SIDELINES / rio helmi

The past four days of PAD’s occupation of Suvarnabhumi airport has been a bit like a party cum middle class woodstock. Grandmas and babies have joined the crowd, even the odd yellow bandana-ed pet. Food stands were giving away food and drinks, supplies were brought in by the truck load, the only vehicles to [...]

Probably within half an hour of that last post things started to heat up. There have been shoot outs on the streets outside the protest areas between gangs, and the expressway to Suvarnabhumi airport is overrun with PAD and some opposing gangs. A taxi driver has been shot, but no one knows by whom. Thai [...]

Bewildering Thailand – could be the new slogan . TVs across the land are plugged into it. Dinner party conversations inevitably come to it: For months now the PAD vs government debacle has no resolution. The interesting thing is how a small minority like the PAD, who to be honest aren’t really offering anything near [...]

A quick trip up to Singapore last weekend for a meeting could have actually easily been a one day turn around. But It has been a while since I caught up with old friends Peter Schoppert (once a publisher, and a dotcom wiz, he is now with McKinsey & Company looking after external relations – [...]

The Balinale International Film Fetsival is well and truly over, showing some great films and some less so, and despite a couple of little tech hiccups at showings (in Ubud in particular, “someone get the circuit breakers…”) seems to have gone off well. Congrats to the organizers for helping to enrich Bali’s [...]