• OPINION

  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.

• OPINION

  Stingray tale harks to Mekong risks

  Oped, Johanna Son, Published on 15/06/2022

  » Before she helped to release a 181-kilogramme giant stingray back into the Mekong River in May, Chea Seila had only seen parts of the pancaked-shape fish before -- sliced and being sold at local markets in Cambodia.

• OPINION

  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.

• OPINION

  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.

• OPINION

  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.

• OPINION

  UNHCR: No one ever chooses to become a refugee

  Oped, Johanna Son, Published on 22/05/2021

  » Refugees, people fleeing air strikes by the Myanmar military, and those who are at risk of political persecution, have been the focus of attention in the months since the Feb 1 coup.

• OPINION

  Vaccination in Southeast Asia: it's complicated

  Oped, Johanna Son, Published on 24/04/2021

  » 'So which wave of Covid-19 are you in?" is a question Southeast Asians ask of one another these days. A year after the lockdowns that their countries went into, many of them are, well, back in them again, even as vaccinations are underway in all countries in the region.

• OPINION

  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.

• OPINION

  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."

• OPINION

  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.

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