Thai News: '[Thai] Govt insincere on Veera and Ratree'

October 2, 2011
The Nation on Sunday

A yellow-shirt leader yesterday questioned the government's sincerity in seeking early release for two Thai activists jailed in Cambodia for spying.

Karun Sai-ngam, a key figure in the People's Alliance for Democracy and the Thai Patriots Network, said he doubts the government really wants to help Veera Somkwamkid and Ratree Pipattanapaiboon get out of a Phnom Penh prison where they have been held since early this year. "I don't think they [the government] are serious. It's like they were just kidding. If the government were really serious, they would have made more concrete actions. If they really want to help, the two could be released immediately," Karun said.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra reportedly raised the issue during her meeting with Cambodian leader Hun Sen when she visited Cambodia recently. But the Cambodian government insisted the two had to serve two-thirds of their term before a pardon could be given.

Khmer News: Assistance for Disadvantaged Communities

October 2nd, 2011
By Cristina Cusoveanu
HealBlog.net

Thanks to a study conducted by Bart Jacobs in Cambodia and several other countries with a weak economy, poor people have better access to health care. He encouraged the development of better strategies of providing the disadvantaged with appropriate assistance, such as health insurances and health equity funds. The main problem is that they often do not have access to common health care supplies.

Although life expectancy has increased significantly in the past decades, poor countries are still affected by high mortality rates, where more than 90% of annual children deaths take place. Jacobs suggested new approaches so that the poor could at least benefit from basic assistance. In Cambodia, local monks beg so that they can pay physicians to take care of the poor – this is called the Pagoda system.

Also, many poor people do not go to hospitals because they are unaware that they can receive free support, but local communities are required to classify their members and offer free assistance to the disadvantaged. The introduction of user fees also proved effective, as more people came looking for help, assuming that thus they will be better taken care of. However, most of them were richer members of the community.

Now Cambodia has started identifying its poor members and the Pagoda system is available to almost 300,000 poor people.

Khmer and Thai News: Hundreds die in Thailand and Cambodia floods

Flood waters have damaged rice fields, schools and Buddhist temples in Cambodia [Reuters]

At least 356 people have died since August after flash floods hit south-east Asian countries.

02 Oct 2011
Al Jazeera
Source: Agencies

At least 356 people have been killed in Thailand and Cambodia since August in flash floods, according to government officials.

The death toll is higher in Thailand, where 206 people have died while 150 were killed in neighbouring Cambodia.

Keo Vy, the spokesman of the Cambodian government disaster agency, said on Sunday that flood waters along the Mekong river and other places had damaged 670,000 acres of rice fields, as well as 904 schools and 361 Buddhist temples.

Hundreds of people have been killed in China, Japan and South Asia in the last four months from prolonged monsoon flooding, typhoons and storms.

Thai News: It's not time for Thailand to take a gamble

3/10/2011
Saritdet Marukatat
Bangkok Post
COMMEMTARY

If you happen to be in front of Lumphini Park early in the morning around 5am, you can't help but see the convoy of buses lining up on both sides of Rama IV road. The line of the privately run coaches are longer on weekends.

Some go to the Aranyaprathet district border in Sa Kaeo; others leave for Laem Ngob district in Trat. All passengers are gamblers who are accommodated by the bus service to transport them to casinos in Cambodia right opposite Thailand in those two provinces.

The buses are there to service those who go there - those who hope they'll be rich when they come back. Not everybody is lucky for sure. Some alight the bus with smiles on their face, others look desperate on the return trip. You win some and you lose even more. That's gambling.

The decision to build those casinos right at the border opposite Chanthaburi, Sa Kaeo, Surin and Trat is obvious - they are there to entice Thai gamblers.

And thus far, Cambodia's plan has worked very well, even during the times of border problems.

Back in 2000, then-prime minister Chuan Leekpai urged his compatriots not to cross the border at Aranyaprathet for gambling there to show their opposition to the construction of a casino project in Poipet which could damage the boundary of the two countries. Thai gamblers simply turned a deaf ear, shrugged off his call and did their business as usual as if nothing had happened there.

The idea to build casinos in Thailand never dies down. Looking at the Thais flocking to the Cambodian border, advocates of the idea believe that having one in Thailand will keep the money in the country and save them spending the time travelling to the border.

Could a casino in Thailand lure gamblers from other countries to come here?

Look at the success of this business in Malaysia, Singapore and Macau.

Government Lottery Office director Wanchai Surakul is the latest official trying to revive this idea.

He eyes the Thung Kula Ronghi plateau in the Northeast as a possible location for the "entertainment complex".

It's not the first time that this idea has popped up.

Back in 2005, the tourism and sports minister at the time, Pracha Maleenont, did the same when he was with former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

He favoured it to be constructed in tourism prime spots such as Phuket or Pattaya.

The result was predictable.

It went nowhere.

Mr Wanchai's idea is even worse given that he projects to turn farmland famous for producing Hom Mali rice into a gambling den.

But Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra apparently has shown a tepid reaction to it. She has not killed it off, only saying that it is not a priority of the government.

It comes to the point that whether Thailand should follow the footsteps of its neighbours by having casinos.

