Southeast Asia, By the Week

Editorial • STORY OF THE DAY • 4 days ago • 3 min read

Editorial A homage to Molyvann

By Chia Chi Hsu • 4 days ago
This week we pay homage to one-time visionary Cambodian state architect Vann Molyvann, whose home is up for sale in the capital Phnom Penh. Rather than preserving the site as the cultural monument that it is, it is being sold off to the highest bidder – with no guarantees over its conservation. Our Lead Editor Alastair McCready advocates for its preservation as a museum, a tool to educate the Kingdom's generations to come.

Editorial • STORY OF THE DAY • Jul 31, 2020 • 3 min read

Editorial Election fever

By Chia Chi Hsu • Jul 31, 2020
This week we look at the insights to be garnered from pre- and post-election sentiment among the public in two very different countries across the region. In Singapore, historic gains for the opposition Workers' Party may signal a rising appetite for pluralism in the PAP dominated city-state, while in Myanmar, a recent jade mine tragedy may be the straw that breaks the camel's back for Aung San Suu Kyi's party in the country's ethnic minority-dominated areas.

Editorial • STORY OF THE DAY • Jul 23, 2020 • 3 min read

Editorial Vietnam’s receding hairline and Myanmar 2020

By Alastair McCready • Jul 23, 2020
This week we peak under Vietnam's toupet and examine the causes behind the country's fast receding hairline. Among the fastest-ageing populations in the world, how will Vietnam handle its growing cohort of elders? We also look ahead to the recently announced Myanmar elections. Five years since her landmark 2015 victory, Aung San Suu Kyi has firmly fallen from grace in the eyes of the international community – will her domestic downfall be next?

Editorial • STORY OF THE DAY • Jul 17, 2020 • 3 min read

Editorial Grab in the red, and Indonesia’s new capital on shaky ground

By Andrew Haffner • Jul 17, 2020
This week, we took a dive into the world of modern tech finance with an analysis of the uber-popular, very unprofitable Grab, a long-awaited legislative ban on torture and forced disappearances in Thailand and a new look at the devastating effects of mass snaring in Southeast Asia’s protected wildlife areas. This has been yet another week of diverse coverage from around the region, so scroll down and see what happened this week in the Globe

Editorial • Jul 06, 2020 • 3 min read
Editorial

Dirty money and cave rescues

With Cambodia recently designated a "high-risk" country for money laundering by the EU, followed the promulgation of a new law last week to combat illicit currency flows, we turn to experts to ask how effective efforts will be to stamp out the deep-rooted practice in the Kingdom. We also mark the two year anniversary of the Tham Luang cave rescue by speaking with those who risked their lives in the daring mission to save a Thai junior football team in 2018.
By Andrew Haffner • Jul 06, 2020

Editorial • Jun 29, 2020 • 3 min read
Editorial

The roving gibbons of Phnom Penh and Duterte’s legacy

This week we look into why there are roving gibbons and hornbills in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. The answer, somewhat unsurprisingly, has to do with elite privilege and nepotism. We also mark four years since Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte's inauguration by asking why the divisive strongman is so reviled by his detractors, yet so loved by his supporters.
By Alastair McCready • Jun 29, 2020

Editorial • Jun 22, 2020 • 3 min read
Editorial

Rainforests and safe buildings

This week we mark World Rainforest Day with an op-ed from the Rainforest Alliance, in which they explain how Indonesia's indigenous communities play a crucial role in preserving their life-giving effects. We also mark the one year anniversary of the deadly Sihanoukville building collapse, which claimed 28 lives last June. We ask, despite new legislation, has anything substantively changed in the Cambodian building sector?
By Alastair McCready • Jun 22, 2020

Editorial • Jun 15, 2020 • 4 min read
Editorial

Black Lives Matter and abandoned Angkor

This week, as the US is rocked by a moment of intense introspection and reflection on the issue of race and equality, we publish an op-ed on the role of the Khmer diaspora in the Black Lives Matter movement, sent to us by our friends over at the Cambodian American Literary Arts Association. We also have a selection of images depicting ancient Angkor as few have seen it in recent decades, with it largely devoid of visitors in recent months with the dramatic downturn in global tourism.
By Andrew Haffner • Jun 15, 2020

Editorial • Jun 08, 2020 • 3 min read
Editorial

Chef Bourdain and revival of the Moken

This week we pay tribute to the late, great Anthony Bourdain. Two years since his sudden passing, the chef's legacy across Southeast Asia is still visible to this day. We also turn to the Moken people of the Andaman Sea, a culture of sea nomads that has found a new lease of life through the pandemic.
By Alastair McCready • Jun 08, 2020

Editorial • Jun 01, 2020 • 3 min read
Editorial

North Korean business and the grande dame

This week we investigate whether North Korean business, reportedly all but squashed in Southeast Asia in compliance with UN sanctions, is alive and well in the region. Trip Advisor restaurant reviews certainly suggest so. We also take a look at the rich and turbulent history of the Hotel Le Royal in Phnom Penh, which has survived war and strife to become an ever present feature of the capital's landscape.
By Alastair McCready • Jun 01, 2020

Editorial • May 25, 2020 • 3 min read

Human trafficking and UXO victims

This week we turn to the scourge of human trafficking, long an issue in north Vietnam's provinces bordering China. With the economic downturn in recent months, more women are being drawn over the border, lured on false pretences and sold into prostitution or marriage. We also take a look at UXO victims in Laos, among the world's most bombed countries that still today is heavily littered with US devices dropped in the 1970s. What kind of support are the countries thousands of amputees getting?
By Alastair McCready • May 25, 2020

Editorial • May 18, 2020 • 3 min read

Peaking inside newsrooms, cheap narcotics and turtle conservation

Thanks for joining us on this incredible journey. This past week, we’ve covered stories from poets and newscasters, bureaucrats and garment workers. These headlines will take you to the front-lines of Southeast Asia’s ‘war on drugs’, to the farm fields of Cambodia and the lonely elders of locked-down Singapore
By Alastair McCready • May 18, 2020