When it was released in mid-September, the South Korean survival drama Squid Game captivated the world’s attention. Within four weeks, more than 140 million Netflix subscribers binge-watched the television programme, making it the streaming giant’s most-watched series ever. Central to the drama is the competition between 456 players, each facing lives of deep desperation, drowning in debt.
Last Monday, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha, at the United Nations Global Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland told the assembled crowd that climate change is the “gravest challenge of our time” and highlighted that Thailand was one of the countries most vulnerable to its effects. According to the Global Climate Risk Index, Thailand ranks ninth globally in terms of countries affected by climate change-related extreme weather events.
Heavy and persistent rain during the month of October—partially caused by tropical storms Dianmu and Kompasu—brought severe flooding to both central and northeastern Thailand, causing rivers to overflow their banks. According to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, nearly half of Thailand’s 76 provinces have been affected by the monsoon-related flooding. Between late September and late October, more than 14,300 kilometers and more than 1.4 million people were affected, according to the Thailand Flood Monitoring Dashboard, created by the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency.
National unity, harmony and popular legitimacy are in short supply in Thailand. The illusion of two out of the three—unity and harmony—disappeared the day King Bhumibol Adulyadej passed away five years ago this week. Popular legitimacy is hard to attain. As the story goes, and repeated by scholar after scholar, a young Bhumibol receives a boost from the regime of Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat, who in turn gives license to implement anti-communist policies rebuild the monarchy from the ashes of the 1932 revolution.
NACC) must reveal the findings from its 2018 investigation into the wristwatch scandal of Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan. The court ordered the NACC to disclose the findings of the now-infamous case, in which Prawit was controversially exonerated, stating the person who initiated the proceedings has the right to access information of state institutions and the NACC is bound to disclose the information under Sections 41 and 59 of the 2017 Constitution.
When U.S. President Barack Obama was first sworn in, expectations that a departure from the Bush Administration’s obsession with the Middle East were imminent. The argument was that the United States had paid too much attention to its military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, and too little was spent on Asia, where an emerging China was now developing islands by hand and attempting to influence weaker Southeast Asian states to do its bidding.
In late August, Thailand’s House of Representatives passed the draft budget for the next fiscal year, which begins in October. The 3.1 trillion baht budget is soon expected to be up for casual debate in the junta-appointed Senate. There were a number of important outcomes from the budget process, including spirited debate over potential budget cuts to Thailand’s monarchy. Up until recently, challenges to the government’s allocation to the monarchy would have been unspeakable, however in the current political environment, the proposed 8.76 billion in funding was debated.
India’s foreign policy is at a crossroads in Afghanistan, where past policy decisions are producing strategic, moral, and political consequences. To a large extent, India made a mistake, as many Western powers did: it put its faith and confidence in the Ashraf Ghani government, while rivals such as China and Pakistan made overtures toward the Taliban, and are now certain to advance their interests and influence over the country.
At a protest earlier this month, a large banner was unfurled on the side of an overpass that read, “1.8 million children are about to fall out of the school system due to online instruction that doesn’t give a shit about them.” A young girl also hung herself over the side, a mock public suicide. The protest by the pro-democracy youth group Bad Student was a part of a six-day “online school strike.”
Along a road in Surin Province, a billboard reads, “Protect yourself from COVID, get a jab.” Medical personnel are featured prominently on the sign, an encouragement to locals to get vaccinated from the coronavirus. Recently, the number of COVID-19 cases in Surin province increased to more than 100 per day, which in the northeast of Thailand is second only to Nakhon Ratchasima. The pandemic has hit Surin province hard. Many are out of work, including the province’s fabled elephants and their carers. Shops and restaurants are quiet as people mostly stay at home.