...
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Flood relief without terrible singing
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, November 05, 2010
Guess what's missing while our country's being hit by the worst floods in living memory? Three hints: TV, money and the terrible singing of big shots.That's right. It's those televised fund-raising stints sponsored by the government whenever we've been hit by major inundations or any other natural ...
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Migrant workers' on-going fight for legal rights
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Tuesday, October 26, 2010
The days of fear and submission are over for Eh Mon and some other 900 migrant workers from Burma. An ethnic Shan woman held on tightly to her passport and work permit as she left a factory in Khon Kaen for another plant in Samut Sakhon province."I don't know what the work situation is like ...
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Flowers for Vatit Itthi
- By
- Sunday, October 17, 2010
It's been the third day at Elle Fashion Week and we've come over half way. We have seen exquisite settings: the candles and acrylic plate frescoes of Kloset, the giant teacup, teapot and saucer of Boudoir and so. Actually, you really notice budget cut in setting, I must say. With an exception of ...
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Can't get you out of my head
- By
- Saturday, October 16, 2010
Ladies, take note, and dash out to get A/W 2010 's 'it' accessories -- the headpiece.It's true some of the elaborate headpieces seen in 3 shows during the first two days of the Elle Fashion Week: Kloset Red Carpet, Zenithorial and Hook's, are not meant for everyday life. But that's the point of ...
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Back to the tent
- By
- Friday, October 15, 2010
New York, done. London, done. Milan, done. Paris, done! All done? Well...no!After weeks of checking style.com on a daily basis for what we’ll have on the plate next summer, I’m now back on the front row. Elle Fashion Week is up and running. Bangkok International Fashion Week is just next week ...
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Two shining beacons of hope
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Feeling fed up with the rife misconduct of rogue monks? For a glimmer of hope, meet Phra Maha Supap Buddhaviriyo, abbot of Na Kham forest monastery in Kalasin province.Losing hope about getting out of suffocating debt? Meet Granny Khai, a farmer with only a Prathom Two education whose debt relief ...
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Rugged route to nirvana
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, September 24, 2010
On one side is Thailand's famous meditation master. On the other is the country's famous dharma book writer who used to be his closest disciple. Up until the recent controversy that has pitched one against the other, both commanded an impeccable public image. Phra Pramote Pamojjo is the monk of the ...
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Migrant workers fight back
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Tuesday, September 21, 2010
The week-long strike by nearly 1,000 legal migrant workers in Khon Kaen is one of the reasons why most of the 2-3 million migrants in Thailand still prefer to stay underground. Why should they have to go through a very complex process of red tape on both the Burmese and Thai side of the border and ...
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Youth violence
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Monday, September 13, 2010
Reduce the age of minors from 18 to 15 years, so we can send the delinquents to jail sooner. Shut down the vocational schools, which have failed to rein in rogue students from causing public harm through street violence. Punish the parents also, for failing to keep their children in line.When a ...
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Sexual double standards
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Wednesday, September 08, 2010
There are times when it is not just a non-issue, but it becomes your fault if you start to question it.If you feel offended by your boss' obscene jokes, for example, it is because you lack a sense of humour. If you are uncomfortable with his suggestive look, lewd comment about your appearance, and ...
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Desperate for help on the home front
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Monday, August 30, 2010
Ask any middle-class working mother what her biggest headache is and chances are that it is her exhausting quest for the right maid.Ask what she wants most to ease the demands of home-vs-work and the answer most probably will be the same: the right maid. Or any maid at all.In a culture where women ...
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A tiny victory against ethnic prejudice
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Tuesday, August 24, 2010
For a country deeply mired in the myth of cultural homogeneity, the recent cabinet resolution on the indigenous Karen offers a glimmer of hope that the brick wall of ethnic prejudice is starting to crack.I am talking about the Abhisit government's cabinet resolution on Aug 3, which recognises the ...
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How we bully our migrant workers
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Monday, August 09, 2010
So we want migrant workers from Burma to be legal with passports and all, yet we still want them to submit to our old oppressive ways, is that it?If not, then why have we refused to give legal migrant workers driving licences - on the grounds that they still pose a threat to national security?The ...
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It's always about income, never ecology
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Monday, July 26, 2010
Are they saviours? Or are they ecological monsters in the making? No questions were asked. There were only high hopes when a swarm of African wasps was released in Khon Kaen over the weekend in a bid to save Thailand's cassava export industry from the pestilence of mealybugs.Agricultural officials ...
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Grasping at straws
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Monday, July 19, 2010
What's in a name? If you are not a close follower of Thailand's civic movements, most of the names on the two national reform committees led by former prime minister Anand Panyarachun and social reformer Prawase Wasi will not mean anything to you.So it would be perfectly understandable if you feel ...
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A milestone for landless farmers
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Smiles were all around when Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva welcomed elderly rice farmer Chuay Sitthisunthorn at Government House to inaugurate the newly set up office to support community land ownership.For Grandpa Chuay, it was a dream come true. The threat of landlessness is now over at his ...
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Gender equality cannot wait
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Tuesday, July 06, 2010
The red shirt movement has captured the hearts and minds of the downtrodden nationwide with its fiery rhetoric on double standards and inequality. While a larger number of its followers are women, one of the country's most severe problems - gender inequality and double standards - were never its ...
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Education, angry youths, and political crisis
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Amid an ocean of analyses on Thailand's political crisis, our education system emerges as the one of the main culprits.But don't be too quick in making the poorly-paid teachers our scapegoats.If we really believe that our children are our future, we must ask what we have done wrong to give them so ...
