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Mekong Currents

Mekong Currents is a column on development issues in the Greater Mekong Subregion, written by Rosalia Sciortino*. It is distributed by IPS Asia-Pacific.
 

*Rosalia Sciortino, better known as Lia, is a cultural anthropologist and development sociologist by training, who is currently working in Thailand as Associate Professor at the Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University, and Visiting Professor at the Masters of Arts in International Development Studies at Chulalongkorn University. Before that, she was Regional Director of the Rockefeller Foundation Office for Southeast Asia in Bangkok, overseeing grant-making activities in the Greater Mekong Sub-region. She also worked with the Ford Foundation in Indonesia and the Philippines, and has published widely on development issues. A native of Italy, she has lived in Asia for nearly two decades.

Regional Integration in the GMS: Opportunities and Challenges

Rosalia Sciortino

Renowned for its magnificence and the unpredictability of its waters, the Mekong River is the longest waterway in South-east Asia, flowing down from the Tibetan highlands to the Mekong Delta and into the South China Sea. Through a drift of more than 4,300 kilometers, its waters connect six countries - Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam - offering mute testimony to the unfolding of their histories and their transnational relations.

The Rohingya: 'Just' People?

By Rosalia Sciortino

BANGKOK, Jan 25 (IPS Asia-Pacific) – The perilous flight of the nearly 1,000 Rohingya who made it to Thailand in December before they were sent back to sea is a sign of worsening humanitarian crisis in the region.

Health Not for All in the Greater Mekong Sub-region

Rosalia Sciortino*

BANGKOK, Jan 3 - As 2008 came to an end, so did the World Health Organization's commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Declaration of Alma-Ata. Launched in late 1978 at the International Conference on Primary Health Care, the Declaration affirmed health as a fundamental human right and boldly proclaimed the goal of attaining health for all peoples of the world. It stressed the socio-cultural and economic determinants of health.

Uncertain Refuge in an Aloof Region

By Rosalia Sciortino*

BANGKOK, Nov 3 - Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his family’s fleeing to England is making the Thai public familiar with the intricacies of international conventions regulating the protection of people escaping conflict or political repression.

They are learning that persons who consider themselves victims of war, civil conflict, political strife or gross human rights violations are "refugees" who may seek asylum from persecution, thus becoming "asylum seekers", in another country.