Showing 11 - 20 of 42
Silk Road to sustainability?
Asia focus, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 22/05/2017
» 'OBOR", which stands for "One Belt, One Road", has become the acronym of the moment in the glossary of foreign policy and investment. It sums up the enthusiasm that followed the successful Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, held in Beijing on May 14 and 15.
Greening the palm oil supply chain
Asia focus, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 08/05/2017
» 2016 will be remembered as the year of clear blue skies and clean air in the southern peninsula of Southeast Asia. For the first time in nearly two decades, choking haze from fires set to clear land for oil palm plantations was reduced significantly, in keeping with a promise made by Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
Forest too precious for housing
News, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 03/04/2017
» Many years ago I visited Mahachai, a fishery port zone in Samut Sakhon province. As I walked around I felt like I was a township in Myanmar. The community is dubbed Little Myanmar, with good reason. It is a place where you can hear many people talk in unfamiliar dialects, posters are written in the round letters of the Myanmar alphabet, and of course, women and men have yellowish tanaka paste on their faces.
Cleaner energy for all
Asia focus, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 20/02/2017
» It sounds like a pipe dream when Liu Zhenya talks about China's aspiration to become the regional leader in renewable energy. Such talk appears at odds with the image many people have of smoke-belching fossil-fuel power plants and some of the world's most polluted cities.
From salt to solar
Life, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 14/09/2016
» If this year's severe drought returns next dry season, Uncle Wai Rodtayoy and other salt farmers in tambon Koek Kharm of Samut Sakhon, known as the country's largest sea-salt-farming area, will see mounting debts.
Joni's parking lot puts Phuket in perspective
News, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 11/07/2016
» Every time I go to Phuket, a famous 1970 song by Joni Mitchell, "Big Yellow Taxi", always rings in my head. Lyrical and melodic, it pierces right into your heart. The first line -- "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot" -- has become an anthem for conservationists as they express concern over tasteless economic development.
Molecular interpretation of traditional cuisine
Life, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 04/04/2016
» Local foodies will not be able to comprehend why Michelin-starred Thai restaurants are located overseas -- such as Nahm at The Halkin Hotel in London, and KIIN KIIN in cold Copenhagen, Denmark, and Thais will keep busy comparing the taste authenticity. The question, perhaps, does not need an answer. Food should not have a racial barrier, and Michelin-star standardisation helps notch up Thai cuisine into the territory of haute cuisine.
Razing 'cane
Life, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 30/03/2016
» March and April are months of haze. The white-grey smoke may be just a seasonal nuisance that exists only in the northern and southern regions in Thailand, but in a sugar plantation in Dan Chang of Suphan Buri province, haze has long been a part of the people's daily lives and of the worrisome harvesting cycle. Villagers in Dan Chang get used to dry-coughing. Smoke hangs over the roofs of their houses and seeps indoors.
Thais must face up to China reality
News, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 28/03/2016
» There has always been a special bond between China and Thailand, which hosts the largest overseas Chinese community in the world. In Thai culture, the Chinese influence is easily traced, through descendants whose origins can be found in rural areas of the southern Chinese mainland, from where their ancestors fled poverty, communism and political oppression to the more hospitable environs of Thailand.
Waste out of sight, but not out of mind
News, Anchalee Kongrut, Published on 18/02/2016
» Unless something is done, Thailand is going to be buried with garbage. The numbers are more than clear. According to the Pollution Control Department's 2014 report, Thais generate 27 million tonnes a year, but only 7.2 million tonnes are disposed of properly, leaving 19 million tonnes of leftover trash every year.