Showing 1 - 7 of 7
Is 'White Prison' making Bang Khwang a darker place?
Spectrum, Ezra Kyrill Erker, Published on 17/03/2013
» Bang Khwang Central Prison is undergoing a transformation under an initiative aimed at ridding the notorious "Bangkok Hilton" and eight other facilities of drugs and other contraband. The "White Prison" policy came into effect last May under new director Vasant Singkaselit. Under the policy, visitors have been banned from bringing food, clothes or other items for prisoners; even books are banned. Prisoners are allowed to meet visitors once a day for 45 minutes, up to two visits a week, while visitors can only seen one inmate per day. Inmate workshops have been cancelled, punishments have become harsher and access to help in case of medical or fire emergencies has been limited.
From Cold War to the 'Tor Chor Dor'
Spectrum, Ezra Kyrill Erker, Published on 10/02/2013
» At the height of the nuclear arms race during the Cold War, US military strategists theorised that if tensions escalated, controlled nuclear strikes against the Soviets could force them to back down.
Fiery, emotional talk on lese-majeste
News, Ezra Kyrill Erker, Published on 03/02/2013
» An emotionally charged forum on the lese majeste law and particularly the case of former Voice of Taksin editor Somyot Prueksakasemsuk raised a host of issues surrounding the legislation and its enforcement.
Literary gems found in translation
B Magazine, Ezra Kyrill Erker, Published on 03/02/2013
» Translation is a time-consuming, arduous and often thankless task. Literary translation also involves suppressing some natural impulses to interpret, edit and impose a personal style, while remaining in the background and allowing the tale to take root in another language.
Dead child walking
Spectrum, Ezra Kyrill Erker, Published on 22/07/2012
» Just returned from a visit to Bangkok's notorious Bang Kwang prison, Toshi Kazama is ready to talk about criminal justice. On a rainy evening at the Foreign Correspondents' Club last week, the Japanese-born photographer shows slides of his photographs of juvenile offenders and speaks about the complexities of capital punishment. He has been photographing young people on death row since 1996, mostly in the US, where he has lived since the age of 15, and more recently across Asia.
A mercenary's tale
Spectrum, Ezra Kyrill Erker, Published on 06/05/2012
» Peter Slade was once in prison for five years on charges of murder, conspiracy to commit another murder and attempting to overthrow a foreign government _ partly a victim, he says, of a corrupt Australian judicial system. He fought in the Vietnam War, was a security contractor in 1973 Rhodesia, a debt collector at home in Melbourne and as far afield as Nigeria, and arrived in reconstruction-era Cambodia and Iraq without connections but a desire to start anew, in stints that would last some seven years each. He witnessed first-hand the Bangkok coup that killed journalists Neil Davis and Bill Latch in 1985 and was on the beach in Patong the morning the tsunami struck Phuket in 2004.
She shall not be moved
Spectrum, Ezra Kyrill Erker, Published on 12/02/2012
» Five years ago, Boeung Kak Lake was Phnom Penh's largest. It served as home to some 20,000 Cambodians as well as the capital's backpacker ghetto, where foreign travellers would sit on guest house patios in a cannabis haze to watch the sun set over the waters and finish another Angkor Beer. And although the lake was full of sewage and debris and was hardly pristine, it served as an important catchment basin for the capital, providing equilibrium during the wet and dry seasons.