Search results for "Cambodia"

UXO victims

In Laos, survivors of US bombs rebuild their lives – and limbs

A nine-year US campaign from 1964-73 made Laos the most bombed nation on earth, contaminating millions of hectares of land with explosives. Five decades on, thousands of UXO victims, some recent and some from decades past, work to piece their lives together
By Michael Hart

Green cities

How did lockdown impact air quality in your Southeast Asian city?

While the global pandemic has been devastating for economies and lives across the world, it has been undeniably good for the environment. As cities across Southeast Asia have shut down, air quality has steadily and uniformly improved – that is in all but one city
By Lee Ying Shan and Alexi Demetriadi

Human trafficking

Cracks widen during virus for Vietnam’s most vulnerable – trafficked women

In northern Vietnam, hundreds of thousands of workers cross the Chinese border each year in search of work, among them women lured on false pretences and trafficked into marriage or sex work. As Vietnam's economy has slowed in recent months, these women are more vulnerable than ever
By Ashley Lampard

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 Chia Chi Hsu

Conservation

The Galapagos Islands on land: How limestone is essential to life

An essential component for cement, as well as a breeding ground for biodiversity, limestone quite literally serves as the building block for much of life on earth. On this International Day of Biological Diversity, Rimba gives us the run down on this most unsung of all heroes
By Dr Gopalasamy Reuben Clements and Junn Kitt Foon

Drug trafficking

As governments turn to the virus, Southeast Asia’s narcotics trade booms

Southeast Asia's booming narcotics industry has only been given a helping hand in recent months as governments turn their attention to combating Covid-19. With prices dropping and potency rising, the drug trade could be set to hit the region harder than ever
By Andrew Haffner

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 Chia Chi Hsu

Regional cooperation

ASEAN’s Covid-19 response: United in name, divided in practice

In keeping with ASEAN's recent history of divided responses to regionally important issues, the bloc's collective efforts to combat Covid-19 have proved far from unified. But an institution in which individual members are placed above the collective, should observers have anticipated any different?
By Alexi Demetriadi

Opinion

Did China turn off the Lower Mekong? Why data matters for cooperation

Recent reports claim definitive proof that the 2019/20 Mekong drought was caused by China – they do not according to researchers at AMPERES. Will the controversial analysis further polarise stakeholders, or could the crisis shift regional cooperation into more productive spaces?
By Tarek Ketelsen, Timo Räsänen, John Sawdon

The people’s game

This week we take a rare delve into the world of sport as we profile the 'national football team' of the Karen ethnic group in Myanmar. A member of CONIFA, an alternative football body whose members consist of unrecognised states and separatists movements, it showcases the ability of football, and sport generally, to provide a platform for the voiceless. We also look at how Southeast Asia's indigenous forest communities could play a role in preventing the next pandemic, as well as how Facebook is influencing the spread of 'fake news' in Myanmar during lockdown.
By Chia Chi Hsu

Water pollution

The sewage pumping drug-resistant bacteria into our waterways

The overuse of antibiotics is spurred on by over-prescribing physicians and over-the-counter access. With the drugs streaming into Southeast Asia's waterways, animals and humans are getting a heavy dose, with devastating long-term implications for drug-resistance
By Andrew Haffner

Press Freedom Day

Emojis, Minecraft and Spotify: How citizens are beating the censors

As we mark World Press Freedom Day 2020, the world's media outlets are struggling under the pressure of Covid-19 crackdowns. But while the tools available to censors have never been so great, the same is true of the innovative tools available to circumvent them
By Miriam Deprez