Southeast Asia Globe
Rhino horns pierce a wall between crime and affluence in Vietnam
A suspicious package listed as textiles arrived at Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport in July 2019. For fabric, the parcel was heavy, weighing in at 126.5 kilograms (278.8 pounds). Customs officials flagged the goods. On inspection, police found 55 rhino horns encased in plaster. An investigation ...
GOVI SNELL
Striking casino workers stand against crackdown
Chhim Sithar knew she would be arrested when she arrived at the site of a protest organised by employees of the NagaWorld casino. Police violently grabbed and arrested the union leader when she attempted to join the demonstration by striking workers in Phnom Penh on 4 ...
JACK BROOK
Endangered ‘barking deer’ strikes a pose for conservationists
The spots on the back of the large-antlered muntjac may have given it away as a fawn, but the photo of the deer suckling from its mother served as confirmation. Photographs of the moment are the first known images of a large-antlered muntjac fawn in Cambodia. ...
ANTON L. DELGADO
Cambodia’s updated investment law gives incentives to green business
A recently promulgated update to a 2003 law on investment is redefining incentives for more than a dozen business sectors. This is only the Kingdom’s second investment law and it expands the range of environmentally focused organisations eligible for incentives. The list of eligible business sectors ...
ANTON L. DELGADO
Mining companies hunt for buried treasure on indigenous Cambodian land
Deep in the forests of northeast Cambodia, bamboo shoots criss-crossed rays of sunlight as 26-year-old Tang Kalann passed by open and covered pits near the Tang Se community, comprising four indigenous Jarai villages where he lives. For years, the mining firm Angkor Resources Corp., formerly Angkor ...
JACK BROOK
Cambodia’s law leaves domestic workers unseen and unprotected
It has been ten years since Cambodia first imposed a ban on sending Khmer domestic workers to Malaysia following dozens of reports of abuse by Malaysian employers, including overwork, sexual harassment and verbal and physical assault. Since then, the Cambodian government has taken several steps to ...
DOLPHIE BOU AND ANJU MARY PAUL
Cambodian healthcare system facing a ‘dual practice’ dilemma
After picking up her graduation certificate from Cambodia’s University of Health Sciences in mid-October, 24-year-old Soth Yanuth is now able to begin work in healthcare following six years of study. “I think I could get experience from the public [sector] better than in private,” she said. Yet ...
JACK BROOK
The changing face of Cambodian leadership
Eight years since ascending into a leadership position with the most active human rights organisation in Cambodia, Chak Sopheap has never forgotten a debate she had with herself about whether she should accept the promotion. The story of a young, female leader would be an inspiration ...
NASA DIP
Proper nutrition feeds into safer pregnancies and healthy children
Every day families welcome new life into the world. New parents and caregivers want to ensure each child gets the best start but the most basic of needs, proper nutrition, is not equitably accessible. This has devastating effects. Nearly half of all deaths in children under ...
STÉPHANE VIDRY AND BOON YEE YEONG
Thai students suffer inequality and poor mental health as pandemic lingers
At a protest earlier this month, a large banner was unfurled on the side of an overpass that read, “1.8 million children are about to fall out of the school system due to online instruction that doesn’t give a shit about them.” A young girl ...
MARK S. COGAN