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The breaking up of a country?
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Tuesday, June 29, 2010
The month of May was a nightmare for Bangkok. But it was only for a month. For the restive South, where casualties have exceeded 4,000, the Muslim-dominated region remains trapped in a six-year-long nightmare with no end in sight.Some southern Muslims may feel the capital deserves it. After all, ...
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One month on: A brief reflection
- By Kong Rithdee
- Monday, June 28, 2010
Is everything back to normal? What's the definition of normalcy anyway? One month after the May 19 incident, all is smooth on the surface -- perhaps we have even forgotten -- but underneath the carpet the cracks are real.When we walk the street we hear chatters of joy but listen carefully, maybe the ...
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Back to normal, are we?
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Monday, May 31, 2010
Normal. How sweet the word sounds, after two weeks of excruciating political tension which culminated in the torching of central Bangkok.Indeed, we have taken our normal lives for granted, complaining no end about the horrendous traffic, the perennial work and money worries, the endless family ...
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Saying ‘good riddance’ is no answer to our problems
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Thursday, May 27, 2010
If you are in the Thai Facebook social media network, you surely will have seen the video featuring the moving speech of actor Pongpat Wachirabanjong expressing his deep, protective love for His Majesty the King.Becoming an instant talk of the town, the speech has been circulated on social media ...
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Cannes Day 5: Purgatory
- By Kong Rithdee
- Sunday, May 16, 2010
Is Cannes Film Festival the closest thing to Purgatory?Some days, it's hell; others, heaven, or critics work hard to convince (delude) ourselves. And when we all get properly half-mad after 12 days, we equate the Palme d'Or with fire-baptism and the Judgement Day. God bless cinema and Thailand, ...
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Cannes Day 4: A screaming man
- By Kong Rithdee
- Saturday, May 15, 2010
Today I watched a sad film about a civil war: it's titled A Screaming Man, made by Chadian director Mahmut Saleh-Haroun. We've seen movies on the subject before, about Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, America, etc, but never before had I felt the shudder like I did today, for the distant, disembodied jpeg ...
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Cannes Day 3: Movies are pointless
- By Kong Rithdee
- Saturday, May 15, 2010
Movies are pointless, aren't they?The circus of Cannes seems to confirm that sentiment when news from home is shrouded in the smoke of burning tires and the distant sound of gunshots. The only consolation, as my dearest friend rightly believes, is that to watch movies on the big screen, as they're ...
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Cannes Day 2: Strip tease
- By Kong Rithdee
- Thursday, May 13, 2010
Just two days in and I already feel like swimming in a paralell reality, a simulacrum of the world cut off from what's really happening, like the mess back home. If cinema is a religion and the theatre is our temple, then in Cannes I spend hours watching light flicker and praying, quietly. Madness, ...
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Cannes Day 1: Will Uncle Tim recall his past lives?
- By Kong Rithdee
- Wednesday, May 12, 2010
May 12: The ash cloud dispersed so I've landed in Cannes, sunny and blue and crazy. To begin, I quote Mathieu Amalric, a French actor/director who has a film selected for the Competition this year: "If you approach Cannes with a sense of humour, nothing is that bad." Thank you. One ...
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Pre-Cannes (and the scourge of volcanic ash)
- By Kong Rithdee
- Sunday, May 09, 2010
First there was a rogue wave. Now it's the Icelandic ash, erupted like watercolour nebulas from the unpronouncable volcano to threaten the arrivals of guests at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival. The world's most prestigious cine-jamboree (also a Mediterannean madhouse overrun by blurry-eyed film ...
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Hate speech, free speech, and lese majeste law
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, May 07, 2010
Throughout the current political crisis the mainstream mass media has been under fire for playing along with state demonisation of the red shirts, which fans up hatred instead of fostering understanding for peace moves.Indeed, the media must seriously rethink its role in times of conflict. But in a ...
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Ivory and Thailand's ebony image
- By Saritdet Marukatat
- Tuesday, May 04, 2010
How many elephant tusks have slipped through Suvarnabhumi airport into the hands of smugglers in the country? It is hard to know. Even Customs Department authorities cannot begin to guess the answer the question. Only traders in the illicit business can.In less than two months department ...
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How many more coffins?
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, April 23, 2010
Twenty-five people have died. More than 800 people have been injured. Yet the April 10 violence has not been violent enough to shock us to our senses. With both sides hungry for more blood, there is widespread fear and anxiety about another round of violence. The chilling question: how big must the ...
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There's hope for peace through faith
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Thursday, April 08, 2010
Malaseng Jehteh believes he has the answer not only for the restoration of peace in the deep South.The village head of Ban Laweng in Tambon Donsai, Pattani province, is also confident that his approach to governing is applicable nationwide.And if national leaders pay attention, he believes it would ...
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Has Thaksin-Hun Sen relationship turned sour?
- By Veera Preteepchaikul
- Monday, April 05, 2010
The picture showing Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva shaking hands with his Cambodian counterpart, Mr Hun Sen, and smiling at each other would be unthinkable almost two months ago when the two government leaders appeared to be at each other’s throat.Shortly before the February 26 Judgement Day ...
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Put Sompien statue in full view of chiefs
- By Saritdet Marukatat
- Tuesday, March 23, 2010
What will be the best place for the statue of Sompien Eksomya? The Bannang Sata district police station in Yala, or police headquarters in Bangkok?The idea to erect the statue for Pol Gen Sompien was mooted to honour the police officer who worked for 42 years in the restive southern region and was ...
