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Bangkokpost.com
For decades, commuters wishing to travel from the city's north to its east (and vice versa) have had to deal with bottom-clenching traffic jams on Lat Phrao and Srinakarin roads, two heavily congested roads which form the city's main north-east corridor. In 2005, in a bid to clear up some of the congestion, the Yellow Line was first proposed -- initially as a heavy underground rail service -- but it wasn't until 2012 that substantial plans to build it as a monorail link along the north-east corridor began to surface.
I have been reprimanded by a reader of ginger persuasion for failing to mention two significant days in the calendar for those of us who have grown up saddled with nicknames like "Ginger Nut", "Ginger Bonce", "Tomato Head", "Carrot Top", not to mention "Freckle Face". I plead guilty to allowing the recent "Cuddle a Ginger Day" and "World Redhead Day" slip by without a single bleat in support of gingers.
For decades, commuters wishing to travel from the city's north to its east (and vice versa) have had to deal with bottom-clenching traffic jams on Lat Phrao and Srinakarin roads, two heavily congested roads which form the city's main north-east corridor. In 2005, in a bid to clear up some of the congestion, the Yellow Line was first proposed -- initially as a heavy underground rail service -- but it wasn't until 2012 that substantial plans to build it as a monorail link along the north-east corridor began to surface.
I have been reprimanded by a reader of ginger persuasion for failing to mention two significant days in the calendar for those of us who have grown up saddled with nicknames like "Ginger Nut", "Ginger Bonce", "Tomato Head", "Carrot Top", not to mention "Freckle Face". I plead guilty to allowing the recent "Cuddle a Ginger Day" and "World Redhead Day" slip by without a single bleat in support of gingers.
When Nato troops first entered Kosovo in June 1999 after 78 days of bombing, no one thought its Kosovo Force (KFOR) peacekeepers would still be trying to separate ethnic Albanians and ethnic Serbs 24 years later.
This month, China released official statistics showing that its unemployment rate for young people (16-24 years old) reached a record high of 20.4% in April. Worse, the news comes just one month before another 11.6 million students will graduate from college and vocational schools and enter the job market.
As voters bite their nails and wait to see poll winner Move Forward, runner-up Pheu Thai and six other parties form the next government, junta-appointed senator Jadet Insawang has rained on the parade by proposing the idea of a "national government".
Afghanistan and Pakistan are sinking deeper into disarray, and the US bears a significant share of the blame. As long as this long-troubled region remains in turmoil, Islamist terrorism will continue to thrive, with grave implications for international security.
Notwithstanding the ongoing political shenanigans by appointed agencies to shape final outcomes after the May 14 poll, Thailand already will never be the same again. The Move Forward Party's (MFP) victory as the largest winning side, with 151 out of 500 parliamentary seats, is profound but not unprecedented. Together with the Pheu Thai Party's 141 MPs, these two opposition parties are unwittingly sending a message to each other and to the broader political establishment that the curve of Thai history is shifting tectonically. Failing to grasp and adjust to this evolving tide of history could marginalise Pheu Thai and challenge the establishment to its core foundations.
A high-profile scandal involving kickback payments for overloaded lorries is just the tip of the corruption iceberg.
In 2020, an estimated 287,000 women died in pregnancy, childbirth, or soon after delivering, according to the latest data from the United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group, which includes the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). This figure is roughly equivalent to the death toll of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami or the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, two of the deadliest natural disasters in modern history.
Admittedly, I did not vote for Move Forward Party (MFP). I did like the idea of pro-democracy, equality for all, people-centric policies, and de-monopolisation, all of which they espouse.
