Laos ‘clean up’ crackdown on deadly party town ahead of ASEAN

Laos ‘clean up’ crackdown on deadly party town ahead of ASEAN:

Tourists “tube” down the Nom Sok river in Vang Vieng in Laos. Photo: Josh Martin/PMC

Vang Vieng has morphed into an “anything goes” party town for young Western tourists drawn by “tubing” where they float down the Nom Sok river, calling into riverside bars to drink potent concoctions. But the Laotian government has clamped down on the problem.
Pacific Scoop:

Report – By Josh Martin
A government crackdown in South-East Asia’s party “mecca” of Vang Vieng in Laos has been welcomed by some tourism operators fed up with the town’s poor reputation and death toll.
However, the effect on tourism income for the developing country remains to be seen.
According to reports on the ground in Vang Vieng and the Vientiane Times, at least 24 riverside bars were closed without warning by the Laotian government on August 31.
“The President showed up personally to make sure the closure was carried out,” Kiwi-expat and Vang Vieng guesthouse manager Chris Perkins told Pacific Scoop.
“The government is sick of hearing complaints from various embassies regarding the annual death and injury tolls.”
The tourist operators had seen similar moves in the past fail to last and claims the crackdown is motivated by regional political summits which Laos is hosting in November.
Fellow Vang Vieng tourist operator Greg Haywood is also cynical of the government’s motives but is still glad something is being done to kerb the problem.
Safe place

“With the new Euro Asian summit coming in November the government have to be seen to act responsibly and show their commitment to keeping Vang Vieng a safe place for tourists to visit,” Haywood said.
Perkins said President Choummaly Sayasone did not want the “distraction” during the ASEAN meetings in the nearby capital Vientiane.
“Past closures have lasted only a month or two, so it remains to be seen if this lasts past the ASEAN meeting.”
Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism representative Phouvieng Sikaisone confirmed several tourists had died or were injured on the Nom Sok River in the past year while tubing, described officially by Sikaisone as “dangerous water activities.”
This is contrary to Tourism Minister Somphong Mongkhonvilay, saying his country was “duly recognised as one of the safest and secure destinations for travellers.”
Sikaisone says there were some serious safety concerns with increasing tourist numbers engaging in the activities on offer.
Perkins has witnessed the tourist numbers swell to rival the permanent population of 25,000 over the past decade.
‘Tubing’ attraction

It has morphed into an “anything goes party town” for young Western tourists drawn by “tubing” where they float down the Nom Sok river, calling into riverside bars to drink potent concoctions.
New Zealander Tash Welch experienced the cocktail-fuelled chaos first hand in 2010, saying Vang Vieng’s energetic atmosphere had a “hands-off approach to safety”.
“Drugs are plentiful and free drinks even more so.
“With rivers, rocks, rope swings and inebriated individuals you can definitely see how deaths occur.”
Haywood, manager of Fluid restaurant and bar, said Laos appealed as a party destination because the now closed bars along the river were “dirt cheap” and relatively unrestricted – until now.
“These tubing tourists get whisky for a dollar a bottle so unsurprisingly it becomes one binge,” he said.
“The locals and government have realised that the riverside bars ‘let’s see how pissed you can get and make a tit out of yourself policy’ is totally at odds with conservative, respectful Laotian culture.
Behaviour trends

The ministry’s 2012 study of tourist profiles and behaviour in the country found trends which backed up anecdotal reports from Vang Vieng.
Tourists aged between 20 and 29 make up almost a third of those visitors from the United Kingdom and France, according to the survey.
It also found tourists appreciated the value Laos offered, with the average daily spend less than $80.
Perkins, who runs Pan’s guesthouse with his Laotian wife, said because it was currently the low season for tourism in Vang Vieng, the impact on locals was not yet known – but “Western tourism, particularly the tubing phenomenon, has made a huge difference to locals both positive and negative.”
He said the impacts for Laos tourism income as a whole could be negligible, because the population was still involved more in subsidence farming which had less negative social effect than party tourism.
“The locals don’t like what ‘tubing’ has made Vang Vieng become, in terms of the drunkenness and bad behaviour,” he said.
“After the summits there may be a new system put in place, but let’s ensure it doesn’t return to the carnage of before.”
Josh Martin is a Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies student journalist on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course at AUT University.

Hundreds flee fresh air and ground attacks and cross to South Sudan

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FATULMAU, 25 September 2012 (IRIN) - Filomena Mendonca gave birth to all five of her children at home in the village of Fatulmau, high up in the mountains of Timor-Leste, without registering their births. “The hospital is very far away. I didn't feel there was a problem so I just stayed at home,” said the 30-year-old.

