After working on a photo assignment portraying people living with HIV / AIDS in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi 2 weeks ago I more than ever believer that this is a topic not addressed enough and that one of the major problems with the issue is the strong stigmatization that they actually suffer. While I was covering the story in order to promote free treatment with ARV’s in clinics I also know that prevention is of similar importance. Have a look at this story on Reuters AlertNet to read how most prevention programs actually fail on of the most at risk groups – sex workers.

————————————————————————————-

Thammasat University in conjunction with Chulalongkorn, Mahidol and Chiang Mai
universities is organizing an International Conference on International
Relations and Development, titled “Governance, Human Rights & Development:
Challenges for Southeast Asia and Beyond”. The conference will take place on
19/20 May 2011 at Thammasat University’s Tha Prachan Campus, Bangkok.

The call for abstracts is now out to scholars and graduate level students, who
are encouraged to submit their proposals by 30 October 2010 to:
abstracts@icird.org.

For further information please visit our website www.icird.org, or
contact us via email: info@icird.org.

————————————————————————————-

The long awaited verdict in the Khmer Rouge Trial in Cambodia is due soon. More on NYT.

100.000 blocked webpages in Thailand???

http://www.asiancorrespondent.com/bangkok-pundit-blog/a-dubious-distinction

“No doubt about it: A state of civil war exists in this country, and civil wars are never pretty.” claims Philippine activist, politician and Thailand expert Walden Bello in this article on commondreams.org – an interesting background analysis that includes interesting facts about the origin of the red shirts (according to Bello around 70 % came from BKK and surrounding areas) as well as the roles of Royalty, General “Prem” and former prime minister Thaksin.

to smoke or not to smoke is one of the hard question that Philippines president-to-be Benigno S. Aquino III has to face even before officially starting his new job as we can read in New York Times.

Tuktuk in the streets of Bangkok, Thailand, 2004 – Photo by Christian Berg

This might not surprise anyone, but how deep the divide is shows this article in the New York Times very clearly.

Very interesting video on youtube with a forum held at ANU 2 days ago with lots of background information:

While Bangkok slowly is returning to daily life it is about time to look at what happened. As I am not based in Thailand myself I would hardly describe myself as an expert on the topic. So I rather put together a selection of interesting comments from various sources:

• here images from the aftermath in the Rajprasong Area of Bangkok
• an article in the Wall Street Journal by Thailand Experts Pasuk and Baker urging both Thaksin and Abhisit to show statesmanship
• interesting article on the central role of twitter in the recent conflict
• Rising from the Ashes – a comment from the Bangkok Post
• article on black-and-white painting by the international media
• and finally another interesting article by Prof. Duncan McCargo on current situation in Thailand

This small collection of articles alone shows how complex the situation in Thailand really is.