The answer is yes. It's not because Thais are avid gamblers.

Malaysians, Singaporeans and other countries are too.

It's not because legalising gambling will eventually shut down those dens opened in several places in Bangkok and other provinces.

It's simply a revenue-generating business. The problem is the rule and law enforcement if the idea can survive furious opposition. In Singapore, those entering the casinos must be over 20 years old and have to pay an entry levy as part of the measures to deter low-income citizens.

Here in Thailand, the country has a problem on law enforcement. All nightclubs, bars and the like do not welcome those without an ID, according to law. But in reality, the bouncers intentionally ignore those rules and regulations and simply let youngsters in by bribing police to turn a blind eye on their places.

Community radio stations are another example. Their signals disturb mainstream stations as operators do not care about the regulation to broadcast only within a three-kilometre radius.

Listeners have complained about the problem to authorities but so far it remains untackled.

History has shown that it is not pessimistic to think that once a casino has been opened, rules and regulations will be ignored.

Until the government can make sure that enforcement is real, don't ever think about having casinos in the country. To show that to the public, let authorities start by solving problems on underage drinking in nightclubs and the disturbance of the community radios.

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Saritdet Marukatat is Editorial Pages Editor, Bangkok Post.

Thai News: Thailand migrant workers face rights abuses, extortion

Sun Oct 2, 2011

Sonia Labboun, Press TV, Bangkok

There are around 1.4 million migrant workers in Thailand mainly from Burma and Cambodia, but only 800,000 have registered with the Labour Ministry program for immigrants and were granted a certificate allowing a special type of residency. According to activists, lack of official papers fuels different kinds of abuses such as being arrested and paying large sums of money for their release.

Migrant workers complain that they often get arrested because they lack legal papers to stay and work in Thailand. The bribes they often have to pay range from 20 to hundreds of dollars, which in some cases exceed their salaries. Human rights activists say it is common to see different charges pressed against the migrant workers.

According to the ministry of labor, the process of providing migrant workers with proper work permits would be smoother and more efficient if their countries of origin had a better database about these people and provided them with official IDs and passports. Migrant workers face another obstacle to stay legally in Thailand; it is common that employers do not provide them with work permits fearing they would move on to other jobs afterwards.

Thai authorities are asking neighboring countries to cooperate and share information to better monitor migrant workers in order to avoid abuses as illegal immigration fuels human trade in the region.

Hot khmer News : UN voices concern over major human and economic toll by Asian floods

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 2 (APP): The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) on Sunday voiced its concern at the millions of flood-hit people in many Asian countries in Asia, and urged governments to increase their investment in disaster risk reduction. Pakistan,the Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Thailand are all suffering from the effects of flood waters, and many people have lost their lives as a result.

“People shouldn’t die because of floods. We have the technology to alert communities before floods arrive. People can be evacuated in time, lives saved and livelihoods protected. Once again, early warning systems are the smart choice and the most efficient of all disaster prevention measures,”said Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlstrom.

She also expressed her concern over the long-term economic impact of the floods on the affected countries, many of which have seen their infrastructure damaged and their services interrupted by the heavy rains, and said this would be one of the main issues she will focus on during her upcoming visit to the region.

According to a UNISDR report, floods account for a significant amount of damage to public assets such as health and education facilities, as well as to the livelihoods, homes and assets of poor people. However,most of these losses are not recorded by governments, making it difficult for them to invest in disaster reduction measures.

“The invisible nature of this large volume of disaster loss is one reason why so many countries are finding it difficult to make both political and economic decisions to prioritize investment in disaster risk management,” said Wahlstrom.

In Cambodia, tens of thousands of hectares of rice paddies have been inundated, and about 300 schools closed after the rains on Saturday.

“The damage is very serious this year. It is the country’s worst flooding in a decade. More than 17,000 families have been evacuated to higher ground in 12 provinces across the country,” said Keo Vy, a Cambodian disaster official. In Thailand, more than two million acres of farmland are underwater and more than 635 schools have been damaged, leaving thousands of children out of school.

In Pakistan, this is the second year in a row that the country has endured severe floods. The World Food Programme (WFP) reports that 5.4 million people have been affected, 73 per cent of the harvest has been destroyed, and 36 per cent of the livestock has been killed in flooded areas.

Gaelle Sevenier, a spokesperson for WFP, said the agency has provided 7,000 tons of food rations to 490,000 people in flood-affected areas in Pakistan, and added it will increase its efforts to provide food assistance to 500,000 new beneficiaries by the end of the month.

Cambodian news: Cambodia says 150 killed in worst floods in decade

Oct 02, 2011

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia says flash floods have killed at least 150 people in the Southeast Asian nation since August.

The floods are the worst to hit the country since 2000, when 374 people were killed.

Cambodian government disaster agency spokesman Keo Vy said Sunday that flood waters along the Mekong River and other places have damaged 670,000 acres (271,000 hectares) of rice fields, as well as 904 schools and 361 Buddhist temples.

Hundreds of people have been killed across Southeast Asia, China, Japan and South Asia in the last four months from prolonged monsoon flooding, typhoons and storms.

The government in neighboring Thailand says heavy floods there have also killed 206 people since August.