HEALTH: The Global Fund adopts new funding model

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JOHANNESBURG, 25 September 2012 (IRIN) - The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has released initial details on its new funding model, which will change the way countries apply for money. But as the Fund works to finalize the model before next year, civil society is criticizing the process for being untransparent and rushed.

AFRICA: Religious leaders rally for environmental conservation

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DRC: Children bear brunt of conflict in the east

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Freedom House Study: Estonia, U.S. have most Internet freedom | PCWorld

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Residents of Estonia have the most freedom to do what they want on the Internet, with the U.S. ranking second among 47 countries examined by a group that pushes for democratic freedoms worldwide.

However, residents of several countries have experienced attacks on bloggers, politically motivated surveillance, government manipulation of Web content and regulations focused on online speech, said Freedom House, which issued a report on Internet freedoms Monday.

--

Link to full-text study immediately above. -- John

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Bo Xilai awaits his fate after sentencing of wife and top aide

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BEIJING — His wife is in jail on a murder conviction with a suspended death sentence. His former right-hand man was just sentenced to 15 years in prison for covering up the crime and then trying to defect to the United States.
Read full article >>

Donuts Inc.’s major play for new Web domain names raises fears of fraud

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But the single most aggressive bidder for lucrative new Web domains is a little-known investment group with an intriguing name: Donuts Inc. Its $57 million play for 307 new domains — more than Google, Amazon and Allstate combined — has prompted alarm among industry groups and Internet watchdogs.
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Foxconn riot in China seen as likely to recur

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Read full article >>

China Blazes Net-Muzzling Trail

China Blazes Net-Muzzling Trail:
China’s strategy of controlling social media content has become a particularly potent model for other authoritarian countries, a study by Freedom House said Monday, amid reports that Beijing is sending experts or hackers to help some governments impose Internet restrictions.

The independent U.S. watchdog made the observation in its annual report on Internet freedom in which it warned about the threat of brutal attacks by governments against bloggers, politically motivated surveillance, "proactive" manipulation of web content, and restrictive laws regulating speech online.

Despite these threats, the report "Freedom on the Net 2012: A Global Assessment of Internet and Digital Media" found that increased pushback by civil society, technology companies, and independent courts have resulted in several notable victories to maintain Internet freedom.

“The findings clearly show that threats to Internet freedom are becoming more diverse. As authoritarian rulers see that blocked websites and high-profile arrests draw local and international condemnation, they are turning to murkier—but no less dangerous—methods for controlling online conversations,” said Sanja Kelly, project director for Freedom on the Net at Freedom House.

China, home to the world’s largest population of Internet users but also the most advanced system of control, has exerted a greater influence in the online world, emerging as an "incubator" for sophisticated new types of Internet restrictions, the report said.

"The Chinese method for controlling social media content—restricting access to international networks while coercing their domestic alternatives to robustly censor and monitor user communications according to the ruling Chinese Communist Party directives—has become a particularly potent model for other authoritarian countries," it said.

Belarus’s autocratic president, for example, has praised China’s Internet controls, and Uzbekistan has introduced several social media platforms on which users must register with their real names and administrators have preemptively deleted politically sensitive posts.

In Iran, a prominent Internet specialist likened the intended outcome of the country’s proposed National Internet scheme to the Chinese censorship model, with users enjoying “expansive local connections,” but having their foreign communications filtered through a “controllable channel,” according to the report.

Chinese expertise
Meanwhile, Freedom House said reports have emerged of Chinese experts, telecommunications companies, or hackers assisting the governments of Ethiopia, Libya, Sri Lanka, Iran, and Zimbabwe with attempts to enhance their technical capacity to censor, monitor, or carry out cyber attacks against regime opponents.

Alongside China, countries such as Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan have recently increased efforts on the international stage to institutionalize some of the restrictions they already implement within their own borders, the report said.

Freedom on the Net 2012, which identifies key trends in Internet freedom in 47 countries, evaluated each country based on barriers to access, limits on content, and violations of user rights.

The study found that Estonia had the greatest degree of Internet freedom among the countries examined, while the United States ranked second. Iran, Cuba, and China received the lowest scores in the analysis.

Eleven other countries received a ranking of Not Free, including Belarus, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, and Thailand.

A total of 20 of the 47 countries examined experienced a "negative trajectory" in Internet freedom since January 2011, with Bahrain, Pakistan, and Ethiopia registering the greatest declines.

In Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, and China, authorities imposed new restrictions after observing the key role that social media played in the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.

