Word: thais
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...next challenge will be to show that not only can he rescue lives, he can rebuild them, too. Morakot, which means "emerald" in Thai, has left 7,000 people homeless, most of them from aboriginal communities who make a living off the land. Many are now living in crowded shelters, like the one run by Cishan's Fo Guang Shan Association, a Buddhist organization. There, Lin Ai-tung, with a nine-month old baby strapped to her chest, tells reporters how she fed her baby with rain water and infant formula for two days before they were rescued from Minchu...
...time visitors to this hamlet on the Nam Song River can be forgiven for feeling a little lost. With shirtless young backpackers drinking beer and suntanning, it looks more like an Ibizan beach town than a Laotian village. But no, you didn't take a wrong turn at the Thai border. This is Vang Vieng - a farm town turned full-moon party, smack in the middle of a communist state. Once a resting place for opium-addled sojourners on sweet, slow tours of the East, Vang Vieng is now a haven of a different sort. It has become a popular...
...come by. There are perhaps 10,000 swiftlet buildings in Malaysia alone, which each year produce 144 metric tons of nests worth $160 million, reports the Malaysian government news agency Bernama. Nests from Thailand's 600 or more condos could be worth another $60 million, according to a 2007 Thai study, "Swiftlet Birds' Nests: Power, Conflict and Riches," by independent researcher Kasem Jandam. Judging by the number of swiftlet condos appearing in many Thai towns, these figures are probably gross underestimates. In Indonesia, the world's largest supplier, the industry is bigger than Malaysia's and Thailand's combined. Hong...
...connection between nests and violence continues to this day. The island of Koh Mak gets about $1.1 million in nest revenue every year, eight times more than the budget of some other Phatthalung subdistricts unblessed by nesting swiftlets. In 1997, the Thai government passed legislation to make the industry more transparent and ensure that government revenue from concessions is funneled back into local communities. But a string of unsolved murders on Koh Mak indicates hazardous aspects of the harvesting trade linger. Pradit Jariya, 35, has been administrative chief of the island for a year now. It's quite an achievement...
...Thai and stir-fried veggies aside, not everyone is pleased with the way Australia has changed. While the reflexive xenophobia of conservative politician Pauline Hanson, who warned in 1996 that Australia was "in danger of being swamped by Asians," has retreated from politics, Asia's presence and influence in Australia still provoke controversy. Some Asian, Middle Eastern and African Australians complain that they are somehow considered less truly Australian than those who came from, say, Italy, Greece or Croatia. An influx of foreign students into Australian universities - many of them Asian - has heightened tensions. In an ugly series of incidents...