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No peace and little justice
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Tuesday, March 23, 2010
When will this madness be over? How is this going to end? Why do we have to go through this again and again without any end in sight?Are you asking these questions while watching the March of the Red Shirts, or when human blood was being splattered as a grim warning against what is to come?The ...
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Fighting mars the battle for 'katoey' rights
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Beauty-queen glamour and moving oratory have made Yolada Komklong the champion of transwomen in Thailand. Three cheers for that.Indeed, our society needs to accept that there are indeed people who are struggling in bodies that do not fit their innate gender identity. Many need sex reassignment ...
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Why we need Bhikkhunis as dhamma teachers
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Monday, March 08, 2010
Why should we meditate? There are tons of books out there explaining how meditation can help us cultivate equanimity so we can face external storms without losing our inner balance.In Buddhism, meditation - more specifically insight meditation - is the only way to realise Nature's Law of ...
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And we still call ourselves Buddhists?
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, February 26, 2010
It says a lot about our country when the day we chose to expel millions of destitute migrant workers to face violent oppression back in Burma is the same day as Makha Bucha Day.Makha Bucha is the day the Lord Buddha set forth the fundamental principles of his teachings: abstain from all evil, ...
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Suffer the little children
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, February 19, 2010
As the country is struggling with seemingly endless political emergencies on a daily basis, it is a cause for alarm that the IQ and development of Thai children have fallen below international standards. According to the Health Department of the Ministry of Public Health, the World Health ...
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The Real Professional
- By Saritdet Marukatat
- Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Every night here at the Bangkok Post, when reporters on the ground and at the News Desk are at home or enjoy their night outing, there are a handful of staffs at the News Desk who are the last to leave the office. Their jobs are checking, in many occasions double-checking and sometimes ...
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English medical school programmes under fire
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Monday, February 15, 2010
When there are not enough physicians to serve the people in Thailand and with the serious urban/rural gap in health personnel distribution, it is little wonder why the effort to set up international medical schools to serve wealthy patients from abroad has drawn fierce criticism.According to the ...
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The Newintile's Day
- By Saritdet Marukatat
- Monday, February 15, 2010
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva should have bought a bunch of pink roses for Newin Chidchob on Valentine's Day to comfort the strongman of the Bhumjaithai Party. The political marriage between Mr Abhisit's Democrats and Bhumjaithai is not breaking up. It is not heading towards a divorce either, at ...
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Mourning McQueen
- By
- Saturday, February 13, 2010
Graphic by Lips magazine's art director Jirawat Sriluansoi for his Good For Nothing T-shirt brand in honour of the late designer “Alexander McQueen, darling. Say...Alexander McQueen.” He said that in what's almost a whisper, meant only for the delicate ear of a one-year-old toddler ...
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Slamming Body and More
- By Onsiri Pravattiyagul
- Friday, February 12, 2010
It's been almost a week since Big Mountain Music Festival closed its first curtain successfully, but the rage is still going on strongly in the media and, especially, across social networking sites.All right, I am not gonna beat around the bush now. The "rage" is mostly stemmed from ...
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Hun Sen's latest antic unbecoming of a premier
- By Veera Preteepchaikul
- Tuesday, February 09, 2010
I wonder whether it is still proper to address Mr Hun Sen as the prime minister of Cambodia. Or whether he deserves to be addressed Mr Prime Minister, given his latest antic displayed over the weekend at the Thai-Cambodian border.The timing of Mr Hun Sen’s weekend visit to the border was viewed ...
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Land security comes first, not money
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Monday, February 08, 2010
The rationale is simple enough. If you want the services that are crucial to your well-being, you must be willing to pay for them.This economic reasoning is behind the Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), an incentive measure which is being adopted in various parts of the world to convince farmers ...
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A comprehensive water policy is needed
- By Veera Preteepchaikul
- Tuesday, February 02, 2010
by Veera Prateepchaikul While the hot summer is just two months away, many parts of the country is already experiencing water shortage as water level at many dams and natural sources has dropped markedlyAccording to the Irrigation Department, 30 provinces, mostly in lower North and the ...
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Forest eviction plan to steal from the poor
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, January 22, 2010
Ulterior political motives aside, the Khao Yai Thiang controversy highlights how draconian central land control, legal impotency and endemic corruption are causing systematic land theft from the poor.But it is a pipedream to hope that the government will use the controversy to clean up the ...
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Are we suffering from compassion fatigue?
- By Veera Preteepchaikul
- Wednesday, January 20, 2010
It appears as if our nation is suffering from “compassion fatigue” (a jargon coined by the United Nations and widely used during the 80s when Thailand was overwhelmed with Indochinese refugees).Initial reactions to the devastating earthquake in Haiti by the Thai media and the Thai government ...
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Time to brace for the worst political storm
- By Veera Preteepchaikul
- Monday, January 04, 2010
The festive season was just over and, I believe, most of my compatriots have had a good time celebrating the arrival of the Year of the Tiger. Despite the heavy death toll from road accidents and the bombing attacks in the far South, there was no political violence which could spoil the festive ...
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Time for monks to let go
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, December 18, 2009
Now that not many Thai men want to become Buddhist monks, isn't it strange that when women want to be ordained, the answer from the clergy is a fierce, firm "No"?When misconduct by clerics is rampant from top to bottom, isn't it sad that the Council of Elders insists on closing its eyes ...
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New Facebook group: We're sick of the Ministry of Culture
- By Kong Rithdee
- Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Don't come after me, I'm in Dubai (seriously), and I have no idea who founded a new Facebook group, which is attracting robust clicks: It's prominently titled "We're sick of the Ministry of Culture." Except a few well-coiffed ladies, who isn't? Our Ministry of (non)Culture is ...
