China's new European trade hub: An Irish town of 18,000 - Christian Science Monitor
The Athlone Institute of Technology hosts more than 200 Chinese students – one of the links that helped bring the trade hub to the town, says Prof. Ciaran Ó Catháin, the president of the school and one of the players in the project negotiations. Professor Ó Catháin would not disclose ...
Vietnam’s Problems, Promises - Asia Sentinel/RTÉ World Report
“We tend to lose around 20% of our staff every year after Tet” (the Vietnamese New Year), said Kim Jung Hee, manager of a factory in Binh Duong province, an hour's drive from Saigon's centre. Her Korean company NB Blue employs a thousand workers, in a clean and well-lit factory ...
Thailand sentences American to prison for insulting king - Los Angeles Times
"In Thailand they put people in jail without proof," Lerpong said Thursday, his arms and legs shackled, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit. "I was born in Thailand, but this does not mean I am Thai. I am proud to be an American citizen."
DMZ: Road trip to the world's most heavily armed border - CNNGo
SEOUL - As the tour bus moves from central Seoul to the city outskirts, the seamless transition from one of the world's biggest and most vibrant cities to the world's most heavily armed border is as surreal as it is functional, with roadside bus-stops giving way to military watchtowers even ...
Potent mix for Timor-Leste - Asia Times
DILI - Land, corruption and poverty are all on the table as Timor-Leste gets into political mode ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for 2012, with one controversial figure already throwing his hat into the ring.
If Samuel Beckett met Pol Pot - Asia Sentinel/Irish Examiner
TIK PANHAO, CAMBODIA - In some of Cambodia’s thousands of killing fields, the bones of the dead can sometimes be seen, rising to the surface after storms or rain, like grisly emblems of an unburied past. Perhaps 16,000 died at the s-21 Detention Camp in Phnom Penh, or at Choeung ...
Voting ends in southern Sudan referendum - Sunday Tribune
Kyeli, Blue Nile State, Sudan - “Soon after we married, my husband was killed during the war”, says Hawa Abdul-Gadr. Her eyes show a suppressed grief, but her demeanour is purposeful. That said, there is a perceptible sadness - long-kept under wraps but perhaps closer to the surface than she ...
An unbreakable bond? – Asia Times
JERUSALEM – In 'The Great Divorce' C.S. Lewis attempted to allegorise about a reality which he admitted he could not know, but tentatively hoped to suggest. The US-Israeli relationship, to most, seems like an unbreakable bond, and any potential divorce might be regarded as unimaginable. But when Israeli Prime Minister ...
Narcotic use, drought rob babies of food – The Washington Times
DIRE DAWA, Ethiopia | When drought and food shortages hit, it is the very young who suffer first, and most. Weighing only 10 pounds, Ayaan is among nearly 100,000 Ethiopian children whose lives are at risk. Just four days before her first birthday, she is lighter than an average 3-month-old ...
Corruption trumps tribalism – New York Times (IHT)
Kenyans were cynical about their political establishment long before the latest election violence. One wisecrack doing the rounds since last year says "there is more chance of a Luo becoming president of the United States than president of this country" - referring to Barack Obama, whose father hails from the ...
Ahmadiyah release offers hope for Rohingya – The Irrawaddy
June 7th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21444
Overjoyed Ahmadiyah embrace as they get ready to depart Suan Plu detention centre (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
BANGKOK – “We are so happy this day to be released”, said Haraan Sidique, boarding a bus at Bangkok’s Suan Plu Immigration Detention Centre on Monday morning, after spending almost 7 months behind bars at refugee prison in central Bangkok.
He is part of a group of 96 Ahmadiyah refugees and asylum seekers from Pakistan that have been released from detention by Thai authorities, a landmark development in a country that does not formally recognise refugees. Thailand is currently coming to the end of its tenure as President of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The released Ahmadiyah are members of a minority Muslim group that is oppressed in Pakistan, where they are not recognised as Muslims and are often victims of sectarian violence. As women carried infants and ushered older children toward the waiting buses, males in the group thanked Thai officials and police at the IDC, all clearly relieved at being released from the IDC. (more…)
Territorial Hissings – The Irrawaddy
June 6th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21433
BANGKOK—A rare public protest held on Sunday in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi illustrates how seriously the country’s government takes what it describes as Chinese violations of its sovereignty.
