Showing 1 - 10 of 28
Exit the Snake, enter the Horse
News, Curtis S Chin and Jose B Collazo, Published on 30/12/2025
» As we bid farewell to 2025, and welcome 2026 -- and soon, the lunar Year of the Horse -- we once again highlight the winners and losers of the year gone by in Asia.
Global coral collapse a neglected crisis
News, Imran Khalid, Published on 16/08/2025
» Before the crack of dawn on Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand, Somsak Chaisri paddles his wooden boat over waters that used to shimmer with life. A once-vibrant coral garden below the water surface now consists of dead skeleton-like structures. According to this fisherman, the bleached coral skeletons are the only things he pulls from the water after his father showed him how to fish in living coral reefs. "Now, I drag up ghosts," he murmured. His lament echoes across the tropics. From the Maldives to Mozambique, the once-thriving reefs of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans are being scoured of life.
Global South will pay for trade war
Oped, Jayati Ghosh, Published on 22/04/2025
» US President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs have unleashed economic chaos, roiling stock and bond markets and triggering panic around the world, especially in lower-income countries that rely heavily on exports to the United States. The result could be an entirely manufactured global recession, with the developing world bearing the brunt.
Lifelines for small island states
Oped, Maya Delaney & Aminath Shauna, Published on 28/01/2025
» Small island developing states (Sids) are on the front lines of climate change, threatened by rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and ocean warming and acidification, despite contributing the least to global greenhouse gas emissions. This now poses an existential risk to our ways of life, our livelihoods, and the very ground beneath our feet.
The deepening political turmoil in South Asia
Oped, Brahma Chellaney, Published on 15/08/2024
» Violent student-led, Islamist-backed protests in Bangladesh have toppled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government, and mob attacks targeting those viewed as supporters of her secular Awami League party -- in particular, the country's dwindling Hindu minority -- are proliferating. At a time when neighbouring Myanmar is engulfed in violence and the Pakistan-Afghanistan belt remains fertile ground for cross-border terrorism, political upheaval in Bangladesh, two years after the overthrow of Sri Lanka's government, is the last thing India, the regional power, needs.
Credit ratings and climate chaos
Oped, Emily Wilkinson & Kanni Wignaraja, Published on 13/12/2023
» The sun-drenched coral islands and reefs of the Maldives are in existential danger. With 80% of the country's population living just one metre above sea level, many islands could become uninhabitable as climate change causes the ocean's level to rise. By the end of this century, half a million people could be displaced. The Maldives is confronting this threat with a range of innovative adaptation initiatives, from restoring coral reefs to floating solar-power systems. But survival does not come cheap.
More testing, treatment needed
Oped, Poonam Khetrapal, Published on 03/08/2023
» To mark World Hepatitis Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) is urging policymakers, health care providers and political and civil society leaders in the Southeast Asia region and globally to accelerate hepatitis testing and treatment, recognising that everyone, everywhere has just "one life" and "one liver" -- the theme of this year's event.
Food safety standards save lives
News, Poonam Khetrapal, Published on 12/06/2023
» Food safety standards are vital to facilitate fair and transparent international food trade and consumer health protection by reducing the incidence of foodborne diseases. Every year, foodborne diseases affect 1-in-10 people worldwide. According to WHO South-East Asia Region, foodborne diseases cause 150 million illnesses, 175,000 deaths, and 12 million disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs). Therefore, operative food standards must integrate safety and quality into every aspect of food production and service to ensure the supply of safe and wholesome food.
Fighting cancer in Southeast Asia
Oped, Poonam Khetrapal, Published on 07/02/2023
» On World Cancer Day, which is concurrent on Feb 4 annually, the WHO is calling for intensified action across the Southeast Asian region to strengthen health systems to prevent and detect cancers early, to provide prompt treatment referral, to enhance access to palliative care, and to close the gap in access to quality cancer services -- the theme of this year's commemoration.
Appraising the PM
Oped, Postbag, Published on 30/08/2022
» Re: "PM pressured over defence role", (BP, Aug 26).