At the same time, 14 countries registered a positive trajectory, with Tunisia and Burma experiencing the largest improvements following dramatic political openings.

It listed "countries at risk"—seen as particularly "vulnerable to deterioration" in the coming 12 months—as Azerbaijan, Libya, Malaysia, Pakistan, Russia, Rwanda, and Sri Lanka.

Widely utilized

The study warned that certain methods to stifle Internet freedom that were previously employed only in the "most oppressive" environments have become more widely utilized.

To counter the growing influence of independent voices online, an increasing number of states are turning to proactive manipulation of web content, rendering it more challenging for regular users to distinguish between credible information and government propaganda, the report said.

"Regimes are covertly hiring armies of pro-government bloggers to tout the official point of view, discredit opposition activists, or disseminate false information about unfolding events," it said.

"This practice was in the past largely limited to China and Russia, but over the last year, it has been adopted in more than a quarter of the countries examined."

Based on the types of controls implemented, Freedom House said many of the countries examined in the report can be divided into three categories:

* Blockers: The governments block a large number of politically relevant websites, often imposing complete barriers on certain social media platforms. Among the countries that fall into this category are Bahrain, China, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Syria, Thailand, and Uzbekistan.

* Non-blockers:  Most often, these governments seek the appearance that their country has a free Internet, and prefer to employ less visible or less traceable censorship tactics. Among the countries that fall into this category are Azerbaijan, Egypt, Jordan, Malaysia, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe.

* Nascent blockers: These countries—including Belarus, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Russia—have started imposing politically motivated blocks, but the system has not yet been institutionalized, and it is often sporadic.

Reported by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.

'Special Talks' on Tibetan Crisis

'Special Talks' on Tibetan Crisis:
Tibet’s India-based exile government and parliament are set to host a four-day special meeting to discuss ways to end the crisis in Tibet, where people have stepped up their protests, including self-immolations, against Chinese rule, in the face of what they call increasing repression from the authorities.
Fifty-one Tibetans have set fire to themselves over the last two years to protest Chinese rule in Tibetan areas and to call for the return of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in the Indian hill town of Dharamsala.

The Dharamsala meeting beginning Tuesday is expected to draw up to 600 participants from the Tibetan exile community, with members of international Tibet support groups and other interested persons attending as witnesses, according to the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), the Tibetan government in exile.
The meeting, called by the Dalai Lama, will “discuss ways and means to deal with the urgent and critical situation inside Tibet,” the CTA said on its website. It has been touted as the biggest assembly of Tibetan exiles in four years.

“His Holiness said considering the recent crisis inside Tibet and the situation in the world in general, the special general meeting would be held under the article 59 of the Charter of the Tibetans-in-Exile,” the CTA said.

The meeting will feature various sessions dealing with “new campaigns” to be carried out by the Tibetan community and at the international level to help resolve the Tibetan issue, it said.

The gathering will discuss ways to increase support for the Tibetan freedom struggle among foreign governments and to promote dialogue with the new batch of Chinese leaders following a once-a-decade leadership change expected to take place by the end of the year.

Protests to continue

Tibetan groups say the wave of self-immolation protests will continue until the underlying human rights and other problems in Tibetan-populated areas are addressed by the Chinese authorities.

“Tibetans everywhere understand why such drastic actions are taken, given the repression by the Chinese government and the unbearable conditions inside Tibet,” Lobsang Sangay, the Tibetan prime minister, told Agence France-Presse ahead of the talks

“This week we must formulate ways to ensure that the cries and suffering in Tibet to do not go in vain.”

He earlier told The Diplomat, an Asia-Pacific online journal, that the situation inside Tibet “is very grave, and Tibetans inside Tibet are suffering tremendously.”

“Given the severity of the situation, mainly because of self-immolations and repressive policies inside Tibet, our discussion [at the Special General Meeting] will focus on how best to address the situation,” Sangay said.

“We would like to see concrete action from the international community,” Sangay added.

Tibetan parliament in exile Speaker Penpa Tsering urged political unity among Tibetans in advance of this week’s meeting.

To avoid sending “mixed messages” to Beijing,” Tibetans should support the Dalai Lama’s Middle Way Policy, which calls only for “genuine autonomy” for Tibetans living under Chinese rule and not for independence, Tsering said.

In June, envoys of the Dalai Lama quit their posts as representatives to talks with China on the question of Tibet’s status, citing “utter frustration over the lack of positive response from the Chinese side.”

International calls for China to address Tibetan concerns are routinely brushed aside by Chinese diplomats, who assert China’s right to rule the Himalayan region it invaded more than 50 years ago.

