The Punk Was Right
It Started With a Power Chord Picture a classroom of teenagers in Southeast Asia — notebooks open, faces focussed, actually paying attention, taking notes — being asked to name one belief they hold about what a “normal, successful life” looks like—then being asked: who benefits if you keep that belief? The space goes quiet in […]
Continue ReadingSilence Is a Verdict
What Do You Do With the Neighbour Who Did “That”? This is not a hypothetical; in Cambodia today, survivors of the Khmer Rouge — a regime that systematically killed nearly a quarter of its own population between 1975 and 1979 — sometimes share roads, markets, and village wells with men who ran the labour camps. […]
Continue Reading“Why Can’t We Be Friends?”
Combat Is Optional Somewhere between your 7 AM inbox and your kid’s eye-roll at dinner, a 1975 funk song holds the answer to everything. Why Can’t We Be Friends? by War — arguably the most deceptively simple question ever set to a groove — was born out of a brawl at a basketball game and […]
Continue ReadingYour Friend Group Is A War Map
Nobody Declared War. Someone Just Drew The Lines. You didn’t sign anything; nobody did. It’s not that formal. There was no ceremony, no formal declaration, no dramatic scene with a quill pen. But somewhere between September and November of this school year, the borders appeared. “Don’t mention that name”. “Don’t sit at that table”. “Don’t […]
Continue ReadingPhnom Penh At Your Dinner Table
From Angkor Wat to Angkar (And Home) At Angkor Wat, power is carved into stone—kings in the center, battles in the margins, everyone else orbiting around a single, elevated figure. The geometry is clear: one apex, many subjects. We have captured that in photos and video. Centuries later, Pol Pot kept the geometry and swapped […]
Continue ReadingWalls Are My Worst Habit
The Silent Block Button You don’t need artillery to start a war. These days, all you need with the right amount of power is an inflammatory post on social media. For most of us, however, it can be as simple as muting, unfollowing, or blocking someone on our social media feeds. These are the […]
Continue ReadingWhen Your Gods Get Replaced
Angkor: When the Software Changes, Not the Stone Once upon a time in Cambodia, an empire built a stone love letter to its god‑king. Angkor Wat was basically a cosmic flex: five towers as Mount Meru, with a moat to represent the universe. The whole thing was screaming, “Our ruler is plugged into the divine—don’t […]
Continue ReadingYour Sanctuary Is a Lie
The Architecture of Stillness Our morning begins at a neighbourhood spirit house outside a glass tower on Sukhumvit Road. A woman in a pencil skirt pauses before entering her office, pressing palms together in a wai, murmuring a blessing. These miniature shrines dot every corner—outside luxury condos, 7-Elevens, construction sites—tiny wooden temples where Thais leave […]
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