Commentary
Donation culture in Thailand is self-serving, something Prayut should learn before approaching the richest 20
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha said on Friday that he would approach the 20 richest Thai families to ask for their assistance in fighting the coronavirus outbreak.“The government alone cannot answer all the questions posed by the outbreak," he told...
Commentary
The cultural history of Thai sex workers from the north
Some songs capture the political imagination of the moment –
in 1988, that song was ‘Mae Sai’ by Carabao. “Who could be in as much pain as
the women of the North?” sings the soft voice of Thierry Carabao. The theme...
Covid-19
Sex workers, ineligible for the government’s coronavirus subsidies, fear the worst
The coronavirus outbreak has hit sex workers hard. As red-light districts in Bangkok and Pattaya go dark, many sex workers are left without an income. Pim, a transgender sex worker interviewed by AFP, is working the streets to pay...
Covid-19
Coronavirus impact steepens as global banks project sharper dip in economic growth and unemployment
Banks and global institutions have come out to warn that the recession that has gripped the world could be far worse than predictions made just weeks ago as the spread of the virus has been far worse than their...
Covid-19
Construction sites in Bangkok go full steam ahead despite the risk of coronavirus outbreaks
Vat Oudom chose not to go back
to Cambodia when Thailand announced that it was going to close its borders to curtail
the coronavirus outbreak. He chose to stay because he had legal status in
Thailand, he had a place to stay...
Commentary
For many Khlongtoey residents, the coronavirus outbreak is less scary than the prospect of starvation
Khlongtoey Dee Jung started out with a group of music teachers. They would come into the community every Saturday and Sunday with activities for children from low-income families, and eventually expanded their activities toward raising scholarship funds, and organizing...
Covid-19
Opinion: Abandoning overseas Thais just the latest sign that the Prayut government cares little for our rights or liberties
While countries around the world made headlines for moving heaven and earth to repatriate their citizens living abroad and affected by the coronavirus outbreak, Thailand has chosen a decidedly different route and have asked Thais living overseas not to...
Covid-19
Coronavirus and the future of work and learning
In 2013, a book titled The Year Without Pants was published. The author did not have a Roman aversion to the wearing of pants (it was a barbaric practice, they had insisted). He was, instead, writing about life working...
Covid-19
A social enterprise founded to help vulnerable elders in Chiang Mai is now helping them fight against coronavirus
As we learn more about the coronavirus pandemic and its fatality rate, it is becoming clear that the elderly are the most vulnerable. For those over 80, the death rate is 14.8%, compared to 1.3 per cent for those...
Covid-19
Opinion: Yes, the coronavirus is serious but in the north, it is the smog that is going to kill us
In 2016, I released a documentary called ‘Smoke: A Crisis in Northern Thailand’ that looked into the causes and possible solutions to the rampant agricultural and forest fires that plague this region, year-after-year. I spent about ten months working...