Reported by Richard Finney.

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COLOMBO, 24 September 2012 (IRIN) - In Sri Lanka it is taking as long as six years to prosecute criminals who abuse children, a delay that threatens to further traumatize thousands of children whose cases are stuck in the courts, according to experts.

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KARACHI, 24 September 2012 (IRIN) - Mukhtar Ahmed Azmi, 75, along with his son and grandson, was about half way home on 6 September when unknown assailants on motorcycles opened fire on them in Pakistan's largest city, Karachi. Only Azmi's grandson survived.

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New Chinese visa rules mean more hassle for travelers

New Chinese visa rules mean more hassle for travelers:
PLANNING a trip to China in the near future? Better brush up on the new visa rules then, lest you find yourself being turned down when applying for this essential document for travel to China.

Chinese visa Pic: china-mike.com

New requirementss for tourist and business visas, both of which were fairly easy to obtain in recent years, became effective on August 1 and require would-be tourists to do a bit more legwork before departure than was previously necessary.
According to China Daily, applicants for tourist visas must have an invitation letter detailing the “personal information of both host and invitee, along with information such as the purpose of the visit, arrival and departure dates, places to be visited and who will pay for the visitor’s accommodations in China.”
The new requirements seem to have sparked confusion among visa agencies and even international Chinese consulates. There have been mixed reports of additional required documents, with some officials stating that round-trip flight documentation and accommodation information is accepted but not required, while other agencies and officials have listed those as essentials for the tourist visa application.
Business visas are even more difficult to come by, requiring an official invitation letter from the Chinese government. Even the details surrounding those requirements are murky. Some consulate workers insist that business visa applicants need only an official invitation letter, roundtrip flight and accommodation details, while other reports say invitation letters are needed from the government and from the inviting company, as well as travel information.
Travelers should note that for either visa, if they plan to stay with a friend who lives in China, they will need to provide specific documentation of that as well. If the friend is Chinese, a letter detailing where he or she lives, how long the guest will stay and who will pay for their travel and accommodation costs is needed, as well as a copy of their national identification card. If the friend is foreign, he or she will need to provide a similar letter, as well as a copy of the host’s passport and valid Chinese visa.
Private visa agencies inside China, Hong Kong and in other capital cities such as Hanoi, have been popular among tourists for securing visas in the past. But if you decide to go this route, be sure to contact the companies in advance and ask if they will actually be able to secure a visa for you, what documents they require and the length of stay they expect to be approved. Be sure to ask about prices as well, as the cost of visas and extension services have increased significantly in the past year.
Agencies such as Forever Bright in Hong Kong have advised that those who already have multiple Chinese visas in their passport may have difficulty obtaining a new one, or may receive entry approval for only 7–10 days.
Because all travel arrangements must be made in advance of applying for a tourist visa, it’s a good idea to purchase travel insurance and refundable airline tickets in case there is some delay in obtaining the visa. And do not wait until the last minute to apply. In the past, it was possible to obtain a visa through a same-day or overnight service but the new laws have made that a rather expensive option, if it is even available to you at all.
These new laws have come in the midst of increased government scrutiny of foreigners, including a 100-day crackdown on illegal residents. Stricter exit/entry laws will be enacted next summer, though those seem to apply more to foreigners working in the country rather than travelers passing through.

The demise of 'Factory Asia'?

The demise of 'Factory Asia'?:
As my colleague Linda Jakobson has written, the recent burst of anti-Japan protests in China tells us some interesting things about sovereign sensitivities, Chinese domestic politics and resource security. I wonder whether they might also have some implications for the dense and complex network of regional supply chains that are sometimes described as 'Factory Asia'?
One of the defining features of our current era of globalisation has been the emergence of global supply chains or global value chains. In a process that economists have variously described as the disintegration or fragmentation of production, the rise of vertical specialisation, or the second great unbundling, production has been 'sliced and diced' into different stages of production distributed across a range of economies. 

Source: Asian Development Bank.

