Southeast Asia Globe

As Laos develops, can it make space for wild elephants?

Mae Sengchan and Mae Kham meandered down the banks of the Mekong River in Laos, munching on bunches of bananas and piles of sugarcane. In their mid-to-late-fifties, the rescued pair of endangered Asian elephants are far past their logging days. The two are now in the ...

BEATRICE SIVIERO and ANTON L. DELGADO

NASA satellite network bolsters Mekong River observations

Unevenly split across a half-dozen country borders, the will for transboundary management of the Mekong River rises and falls like its water levels. But now, with the help of the U.S. space agency NASA, satellite data is set to play an increasingly prominent role in taking ...

ANTON L. DELGADO

Women in Rohingya camps face an epidemic of gender based violence

The world’s largest refugee camp is no haven for women and girls. Previously viewed as a safe place of refuge from persecution in Myanmar, Rohingya women and girls face daily risks of violence and abuse.  The Rohingya camps braced for, were hit, and have largely recovered ...

DAYNA SANTANA PÉREZ

Fight for truth: battling false and misleading information in Southeast Asia and beyond

From cries of “fake news” in the United States and Brazil to the Marcos family’s return to power in the Philippines, the growing role of misinformation and disinformation in the global political landscape is a very real concern. The spread of deliberately deceitful and unintentionally ...

STEW POST

As Laos inches closer to economic default, underage girls face a higher risk of child marriage

Houa* sat on the doorstep of her bamboo house helping her grandmother pluck a chicken. She is not even ten years old, but she is learning how to become a ‘good wife.’ As the Covid pandemic and economic crisis hit the family hard, Houa dropped out ...

BEATRICE SIVIERO

Thailand is using royal defamation laws to silence its people, but it won’t succeed

In mid September, a 25-year-old trans person, Jatuporn “New” Sae-Ung, was sentenced to three years in prison for wearing a Thai traditional dress and performing a mock fashion walk at a political protest in Bangkok back in October 2020. She was charged with royal defamation, ...

SULAKSHANA LAMUBOL

Thailand’s Anti-Torture Bill Could Finally End Refugee Push-Backs

Thailand took a momentous step on 24 August  —not only because of a shock decision by the Constitutional Court to suspend Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha from his duties, but also because parliament finally passed a historic anti-torture bill. Once fully enacted, the Bill, formally known as ...

PATRICK PHONGSATHORN

Waste startups and entrepreneurship tackle Cambodia’s growing trash problem

n a remote road in Battambang, Cambodia, 38-year-old Lam Samphors was driving to a community training when he came across a strikingly large pile of trash in the middle of the road. As he hit the brakes and gazed upon the mountain of garbage, Samphors ...

CHEA SAMEANG

Refugees in Thailand allege detention centre abuse

The detention centre was sweltering as Bangkok’s heat oppressed the crowded room.  Dark steel bars lined the cells while scores of imprisoned migrants counted down the hours of the day. Crammed together in a tight space, the refugees were in a constantly agitated state. The watchful ...

CALEB QUINLEY

Severance pay remains a struggle for Southeast Asian workers

Garment workers at Thailand’s Brilliant Alliance factory were granted leave, only to learn their employer had shut down when they returned to their worksite in early March 2021.  “Everyone was abandoned and never went back to work, there was nothing from the company about compensation,” said ...

JACK BROOK

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