Natural disasters
Plenty of true grit in the city of sandbags
Sunday, November 6th, 2011Guardian, October 27: Bangkok is a city of sandbags where instant noodles are like gold dust and bottled water like vintage wine. Amid the panic-induced bare shelves there is bewilderment in the air: what exactly is going to happen to Thailand’s capital?
All along downtown Asoke Road, locals have been fortifying their shopfronts, some opting to [...]
Eyewitness recounts hours-long trudge through landslide sludge
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010BANGKOK, 22 June 2010 (IRIN) – A week ago, Liselott Agerlid, a political counsellor for the Swedish government in Bangkok, set off on a routine trip to Myanmar’s Northern Rakhine State to visit projects co-financed by Sweden.
But when three days of monsoon rains caused the worst flooding and landslides in memory in the townships of [...]
Seasonal Changes Cause for Alarm
Friday, April 2nd, 2010DILI, Oct 20, 2009 (IPS) – If you order a beer, sit back and relax at one of the expat bars dotted along the coastal Pantai Kelapa road in this capital, you cannot help but notice the view: the stony beach, the swimming children and the grounded fishing boats. But that view is morphing — [...]