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Thailand's shocking inequity statistics
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Monday, November 30, 2009
How will this political mess end? Will Thaksin Shinawatra finally return to haunt us with his bottomless greed? Or will the old, oppressive system that perpetuates social injustice prevail to suffocate us?Is there any way out of this madness?Ask historian/thinker Nidhi Eeo-seewong, and his answer is ...
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Going up, going down the retail circuit
- By
- Sunday, November 29, 2009
I was running down from Bangkok Convention Centre to CentralWorld after a Zumba class trial during the Asia Fitness Convention, in the hope to grasp a piece of sandwich when I stumbled upon this retail space renovation. Ladies and gentlemen, the American fashion retail giant Gap will finally land in ...
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Sports and politics
- By Wanchai Rujawongsanti
- Thursday, November 26, 2009
More and more politicians -- particularly those who are suspended from politics have become involved in sports. In the past, one of the most popular ways for politicians to appear on TV was sponsoring a boxing match. However, this has become less fashionable because it is costly during the economic ...
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Sangha split opens door for women
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, November 20, 2009
When the monastic elders in Thailand were busy with the Wat Sothorn monks' protest two week ago over who would get to be the abbot of their rich temple, their Western counterparts were simultaneously facing a serious split over the ordination of bhikkhuni (female monks).Here in Thailand, we just ...
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More on pre-Khmer Rouge Cambodian films
- By Kong Rithdee
- Tuesday, November 17, 2009
The girl with a head full of baby-snakes wasn't the only screen celeb of the pre-Khmer Rouge Cambodian cinema.To follow up on my piece in the Post about Khmer films ("A Bridge Over Troubled Waters" http://bit.ly/2kjOGn), which was naturally hampered by limited space and the inherently ...
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Some wild suggestions to end Thai-Cambodian row
- By Veera Preteepchaikul
- Friday, November 13, 2009
Ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra must feel at home with the red-carpet welcome accorded him by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and with his new job as economic adviser to the Cambodian government.Mr Thaksin’s meeting with some 300 top Cambodian businessmen and officials on Thursday ...
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Bhikkhuni and Western Sangha split
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, November 13, 2009
The late forest monk and meditation master Luang Por Chah was a true visionary.While his peers did not bother with training Western monks, he did. And he did it seriously at his Wat Pah Pong forest monastery in Ubon Ratchathani.Not only that. The far-sighted master also sent his fleet of phra ...
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For a better train service, break the monopoly
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, October 23, 2009
Taking a train in Thailand is always a gamble. We know it is going to be late, but how late? Thirty minutes? An hour? The last time we took a train ride on a family holiday, it was four hours late. We were lucky. At least it was only a gamble with time. Now a train ride has become a gamble with ...
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Rail strike a disgrace to the union
- By Veera Preteepchaikul
- Tuesday, October 20, 2009
“Shame on you!” appear to be too lenient the words used to describe the deplorable actions by the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) unionists in their treatment of tens of thousands passengers in the past five days.On Sunday alone, as many as 4,000 passengers travelling on the long-haul route ...
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The story of Monk Non
- By Kong Rithdee
- Monday, October 19, 2009
Monk Non is now living in a forest temple in Sakol Nakorn. He recently said to a friend: "Making films is a form of repaying your karma." The friend listened, pondered, and believed without a slight vibration in his heart that it was true.Monk non, or Thanon Sattarujawong before he made ...
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Seasonal Itch
- By
- Monday, October 19, 2009
ELLE Fashion Week finished yesterday with Kloset Red Carpet showcasing its Fall/Winter collection to the full-house crowd. Isn't it a refreshing sight for the EFW organising team who was able to command such horde of fashionistas, design students and interested members of the public despite the ...
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Corrupt police are 'major problem'
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, October 16, 2009
When overwhelmed by a barrage of entangled problems, we often let ourselves sink into hopelessness simply because we just don't know where to start.Thailand's money politics, for example. Where to start to undo it?Heavy punishment for vote-buying? But the canvasser system is not working only on the ...
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The lily pond of Map Ta Phut
- By Atiya Achakulwisut
- Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Any (good) student of environmental management would have heard of the lily pond metaphor. For those who haven't, the story goes like this. Suppose you have one pond, in which a water lily grows. The plant doubles in size each day. If nothing is done _ no water added, no expansion made to the pond's ...
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Looking at the bright side of the recession
- By
- Monday, October 12, 2009
From the closure of Christian Lacroix haute couture to Emanuel Ungaro's catastrophic attempt to boost publicity and wider market share by hiring Lindsay Lohan as the fashion house's artistic adviser, it's obvious that that some members of the fashion world is either in coma or struggling with one ...
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From Pusan: Mundane History and New New Thai Cinema
- By Kong Rithdee
- Monday, October 12, 2009
The good news from the 14th Pusan International Film Festival is not the absence of monsoon shower or the fact that, so far, no one was actually dead or injured from the late, late, late night epic drinking sessions that have made this Korean port city legendary among visiting delegates, who’re ...
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There's still hope for Thai democracy
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Monday, October 12, 2009
If you, too, have lost hope in Thailand's messy politics which is mired in proxy wars driven by the political elite's fiery greed, hatred, revenge and back-door bargaining, head to Kuanru in Songkhla province. It is where Thailand's hope in democracy lies - on the ground.A decade ago, Kuanru was a ...