Several factors have driven this trend, including policy-led declines in tariffs and other trade barriers (in part through specific agreements like the ITA and regional arrangements like ASEAN), technological innovations in transport and communications which have reduced coordination costs by increasing the speed and quality of communications, and a combination of strong demand growth in the developed world with a strong supply response from emerging economies.
East Asia in general (and China in particular) has been at the heart of this process, with supply chains in the region more integrated, and national export structures more closely intertwined, than is the case in North America or Europe.
While global supply chains have proven to be a very successful manifestation of globalisation, they are not without their vulnerabilities. A swing to protectionism would be very disruptive, for example, although it's also true that their country-spanning nature may have served as an important barrier to protectionist impulses in recent years. Big increases in transportation costs (due to increases in the oil price, for example) would likewise threaten the current model of globalisation. And natural disasters such as the 2010 volcanic eruption in Iceland and the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan have also demonstrated some of the fragilities of these complex international networks.
Now, however, two additional factors look to be threatening the longer term viability of the Factory Asia model.
First, the aftermath of the global financial crisis has seen a sharp decline in growth across much of the developed world, prompted in large part by a major retrenchment by European and American consumers. If the years of credit-fueled consumer binges that were the counterpoint to East Asia's high investment, high export growth model are to become nothing more than a fading memory, then economic and business models predicated on that version of the world will be at risk.
Second, the expansion of global and regional supply chains took place against a very particular geo-political and geo-economic environment. Specifically, it was a product of the period following the end of the Cold War when cross-border trade and investment were facilitated not only by a more friendly trade policy environment and by technological innovation but by a period of relative geo-political tranquility (at least in East Asia).
If this week's developments prove to be a sign of things to come, a region which is going to be marked by the kind of nationalistic tensions and business disruptions we have just seen would be a region that looks much less welcoming to the kind of deep economic integration that has hitherto helped power East Asian growth.

McKinsey on Indonesia

McKinsey on Indonesia:
The Chinese economy attracts all the attention in the Asian Century, but Indonesia is right next to us, providing opportunities that are often more accessible and less crowded out by other foreigners. Thus a new McKinsey Report on Indonesia's economy provides a counterweight to the China obsession and a reminder of just how well Indonesia has gone over the past decade.

Of course, no country can match China's stunning pace of growth: more than 10% a year for the past decade. But this pace is unsustainable and the numbers now projected for China are not so different from Indonesia's past performance, or its realistic potential. Since the disaster of the Asian crisis in 1997, Indonesia has clocked up a steady 5-6%, speeding up a little in recent years. McKinsey shares a widely-held view that Indonesia could and should do better – 7%, as it did during the three decades of the Soeharto regime.
Straight-line extrapolation should be taken with a grain of salt and inter-country GDP comparisons with a large spoonful, but McKinsey ranks Indonesia as number 16 in terms of GDP; 7% annual growth would take it to number seven by 2030, ahead of Germany and the UK.
The demographic bonus still has many years to run (no one-child policy in Indonesia to slow workforce growth) and both agriculture and the huge small-scale service industries have plenty of scope to release labour to do more productive things. Indonesian growth is largely driven by domestic demand and has been mainly unaffected by stagnation in Europe, the US and Japan.
Comparing the China growth debate with that in Indonesia shows some differences. In China, slower growth is seen as inevitable because they cannot go on investing 50% of GDP (or, nearly the same argument, they must be wasting a lot of investment by building fast trains to nowhere) and they can't raise consumption or net exports fast enough to compensate for a substantial reduction in investment.
In contrast, the optimism that Indonesia can sustain and even speed up its rate of growth comes from identifying myriad glaring possibilities to do better. Creating an excess supply of fast trains (or any other infrastructure, for that matter) is not a concern in Indonesia.
On the supply side, Indonesia could produce much more from the existing resources. The star performer in the agricultural sector, palm oil, has average yields only one quarter of best practice. Good infrastructure would slash the costs of getting domestic agriculture and fisheries to market. It's cheaper to import fresh fruit than to supply domestically.
On the demand side, McKinsey sees another 90 million people shifting into the 'consuming class' by 2030. Let's by-pass the debate about exactly what the 'consuming class' is and focus in the things that people buy when they get some discretionary income. There is no shortage of demand for airline travel, telecommunications, entertainment, health and education. Indonesians buy a million cars a year and eight million motor bikes. Unmet demand for public goods demonstrates the potential. One study says that only 17% of the population has piped water. The World Bank ranks Indonesia 161 out of 183 countries in ease of getting reliable electricity, behind the Congo.
Optimists look at these figures and see the potential for huge improvement in productivity and growth. Pessimists look at the same figures and wonder what has gone wrong to produce this yawning gap between actual and potential.
Some of the answer is found in the international surveys of governance, corruption and ease of doing business. Indonesia invariably rates poorly. McKinsey puts the challenge clearly enough, but doesn't say much about why Indonesia scores badly and how it might be changed.
The McKinsey report is very much of the 'glass half full' variety, but it does lay down the challenge: productivity will have to increase by 60% in order to reach the 7% growth objective.
It is an economic truism that productivity improvements are almost all that matters for higher living standards, but a lot of detail is lost in this truism. As McKinsey notes, the productivity achieved so far has not been a result of the once-off structural transfer from overcrowded agriculture to higher-productivity manufacturing. Only a little over half of the population is urbanised, so those gains are still waiting to be reaped. In fact, the share of manufacturing is lower now than at the time of the Asian crisis, accounting for around 25% of output, compared with 40% in Vietnam.
Put differently, Indonesia is still to make the big structural jump that Clifford Geertz talked about 50 years ago, when he worried that Indonesia would experience 'agricultural involution' (more intensive use of land, increasing output but not output per head) and miss the structural shift that had taken Japan from being a low-productivity agriculture-based country to a manufacturing powerhouse. Things haven't turned out exactly as Geertz foresaw and the service sector can be a bigger part of the structural change than Geertz envisaged. But the strongest gains of productivity are in manufacturing and services tend to be low productivity. McKinsey doesn't tell us why manufacturing expansion, stopped in its tracks by the 1997 crisis, has failed to revive.
This report sees lots of opportunities, but doesn't say much about why these haven't been seized so far. Why has the effort to fix corruption not been more successful? Why can't Indonesia get its act together on infrastructure? Why are they slipping the wrong way on protection? Economics is only a part of the story and the politics is missing here.
 Photo by Flickr user Bert van Dijk.

