The Cambodian government recently outlawed all marriages between foreign men over 50 and Cambodian women of any age. Its stated reasons were to prevent trafficking and abuse. So it’s OK if you’re under 50, right? Wrong again. Foreigners who earn less than $2,550 USD per month are also excluded. That means a yearly salary of […]
Read the rest of this entry »Archive for the 'Politics' Category
WoWasis book review: ‘Red-Light Nights, Bangkok Daze’ by William Sparrow
When we here at WoWasis first saw William Sparrow’s Red-Light Nights, Bangkok Days: Chronicles of Sexuality Across Asia (ISBN 2008, ISBN 978-981-08-1076-4) at our nearby bookstore, our first thought was “sheesh, who needs another book about sex in Asia?” Fiction and non-fiction books on sexual themes involving Southeast Asia no doubt number in the thousands. […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: Jillian Lauren’s ‘Some Girls: My Life in a Harem’
Wags have suggested that in order for a reader to really bond with the premise of a book written in the first person, whether fiction or non-fiction, he or she must like the protagonist. And if not, at least identify with that individual, on some level. Jillian Lauren, in her Some Girls: My Life in […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: Steve Raymond’s ‘Poison River’
Here at WoWasis, we’re aware of lots of reasons why you don’t want to get thrown in jail or prison in Thailand. When you do, you’re at the mercy of an unbelievable amount of corruption and bribery practices involving prison authorities, police, your own lawyers, and the justice system itself. As a foreigner, a great […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis on censored & pirated books in Vietnam: Why you’ll probably want to buy elsewhere
Want to buy books while traveling in Vietnam? While you’ll have no problem finding books on Vietnamese art and culture in its many bookstores, you’ll find almost nothing on its wars, politics, or society, and precious little Vietnam-related fiction. The two main reasons for this are governmental restrictions on imported literature, and the prevalence of […]
Read the rest of this entry »Thailand-Cambodian military skirmish damages historic Preah Vihear temple
Sophomoric saber-rattling on the part of Thailand and Cambodian politicians has escalated to military forces battling over a 4.6 square kilometer patch of disputed territory has damaged the historic 11th century Preah Vihear temple (also known as Khao Phra Viharn), according to Thai army sources reported in the Bangkok Post. This small patch of earth […]
Read the rest of this entry »US drug enforcement funds going to Bangkok girly bars?
Thousands of beer bottle coolers (known in Bangkok as “beer condoms”), in all probability funded by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), have been distributed and remain in hundreds of Bangkok go-go bars, beer bars, and hotel bars in the aftermath of Operation Hot Spot. This law enforcement inititaive was launched as a joint […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: Joseph Smith’s ‘Portrait of a Cold Warrior’
Perhaps the most telling element of Joseph Burkholder Smith’s compelling and controversial exposé of his life as a CIA agent, Portrait of a Cold Warrior: Second Thoughts of a Top CIA Agent (1976 ISBN 0-345-29839-X) is what amounts to something of an apology, although, as he states several pages later, he’s not exactly apologizing. He […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: Jonathan Kwitny’s ‘Crimes of Patriots’
Here’s a book about one of the great bank swindles of the 20th century, that touched countries as disparate as the U.S., Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, and Indonesia. And it touched them all in a big way. The bank was called Nugan Hand, named after its co-founders, lawyer Frank […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis film review: Cambodia’s ‘Enemies of the People’
It is estimated that between 2 and 3 million people were killed by the Khmer Rouge before North Vietnamese troops put an end to the carnage and the regime in 1979. Unlike several other films that deal with mass atrocities (Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman’s Nanking of 2007 being one of them), Rob Lemkin and […]
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