The worst flood in 40 years hit Chiang Mai and the north of Thailand this weekend, and even yours truly and her cat are now staying with friends. The area from the Night Bazaar to the Airport was one of the hardest hit in Chiang Mai, being inundated with up to two meters of murky scummy river water in the deepest places. The flood lasted about two and half days, with the clean-up effort already begun yesterday. As a prime tourist destination, the government will be quick to clean up and restore order. With damages estimated at about 1 billion baht, the hardest hit will be small businesses, and workers in the night bazaar. Many of the workers in the night bazaar are fearing wage cuts, and loss of income from commissions. Its doubtful they'll be able to access official releif efforts without legal papers and id cards. Although I wouldn't be surprised if the the government issues emergency loans and funding to their employers to get their businesses up an running again. We'll just have to wait and see what will happen to the workers. I've also been told that an exiled Burmese human rights organization has also been hit hard by the flooding, their office being near the river and the Night Bazaar. Again, they won't be able to access official channels for releif, and must rely on the generosity of friends.   more »

The Salween dam, a proposed joint venture between Thailand and Burma, is back on the agenda after the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), has decided it's a good idea. There are innumerable reasons as to why this is the stupidest thing the Thai government has done of late, and I expect to be expounding on them in the future. In fact, it is an assigment I'm giving myself for the blog. So stay tuned. In the meantime, read more:

From Scorched Earth To Flooded Earth: The Generals' Dam On Burma's Salween River

Signature campaign to oppose the Salween Dam

I was forwarded the attached article "The War on Kachin Forests" recently, and although it was published a few years ago, it offers some good background info on the environmental/logging issue. The forest in Kachin state is a "Biodiversity Hotspot", making one of the most valuable and endangered ecosystems in the world. A more recently published article in The Kachin Post discusses the same issue. Its good to see how much has been done in the three-plus years between articles. The Chinese government of course denies that it is engaged in illegal timber trading. Which begs the interesting question of where all of the trees in Kachin state have been disappearing too. And what are all of those new Burma - China highways and bridges are being used for if not the export of resources? They're certianly not for tourist busses.