Another dam on the Mekong in China

Another dam on the Mekong in China:
While there are continuing uncertainties as to whether a dam is going to be built on the mainstream of the Mekong at Xayaburi in Laos, Chinese authorities have just announced that the major dam at Nuozhadu on the upper reaches of the Mekong in Yunnan province has started generating electricity.

Nuozhadu is the fifth Chinese dam to be commissioned in Yunnan and it will ultimately have a generating capacity of 5500MW. For the moment only one of its nine generators is functioning, but all will be in operation in 2014. Like the already completed dam at Xiaowan (pictured), Nuozhadu has been built on an huge scale, with a dam wall rising 261m and a reservoir that will eventually cover 320sq km.
The official announcement in the China Daily is of more than passing interest, for two reasons. First, because it speaks of the newly operating dam as being one of seven Chinese dams on the upper section of the river lying within Chinese territory (it has previously been widely accepted that there would eventually be eight dams) and because it again repeats the claim that the Chinese cascade of dams will not effect downstream countries because only 13.5% of the water in the Mekong as a whole flows through China.
This claim has been discredited many times over, as I noted in my Lowy Paper, River at Risk.
Water from China is of great importance in sustaining dry season flow for the downstream countries, perhaps to a total of 40% of the river's volume overall. So with each dam China builds there is the prospect of a greater diminishing of the flow, particularly as both Xiaowan and Nuozhadu will act as storage dams rather than having a 'run of the river' character.
There is no doubt that the commissioning of five dams in Yunnan province will have other long-term effects downstream, not least in relation to the amount of nutrient-rich sediment flowing down the river. There is also the likelihood that Cambodia's Great Lake (Tonle Sap) will be reduced in area during the wet season, to the detriment of its current vital role as a source of much of Cambodia's protein consumption through its vast bounty of fish.
China's Mekong dams are so remote they receive little coverage in the Western media. Yet, like the more readily viewed sites for proposed dams in Laos and Cambodia, what is happening in China will eventually alter the productive capabilities of mainland Southeast Asia's longest and most important river, a river vital to the sustenance of the 60 million people of the Lower Mekong Basin.
Photo by Flickr user International Rivers.

Women voters: courted – yes, respected – no?

Women voters: courted – yes, respected – no?:

