As the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) develops into a more cohesive and effective inter-governmental body following the signing of the Asean Charter in November last year, human rights groups are observing keenly the development of the Asean human rights body (AHRB).
Before any decision to go nuclear, Thailand should study the case histories of countries that have long been using nuclear energy. Japan has not had as rosy a path on the way to becoming one of the largest of nuclear operators in the world as those advocating nuclear power in Thailand would have us believe.
GLOBAL Viewpoint
Robert Reich was US secretary of labour under President Bill Clinton. His most recent book is "Supercapitalism". Global Viewpoint editor Nathan Gardels spoke with Reich last Monday, July 14.
COMMENTARY
Early this week, I took some of my law students from a Nong Khai university to help describe laws that people should know at a school in the same province. While the students were explaining the laws to the pupils, I walked around the school and had a little chat with a food vendor who remembered who I was. He asked whether I was still a politician. I told him no and explained to him that the charter prohibited a person from running for a second term as senator. He sighed and commented: "If possible, I'd like to see the same rule apply to MPs as well, so that we could get new people with new thoughts to represent us instead of the same old faces, as is the case today."
EDITORIAL
Of all the environmental crises facing the planet in the opening decade of the 21st century, the deterioration of the oceans may be the least discussed. People still seem to view the vastness of the seas as a kind of immunity to the unprecedented pressures placed on them by mankind. Scientists have been sounding the warning for some time, however.
SOULSearching
The stand-off with Iran has put the United States, Israel and all the other anti-Iran antagonists in a situation where they are damned if they do and damned if they don't. It should also be a tremendous learning experience for the rest of the Islamic world - and indeed all other developing countries in the evolving global order - that a lone country is finally putting up a clear, strategically well-planned fight against adversaries who continue to apply the same strategies of hypocrisy and double standards in pursuing their selective objectives.
INSight
When local politicians, businessmen and community leaders in Ang Thong province got together to find a candidate to contest the Senate election early this year, their unanimous choice was Kovid Bhakdibhumi, a retired police general with a reputation for honesty. They promised their support, but Kovid was reluctant.
POSTBag
I am writing to express my concern about the short-sightedness of some of the proponents of organic farming practices in Thailand. We see a fairly steady stream of articles (and sometimes letters) in this newspaper advocating a switch from chemical to organic fertilisers, primarily on the grounds of the lower costs.
On a shady lane, just down the road from Ho Chi Minh City's Stock Exchange Centre, the neighbourhood coffee shop serves up free-wifi and $3 fruit shakes.
'Hai-ro, Hai-ro" - Japanese for "shut down" - was in the air along city streets in Kashiwazaki a few weeks ago as more than 1,000 people from the city and nearby towns shouted and held up banners blazoned with these words. Kashiwazaki, about 300 kilometres from Tokyo, is situated nearby the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco). With 8,212 MW installation capacity, it is the largest nuclear power plant in the world.
