Category: THE WORLD

By Kalinga Seneviratne

BANGKOK (IDN) – Thailand has long been a magnet for male travellers from the West, but now the kingdom’s tourism authorities are recognizing the power of woman travellers especially from Asia – among others from India, China and Japan.

“Sun is rising in the East (for Thailand),” says Srisuda Wanapinyosak, Deputy Governor for International Marketing (Asia and South Pacific) at Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT). “Asian economies are good and people travel. This is a good opportunity for Thailand,” she tells IDN.

With European economies in the doldrums, Thailand has lost much of its former tourist market, but Asians have compensated for the decline, says Srisuda. There were nearly 8.8 million visitors from China in 2016 and 1.2 million from India visiting Thailand. The gender ratio was almost equal.

By Stella Paul

RATNAPURA, Sri Lanka (IDN) – The deafening sound of half a dozen rolling machines in the Rilhena tea factory feels like a hard punch on the head, but for factory workers Bihita Madura and Rajakaxmi Chandrakumar this is sweet music.

Their noise-belching, black dust-spewing machine symbolises what matters most: another day at work. “It’s a normal day for us,” says Madura, watching Chandrakumar feed a shovel of black tea leaves into the giant rolling machine.

Both in their forties, Madura and Chandrakumar have good reason to be relieved: the Rilhena factory, owned by Khawatte Plantations of tea major Dilmah, is one of the country’s best-performing tea producers. But elsewhere in the country, the industry has been battling a series of problems: drought, dry spells, erratic rain, degrading land, eroding soil, crashing tea prices, low yield, labour migration and closure of factories.

By Neena Bhandari

SIEM REAP/BATTAMBANG, Cambodia (IDN) – The once conflict ridden, impoverished country of Cambodia has made significant strides towards stability and progress, but it is still facing several socio-economic development challenges.

In 2016, it became a lower middle-income country after recording an annual average economic growth of seven percent over the past decade. “The country’s economy has trebled and the number of people living in poverty has halved in the last 15 years. We have to set development issues in the context of those successes,” says Nick Beresford, United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Cambodia Country Director.

By Kalinga Seneviratne

This article is the14th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate.

RAJGIR, India (IDN) – Participants at a conference convened in this historic capital of the Magadha kingdom of the Buddha’s time by the Nava Nalanda Mahavihare (NNM) shared the view that, for humanity to survive, science, ethics and Buddhism’s mind-centric approach to understanding nature and society could help.

Funded by the Indian government, the March 17-19 conference brought together Buddhist leaders, scholars and scientists to discuss the role of Buddhism in addressing the challenges of the 21st century and, ignoring protests from China, the Indian government invited His Holiness the Dalai Lama to give the inaugural address and also launch NNM’s new Department of Buddhist Sciences.

By Stella Paul

KALPITIYA, Sri Lanka (IDN) – As the midday sun rises higher over Gulf of Mannar, a drone hovers over the blue mass of sea water. Below, a motley crowd of fishermen gathers, straining their eyes at a drone.

A few metres from the crowd, conservationist Prasanna Weerakkody operating the drone raises it to 500 metres, before moving it slowly in different directions, allowing the device to film a large swathe of water.

One day, he believes, the roving camera of this drone will send images of one of the most elusive sea mammals in this ocean: the dugong.

By Devinder Kumar

NEW DELHI (IDN) – International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), set up in 1957 as the world’s ‘Atoms for Peace’ organization within the United Nations family, and the Atomic Energy Commission of India have agreed on an extended cooperation to the benefit of nuclear professionals from across Asia.

IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano and Sekhar Basu, Chairman of India’s Atomic Energy Commission, achieved the agreement during the former’s three-day visit to India from March 13 to 15.

Analysis by Kalinga Seneviratne

NEW DELHI (IDN) – From across Asia to Europe and the United States voters have shown their dismay at corrupt political systems by voting in unconventional politicians who promise to “clean the swamp”.

So the election mid-March of a Yogi Chief Minister in Uttar Pradesh – India’s most populous state – may well herald in a new era for Asian politics, where religion could step in to clean up the corruption in politics.

Asia’s ancient religious philosophies – Hinduism and Buddhism – have a strong secular streak where their values could be practised by anyone without converting to a religion. The global spread of Yoga and Mindfulness as lifestyle choices bear witness to this.