Little over five years ago, Aung San Suu Kyi emerged from Myanmar a hero. Arriving in Thailand, she was Asia’s answer to Nelson Mandela: a striking figure standing among ethnic Burmese labourers, she spoke of the spirit they had maintained in the face of a regime which had kept her imprisoned and the country impoverished….
Scroll with the punches
As Meechai Ruchupan sets about redrafting his constitution to suit the whim of the new king of Thailand, perhaps it’s worth remembering an alternative version was put forward in Brunch magazine a year ago. That, too, went through a drafting committee and editing process. (Karl Marx and Douglas Adams were cut out, better jokes were put…
Coffin up cats and dogs
Poo is to blame for this. (From the archives.)
Behind the news
One of the curses, or blessings, of being a journalist is that everyone else’s story seems more interesting than your own. It’s great to meet the famous and powerful, and be in that ringside seat to history, but seldom does anyone else care about the reporter who acts as the conduit. JFK, Castro and Nixon…
The zombie Nazis of North Asia
If it wasn’t so tragic, the Kim dynasty and its regime would present a comic vision to the world By Michael Ruffles Two impressive and creepy railway carriages stand entombed inside an Aladdin’s cave of goodies donated by dictators and despots in a museum nestled in Mount Myohyang. Both date back to the 1950s and…
Send in the clones
At 80, Nobel Laureate Sir John Gurdon still harbours ambitions of breaking ground in the controversial field of genetics research By Michael Ruffles There may be no sweeter revenge for receiving a terrible school report than winning a Nobel Prize, even if it does come more than six decades later. But the most Sir John…
The ghosts of Pyongyang
The Korean People’s Army put us on a bus and took us away. All I had were my clothes and my passport as I took a seat on the right and got comfortable for the ride to destination unknown. This is a little like we’re going to prison, said the Frenchman to my left. Except…
One for the Monet, one for the road
Picasso, Dali, Renoir, Degas, Monet and Manet — I have gazed in awe at all of them. Reflections of moonlight dappling across a river, mist-like tutus of nubile ballerinas, ants crawling across melting faces held up by sticks — it hardly matters whether the artist was going blind, a bit of a pervert or made…
My only son to be drafted? Over my dead body…
Originally published in the Bangkok Post Sunday on April 10, 2016. So it has come to this: Army chief Teerachai Nakvanich has told his subordinates not to murder or torture each other. That this even needs saying is a national disgrace. Private Songtham Mudmad was murdered by fellow army recruits last weekend, and while he…
Jimmy Carr on offence
The best defence is showing you’re not offended, and for Jimmy Carr the easiest way to do that is to laugh. Carr knows a thing or two about offending people — it’s bound to happen when joking about everything from disability and dwarf shortages to car crashes. No subject is off limits for the English…
New year, new look, new everything
Welcome to the new michaelruffles.com. For now it just looks new. But other new things are coming. Together we will make the internet great again.
All this fuss over The Martian…
… and the world has forgotten a similarly (completely different) novel that is totally scientifically accurate (if there were sparrows on Mars or time-travelling assassins) set on the Red Planet. While Andy Weir’s excellent book and Ridley Scott’s excellent movie are being read and watched by millions, the plight of the Paranoid Androids in their…
