Showing 1 - 8 of 8
Drought, fishing scandals and winding roads
Life, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 23/12/2015
» In the past year, environmental disasters once again proved how much of an impact they have on everyone's lives: the air we breathe (the haze in the South, blown over from Indonesia); the water we use (the contentious Chao Phraya roads); the lights we see (the coal-fired power plants); the ground beneath our feet (the gold mining scandals); the food we eat (the fishery disputes). In all of this, local communities and the rural poor feel the heat and the fire more than Bangkok's urbanites and they're the people who keep showing public resistance against environmental problems and the depletion of natural resources, despite the grip of military rule.
Sustaining environmental activism
Life, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 21/10/2015
» The demography of environmental activists in Thailand has shifted. The pioneering generation, those inspired by the life and death of the late Sueb Nakhasathien, the forest official who committed suicide in what is believed to be a protest against bureaucratic hopelessness, have started retiring, or feel too tired and have moved into other fields.
Encroaching on villagers' rights
Life, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 07/01/2015
» As a New Year's gift, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has promised to return happiness to the people by giving 53,000 rai of state land to landless villagers. On paper, it looks like a generous present.
Heating up the rhetoric
Life, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 27/08/2014
» Last week, not long before he was taken into custody by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), consumer activist Ittiboon Onwongsa looked totally free from worries as he sealed parcels of pamphlets with duct tape. The 20 boxes were to be transported to Songkhla province in time for the Aug 19 start of a 950km protest walk from Hat Yai all the way to Bangkok.
A golden opportunity for change
Life, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 04/06/2014
» Everything that glitters is gold, but not for villagers at Ban Na Nong Bong, who live at the edge of a gold mine in Loei province. Since Thung Kham arrived to extract gold in 2003, villagers have complained that the company is poisoning its water source and farmland and harming their health.
Conservationists join anti-government movement
Life, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 19/02/2014
» An interesting development to the current anti-government movement is the appearance of several conservationists who have joined “the fight”. Many have shown up around the city to represent villagers affected by development projects initiated by the state, with a joint purpose much more complicated than just to topple the caretaker government.
An accidental activist
Muse, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 07/09/2013
» Pratubjit Neelapaijit considers herself part of Bangkok's middle class through and through. Growing up listening to her father, the disappeared lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit, and mother Angkhana discussing human rights violations and social issues, the young Pratubjit felt compassionate yet detached.
Dam if you do, Dam-if-you-don-t
Life, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 24/07/2013
» The farming village of Sa-iab in Phrae province has been known for its staunch anti-dam protests. A visit to the village gives one a sense of entering a quasi-autonomous area. At the entrance, strangers are regularly asked to present their identity cards and sometimes questioned, but the obvious sign is a banner warning that officials and those who support the Kaeng Sua Ten Dam _ now the Northern Yom Dam and Lower Yom Dam _ are not allowed to enter the community.