Women are a focal point in Malaysian politics today, with some recent discussion of their ability as voters to decide election outcomes. But this has not translated into their increased representation at a political level, demonstrating the continuing prevalence of patriarchal thought in the political sphere.
The ability of women to exert political influence is not remotely new in Malaysia, and certainly not amongst ethnic Malays who make up roughly half the population. Although the rulers of Malay sultanates were often male, there are some notable exceptions, among them the four queens of 17^th century Patani and Cik Siti Wan Kembang and her adopted daughter Puteri Sa’dong of Kelantan.
In the 17^th century literary text Sejarah Melayu, women are prominently depicted in the royal genealogies as “beautiful and bountiful”, to borrow the social historian Lenore Manderson’s description. But they are also frequently depicted as a “power behind the throne”; one story in the text describes the action of Sultan Mahmud Shah’s mother who, from her listening position behind a door, directed her son to appoint her brother as his chief minister. Even in smaller-scale village politics, there is evidence that women played a significant role in decision-making processes. In Negeri Sembilan, a matrilineal model formed the basis of Minangkabau society.
During colonial rule, gender was a key element in establishing power. The construction of racial hierarchies depended on the feminisation of “the native” – that is, the dichotomy of the rational and progressive European versus the lazy, effeminate Malay (with ethnic groups being accorded placements as per their assumed natural behaviours). Such hierarchies were often explained in familial terms, with the coloniser as its “head”. A woman’s place in the private sphere was made out to be natural and universal; similarly, the position of the Caucasian male sitting unchallenged at the top of the pyramid was to be assumed.
If deconstructing these ethnic pecking orders was one of the promises of independence, then so too was the promise of gender equality. In a 1949 speech, then United Malays Nationalist Organisation (UMNO) leader Onn Jaafar said that women’s voices would be “as powerful as that of the men – the voice of both will determine the shape of the administration of the country.”
More than six decades later, Malaysian politics and society remains heavily ethnicised, and the gendered nature of ethnic politics has inevitably meant that women don’t have an equal say in the running of the country. Despite a declaration by Prime Minister Najib Razak earlier this year that there was no gender inequality in Malaysia, women are outnumbered in the current Malaysian Parliament eight to one.
Certainly, there have been some encouraging signs in the intervening years. The 2008 elections saw the most number of women candidates run for seats, and at nearly 11%, the percentage of women representatives in Parliament today is definitely an improvement on just under three per cent in 1959.
But it is still a long way off the 30% target that Malaysia committed to when it signed the Beijing Platform of Action in 1995, and, according to the World Economic Forum’s 2010 Global Gender Gap Index, the current figures places the country behind Southeast Asian neighbors the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia.
There is also the question of whether or not women’s voices are a part of political decision-making. The lack of women representatives has, women’s groups have argued, meant that the government has been slow in acting on gender-specific issues. When earlier this year Najib took over the women’s ministry portfolio rather than appointing a replacement to the outgoing minister Shahrizat Jalil, women’s groups expressed dismay, noting women’s issues had “languished” when it had previously been under the Prime Minister’s purview.
A 2003 governmental report agreed that women were underrepresented in the political arena, but said that the government was “not overtly discriminatory”. There were, the report continued, other reasons that women were not well represented – chiefly that there was a shortage of qualified women. Shahrizat agreed, noting in a New York Times report that the ruling coalition had always fielded female candidates, but that there were “just not enough”.
The report also noted persisting mindsets about the place of men and women in the political and private spheres. I have previously written how uniquely harsh treatment of “iron women”, such as 1950s leader Khatijah Sidek and more recently former Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz, demonstrate that women who venture into politics and positions of leadership can expect gendered criticism. With there being no gender quota in Parliament, and only five seats of 55 on the UMNO Supreme Council being reserved for women, the immediate prospect for increased women’s representation in politics is bleak.
The next national elections must be held in the country before June 2013, and they will be the first for Najib since his assuming the premiership. His predecessor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had been dumped by his party following its “defeat” of sorts in the 2008 elections. At the ANU Malaysia & Singapore Update earlier this month, Bridget Welsh of the Singapore Management University predicted that the opposition front, Pakatan Rakyat (PR), would win the popular vote in these elections. During the same event, Clive Kessler of the University of New South Wales noted that anything less than a resounding victory for Najib would make his position tenuous.
With the possible outcome too close to call, both sides are ramping up their efforts to win voters over. Last month, online news portal The Malaysian Insider reported that women working at home and young voters – “fence sitters” – would decide the result of the next election. A week later, it ran an article titled “Young lady, your country needs you!” which, amongst other things, detailed the results of a straw poll of young women voters. Even the most apolitical young woman voter (depicted as liking shopping and worrying about her relationship status), it said, had concerns about the economy (specifically whether or not she could afford a particular handbag).
Malaysian women are hardly apolitical, and no political party knows this better than UMNO. Women have remained strong in their membership base, with their numbers forming over half of all members at different points in the party’s recent history. The ability of the women’s wing to canvass votes for the party, particularly in rural areas, is well-documented, to the point where PR leader Anwar Ibrahim recently called on PR women’s wings to strengthen its base in rural areas so as to be more competitive there.
Women can be courted, but calling shots as political leaders – no. With Malaysia at a crossroads, the political agenda must now focus on mechanisms that increase women’s representation in politics. This must become a national priority, and not an optional extra, as gender equality remains an unfulfilled promise.

