Showing 1 - 10 of 14
Dangers of seeing haze as 'seasonal'
Oped, Johanna Son, Published on 14/10/2023
» At the start of 2023, mainland Southeast Asian countries like Thailand and Laos hunkered down under a persistent haze. Heading toward the yearend, it is the turn of the maritime Asean countries -- Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore -- to be on alert during haze season.
What China dams mean for Mekong
Oped, Johanna Son, Published on 08/07/2023
» The worries and woes about the impacts of China's dams along the Mekong River have been simmering since their construction more than two decades ago.
When the environment gets sidelined
Oped, Johanna Son, Published on 23/07/2022
» Myanmar's human, social and natural capital have been "rapidly diminishing" after the 2021 military coup, explains Win Myo Thu, a respected environmental campaigner who, for over three decades, has been working with local communities for better access to land, forest, water, food and a clean environment.
Exiles take the war in Myanmar abroad
News, Johanna Son, Published on 28/02/2022
» An ousted legislator from Myanmar, doing kitchen work in a restaurant in the United States, sends half of his salary to the forces battling the military that seized power in his country. From "home" in a Southeast Asian country, a Myanmar national says nightly prayers for his country at a makeshift altar.
In Mekong region, drug trade thrives
Oped, Johanna Son, Published on 15/07/2021
» An example of a resilient business model in hard times? Indeed, except that this describes how the synthetic drug industry has been expanding in East and Southeast Asia, home to the Mekong region which is the manufacturing and trafficking hub that supplies illicit drugs that reach not just the wider Asia but the globe.
Journalist defiant about life post-coup
Oped, Johanna Son, Published on 17/03/2021
» Just as the protesters continue rallies and strikes against the Myanmar military's coup amid the brutal crackdowns by security forces, so have journalists been pushing ahead and struggling to do their jobs as storytellers.
Myanmar journalists wait and watch
News, Johanna Son, Published on 08/02/2021
» 'Some horrible things are likely to happen," one journalist said. Added another: "They can arrest [us] anytime." A reporter predicted: "There will be a darker period for us." "I feel lost," one journalist said with a sigh. "We are unsafe and insecure."
The pressure cooker that is Thailand
Oped, Johanna Son, Published on 11/11/2020
» Thailand finds itself in a pressure cooker these days, dealing with pre-Covid-19 economic weaknesses, the lack of longer-term responses to the economic and social crises from the pandemic, and uncertainty about how much longer people can hold on before falling into poverty, losing jobs or closing small businesses.
Covid and the climate crisis in SE Asia
Oped, Johanna Son, Published on 17/09/2020
» 'A global reset", "a sick planet", "health security" are huge, heavy phrases that have been swirling in the global psyche for most of this Covid-19-marked year. They speak of the "must-do-something" type of issues that weigh on the minds of people everywhere, including in Southeast Asia, as they hope for a post-pandemic period to come.
Rohingya still a 'throwaway people'
News, Johanna Son, Published on 17/09/2019
» The second anniversary of the Rohingyas' exodus from Myanmar has come and gone, exposing how Southeast Asia's biggest humanitarian disaster in recent times has become a festering wound that all see but cannot or will not salve, much less heal.