Southeast Asia, By the Week

Editorial • STORY OF THE DAY • 6 days ago • 3 min read

Editorial The biggest protest in years

By Andrew Haffner • 6 days ago
The Globe team has been hard at work for another week of clips from around Southeast Asia. Our Thai bureau (also known as Globe reporters Wanpen Pajai and Tara Abhasakun) went deep this past week into #whatshappeninginthailand, delivering a major dispatch from the weekend protest outside the royal palace in Bangkok that organisers and local media have dubbed the biggest demonstration in years.

Editorial • STORY OF THE DAY • Sep 14, 2020 • 3 min read

Editorial Hardship and love

By Andrew Haffner • Sep 14, 2020
After some delay, we’re back on our regular schedule from today on, bringing the latest from across our corner of the Globe

Editorial • STORY OF THE DAY • Aug 31, 2020 • 2 min read

Editorial Youth protests and LGBTQ armed revolutionaries

By Andrew Haffner • Aug 31, 2020
This week, as protests continue unabated in Thailand, the Globe provides a platform for the the kingdom's student activists. First we serve up a piece of analysis by the Globe's eyes and ears in Bangkok Wanpen Pajai, before hearing from Mahidol student activist Francis Bunkueanun Paothong about his organisation's perspective on the movement. We also speak with former armed revolutionary Aung Myo Min on the 20th anniversary of Equality Myanmar, as he tells us about the state of affairs for the country's LGBTQ community.

Editorial • STORY OF THE DAY • Aug 24, 2020 • 3 min read

Editorial Unwind and relax

By Andrew Haffner • Aug 24, 2020
Last week the Globe was taking some downtime to celebrate Khmer New Year. But while our screens were dimmed and swivel-chairs empty, we've got a few quirky bits of history to tide us over until we resume normal service this week. We look at the life and legacy of little-known Karen revolutionary leader Saw Ba U Gyi, delve into the memoirs of British photojournalist Jon Swain from his time in Cambodia and Vietnam in the 1970s, as well as cast an eye to the anti-opium movement of the Straits Settlements in the 19th and 20th centuries

Editorial • Aug 14, 2020 • 4 min read
Editorial

Cambodia in Quarantine economic series

It's a big week at the Globe, as we publish the fruit of two months of labour. With Cambodia set to be among the hardest hit nations in the region due to the global economic downturn, we've spent recent months travelling the Kingdom, speaking with local communities and experts to report on the four pillars of the Cambodian economy – garments, agriculture, construction and tourism.
By Andrew Haffner • Aug 14, 2020

Editorial • Aug 07, 2020 • 3 min read
Editorial

A homage to Molyvann

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.
By Andrew Haffner • Aug 07, 2020

Editorial • Jul 31, 2020 • 3 min read
Editorial

Election fever

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.
By Andrew Haffner • Jul 31, 2020

Editorial • Jul 23, 2020 • 3 min read
Editorial

Vietnam’s receding hairline and Myanmar 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?
By Alastair McCready • Jul 23, 2020

Editorial • Jul 17, 2020 • 3 min read
Editorial

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

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
By Andrew Haffner • Jul 17, 2020

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