On Sunday morning in Hanoi, hundreds of protesters gathered for half an hour outside the Chinese Embassy, not far from a landmark statue of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, in the center of the capital. Some apparently came after rallying calls made on social networking sites such as Facebook, despite the latter being officially blocked in Vietnam. After being turned back by police, some of the gathering paraded through city’s streets as far as Hoan Kiem Lake near the old town, chanting anti-Chinese slogans and carrying placards in Vietnamese and English with slogans such as “Protesting Against China Causing Trouble.” In Ho Chi Minh City, the sprawling commercial capital in the south, demonstrators converged on the Chinese consulate on Sunday. (more…)
Promises and pitfalls with investing in Vietnam – Sunday Business Post/RTÉ World Report
May 29th, 2011
http://www.rte.ie/news/av/2011/0529/worldreport.html#
James Galvin and developer Chau Luu work on Cork Jazz festival iPhone app (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
By Simon Roughneen in Ho Chi Minh City. By the end of 2012 James Galvin hopes to employ 150 staff at Glandore Systems’ Vietnam operation. This will almost double the current 90 web developers working at the company’s office, a 40 minute drive from the centre of Ho Chi Minh City through frenetic motorcycle-addled traffic.
With headquarters in Cork, the company’s operation in the city known informally as Saigon focuses on software development, including iPad/iPhone applications. Part of the attraction is Vietnam’s low salary structure, with an experienced developer paid US$600 month at Glandore – above the local average according to James Galvin. “Unlike most European-based software operations, we can maintain enough staff to be able to to respond quickly to new opportunities and avoid being overstretched”, he added.
Speaking last week at the Ireland-Southeast Asia Business Seminar, Nguyen Trung Tin of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee said that the trade and investment relationship between Ireland and Vietnam is low, when weighed against the potential links between the two countries. (more…)
Land Activists Face Prison in Vietnam – Asia Sentinel
May 28th, 2011
http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3221&Itemid=188
Board games in Saigon. Vietnam's dissidents play a much more dangerous game with the country's Government (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Ho Chi Minh City – Late on a Tuesday evening, sitting four floors up in a Ho Chi Minh City cafe overlooking the city’s landmark opera house, a worried man who used the pseudonym Long had the look of someone who thought he was being watched.
“I drove around the city for 45 minutes before heading here,” he said, hunched over and leaning forward on his seat in a restaurant that was almost empty. Looking around edgily, he said softly, “I wanted to make sure I wasn’t being followed.”
At the heart of Long’s problems, and that of his fellow members of a Mennonite Church offshoot, is what they deem to be unfair land seizures that are then turned over to major companies for development by the Vietnamese government. The state maintains sole ownership of land and confiscation in the name of economic development is a continuing irritation. Landowners frequently complain about unfair compensation and criticize the laws on land use, which they say are often abused by corrupt local officials. (more…)
Thailand’s lèse-majesté laws under scrutiny – The Diplomat
May 27th, 2011
http://the-diplomat.com/2011/06/03/free-speech-in-thailand/
Redshirts against Article 112, pictured on May 19 (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
BANGKOK – Public debate around Thailand’s lèse-majesté laws and related restrictions on freedom of expression appears to be growing, even as the country’s election-focused political parties steer clear of the issue in advance of July 3 polls.
The head of the Thai Army, Gen Prayuth Chanocha, recently warned political parties against involving Thailand’s royal family in the election campaign. However, a number of separate civil society requests to amend the relevant section of the country’s Criminal Code are underway, with some writers and scholars – the latter known as the Nitirassadorn group – recently proposing amendments to the lèse-majesté laws, which would seemingly bring Thailand in line with constitutional monarchies elsewhere.