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Red Bull's golden year
- By Wanchai Rujawongsanti
- Friday, October 09, 2009
There are two Formula One races in our neighbouring countries and each is unique. The Malaysian Grand Prix is promoted as the World's Hottest Race because of the weather there, and the Singapore Grand Prix is the first night race in Formula One history. The Singapore Grand Prix takes place in the ...
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My 2 Satangs: Moonraker
- By Arglit Boonyai
- Thursday, October 08, 2009
Some human endeavours are completely justifiable and in some, but not all cases, entirely necessary. Cures for cancer and plans for world peace are generally thought of as necessities towards the betterment of mankind – unless you believe in the ills of over-population. On the other hand, research ...
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No kimchi jokes please: Pusan is the place to be
- By Kong Rithdee
- Thursday, October 08, 2009
Some locals describe Pusan, somewhat rosily, as "the summer resort." First-time visitors to this seaside city in South Korea may wince, however, as the plane flies over a stretch of bleak concrete blocks and overhanging highways and lands at the equally drab Gimhae airport. Talk about the ...
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No Credit for Delivery Man
- By Saritdet Marukatat
- Tuesday, October 06, 2009
At this moment, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen might be sitting at his manor in the suburb of Phnom Penh laughing at the political mess of neighbouring Thailand.The latest episode of the local wrangling is that Puea Thai member Chalerm Yubamrung has unveiled that he sent a tape of Foreign Minister ...
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An old soldier who refuses to fade away
- By Veera Preteepchaikul
- Tuesday, October 06, 2009
General Chavalit Yongchaiyudh is the classic opposite case of the famous old saying: “Old Soldiers Never Die, They Just Fade Away.” The one-time prime minister and retired army chief simply refuses to fade away but occasionally keeps re-emerging to claim a place in public limelight.After ...
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A truth or a semblance of truth: A Reader on "Burma VJ"
- By Kong Rithdee
- Tuesday, October 06, 2009
This recently came in. With permission from the writer, Andrew Marshall, I reprint his letter -- and his valuable comments -- below. The debate on what's a truth and what's just a semblance of truth, and on the role of documentary films and moving images in the age of free information (at least in ...
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The Red Bus and Resolutions
- By Onsiri Pravattiyagul
- Monday, October 05, 2009
I swore on my future grave that I would never ever ride on one of those open roof (mostly red) tourist buses. I thought it was lame and a bit embarrassing. I thought it looked silly, and those people just didn’t know any better.Then I found myself on one in Paris after limping around non stop ...
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Fighting sexual harassment in the military
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Monday, October 05, 2009
The maverick Rabiabrat Pongpanich has bitterly discovered what others before her did when trying to expose the silent crime of sexual harassment in the workplace: the battle is not only with the defendant, but also with the defendant's institution to protect its name and face.The outspoken family ...
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Robbo will love Thailand
- By Wanchai Rujawongsanti
- Thursday, October 01, 2009
Former England captain Bryan Robson will begin his reign as coach of Thailand's national team later this month. He will succeed former England colleague Peter Reid who left Thailand last month after one year, to be assistant manager at Premier League side Stoke City. Many Middle East sides and ...
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Bitter-sweet court victory for Newin
- By Saritdet Marukatat
- Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Mr Abhisit and Mr Newin are buying time. Does Newin Chidchob now have more bargaining power after his victory in court?The Buri Ram politician was in a good mood last Monday after the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions cleared him and 43 other defendants of ...
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PM's Abhisit Police Battle
- By Atiya Achakulwisut
- Tuesday, September 29, 2009
That it has become a high-stake high drama is now obvious. Still it's still difficult for me to imagine why such a mundane issue as an appointment of a new police chief should deserve such a special attention -- negotiations, bickerings and more back-room negotiations -- to the extent it is now ...
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It's a wrap: Bangkok Intl Film Festival
- By Kong Rithdee
- Tuesday, September 29, 2009
After six days of masochistic film-viewing, Bangkok cinephiles sport their bleary eyes like a badge of honour. "I'll lose a guy for a film, but I'll never lose a film for a guy," declared Nathalie Baye in Truffaut's intimate ode to filmmaking "Day For Night". I don't suggest ...
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Elle Fashion Week tightens its belt
- By
- Monday, September 28, 2009
The Fashion Week season is marching on. New York and London were done. Milan is on the run. Paris will begin tomorrow. During the past three years since the our favourite local fashion jamboree that is Elle Fashion Week has been rescheduled from early November to mid-October, I remember the final ...
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A society on the verge of colliding
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, September 25, 2009
How will this messy politics eventually end? When will these proxy wars between the anti- and pro-Thaksin camps be over?This question is on the mind of every Thai but few dare offer an answer. Not that they cannot see the writing on the wall. Often, they simply want to avoid confronting what looks ...
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Paper Hearts
- By Arglit Boonyai
- Thursday, September 24, 2009
The entire Mong Thongdee airplane saga in under 2 minutes. function fbs_click() {u=location.href;t=document.title;window.open('http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u='+encodeURIComponent(u)+'&t='+encodeURIComponent(t),'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=626,height=436');return ...
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Copenhagen Cool
- By Onsiri Pravattiyagul
- Tuesday, September 22, 2009
For most of us, humble Thais, Scandinavia oozes out perfection, crisp mannerism and an almost robotic beauty. It’s the place where everything works and people uphold the highest standard of living.The image has always been icy cool and Kleenex clean. Then comes along Copenhagen. The Danish ...
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Five films you should see at Bangkok Intl Film Festival
- By Kong Rithdee
- Monday, September 21, 2009
Amid the repulsive stench of the TAT bribery scandal, in which the puveyor of "commission" money was convicted yet the receiver inexplicably wasn't (at least not yet), the Bangkok International Film Festival keeps its head above the water and wades on, shakily yet interminably. The ...
