Life

Putting people at the heart of the story.

Life • STORY OF THE DAY • 3 days ago • 15 min read

Agriculture Death in a bottle

By Andrew Haffner • 3 days ago
Illegally imported pesticides can be fatal for farmers in Cambodia and across the region. And without proper training and protection, these toxins may continue to work their way into the food we eat every day

Life • STORY OF THE DAY • Aug 15, 2019 • 13 min read

West Papua Whose history?

By Evie Breese • Aug 15, 2019
Fifty years after the western part of New Guinea was incorporated into Indonesia, this event has become a battleground for competing versions of history. As the region’s next generation grows up surrounded by conflict, their struggle to speak their truth continues

Life • STORY OF THE DAY • Aug 08, 2019 • 10 min read

Urban development Setting the scene

By James Springer • Aug 08, 2019
As Southeast Asia's cities are modernised and gentrified, art and heritage are undergoing a form of commodification – endorsed in some cases by local political leaders

Life • STORY OF THE DAY • Aug 02, 2019 • 14 min read

Khmer Rouge Love in the time of genocide

By Tabitha Payne • Aug 02, 2019
Three transgender men living in secret under the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime share their stories of love, loss and betrayal

Life • Jul 29, 2019 • 7 min read
Mental illness

Walking above the Earth

As in many emerging societies, being mentally ill in Cambodia has often meant a life of rejection, isolation and gruelling psychological decline
By Stefan V. Jensen

FROM THE PRINT ARCHIVE
Life • Jul 26, 2019 • 13 min read
Aged care

The lost generation

Jobs are scarce in rural Cambodia, forcing hundreds of thousands of young parents to emigrate – and leave their young children in the hands of hard-pressed grandparents who get little help from the government
By Thomas Brent

Life • Jul 23, 2019 • 13 min read
HIV-AIDS

Going viral

HIV remains a serious problem in Indonesia. And as the government's anti-LGBT crackdown drives more and more people in search of answers, misinformation about the disease can prove fatal
By Evie Breese

Life • Jul 22, 2019 • 12 min read
HIV-AIDS

My body, this temple

From our print archive: A hospice for dying HIV-AIDS patients has found a unique way to raise funds by turning their anguish into a tourist attraction
By Andrew MacGregor Marshall

Life • Jul 18, 2019 • 10 min read
Poverty

Living on the edge

Scraping through the refuse of Yangon’s slums for scraps to sell, children and adults alike find themselves caught between economic crisis in the countryside and a rapidly developing city that threatens to swallow their makeshift homes
By Lorcan Lovett

Life • Jul 12, 2019 • 8 min read
Cambodian music

Music of the spirits

For millennia, Cambodia's pleng arak musicians have summoned up the Kingdom's countless spirits through their songs. But with more and more Cambodians turning to doctors instead of deities, will the country's sacred spirit musicians fall silent?
By Emily Howe

Life • Jun 25, 2019 • 12 min read
Land rights

Cambodia for sale

From our print archive: In the 18 months leading up to 2008, almost half of Cambodia had been leased to foreign speculators – and many who fled the Khmer Rouge are homeless once more
By Cathy Scott-Clark, Adrian Levy and Peter Harris

FROM THE PRINT ARCHIVE
Life • Jun 21, 2019 • 12 min read
Rohingya crisis

No justice in Rakhine

As the Rohingya humanitarian crisis rages on in Myanmar, new reports shed light on the UN's failures in the country and the continued unlikelihood of repatriation
By Robin Spiess