• OPINION

  Dam threatens World Heritage status

  Oped, Supara Janchitfah, Published on 14/09/2023

  » Seated in a four-wheel drive vehicle, I could see a few big trees on the edge of Khao Yai National Park. Crossing one creek after another, I learned how they help mitigate fast-flowing waters from flooding towns further downstream.

• OPINION

  A saga of half-lives and half-truths

  Oped, Supara Janchitfah, Published on 26/09/2020

  » I have more questions than answers upon reading the reply from the Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology (TINT). Although I appreciate the organisation's attempts to address my long list of questions regarding the controversial multi-billion-baht plan to revive a research reactor project in Ongkharak, Nakhon Nayok province, I am not convinced by their presentation of puzzlingly self-contradictory "facts".

• LIFE

  Voices from the mountains

  Life, Supara Janchitfah, Published on 06/07/2020

  » Kla Kla Chi Klu Ngu -- thus began a song once hummed joyfully by farmers as they went about slashing trees and grass to clear land. For the Pakakeryor folks, also called Karens, the sound in their language was a signal of new beginnings, of hope, of fertility. But not any more.

• LIFE

  A better way to feed the sick

  Life, Supara Janchitfah, Published on 07/01/2020

  » In the past, food served to hospital patients was typically of conventional produce from general markets, secured through electronic procurement or e-bidding. But since April of last year, the Chaophraya Abhaibhubejhr Hospital has changed its policy to purchasing solely organic vegetables through special procurement.

• OPINION

  Look beyond cheap paddy markets

  News, Supara Janchitfah, Published on 26/02/2019

  » This week is a crucial time for the controversial rice bill as the National Legislative Assembly (NLA), which was hand-picked by the military regime, is expected to have a second reading amid pressing concerns the legislation will have an enormous impact on rice farmers.

• OPINION

  Fighting cancer just half the battle

  News, Supara Janchitfah, Published on 15/01/2018

  » While picking up a bottle of cancer drugs from her desk, a nurse jokingly mentioned how we had to handle it with utmost care. Each bottle, which lasts 30 days, costs as much as half a car, she said. Almost four years ago, I was diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer. This means the disease has already spread to other parts of my body such as my bones, and it is incurable.

• THAILAND

  Is it 'Alien' or 'Avatar' in Kaeng Krachan?

  Spectrum, Supara Janchitfah, Published on 19/02/2012

  » Last July the mysterious crashes of three military helicopters in the space of a couple of weeks riveted the country's focus on Kaeng Krachan National Park, the nation's largest in Phetchaburi province. Much less attention was given to another dramatic series of events around the same time affecting ethnic Karen-Thai inside the park. These culminated in raids by park officials in which a total of 90 of their homes and rice barns were burned down. The ethnic Karen and their advocates say the National Parks, Wildlife and Plants Conservation Department is conducting a campaign to drive them out of the park.

• THAILAND

  Uphill fight means 'people's bills' remain a pipedream

  Spectrum, Supara Janchitfah, Published on 04/03/2012

  » In 2005, Prue Odochao and 90 other forest dwellers made the long march from Chiang Mai to Bangkok's parliament building to voice their opposition to a bill that they had first submitted in 1999. They said the amendments to their community forest draft bill by MPs and senators violated the spirit of the draft, which was intended to formalise community management of forests, a way of life in forested areas for centuries.

• THAILAND

  Govt 'holds vulnerable underwater to keep big business afloat'

  Spectrum, Supara Janchitfah, Published on 18/03/2012

  » Those whose homes and farms were ravaged by last year's floods are fuming over government compensation plans that they say unfairly favour big business at their expense. About 2.23 billion baht will go to build a 77km floodwall around Rojana Industrial Park and 728 million baht and 700 million baht, respectively, has been earmarked to build floodwalls around Bang Pa-in and Nava Nakorn industrial estates. Many of society's most vulnerable who lost nearly everything in the floods _ including labourers, small farmers, slum dwellers and home-based workers _ are entitled to a mere 5,000 baht in compensation.

• THAILAND

  Farmers in the dark over crop insurance

  Spectrum, Supara Janchitfah, Published on 29/01/2012

  » Rice farmer Nalad Kaewsikhao is luckier than many others whose crops were destroyed by last year's devastating floods. She purchased a crop insurance policy for the yield from her 38.5 rai plot of land from the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) in Kalasin's Yang Talat district. The crop insurance programme is open to farmers nationwide, but so far covers only seasonal rice crops (see sidebar).

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