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Compassion cuts through the racism
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Monday, September 21, 2009
A migrant boy and his paper plane dream. A hilltribe girl and her winning name for a baby panda. Many may see their struggle to get due recognition as stories of ethnic discrimination. And rightly so. But theirs is also a story of hope for change.The public was furious when the news broke that a ...
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La La La La La...La Roux
- By Onsiri Pravattiyagul
- Tuesday, September 15, 2009
La La La La La…La Roux!I am, ahem, vacationing in London, and I’ve been lucky enough to catch some gigs and deejays around the town. Others might be more inclined to domore touristy things or simply shop, but my dream breaks usually involve seeing long-distance friends (sadly, no lovers) and ...
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Twitter'R'Us
- By Onsiri Pravattiyagul
- Friday, September 11, 2009
We, at the Bangkok Post, are getting with it. We’ve joined the Twitter craze. The crazily busy social networking site has transformed from the friend connecting site into news/info/nonsense outlets for many major publications. Everyone, from the Guardian to Vanity Fairs, is on this bandwagon, ...
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Unemployed? Become a monk!
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, September 11, 2009
It is definitely a good intention. It is also definitely clear that the Ecclesiastical Council's decision to help unemployed men by turning them into monks will be plagued with problems.To help ease the economic stress, the clerical council recently ordered all temples to ordain unemployed men so ...
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Charter changes; but for whose benefits?
- By Veera Preteepchaikul
- Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Despite all the empty claims that constitutional changes are meant to restore national reconciliation, the fresh attempt to amend the existing Constitution is intended to benefit politicians only. Worse still, the other stakeholders, the public in particular, will be mere onlookers who have no ...
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Cruelty and heartlessness
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Monday, August 31, 2009
If decency is measured by how we treat those less fortunate than us, then we cannot call ourselves decent, given our heartlessness towards migrant workers.In mid-August, two Rohingya teenage boys wilted and died inside Ranong detention centre. Doomed for a life in a limbo behind bars, they just ...
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Extraordinary ordinary women of the South
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Monday, August 24, 2009
What is going on in the three Muslim-dominated southernmost provinces? Five years on, and we still don't have a clue who are the masterminds behind the ongoing violence in the deep South and what exactly it is that they want.If only we knew...We really believe that, don't we?We believe that if we ...
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Note on BKK Intl Film Fest
- By Kong Rithdee
- Tuesday, August 18, 2009
The date is Sept 24 to 30, 2009. The theme, outlandishly, is "Hollywood Glamour". The Bangkok International Film Festival, much maligned by the press since 2004, bounced back to become a fairly respectable movie event last year under the leadership of Thai Directors' Assoc and Federation ...
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Stop hunting for 'foreign' scapegoats
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Monday, August 17, 2009
It is one thing to nurse concern for small-scale farmers. It is another thing, however, to make foreigners the scapegoats. For the so-called backbone of the country, the lack of farmland indeed poses a serious problem to Thai farmers, who are also struggling with indebtedness from the high cost of ...
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Phuket will get its own namesake movie
- By Kong Rithdee
- Saturday, August 15, 2009
Tokyo's got "Tokyo!"; Paris's got "Paris Je t'aime", New York's got "New York Stories" (and many others). Now the southern island resort will get a chance to flaunt its exotic moniker: As of me writing this, Aditya Assarat is shooting "Phuket", a short film ...
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Should we rethink our rice farming position?
- By Veera Preteepchaikul
- Monday, August 10, 2009
Are we overly excited with the prospect of foreign investors snapping up our farmland to grow rice or other staples to ensure future food security for their populations back home? How about the prospect of Thai investors snapping up our farmland and turn them into industrial parks or real estates ...
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Living with a dying sea
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Monday, August 10, 2009
Now in her 80s, a granny at Ban Pod, a small fishing village in Surat Thani, still has vivid memories of a happy childhood. That should make her glad. Instead, it makes her sad.Not for herself, though. But for her children and grandchildren, who are helplessly watching their village ...
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Bangkok shorts
- By Kong Rithdee
- Saturday, August 08, 2009
More Thai movies will go the Toronto Intl Film Fest (see the post below): Four, actually, all of them short films that form parts of the 9-movie omnibus "Charming Bangkok" commissioned by TV Thai. The four shorts are "Silence" by Pen-ek Ratanaruang, "Sightseeing" by ...
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Southern discomfort
- By Kong Rithdee
- Friday, August 07, 2009
With the mini-showcase of Thai films about the South taking place at Paragon Cineplex from Aug 7 to 9 (hosted by the Tourism Board and the Film Archive), below I've reprinted my article about the cinematic impression of southern Thailand -- with the emphasis on the film I believe to remain a ...
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Still waiting for film ratings
- By Kong Rithdee
- Tuesday, August 04, 2009
The wait is becoming a little anti-climactic. Last week I reported that the first meeting of the seven-man rating committee would take place this week. Not so fast. My sources also informed me last week that the first film to enter the rating committee would be the Thai action movie "Jija Due Suay ...
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Thai films in Toronto Film Fest
- By Kong Rithdee
- Monday, August 03, 2009
It's the biggest cine-jamboree in North America: The Toronto Intl Film Festival takes place this year from Sept 10 to 19. The fest screens nearly 500 films every year and functions as a launchpad for a number of Oscar-hopeful American titles. At the same time, it's considered a prestigious ...
