thegreglowe.com

By GREG LOWE IN BANGKOK THE Thai government’s declaration of a state of emergency in Bangkok and surrounding provinces will not significantly affect investor confidence in the country, says Thailand Trade Representative president Kiat Sittheeamorn. The business community supports the government’s efforts to clear so-called Red-Shirt anti- government protesters from their rally point at Ratchaprasong […]

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Author Paul Theroux ponders the changing face of travel as he’s witnessed it and tells GREG LOWE how to make the most of your trips There is a misconception about how travel has changed, like the misconception about the Internet. That it makes people more intelligent, that it puts them in touch, that it gives […]

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MAE SOT , Min Min U, 24, from the village of Betut in Labutta Township, deep in the heart of Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady Delta, recalls the day Cyclone Nargis struck, prompting him and his wife to migrate to the Thai border town of Mae Sot: “The winds started to blow at around 2pm on 2 May. […]

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A lifelong passion for interior design and décor led Rafael Veiga to create RS Ventures, one of Thailand´s finest kitchen design companies. He explains how the recent boom in luxury villas and condominiums is boosting demand for high-end products, but notes the industry´s potential will continue to stagnate until the government cuts import duty and […]

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‘Complacency breeds failure’ A new book scrutinises the Bush administration’s policies by GREG LOWE If you love President George W. Bush, then Sidney Blumenthal’s latest book The Strange Death of Republican America: Chronicles of a Collapsing Party will get your blood boiling. On the other hand, if you think ‘Shrub’ has made more than the […]

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Historian Thant Myint-U tells Greg Lowe why the international community must change its tactics on the question of Myanmar Myanmar’s military government shocked the world when it chose to let its people die rather than allow foreign aid workers enter its storm-damaged interior. And the horrors will continue until constructive engagement with the junta – […]

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Tony Wheeler, co-founder of the Lonely Planet guide books, talks about the nature of travel and its impact on the environment by GREG LOWE When Tony Wheeler and his wife Maureen travelled from London through Asia to Australia in 1972, little did they know that their adventure would transform the nature of travel. Nevertheless, the […]

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Asia’s ability to compete on a global scale will remain severely hampered until the Northern Hemisphere’s better off nations loosen their economic grip by removing barriers to trade. Access to markets in the West is a vital lifeline for the development of Asian countries, not only on purely economic levels, but also in terms of […]

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It is folly to talk of Asia as if it was a unified entity. It is home to more than half the world’s population and comprises some 53 countries. However, the continent today does suffer from a “certain commonality of problems”, according to Colin Mason author of A Short History of Asia. Underdevelopment, poverty, disease, […]

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A disturbed teenager slaughtering rabbits and torturing wasps; A futuristic religious leader decapitating his nemesis, keeping the head alive as he uses it daily as a punch bag; A serial killer intent on murdering those who represent the excesses of Thatcher’s Britain. Just a few examples of the dark, warped, and often perversely funny themes […]

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