Life

Putting people at the heart of the story.

Life • STORY OF THE DAY • Dec 12, 2018 • 14 min read

Vietnam The Vietnamese deportees caught in Trump’s immigration war

By Charles Dunst • Dec 12, 2018
As the Trump administration ramps up deportation numbers, people who fled the Vietnam War are finding themselves caught between two former foes. This is the story of a deportee who has found himself a stranger in a strange land where he is a target for discrimination because of his father’s wartime legacy and his minority ethnicity

Life • STORY OF THE DAY • Dec 10, 2018 • 5 min read

Opinion Rapping against dictatorship

By Giles Ji Ungpakorn • Dec 10, 2018
An exiled Thai academic writes that the response by the military junta that rules Thailand to the recent viral video sensation by the group Rap Against Dictatorship is a sign of things to come

Life • STORY OF THE DAY • Dec 07, 2018 • 11 min read

Medical marijuana New highs

By Janelle Retka • Dec 07, 2018
In November 2018, Thailand’s cabinet pushed through a draft law that, if passed, will legalise the use of cannabis for medical and research purposes, making it the first country in Asia to cash in on the plant’s burgeoning medical industry

Life • STORY OF THE DAY • Dec 04, 2018 • 4 min read

Health How Indonesia's fight against HIV and AIDS is undermined by LGBT 'panic'

By Tom O'Connell • Dec 04, 2018
In May 2017, Jakarta cops raided the Atlantis gay gym and sauna, which was also a public health outreach centre, arresting 141 men, some of whom were prosecuted under Indonesia’s pornography law. Since 2016, officials in the Muslim-majority nation have wielded the four-letter “LGBT” as an epithet and warning…

Life • Nov 26, 2018 • 3 min read
Mae Tao Clinic

The refugee healthcare centre treating the casualties of an endless struggle

Nestled on the border between Thailand and Myanmar, the Mae Tao Clinic, in the Thai town of Mae Sot, has given desperately needed healthcare services to the thousands of ethnic minority refugees fleeing military crackdowns in their homeland for more than three decades
By Paul Millar • Nov 26, 2018

Life • Nov 26, 2018 • 4 min read
Sponsored

Sofitel decks the halls with holiday tunes

Phnom Penh’s Sofitel luxury hotel has a long history of celebrating the arts, which it will do this holiday season at Musica Felice. The resort’s first open-air concert for the whole family will feature 1930s jazz standards and festive classics like “Feliz Navidad” played by the Phnom Penh Choral Ensemble, 9th Harmonics, Alex Scarpati and other musical guests. The festivities kick off Sunday 2 December at 3pm and wrap up at 5pm. Southeast Asia Globe caught up with Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra’s general manager, Charles-Henri Chevet, a longtime fan of the arts
By Southeast Asia Globe Editorial • Nov 26, 2018

Life • Nov 23, 2018 • 4 min read
Plastic kingdom

Exhibition questions Cambodia’s rampant waste problem

An new art exhibition in Phnom Penh featuring works by Cambodian and foreign artists will raise questions about plastic use and recycling, through woodcarvings, illustrations and even a motorbike.
By Lily Hess • Nov 23, 2018

Life • Nov 16, 2018 • 5 min read
Photography

The tribes of Vietnam

Photographer Réhahn is on a quest to capture the cultures of the country’s 54 tribes
By Graeme Green • Nov 16, 2018

Life • Nov 14, 2018 • 7 min read
Dia.Lo.Gue

The woman creating space for Jakarta’s art scene to thrive

Dismayed by a lack of government-funded cultural centres in Indonesia’s capital, Engel Tanzil decided to create her own public space for the arts. Seven years on, Dia.Lo.Gue art space has blown up – and even created an artistic economy of its own
By Janelle Retka • Nov 14, 2018

Life • Nov 12, 2018 • 17 min read
Cambodia's building blocks

Blood bricks

Cambodia's construction boom has demand for clay bricks climbing. But a transformation to Cambodia’s rural economy feeds some of the most vulnerable into the growing brick sector and its toxic debt bondage
By Janelle Retka and Leng Len • Nov 12, 2018

Life • Nov 05, 2018 • 4 min read
Racial discrimination

The right to discriminate

As Malaysia looks to ratify a UN convention that would see the country commit to the elimination of racial discrimination, critics have rallied to voice their disapproval
By Amy Dodds • Nov 05, 2018

Life • Oct 26, 2018 • 2 min read
Brunei food blogger

'Write not for the fame, but for the love of sharing good food'

Thanis Lim is Brunei’s foremost food blogger (thanislim.com) and an accomplished chef who judges food competitions – when he’s not winning them. He took home the top dessert prize at an event for breast cancer awareness for his chocolate lava cake served with vanilla ice cream and a regional pastry called kuih sapit, which means “love letter”
By Southeast Asia Globe Editorial • Oct 26, 2018