Showing 1 - 9 of 9
Mines, rivers, and a regional crisis
Oped, Tuenjai Deetes, Published on 18/12/2025
» 'When I was a child, the Kok River and the Mekong were clear and alive. We drank directly from the river. Women and mothers gathered along the banks, hauling in fishing nets fully loaded with heavy fish, which we cooked and ate the same day. We were happy. We lived without fear -- fear of toxins, fear for our health.
An Egat shakeup is long overdue
Oped, Pianporn Deetes and Gary Lee, Published on 30/03/2023
» News of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) signing a power purchase deal for the planned Pak Lay dam in Laos last week almost slipped under the radar, such is the media attention lavished on the government's preparations for the next poll.
Free-flowing Salween River needs protection
Oped, Pianporn Deetes, Published on 14/03/2023
» This morning at Sob Moei -- the confluence of the Moei and the Salween rivers on the Thailand-Myanmar border -- indigenous peoples and their supporters are attending a spiritual ceremony to express their collective stance to protect the Salween River from destructive dam projects.
BCG Economy and Apec: Just empty rhetoric?
Oped, Pianporn (Pai) Deetes, Published on 19/11/2022
» The Apec Leaders' Summit in Bangkok this week includes an agreement to work toward the "Bangkok Goals" on Bio-economy, Circular Economy and Green (BCG) Economy beyond national borders. Many have raised the question of whether the Thai government, as host to the summit, genuinely aims to push forward this goal. Or is it just a greenwashing policy in support of business as usual?
Humanitarian catastrophe on the Salween River
Oped, Pianporn Deetes, Published on 19/06/2021
» 'I can't figure it out. Thai officials told us to leave and [we'll] probably have to end up living in the forest. We need to squeeze ourselves among the cracks of the ravines to keep ourselves safe from airstrikes by the Myanmar army," Naw Lay Bue, a Karen housewife with her three-month-old baby in her arms, told me in an interview in March, a few days after she and other villagers fled to Thailand following air raids launched by the Myanmar army in Karen State.
Free drug convicts
Oped, Postbag, Published on 22/05/2021
» Re: "Mass parole no solution", (Editorial, May 20).
Mekong hurt by sweet talk
Oped, Editorial, Published on 27/03/2021
» When a regional grouping or cooperation framework marks its anniversary, it's typical that respective members, through the government or the Foreign Affairs Ministry, send a congratulatory note.
How to help the elderly and stateless
Oped, Tuenjai Deetes, Published on 01/10/2020
» At 82, Alae Ngua, an ethnic Lisu hilltribe villager who lives in Chiang Rai's Mae Chan district, has for the first time in his life received an identity card that certifies he is a Thai citizen.
Salween diversion project enters troubled waters
Oped, Pianporn Deetes, Published on 26/09/2020
» Over the past few months, the Irrigation Department and the House Committee Review of Integrated River Basin Management have been heavily promoting an inter-basin water diversion scheme. Planned projects will divert water across Thailand, incorporating international river basins, including the Mekong and Salween, to address "water shortages" in Thailand.