New Mandala

In recent days, there have been great posts made on many of the various Southeast Asia blogs.  For the benefit of busy New Mandala readers I have taken the liberty of selecting a few highlights:

Bangkok Pundit’s excellent post on Thai Rath cartoons.
A very handy overview of the cost of living in Bangkok by Matt Crook (The [...]

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…in the new Rambo, it is a matter of denouncing atrocities wherever injustice happens or in John Rambo addressing the horrible incidents in Myanmmar (Burma)…It is necessary for me to denounce atrocities! The last Rambo had too much action and it was not very believable. John Rambo contains a lot of action and I know [...]

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Another Chinese-backed infrastructure construction initiative in Burma has prompted The Irrawaddy to publish a long and detailed report.  By the sounds of it, a genuine highway, and not the standard two-lane secondary road, is now planned.
Perhaps, one day the full length of road between Kunming and the Burmese coast will look something like this:

…however, in my experience, it will [...]

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It seems that the generals are helping themselves again to Thailand’s cookie jar. Here is an extract from today’s Bangkok Post internet coverage of yesterday’s 2008 budget:
The government officially unveiled its record budget for 2008 on Wednesday, featuring spending of 1.66 trillion baht, a deficit of 165 billion, and another increase of 24 per cent [...]

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