The Monocle Minute

Liberalisation in Thailand is on a roll this year. Same-sex marriage is now legal and the country’s prohibitive laws on making beer have been relaxed, allowing microbreweries to take on the big boys. Prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has now set her sights on ending an incongruous afternoon ban on alcohol sales, which was apparently introduced in the 1970s to stop civil servants enjoying boozy lunches. Moves like this should boost Thailand’s tourism numbers. But, during these heady times, the governing coalition led by Shinawatra’s Pheu Thai party is at risk of going too far.

A proposed bill to legalise casinos began a public consultation period this week. Most forms of gambling are currently illegal in Thailand, besides horse racing and a quaint state-run lottery; vendors selling paper tickets out of portable wooden boxes can be seen on almost every street in Bangkok. Shinawatra wants to fix Thailand’s economic ills by granting licences to big businesses that open “entertainment complexes” around the country. More money and more jobs should help her party hang onto power at the next election.

Though, as political gambles go, betting the house on legalised gambling – and all the long-term social problems it inevitably brings – is about as risky as it gets. Allowing casinos to pop up countrywide will inevitably lead to more corruption and crime and voters will not back Pheu Thai if they lose their wages at the roulette table. At a time when Thailand’s reputation is being tarnished, somewhat unfairly, by scam centres being run by Chinese gangs in neighbouring Myanmar, Shinawatra’s focus should be on promoting cleaner and smarter industries that play to her and Thailand’s strengths. Bringing the third series of The White Lotus to Thailand, for example, is money well spent.

If lawmakers do ultimately decide to legalise casinos they should take a leaf out of Singapore’s book: build them in tourist destinations and restrict locals from placing bets. Later this year, Bangkok will have a new green space on the site of a former horse-racing track a short walk from Government House. When King Rama IX Memorial Park opens to the public, Shinawatra should go for an evening stroll with her father, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, to contemplate what livelihood enhancements actually look like.

James Chambers is Monocle’s Asia editor. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

Early birds in Toronto willing to brave brisk winter mornings have a new vantage point from which to savour the sunrise over Lake Ontario (writes Tomos Lewis). “Watch” by American architectural designer Trae Horne is a wood-slatted resting wall installed in the sand at Woodbine Beach in the city’s east end. Its lake-facing canted façade allows beachgoers to take pause by leaning on the structure as they soak up the sun.

“Watch” is one of six architectural designs that have been unveiled along Toronto’s longest public beach for this year’s edition of Winter Stations, Canada’s international design competition. Every year since 2014, architects and designers have been invited to reimagine the beach’s lifeguard lookouts by transforming them into huts to warm up in. Among this year’s other winning designs is a cone-shaped sound amplifier by French designers Ines Dessaint and Tonin Letondu. Propped up on a lifeguard station, the work invites people to venture inside and listen to the sounds of the lake and shoreline.

Since its launch, Toronto’s Winter Stations competition has ensured that a beloved public space, which is bustling in summer, is a spot for all seasons. This year’s designs are on view until 30 March.

How can Los Angeles begin to renew its lustre after the devastation of the January fires (asks Chiara Rimella)? Today the return of global art fair Frieze offers a chance for the city’s creative set to rally, reflect and gather after the blazes that recently ravaged so many neighbourhoods – destroying artists’ homes and studios in their wake.

About 100 international galleries are displaying their wares inside Santa Monica Airport and the fair has adapted some of its programming to address the disaster’s aftermath directly: since January, 10 per cent of the money generated from ticket sales has been donated to the LA Arts Community Fire Relief Fund. Meanwhile, exhibitors such as Victoria Miro are joining Galleries Together, an initiative encouraging dealers to donate works for further fundraising.

At a time when the city is searching for ways to recover, and its film industry still languishes in the wake of 2023’s writers and actors’ strike, Frieze’s contribution is best measured in the long term. It’s a reminder that Los Angeles can’t rely solely on Hollywood to prop up its cultural economy. Its growing art market, which has only been expanding since the fair launched here in 2019, can play more than a supporting role.

Miu Miu is kicking off its ambitious 2025 cultural program with the 29th instalment of its film series, Women’s Tales. Created by the label’s founder, Miuccia Prada, the anthology celebrates female storytellers in cinema. For this edition, British director Joanna Hogg created the short film Autobiografia di una borsetta (Autobiography of a Bag). Here, Hogg tells The Monocle Minute about making a coming-of-age story through the eyes of her unusual protagonist.

What attracted you to the Women’s Tales project?
I was already an avid fan of Women’s Tales and have loved what Miuccia Prada is doing in the worlds of cinema and art. It’s a unique commission with no brief – as a filmmaker, that’s more than welcome news.

Why cast the handbag as your lead?
A friend just co-wrote a book about the use of props in cinema – it made me think of props in fashion. As a collector of handbags, it felt natural that the focus landed there. I wanted it to be episodic because a handbag doesn’t just stay in one person’s hands. The idea is that it can move through different stories as it looks back on its life.

What message did you want to convey?
I saw the film as a bildungsroman, a story that typically centres on a person’s coming of age and moral education. A lot of it came from my own thoughts and feelings that I projected onto the bag. I wanted to show that while the supporting cast might lose their desire for the bag, the protagonist remains confident in its own allure.

The exhibition at the Sir John Soane’s Museum in London showcases how the architect was a forerunner to modernism.