New Mandala

During last year’s uprising against the military dictatorship in Burma I put together a summary of academic opinion.  It has continued to serve as a useful resource for readers looking to find out what the world’s scholars made of that all-too-brief period when the world watched Burma and waited for change.  The current crisis – [...]

[Read more →]

Contributor’s note: This post was written before Cyclone Nargis went through Myanmar on May 2 and 3. The government has since not said whether or not the May 10 referendum will be postponed. It has declared Ayeyarwady, Yangon and Bago Divisions, and Kayin and Mon States disaster zones. At this time housing, food and clean [...]

[Read more →]

The generals expect the Burmese people to just shut up, follow their orders, and approve the draft constitution without any discussion or debate. That’s not exactly how democracies are born.
- Brad Adams, Asia Director at Human Rights Watch, in the press release launching a report on Burma’s constitution.  The referendum on the new national charter will [...]

[Read more →]

Roving New Mandala photographer, Tim Forsyth, spotted this bizarre image on a mobile phone advertisement at Chiang Mai airport. No doubt some will be offended by its crude exploitation of ethnicity (as zoological oddity) in pursuit of profit, but to me there is something eccentrically inclusive about it. Perhaps even less pernicious (as stereotypes go) than some of [...]

[Read more →]

Australia has been caught up in Thailand’s Valentine’s Day moral panic about adolescant sexuality. The Sydney Morning Herald reports on disturbing developments at Sydney’s Taronga Park Zoo:
Taronga Zoo’s Thong Dee, the Thai elephant cow found to be five months pregnant this week, seemed a good deal calmer yesterday than the humans fiercely debating her welfare. [...]

[Read more →]

From Manager Online 10.30 PM:
One hundred and eleven ex-executives of the dissolved Thai Rak Thai party will be granted amnesty Samak Sundaravej announced two and a half an hour after the election votes have been counted.  Samak told CNN that he plans to grant amnesty to the executive members of the TRT party and allow the ex-PM [...]

[Read more →]

�
‘Child labour’ and child prostitution in Thailand: changing realities (2007) by Simon Baker (ISBN: 9789744801166). Simon Baker is an Australian scholar, who carried out PhD field research in Khonkaen in 1996. That research is the basis of this book.
His study concludes that Thai children are better off than ever - they are the beneficiaries of Thailand’s economic [...]

[Read more →]

A regular New Mandala reader with camera at the ready captured these images of local campaigning in Chiang Mai’s Wororot market. Featured are Boosaba Yodbangtey and Dr. Anusorn Khunanusorn. I have crossed paths with Boosaba a few times in the past, as she has been active in building up political connections in the district where I [...]

[Read more →]

I write with regard to New Mandala’s interview with Professor Robert  [H.] Taylor, dated November 7th and posted on the Internet.
Professor Taylor says apropos Perfect Hostage, my biography of Aung San Suu  Kyi, that it is ‘badly flawed’. Naturally I wish to counter this prejudicial allegation. Before so doing, however, I would point out areas of [...]

[Read more →]

[Read more →]