Showing 1 - 10 of 35
Lust for power drying up local communities
News, Paritta Wangkiat, Published on 22/07/2019
» Some fishermen in Loei province once told me that Buddhist Lent Day was a mark for the rainy season and the time to enjoy high water on the Mekong River. But last week gave a starkly different picture. Water levels on the river were at their lowest in 57 years.
Migrants face changing climate
Spectrum, Paritta Wangkiat, Published on 01/07/2018
» The arrival of May once reminded Lin Na that the first rain of the year was on its way. The ground in her small village of Prey Veng province in southern Cambodia would start to soften, dampened by rainfall. This time each year, she would help her family cultivate a two-hectare rice field, the main source of food and income for them throughout the year.
Growing pains for Myanmar amidst reform
News, Paritta Wangkiat, Published on 17/05/2018
» When San Dar Aye, a young ethnic Mon woman living in Ye town in the south of Myanmar, showed me a vast mudflat where her fellow villagers had replanted a mangrove forest, she told me the saplings would be "the future" of their communities.
How women pay the costs of development
Spectrum, Paritta Wangkiat, Published on 11/03/2018
» Heading down a dirt road, Khampan Suprom zigzags her motorcycle through the grove, passing a small reservoir and plantation on the way. She comes to park under some trees. Dressed in her gardening apron and rain boots, she dismounts and drifts towards her vegetable garden.
Ignorance no excuse for generals' ire
News, Paritta Wangkiat, Published on 01/12/2017
» Two of our national leaders' recent verbal onslaught against anti-coal protesters in Songkhla province seems unfair to me. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha called them people who "attacked" police officers during the clash on Monday. His deputy, Gen Prawit Wongsuwon, labelled them as "hard core".
The not so sweet smell of success
Spectrum, Paritta Wangkiat, Published on 01/10/2017
» A new machine stands quietly in a corner of a small rice mill north of Amnat Charoen town. Its operation will commence at the end of this year, marking an important step for local farmers to boost their rice production.
Songkhla power plant sit-in an energy wake-up call
News, Paritta Wangkiat, Published on 25/08/2017
» A peaceful sit-in protest against a coal-fired power project by four Thai-Muslims from Songkhla in the South in front of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has drawn attention to the "flaws in state development planning".
Too little, too late for Lahu traumatised by youth's killing
Spectrum, Paritta Wangkiat, Published on 28/05/2017
» 'They pointed a gun at me," Lana whispers into my ear. It's like a confession after her attempts to tell me fragments of a happy story that sounds like her Lahu community lives in a peaceful haven -- but she hesitates when saying "they are helping to develop us".
Who gets to lease the East?
Spectrum, Paritta Wangkiat, Published on 21/05/2017
» When Gunn Tattiyakul, a villager from the Bang Khla district of Chachoengasao, learned that his province was chosen as a development site for the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), an ambitious government project, he couldn't help but worry.
Pulling the plug on power in Cambodia
Spectrum, Paritta Wangkiat, Published on 23/04/2017
» The cityscape of Phnom Penh resembles a work in progress. On a strip of land marking the cross-section of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers, a new hotel under construction and empty plots face the centuries-old Royal Palace.