Showing 161 - 170 of 201
Public to be given greater voice in land-use law review
News, Ploenpote Atthakor, Published on 23/07/2013
» When a community wants to protect its land against development projects which threaten to undermine the local ecology and people's livelihoods, the community members tend to take to the streets in protest to make their voices heard.
Water scheme imperils coastal way of life
News, Sanitsuda Ekachai, Published on 26/06/2013
» For centuries, the rich alluvian plain nurtured by the Ta Chin River has made Nakhon Pathom one of the country's richest agricultural zones.
China's stealth wars threaten stability
News, Brahma Chellaney, Published on 12/06/2013
» China is subverting the status quo in the South and East China Seas, on its border with India, and even concerning international riparian flows _ all without firing a single shot. Just as it grabbed land across the Himalayas in the 1950s by launching furtive encroachments, China is waging stealth wars against its Asian neighbours that threaten to destabilise the entire region. The more economic power China has amassed, the greater its ambition to alter the territorial status quo has become.
Going global, for the wrong reasons
Veera Prateepchaikul, Published on 28/05/2013
» Civic society groups in Thailand have been doing it for so many years – internationalising local conflicts involving the government so that, hopefully, external pressure will be brought upon the government to resolve the issue.
Plodprasop must slow the flood scheme flow
News, Wasant Techawongtham, Published on 24/05/2013
» I admit I'm totally baffled by Deputy Prime Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi's need for speed in getting the 350-billion-baht water management master plan off the ground.
Celebrate Earth Day as if life depends on it
News, Wasant Techawongtham, Published on 26/04/2013
» Earth Day this year came and went almost without much notice. The lack of attention seemed to have happened everywhere else too.
Thailand must help its neighbours get over the dam fad
News, Published on 14/03/2013
» I was born and brought up in a hilltribe village at the foot of Doi Mae Salong in Chiang Rai. My mother was a teacher and social worker. My father was head of the hilltribe welfare unit.
B350bn megaproject sadly under-studied
News, Veera Prateepchaikul, Published on 11/03/2013
» The massive flooding in 2011 was ranked by the World Bank as the fourth costliest natural disaster up until that year, surpassed only by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in the same year, the 1995 Kobe earthquake and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Flood projects need scrutiny
News, Published on 07/03/2013
» The pain caused by the 2011 floods represented a rough wake-up call that something must be done to prevent a repeat of a similar disaster. Hence, the 350-billion-baht flood prevention and drought mitigation megaproject was hastily drawn up by the government and an executive decree enacted to enable the Finance Ministry to secure loans to fund the project without the trouble of going through parliamentary scrutiny as should have been the case.
Foreign investment a double-edged sword
News, Published on 24/02/2013
» The finding of a report released on Thursday that the rise in foreign investment in Myanmar's ethnic regions risks exacerbating conflicts and environmental destruction should come as a surprise to no one. Throughout history and throughout the world the efforts of more developed nations to obtain the resources of less developed nations have exacerbated conflicts with indigenous peoples and led to environmental destruction. But the report by the Transnational Institute and the Burma [Myanmar] Centre Netherlands, titled "Developing disparity: Regional investment in Burma's borderlands", does serve as a timely reminder that the interests and wishes of ethnic groups in Myanmar must be taken into account by foreign corporations and the central government in order to promote peace, not to mention a good business environment.