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A crack in political dynasties
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, July 31, 2009
Is the era of political dynasties in Thai local politics coming to an end? What happened last week in Surat Thani, when the long-reigning Thaugsuban clan was defeated in a provincial election, was telling.Surat Thani has long been a Democrat stronghold under the clan of Deputy Prime Minister Suthep ...
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Film rating to start
- By Kong Rithdee
- Wednesday, July 29, 2009
It's better than nothing, but is it really? Finally the long-awaited, much-protested film rating system will be introduced to movies released in Thailand -- 40 years after the US, a decade after other Southeast Asian countries, and nearly 80 years after Thai filmmakers started making movies. There ...
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Ministry of misery
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, July 24, 2009
The very same week the Abhisit government promised that the progressive property tax would take effect next year, a group of 200 landless villagers in Chaiyaphum province moved into a state-owned eucalyptus plantation to reclaim the land that was once theirs. Their plight started 30 years ago, when ...
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In considering marriage, stick with tradition
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, July 17, 2009
What will you do if your independent-minded daughter who is going to get married says she wants to do away with the fuss of a wedding?There is a good chance that she is only informing you, not asking for your permission. You know how kids are these days. Still, you'd tell her: Don't.Not that she ...
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Heartbreak in the mountains
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Thursday, July 09, 2009
While we city parents complain about rote-learning in the education system which kills our children's creativity, the ethnic Karen forest dwellers in the northernmost mountains of Mae Hong Son suffer a different disillusionment."Schools have stolen our children," said Tabuko, the ...
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We're not sheep, we're citizens
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, July 03, 2009
It is not about anger. It is about anguish and disillusionment. It is about a country where small people have to pay with their blood, sweat and tears for the boon which the ruling elite of all sides want to grab.It is also about a wife's determination not to let hopelessness swallow her up in a sea ...
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Amazing Thailand: A corrupt government is OK
- By Veera Preteepchaikul
- Wednesday, July 01, 2009
I really don’t know I should cry, laugh or just join the mai pen rai (it does not m atter) bandwagon about this latest Abac Poll about Thai people's perception towards the scourge of corruption.The opinion survey which was conducted on 1,228 household respondents in 17 provinces across the country ...
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Fear of foreigner on the farm
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, June 26, 2009
Hands off! The back-breaking rice farming work is only for Thais. If you are a foreigner wanting to invest in farming here, our laws allow you to partake only in the more profitable business of food processing and other agriculture-related investments which require high capital and technology.No, ...
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Why not a food for oil deal?
- By Veera Preteepchaikul
- Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Recent report about the Gulf Cooperation Council showing keen interest to invest in farming and livestock in Thailand has brought to mind the alleged “neo colonial” land grab by rich governments and multinational corporations for arable land in Africa in order to ensure their food and energy ...
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The South: Consult the locals first
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Thursday, June 18, 2009
Remember the public's reaction when the idea of setting up a special administrative zone for the Muslim-dominated South was introduced five years ago? The proposal came from former PM Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh. And boy, how that was torn to shreds!The criticism stemmed partly from his image problem. ...
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Shocking pix need a call for moral outrage
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Thursday, June 11, 2009
On Sunday June 7, we were shocked by the photo of actor David Carradine in Thai Rath, the country's biggest and most influential newspaper.The next day, we were left speechless by the photo of a dead teenager, with two gunshot wounds oozing blood on to her barely covered breast in Khaosod, Thai ...
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A living will that allows us to die in peace
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, June 05, 2009
When I was little, I used to believe that death was inevitable for everyone else except me. Such is the arrogance of childhood. Now that the person I see in the mirror is a totally different being from that unknowing girl - with each strand of grey hair confirming a step closer to the inevitable - ...
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No turning back on land reform
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Thursday, May 28, 2009
Looking for good news from trouble-plagued Thailand? Here's one item. An important one: Community land reform is becoming a reality.After years of struggle against death threats from land mafia and jail sentences from the legal system, the landless movement's demands for a more equitable land ...
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Cannes: Michael Hanake wins Palme d'Or
- By Kong Rithdee
- Sunday, May 24, 2009
Michael Hanake wins the Palme d'Or from "The White Ribbon", a cold, subtly disturbing fable about a Protestant village that experiences a series of bizarre events -- a metaphorical deterioration of human souls prior to First World War. A strong contender before the Sunday's announcement was ...
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Cannes Day 11: The rite of spring
- By Kong Rithdee
- Saturday, May 23, 2009
Ahhhhhhh. The Palme d’Or will be announced this evening French time) and the race is finally coming to an end. After a slow start, Cannes produces a fairly good year, with a number of solid films, a few shocks, a few boos, and a lively atmosphere that testifies to the health of autuer cinema. ...
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Cannes Day 10: Tokyo without Tokyo
- By Kong Rithdee
- Saturday, May 23, 2009
Cannes Day 10 Western filmmakers’ fascination with Japan isn’t something terribly new, and two Competition titles on Day 10 are both shot in Tokyo. First, a French enfant terrible Gasper Noe gives us a total immersion experience in “Enter the Void”, an audacious, self-indulgent and ...
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Cannes Day 9: Karaoke and sunrise party
- By Kong Rithdee
- Thursday, May 21, 2009
I confess that my batteries are running low. After 9 days of heavy movie-consumption, little sleep, and minimum human contact (when you subject yourself to the tyranny of moving images, reality fades away), I edge closer to the state of wakeful delirium. It’s delicious, but also exhausting. Not to ...
