In an event that many thought would never happen, former Tourism Authority of Thailand governor Juthamas Siriwan will be indicted for allegedly accepting Bt60 million in bribes, as reported by The Nation. She has been ordered to report to Thai authorities within two weeks. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has considered asking her to […]
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Noose tightens on Thai press freedoms with press conference cancellation in Bangkok
People who thought things would be easier for members of Thailand’s domestic and foreign press after the coup of May, 2014 may be re-evaluating their positions. The NCPO (National Council for Peace and Order), who now runs the government, cancelled a discussion that was to be held at Bangkok’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCCT) on June […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘Escape from Camp 14’ a North Korean prison odyssey
In some corners of the world, it’s possible to be born in prison, live and work in prison, and die in prison. One’s entire existence is lived within those fences. And Shin In Geun was slated to be one of those, in North Korea. Against tremendous odds, he escaped his North Korean prison while in […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: Cold case murder solved in China: Paul French’s ‘Midnight in Peking’
Why should anyone today care about solving an expat murder in 1937 Peking? We here at WoWasis were skeptical too. But we took a chance on Paul French’s Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China (2012, ISBN 978-0-14-312100-8) and were richly rewarded. It’s more than […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘Nothing to Envy’: Tough lives in North Korea
The “hermit country” of North Korea has spawned a number of books on the government and the prison system. Kang Chol-hwan’s The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag is a formidable example of prison literature, but leaves out an important element: just what is daily life like for ordinary North Koreans? […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis Banned Book review: Thailand, ‘A Kingdom in Crisis’ by Andrew MacGregor Marshall
The most talked-about topic in Thailand is also the least talked-about. The controversy on succession plans revolving around the eventual death of King Rama IX, Bhumibol Adulyadej is something everyone discusses, but only in private. To do so in public invites a prison sentence under Thailand’s draconian lèse-majesté laws. As Andrew MacGregor Marshall points out […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis banned book review: ‘Saigon Gold’ by Hugh Scott
As a foreign writer, what do you have to do to get your novel banned in Vietnam? You mention things that ruffle the feathers of government censors, then refuse to re-write parts of your book. Hugh Scott, with his book Saigon Gold (2008, ISBN-13: 978-0979953484), which won the 2010 Gold Medal award for fiction from […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘Americans In Thailand,’ a comprehensive history
If you’re like us here at WoWasis, you may very well be scratching your head, wondering why anyone would buy a book on a subject seemingly as narrow as the contributions of the citizens of North America to a country in Asia. We loved the book through. And think you will, too, especially if you […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: Duch, the Khmer Rouge King of Torture. ‘The Master of Confessions’ by Thierry Cruvellier
It’s tempting to stop reading about the reign of terror in Cambodia, led by the Khmer Rouge. The major statistic, an estimated quarter of the nation’s population murdered, is well-known. It’s the why of it that leaves us here at WoWasis, along with the rest of the world, perturbed. That’s where French author Thierry Cruvellier’s […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘The Marriage Tree,’ Bangkok fiction by Christopher G. Moore
Here at WoWasis, we make it a point of avoiding reviewing books in which vampires and ghosts play prominent roles. So we thought veteran novelist Christopher G. Moore sandbagged us when he introduced some phantasms in the early pages of his most recent novel, The Marriage Tree (2014, ISBN 978-616-7503-23-3). We needn’t have worried. They […]
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