アーカイブ

Probably not unlike most of her neighbors in the region, the cultural landscape of Thailand was much transformed by WWII. One obvious change was crime and violence in rural and urban Thai society as the Thai state's control of modern war technology and monopoly of modern arms were increasingly challenged because of the proliferation of small arms during and after the war years.

In this seminar, the changing pattern of crime and violence in post WWII Thai society will be discussed through a study of 4 Thai novels first published during 1947-1957, namely Sua Bai and Sua Dam .by Poh Intharapalit, Insee Daeng by Sek Dusit, and Leb Khrud by Phanaomthian. These novels belong to the popular, but least studied, 'Crime and Violence Romance,' a new literary genre emerging in Thailand after the War. But as is obvious in the post War political development of Thailand whereby the emerging Cold War and the heated East-West confrontation during the 1950s increasingly dominated domestic and external Thai politics, the theme of these crime and violence romances soon shifted from 'the militarized banditry' to 'the international spy war and organized crime.'

After some ten years of stagnation, locally-produced film and television is slowly returning to Indonesia. Film director David Burket will briefly discuss the state of Indonesian film and the challenges facing local producers. Following will be the unofficial premiere of Kejar Amerika ("Chasing America"), a 90-minute adventure feature written and directed by Mr. Burket. Kejar Amerika is the story of Bayu, a young Indonesian man who has long dreamed of a better life in America. When he wins a trip to the U.S., it looks like his wishes will come true. But when Bayu arrives in California, things don't go quite as he expects.Filmed in Indonesia, Thailand, Canada, and the U.S., Kejar Amerika is presented in Indonesian with English subtitles. Not suitable for children under 13.

Forest management and forest products exploitation by Thai villagers in the buffer zone of the Pu Mat National Park, Nghe An province, VietnamIn Vietnam, most of the people living around Nature Reserves and National Parks are ethnic minorities. Their livelihoods are highly dependent on exploitation and use of forest products.The Pu Mat National Park was established in 1996 in order to implement the government policy of expanding area of nature reserves to conserve biodiversity and protect the remaining area of primary forest. The Pu Mat National Park covers an area of 91,000 ha. Its buffer zone area comprises 100,000 ha. People living in the buffer zone are Thai, Kho Mu, Dan Lai and Kinh. The Thai are the largest group and compose 70% of the community.In this seminar, results of recent field research among the Thai living in the buffer zone of the Pu Mat National Park will be presented. Different types of forest vegetation communities in the research site are delineated and the ways in which they are managed by the Thai described. Particular attention will be given to the exploitation of forest products by the Thai and the impacts that their activities have on the forest.