New Mandala

Famous Burmese comedian, Par Par Lay (pictured on the right holding the “Most Wanted” sign) was taken away from his Mandalay home two weeks ago and has not been heard from since.  Along with the rest of his family, Par Par Lay (part of the “Moustache Brothers” troupe) has been regularly performing unauthorised shows in Mandalay for years.  [...]

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New Mandala readers in the Canberra region may be interested in this protest:
Saturday 13 October, 11.am, Civic Square, London Circuit, (outside ACT Assembly and Civic Library) there will be a rally to support the Burmese people’s struggle for democracy.
Speakers include Prof Des Ball (Australian National University),  Mr Wayne Berry (Member of the ACT Legislative Assembly), Kim Sattler [...]

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From todays Nation, further developments in a story New Mandala has been following for some time:
Prasong Soonsiri attacked Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont on Wednesday night, telling the premier that “your house is inside a national forest reserve.” He was speaking during the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) censure debate. Prasong displayed an aerial map that he [...]

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Late last month I attended the conference on A Greater Mekong: Poverty, Integration and Development at the University of Sydney. The conference was organised by the Australian Mekong Resource Centre and AusAID and hosted a range of bureucratic, academic and activist presentations on the state of Mekong region development (a list of papers is available [...]

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[Johpa Deumlaokeng is the nom de plume of a long-time Southeast Asia resident and commentator]
This roving correspondent attended the University of Washington’s (UW) 20th Anniversary celebration of their Southeast Asian Center with a series of seminars honoring noted anthropologist Prof. Charles “Biff” Keyes.  Prof. Keyes is a Cornell grad (as are most American Southeast Asian specialists of his [...]

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