New Mandala

In Thailand’s modern rural economy, rural livelihoods are no longer predominantly agricultural livelihoods. A new type of “rural” has emerged characterised by a process of “de-agrarianisation” whereby on-farm pursuits are an increasingly modest part of the household economy. According to Thailand’s national agriculture survey, the number of farming households who derived all of their income [...]

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The Jordanians may have the glamour, but Thailand’s royals come up trumps on matters green. The environmental blog Grist has a list of the 10 greenest royals. My favourite, Charles, tops the list. He is an endangered species in his own right and deserves the highest recognition.
But run your eye down the list (gentlemen, move [...]

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The Bhum Jai Thai party announced a movement against the million signature campaign of the Red Shirts. There was a buzz when it was announced that the Blue Shirts were to protest at Royal Plaza today (July 30). Was it the same guys as in Pattaya? Were there soldiers in Blue Shirts? PAD guards in [...]

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Lately there has been some on-line speculation about the whereabouts of Thailand’s favourite prince. Well, it seems that he has finally shown up, at a Boy Scout event. This is a little inconvenient for New Mandala, as we were just about to launch a new entertainment feature. But, what the heck, we will run it [...]

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Not Not The Nation but The Nation itself:

I’m off to have mine checked!

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“You have to first survey and study your land and jot down input and output information such as budget for fertiliser, seeds and labour needed. And then consider the balance between production cost and income.”  To achieve this, Mr Chantee said, thorough study and understanding are essential.
Thanks to the Bangkok Post for this extraordinary sufficiency [...]

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As poor Thais learn more about their rights, demand greater transparency and exhibit less tolerance for privilege-based behavior and extraconstitutional interference in government by the army and other quarters in the elite, the pressure to reconcile the needs of different sections of Thai society will increase.
That tipping point may yet be some years off. Yet [...]

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…Members of the public will be encouraged to join different projects initiated by His Majesty the King, particularly ones involving the philosophy of Sufficiency Economy. The goal is to prevent people from becoming too obsessed with political conflict.
- A quote from Suthep Thaugsuban (Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister with responsibility for security), “I underestimated the red [...]

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We haven’t had much discussion of $ufficiency economy here lately, so I was pleased to see this short article in The Nation:
Govt approves 2nd phase of sufficiency community project.
The government has approved the second phase of the sufficiency community project worth Bt5 billion, Deputy Prime Minister Korbsak Sabhavasu said Thursday. The second phase covers 17,000 [...]

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