New Mandala

£876.65? The highlands meet high fashion?  Any takers?

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We rarely post job advertisements on New Mandala but given the very specific nature of this position, and our niche in mainland Southeast Asian Studies, I thought it best to make an exception.  I expect that for the right candidate this would be an amazing opportunity.
The advertisement sets out all of the details:
The University of [...]

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Recently there has been some interesting discussion starting on New Mandala about strategies for development in Laos. In discussing calls for “alternative options for meeting Laos’ development needs” by those campaigning against the Don Sahong dam, I asked what those development options may be. A useful response was provided by Keith Barney in his discussion of the [...]

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Ian Baird, executive director of Global Association for People and the Environment and recently chosen for inclusion in the 2008-2009 Princeton Premier Registry, has launched a letter campaign against the Don Sahong Dam in southern Laos. The text of the letter is below. Those interested in signing can contact Ian at ianbaird@shaw.ca.
It’s hard not sympathise with a [...]

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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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Two are dead and twelve missing (presumed dead) due to a landslide caused by monsoonal weather at the Xiaowan dam on the Mekong in Yunnan. Thanks to a reader for passing this on.

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Amnat phunthi lae attalak thang chatphan: kanmuang watthanatham khong rat chat nai sangkhom thai 2 (Power, space and ethnic identity: cultural politics  of the nation state in Thai society) (2008) by Yot Santasombat et al (ISBN: 9789740541387). Published by the Princess Sirinthorn Anthropology Center, this 339 page volume is the result of field work by a new generation of [...]

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The conviction and sentencing of Thailand’s former Deputy Interior Minister, Vatana Asavahame, on corruption charges bought back some fond memories for me.
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Visiting Chiang Saen in 1994 I was struck by the sight of this tour boat on the banks of the Mekong River. A little bit of research uncovered that it was owned by a company called MP Tour [...]

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If you want to get yourself into the nationalist mood while on your way to a PAD rally, here is some current reading from the PAD reading list. Technical constraints prevent me from scanning it all, but the Preface and the “list of Thai territories lost to France” should be enough to get you hot [...]

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For those of you interested in the sometimes arcane debates that occasionally break out on New Mandala on the relationship between forests and catchment hydrology, here is an interesting article. It examines the relationship between land cover, soil moisture and run-off in the Mekong basin. The results are based on a “macro-scale hydrologic model.” I won’t go into [...]

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