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CYCLONE DEVASTATION IN BURMA
/ by Amy Gold. In Burma cyclone Nargis continues to kill. While up to 100,000 people may have perished in the storm, its aftermath could be just as deadly. In hardest-hit Irrawaddy Delta, south of Rangoon, hundreds of thousands of survivors are without sufficient food or shelter. Burma’s repressive junta has responded by blocking...
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FISHING IN BURMA BEFORE THE CYCLONE
/ by Regis Michel. Burma is blessed with some of the world's most bountiful fishing grounds. In the Gulf of Martaban, between the mouths of the Irrawaddy, Sittang and Salween rivers, up to 10,000 fishermen trawl the shallow waters for eight months aboard simple bamboo rafts. But the May 2008 cyclone Nargis has hit the area very...
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BURMA IN ECONOMIC RUIN
/ by OnAsia Photographers. As East Asia’s economies have boomed, decades of military rule have condemned resource-rich Burma to poverty and isolation. Despite investment from China and ‘constructive engagement’ with its ASEAN neighbours, Burma’s economic growth has been shattered by sanctions, corruption and inept management....
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EMS, BANGKOK STYLE
/ by Brent Lewin. The Por Tek Tung Foundation is Bangkok's largest provider of EMS. Founded by Chinese immigrants early in the last century, the foundation started out by providing free funeral services to the poor, blossoming into a large organization mostly responding to accidents on the dangerous streets of Thailand’s capital....
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GIANT DAM TAKES SHAPE IN LAOS
/ by Vincent Gautier. Landlocked and impoverished Laos has one economic dream: to become the battery of the region. And the Nam Theun 2 Dam, which will be second in size only to the Three Gorges Dam, is a giant step in that direction: once completed by the end of 2009, it will see 90 per cent of its production sold to neighboring...
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URBAN JUNGLE
/ by Brent Lewin. The 1997 economic crisis may have ruined many a promoter in Thailand, but it also provided unexpected opportunities to other victims of hard times. Among the squatters in an abandoned development outside of Bangkok are five families from the impoverished northeast of the country - and their ten elephants. Mahouts...
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BURMA'S UNSEEN REFUGEES
/ by Josh Kraemer. The death of 54 Burmese migrants suffocated in a lorry is a grim reminder: up to two million people have fled Myanmar towards neighboring Thailand, evading the regime's forced relocation campaigns, repression and economic hardship. Some end up in refugee camps, but more than half of them stay illegally, and most...
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CHINA'S ART SCENE
/ by Natalie Behring. Hot on the heels of China’s economic growth, the art scene is exploding. From writers and contemporary artists to gallery owners and auction houses, everybody is cashing in the new found popularity of Chinese art. And it is not reserved to foreign connoisseurs anymore: most of China’s contemporary art sold...
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DASHANZI
/ by Gilles Sabrie. Dashanzi in Beijing has become synonymous to Chinese contemporary arts. The art district, also known as 798 Art Zone or Factory 798, has bloomed amidst decommissioned military factories northeast of the capital since 1995, becoming home to many contemporary artists. And as fame arrived, so did the fashionable...
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