Article 112 of the Thai Criminal Code concerns offences deemed to defame, insult or threaten the King, the Queen, the Heir Apparent or the Regent. Lèse-majesté carries a jail sentence of 3-15 years. (more…)
Meditations of a detained monk in Vietnam – Asia Times
May 23rd, 2011
http://atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/ME24Ae01.html
Thich Quang Do pictured inside the temple at the Thanh Minh Zen monastery. (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
HO CHI MINH CITY – Emerging from the anterooms of the Thanh Minh Zen monastery, Thich Quang Do nodded and smiled, extending a handshake firm enough to belie his 83 years.
“Thank you for coming, you are right on time”, exclaimed the Supreme Patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), glancing over my shoulder out onto the street behind. He beckoned me to follow him upstairs to a small meeting room above the temple area.
The site’s gateway opens onto a lively side-street in Ho Chi Minh City, where street-food vendors sell local snacks and passers-by sit inside fanned cafes sipping Vietnamese iced-coffee. Some of those inside the cafes, however, were not just relaxing over a mid-morning drink.
“You know there are police sitting outside across the street? I am sure they saw you enter the temple,” said Thich Quang Do. (more…)
UN Envoy Doubts Burma Govt Commitment – The Irrawaddy
May 23rd, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21342
UN envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana pictured at Thailand's Foreign Correspondents Club (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
BANGKOK—Speaking in Bangkok on Monday at the end of his week-long mission to Thailand, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana, said that “the situation of ethnic minority groups in the border areas presents serious limitations to the government’s intention to transition to democracy.”
Expressing some optimism about recent political developments in Burma, the special rapporteur said that “these democratic institutions are very new, and I see some positive signs in them,” mentioning discussions of possible prisoner amnesty and the convening of an anti-poverty conference which took place in Naypyidaw on Monday.
However, he said that the “electoral process excluded several significant ethnic and opposition groups,” and despite the government’s claim that the parliament is “the only venue for discussion of national reconciliation,” added that violence continues in many ethnic minority areas. (more…)
Protest commemoration hints at fraught election – The Irrawaddy
May 20th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21330
Redshirts commemorate their dead from last year's protest, near the Erawan Shrine on Thursday evening (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
BANGKOK – As the searing late afternoon heat bore down on the massing crowd, three rows of orange-clad monks led the chanting, with thousands of red-clad demonstrators joining in, most with hands clasped and some with heads bowed. Their prayers were for the dead they had come to commemorate, a year ago to the day after the Thai Army dispersed their anti-Government demonstration, which had successively occupied two landmark sites in central Bangkok. (more…)
Haunting memorial or gratuitous commercialism? – CNN Go
May 18th, 2011
http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/life/camdodia-killing-field-tourism-905731
From 1975 to 1979 an estimated 1.4 million Cambodians were killed under the despotic rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.
The executions took place on what have become known as Cambodia’s Killing Fields. The best known of these is Choeung Ek, 17 kilometers from the center of Phnom Penh. Here, an estimated 17,000 men, women and children were butchered by the Khmer Rouge.
'Killing Tree' where babies and children were murdered at Cheoung Ek. To the bottom right are some human bone remains (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Burmese group launches campaign to free jailed reporters – PBS Mediashift
May 11th, 2011
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/05/burmese-media-launch-campaign-to-free-jailed-reporters130.html
Hla Hla Win, Sithu Zeya, Maung Maung Zeya, Ngwe Soe Lin and Win Maw are all undercover reporters in Burma, and all are serving jail sentences ranging from eight to 27 years after being caught in one of the world’s most draconian media dragnets.
To coincide with World Press Freedom Day last week on May 3, Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) launched a campaign to have its jailed journalists freed.
According to the Burmese government and its supporters, a slow transition from authoritarian rule has begun. But DVB argues that if this is the case, journalists should not be jailed for merely doing their job, and is calling on Burmese authorities to release the detainees, as well as asking foreign governments to try to influence or pressure the regime. Visitors to the campaign website can add their name to a petition calling for the reporters’ release. (more…)