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Organic farming will save the day
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Thursday, May 21, 2009
The strong stench from the black concoction never fails to put people off. But for Somboon Daeng-aroon, the foul-smelling black liquid is but a magic potion. And he is very proud of it. It has been five years now since Somboon, a farmer at Tambon Praeg Namdaeng in Samut Songkhram's Amphawa district, ...
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Cannes Day 8: Inglourious Basterds
- By Kong Rithdee
- Thursday, May 21, 2009
Asked why he spells his title the way he spells it, Quentin Tarantino cleared his throat and refused to reply, fearing that the magic would be lost. Bastards or basterds, there are quite a number of them in “Inglourious Basterds”, a delicious, farcical World War Two romp through Nazi-occupied ...
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Cannes Day 7: It’s good to be in the bunker built by the French Resistance
- By Kong Rithdee
- Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Jim Carrey was there at the screening of his new film “I Love You Phillip Morris”. “It’s good to be here in the bunker built by the Resistance,” the actor said, jokingly referring to the huge underground auditorium that is the main venue of the Directors’ Fortnight programme on ...
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Cannes Day 6: The beauty of disagreement, or something like that
- By Kong Rithdee
- Monday, May 18, 2009
Cannes Day 6 As expected, the calculated extremism of Lars von Trier’s “Antichrist” (see Day 5) dominated the festival today. At the second screening this morning, a friend reported that a member of the audience was so outraged by the scene of self-mutilation and preposterous violence that he ...
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Cannes Day 5: Antichrist
- By Kong Rithdee
- Sunday, May 17, 2009
Finally, we had something that woke everybody up from the torpor. And it wasn’t surprising that the provider of the shock (and ridiculousness and even repulsion) is the Danish provocateur Lars von Trier. The restless prankster’s new film is “Antichrist” – after two hours it’s still not ...
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Cannes Day 4: The mini-mob of famished ladies and gentlemen
- By Kong Rithdee
- Sunday, May 17, 2009
Cannes Day 4: There was an ensemble of traditional Thai musicians playing in Cannes this afternoon. They were flown in from Bangkok, to perform at the reception hosted by the Ministry of Culture at the Thai pavillion on the beach. The minister himself, Democrat MP Thira Salakpetch, was there to ...
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Cannes Day 3: Sing sing sing – and dance dance dance!
- By Kong Rithdee
- Friday, May 15, 2009
You cross yourself when you see TWO very good films in a row. And they both are not in the Competition! First, I had a mesmerising afternoon watching “Ne Change Rien”, an unclassifiable specimen from the Portuguese ace Pedro Costa, shown in the sidebar Directors’ Fortnight. The luminous ...
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Cannes Day 2: Vampire priest and air doll sex
- By Kong Rithdee
- Thursday, May 14, 2009
Outlandish sex is prominently featured every year in the Official Selection. Today a Korean film “Thirst” continues the tradition. See if you can top this: a Catholic priest becomes a vampire and has hot sex with a virgin in a hospital room next to a comatose patient. After it’s done, the ...
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Peace campaign under heavy attacks
- By Veera Preteepchaikul
- Thursday, May 14, 2009
BangkokPost.comby Veera Prateepchaikul At first I thought the peace campaign appealing for a halt to violence and harmful acts against Thailand launched on May 4 by the Thai Journalists Association in association with academics and civic groups would be rejected outright by the red-shirt people. I ...
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Cannes Day 1: Spring Fever
- By Kong Rithdee
- Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Cannes Day 1: Spring Fever Cannes is hot and sweaty, as usual. The mob of journalists and industry professionals have already descended on this French resort town, mingling with an equally determined mob of full-time star-gazers and young women in see-through black dresses holding placards begging ...
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Cannes: It's going to be a bloodbath
- By Kong Rithdee
- Sunday, May 10, 2009
If Cannes Film Festival were a gladiatorial arena, this year there would be a bloodbath.No swords will be unsheathed, but the duels are as much metaphorical as it is literal: The line-up of films in the top-tier In Competition, the special Out-of-Competition, and the sidebar Un Certain Regard, is ...
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Annihilating ourselves
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Sunday, May 10, 2009
Last year's Oct 7 crackdown happened during Buddhist Lent, a time for restraint and self-contemplation. This year's violent Red Songkran struck during festivities traditionally reserved for family reunions to celebrate the virtues of thankfulness and gratitude.The sacred Visakha Bucha Day this month ...
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Spreading the hate message
- By Veera Preteepchaikul
- Monday, April 27, 2009
BangkokPost.comVeera Prateepchaikul Adolf Hitler once said: "Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it and eventually they will believe it." And Franklin P Adams, the well-known American journalist and radio personality: "The trouble with this country is that there are too many ...
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Battling destructive policies
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Thursday, April 23, 2009
Is there any good news when the country is paralysed by political turmoil and strangled by the global economic meltdown? Is there anyone left that I can talk to, who is not caught in the pro- and anti-Thaksin camps, or not trapped in the ivory tower of political theories and ideological wars?I ...
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The lie is out, now see truth for what it is
- By Sanitsuda Ekachai
- Friday, April 17, 2009
Nukid used to be fervent fan of Thaksin Shinawatra. Not any longer."I used to like him because his policies helped us rural folk," explained my household helper, referring to the 30-baht medical scheme and the one-million-baht village fund which are dismissed by his critics as handouts and ...
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Thaksin's appeal for King's intervention smacks of hypocrisy
- By Veera Preteepchaikul
- Thursday, April 16, 2009
by Veera Prateepchaikul Once describing himself as a “tamed dog”, it appears that convicted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has now irreversibly turned a full-time “vicious and mad dog” biting at the hands which once fed him and barking at everyone even at his own ...
