By Ambassador Karl F. Inderfurth, senior adviser and Wadhwani Chair in U.S.-India Policy Studies at CSIS and Scott Miller, senior adviser and Scholl Chair in International Business at CSIS. “Immigration makes us stronger. It keeps us vibrant. It keeps us hungry. It keeps us prosperous… And if we want to keep attracting the best and the brightest that the world [...]

It would have been a perfect Friday evening; getting to the centre of Bangkok that is Siam Square before 4 p.m. and enjoying an exuberant Oscar-nominated Danish film “A Royal Affair,” about the juicy life behind the throne of Danish monarchs – a subject we don’t expect to see portraying here (in Thailand) for another million years, if it wasn’t for [...]

This is about the Danish act determining the legality of travelling patterns of Danish citizens partly staying abroad (outside EU}. Citizens are administratively moved from living in Denmark to having immigrated to e.g. Thailand. This act is little known, wherefore travelling people recently have felt the unpleasant consequences of breaching the law! The content can hardly be translated to juridical [...]

I once carried out research in Al Samra, a big well-off village of mostly market traders, situated in the desert 40 kilometers from Khartoum, Sudan. One day I was invited or requested for lunch by the leadership, a group of three distinguished old men. We talked about how this community dealt with social- and family problems. Then I asked them: “But what do [...]

Margaret Thatcher, The Iron Lady, once said: “There is no such thing as Society, there are individual men and women and there are families” ….’and then there is the law (state)’. In Continental Europe people were perplexed; this because the modern perspective of life is that our being basically revolves around the individual person interacting with Society. The family as [...]

When words and concepts have been used much and for a long time they become tired from overuse. Not only that: the organizations or firms behind this constant use appear tired and out of ideas too. A case in point is the word ‘Networking’. In the Nordic community in Thailand we have been networking for many years. Do we really [...]

The concept of Thainess is being used and discussed in various media, often under the headline: ‘Foreigners don’t understand Thainess’, or ‘Foreigners are not able to reach the core of Thainess’. Meanwhile, what this seemingly supernatural core consists of remains unanswered; there does not seem to be a common definition among the contributors. After 12 years in the country I [...]

The 23 of June fires are built on the hills in a country way up north in Europe. On this, the longest day of the year, dusk comes at 9 pm; it is then time to light the fires. The flames will moments later set fire to the image of an elderly woman, tied to a stake on top of the pyre. These [...]

Denmark’s embassy in Thailand has over the last ten years been marred by the construction of several ugly anti-terror protection measures. I suggest we tear down these useless arrangements and open the Embassy compound for picnics! Ten years ago, visiting the Danish Embassy was a pleasant experience. Entering from Soi Attakarnprasit there was an unobstructed view to the magnificent old [...]

Scandinavian and Thai people have many things in common, but also some that set us fundamentally apart. The typical European addiction to perfection is one. The equally deep rooted Thai belief in religion and spirits is another. In Thailand, the mindset of Europeans to struggle for the best possible result sometimes seems at odds with the spiritual precept that nothing [...]