Dahlia Martin is a PhD candidate at the School of International Studies, Flinders University. Her thesis, titled “Family and the Melayu Baru: motherhood and Malay Muslim identity”, investigates the position of motherhood in Malay nationalism.

Expelling The Wind: Traditional Cambodian Healing Practices

Expelling The Wind: Traditional Cambodian Healing Practices:
By: Gabrielle Yetter

Serekith uses it whenever he feels ill. Izzy swears it helps her with headaches. Finn tried it for his cold. And Heang won’t do it because it is too painful.

It’s the process called Koas kjol, literally translated as “catch the wind” (or “coining” as westerners call it) and it’s one of the traditional forms of healing among Cambodians. It involves rubbing oil or balm on the chest, back and shoulders then using a coin to vigorously scrape the area until red welts appear on the skin. Commonly used for headaches, fevers, dizziness or nausea, it’s a practice used by Cambodians and other Southeast Asian (in Indonesian and Malaysia this practice is referred to as kerokan) who turn to it as readily as westerners reach for a Tylenol.

The result of coining, By: Craig

“When I was at medical school and studying all night, I was often tired and couldn’t concentrate,” said Vatana Meng, RN, who works as a pharmacist at U-Care pharmacy in Phnom Penh. “It always made me feel better to have coining but it was very painful so I wasn’t able to do it too often.”

Another traditional practice is choob khyol (“sucking the wind”) or “cupping”, where dozens of small glass cups are placed over the back and a vacuum is created by lighting fires inside the cups or suctioning the air from them. According to practitioners, the vacuum causes the blood to form in the area and the suction penetrates the tissues causing them to release harmful toxins.

Throughout Cambodia, there are practitioners everywhere offering these remedies for a small fee, but they are most commonly done in people’s homes where mothers, wives, daughters and aunties perform the treatment.

“When I have too much to drink, I ask my wife to do koas kjol so I feel better in the morning,” said Thy Try. “And I always do it when I feel dizzy or sick. It’s the best thing for helping me feel better.”

While these traditional practices are generally used by Cambodians, they are also explored by the occasional expat, curious to try alternative treatments.

Finn Aberdein is a producer with the BBC World Service who was introduced to cupping and coining by an enthusiastic tuktuk driver: “I was in the long tail of a nasty cold and grumbling about it to a tuk tuk driver,” he said. “Before I knew it I’d been whisked to a cupping joint,” he said. “Amazingly, after having the treatment, I felt instantly and noticeably lifted. The heaviness in my body had gone although I did have a fair bit of discomfort from the angry coining welts reddening between my ribs.”

Would he do it again?  “Probably not. Cupping, maybe. Coining, too sore”.

Cupping, a cure or a healthrisk?

For Izzy Rhodes, who has lived in Southeast Asia for two years, coining is her remedy of choice. Not only does she have the treatment herself, but she’s also taught herself how to do it on others.

“I don’t know why but it always makes me feel better,” she said. “I don’t find it particularly painful when I am sick and it generally seems to do the trick”.

According to the National Center of Traditional Medicine in Phnom Penh, approximately 60-70 percent of Cambodians practice traditional healing methods and 80 percent use coining for relief.

“Our people don’t know how to practice in the western way,” said Dr.Pen Sunna, the Centre’s Assistant Director of International Cooperation. “Traditional medicine can be very helpful and it’s the first thing Cambodians try when they are unwell.”

Used by everyone from tuk tuk drivers to executive directors, these remedies may be the first choice for ailing Cambodians but they are also a source of concern among medical doctors.

According to Dr.Peter Li, Country Director of Side By Side International, an NGO that provides emergency medical response services in Cambodia, traditional practices can cause severe damage and pose a number of threats to a patient’s health.

“Coining breaks the capillaries that supply oxygen to the body,” he said. “If it’s done on a patient who has hypertension, diabetes, asthma or other heart or airway-related problems, it increases the risk of having a stroke. And in a public setting, the risk of infection is high from sharing coining devices as well as using unhygienic practices.”

The visible marks after cupping, By: Renato Ganoza

He described an incident where his medical team saved the life of a VIP patient who received coining treatment for dizziness and shortage of breath.

“His blood pressure was 210 over 120 and he was going in and out of consciousness,” said Dr. Li. “If we hadn’t got there in time to give him oxygen, he would have passed out and died from a heart attack.”

However, while health professionals may be skeptical and medical training is focusing more on western practices, long-standing beliefs among Cambodians aren’t about to change that fast.


“My co-worker died because she drank too much alcohol and didn’t get coining,” said practitioner Say Heang. “She had too much hot temperature in her body and should have released it. She died because the bad air caught up with her”.