UN Foundation and Laura Bush provide mosquito nets to Burmese refugees

The United Nations Foundation has announced it will provide 10,000 anti-malarial bed nets to families living in the nine refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border housing refugees from Burma. The nets will be provided through the Foundation’s Nothing But Nets campaign. US First Lady Laura Bush, and the campaign’s executive director Elizabeth McKee Gore, delivered [...]

Preparing student advocates

Twenty-two university students will be heading home to Hong Kong, the UK and the US this week with a new appreciation for the problems of life in Burma thanks to the Migrant Outreach Education Initiative (MOEI). MOEI is the brainchild of Ian Holliday, the Dean of Social Sciences at The University of Hong Kong, who [...]

US urged to back up Bush visit with long term commitment to refugees from Burma

US President George Bush and his wife Laura are in Thailand today, with the focus very much on Burma. The President will meet with Burmese activists in Bangkok, while the First Lady will travel to Mae Sot, where she is due to meet refugees at Mae La camp (see: Laura Bush to visit Mae Sot [...]

Laura Bush to visit Mae Sot next week

As part of US President George Bush’s visit to Asia next week, that includes the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. Burma will feature heavily on the president’s agenda during his visit to Bangkok on August 7. According to Dennis Wilder, the senior director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council, Bush will have [...]

At least the trains run on time

This morning, I had to do a quick visa run, which gives an interesting insight into the difference between supposedly modern and free Thailand and Burma, which is often thought of as underdeveloped and suffering under a brutal military government. The process is simple enough, catch a songtaew up to the Friendship Bridge on the [...]

Losing count

86,517 Burmese nationals who crossed into Thailand over the Friendship Bridge just outside of Mae Sot in the first half of this year did not return! Where did they go? According to a report in today’s Bangkok Post, the provincial immigration office says 298,847 Burmese crossed over the bridge during the period and nearly a [...]

.All you need is…

What do you need to live? What do you need to be happy, to be content and what do you need to simply survive? All living organisms need the same basic necessities for life; food, water, shelter and space. But, on their own, the basics make for a pretty boring life. As human beings, we [...]

Fatherhood

I became a father today, or to be more precise, I was made an honorary father! I was at the Mae Tao Clinic this afternoon for their church service. Since it is Father’s Day, they were honouring all the fathers by having them sit up front where everyone can see them. They did something similar [...]

The glamour of air travel

Good news for anyone thinking of visiting Mae Sot in the near future: You should soon be able to fly here from Bangkok once more. I spotted the poster below in downtown Mae Sot the other day. Just think, no more overnight bus trips, no more fighting the crowds at Mo Chit, no using filthy [...]

Has CNN just discovered poverty?

On Monday, CNN ran a three minute report on children living at Mae Sot dump (see here). The report by Dan Rivers, CNN’s Bangkok correspondent focuses on one orphan boy. While I am delighted to see the plight of Burmese migrants in Thailand getting any attention, this report is so intent on pulling on the [...]

New hotspot in Mae Sot

The hot new place to see and be seen in Mae Sot opened yesterday. It’s got great shopping with a wide range of well known brand names, food and drink. Plus, its open 24 hours a day and even late at night it attracts a trendy crowd, with money to spend. Of course, in a [...]

In Memoriam

ITwo days ago, Pado Mahn Sha, the secretary general of the Karen National Union (KNU) was killed at his home in Mae Sot by two unknown gunmen. His death is a massive loss to the Karen people, to the Burmese democracy movement and to all who stand on the side of justice, who believe in [...]

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