New Mandala

Over at Asia Sentinel, Pavin Chachavalpongpun provides some tips for royal endurance in Southeast Asia:
[T]hese guides to longevity of the monarchies in Southeast Asia do not automatically offer a rosy picture for their future. New factors emerge periodically to challenge the integrity of their rule. Using illegitimate weapons, such as manipulating the legal system to [...]

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The group from the royalist yellow-shirted People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) said it had come to the border to fight for Thailand, and that it was the ‘duty of every Thai’.
It brushed off resentment from locals, who were fearful that the activists would provoke a war with Cambodia, saying local villagers did not understand the [...]

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The field research for this book was conducted in 2001-2003. A few years earlier the Lao government stopped issuing export permits for wood resin, although wood resin from Cambodia was still being exported to Thailand via Laos. The argument of the Lao government at the time was that wood resin harvesting was damaging the forests, [...]

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Hello all, it is Martino here. Your friendly farang in Bangkok.
I wrote this journal entry yesterday using my Blackberry while sitting near the fast food complex at the corner of Sukhumviht and Soi 61.
I was just wandering past UNESCO. There was a demonstration going on outside the building. Crazy! Lots of megaphoning, parading and dandy [...]

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The hydroelectric construction boom along the Mekong is well documented. So without knowing much more than that there was lots of documentation I went off to Kampot where nearby one of these phenomenal Space Odyssey-esque slabs of concrete is being erected.
On the bus to Kampot a man told me that part of the construction site had [...]

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In early April there was a brief period of aggression after a Thai incursion onto Cambodian territory at the Preah Vihear complex. There were conflicting reports as to the number of causalities, but possibly four Thai soldiers were killed and ten were taken hostage. More recently, Phnom Penh is demanding a little over US$ 2 million [...]

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Stir-fried or grilled, Vietnamese can’t seem to get enough of Cambodian rat meat, and the global influenza outbreak as well as recent heavy rains have proven a boon for both consumers and exporters.
- Extracted from Ek Madra, “Flu fears, rains buoy Cambodia rat exports to Vietnam”, Reuters India, 18 May 2009.
Long-time readers will know that [...]

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PHNOM PENH, Jan 24 (Reuters) – Cambodian police fired teargas and eight people were injured on Saturday during the forced eviction of 80 families from a Phnom Penh slum, rights activists and police said. At least two of the eight slum dwellers were seriously hurt in clashes with clean-up crews hired to tear down the [...]

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From The Nation:

The Thai Khadi Research Institute of Thammasat University Monday urged the government not to provide any cooperation to Cambodia over Preah Vihear temple management before the demarcation is completed. Srisak Wallipodom, president of the institute met Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, at the Government House to submit the demand. He also demanded the government [...]

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At http://www.cesd-thai.info you can now download newspaper articles as well as pictures related to ethnic groups in Southeast Asia. The website also contains references to academic articles, an e-museum as well as conference and workshops announcements.
This database is the result of a 4-year collaboration between the Center of Ethnic Studies and Development (CESD), a research group [...]

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