Showing 1 - 10 of 13
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.
Decarbonisation, the SE Asian way
Oped, Johanna Son, Published on 29/09/2021
» Carbon neutrality is a shared planetary destination, but Southeast Asian countries are laying out their own road maps -- including what some may call detours of sorts -- to getting there in the next three to four decades.
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.
Philippines' hollow victory over China
News, Johanna Son, Published on 20/08/2018
» In an Asean multilateral meeting in Cambodia in 2012, the Philippines' then-foreign secretary, Alberto del Rosario, found himself in an uncomfortable diplomatic situation.
For urban asylum seekers, uncertainty is the certainty
News, Johanna Son, Published on 28/05/2018
» Waiting, perhaps for something, perhaps for nothing much, perhaps tomorrow, or perhaps never. Being in a permanent state of uncertainty may well be what life is for many urban asylum seekers in Bangkok and other cities in Southeast Asia.
The Philippines' headache over China
News, Johanna Son, Published on 18/07/2017
» When history is written one day of how a country called the Philippines dealt with China, would it make for a legend about how it smartly navigated geopolitical waters to assert its territorial and economic rights -- or a case study in how to bend over backwards and cede these to its giant neighbour to the north?