Feature
16 Jun 2023
During the height of the pandemic, Thailand saw a growing number of reports of university students committing suicide, while others suffer from stress and mental health problems due to sudden changes in their lives as the country went into lockdown. Although mental health issues were on campus before Covid-19 arrived, the pandemic made the problems more visible. Now, students are calling for universities to adopt proactive mental health support measures, but with the shortage of mental health professionals, implementing a long-term solution may not be easy.
7 Jun 2023
While women have long been considered “ornamental,” with the media and the public mainly focusing on their looks or how they dress and act, LGBTQ representation is nearly non-existent. They are subject to the same fate and even worse. A watershed moment for the community came in the last election when 3 self-identified LGBTQ people won MP seats.
11 May 2023
As the 2023 general election approaches, activists and members of civil society hope for policies that will ensure LGBTQ rights and gender equality for Thailand.
2 May 2023
During the Covid-19 pandemic, when performance and entertainment venues closed, Thailand's musicians faced unemployment and lack of income. Many were forced to sell their beloved instruments or resort to finding other jobs to make ends meet, while missing out on assistance from the government for being informal workers. Meanwhile, the pandemic brought to the surface issues faced by workers in the Thai music industry, from precarious employment and unfair working conditions to lack of support for the creative economy.
17 Apr 2023
The Salween’s standing as “one of the few remaining free-flowing international rivers” is being challenged once again. Many factors suggest that dam projects along the river are being considered anew. Signals come from the Myanmar government, investors, and Thai politicians. If projects move forward, related human rights violations are likely to emerge once again.
15 Apr 2023
Living along a river destabilised by dam discharges, Upper Mekong residents tell how they cope with unseasonable water level fluctuations to protect natural environments, like the “Boon Rueng Forest” wetlands, and preserve traditional Akha cuisine.
12 Apr 2023
A series of photographs and essay by Real Frame photographer Yostorn Triyos explores life in communities on the banks of the Salween River after the Covid-19 pandemic and the February 2021 Myanmar coup, such as Sop Moei and Mae Sam Laep where people continues to live in uncertainty amidst the war. Meanwhile, the Thai and Myanmar government's project to build 6 dams across the Salween River has been put on hold due to the pandemic and the war.
16 Mar 2023
No government has ever admitted that the building of dams is the cause of “poverty” among the people of the Mekong River. The fish of the river and their economic value have been taken away in the name of development that comes with the construction of dams. Mekong people have seen their options for survival restricted and narrowed. The poverty of their lives is not something that has just appeared out of the blue. Their fate lies entirely in political decisions, despite the government’s attempts to make the issue apolitical.
16 Mar 2023
Fermented fish jars, once a sign of prosperity in Thailand's northeast, are now a grim reminder of a culinary tradition threatened by the construction of dams on the Mekong River.
13 Mar 2023
Thai sex workers and supporting organisations are petitioning for a legalisation of the sex industry. In the meantime, the illegal status of the industry leaves loopholes for corruption, human rights abuse, and inequality.
11 Mar 2023
Following the February 2021 coup in Myanmar and subsequent violence against protesters, a large number of people from Myanmar came to Thailand seeking safety and are now living as refugees in urban areas. Some came with valid visas, while some are undocumented, but all are unrecognised as refugees and unprotected under Thai law.
7 Mar 2023
From the demolition of the Constitutional Defence Monument to the change of name of the Lopburi Artillery Centre, many attempts have been made to erase the memory of Khana Ratsadon, who led the 1932 Revolution. Prachatai and Sarunyou Thepsongkraow and Sitthard Srikotr, two history experts from Kasetsart University explore the remaining architectural footprints of Khana Ratsadon in Lopburi and finds an answer as to why Khana Ratsadon during Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram's term considered Lopburi an important city, as well as the reason they chose Art Deco as a representation of their concept of ‘equality’.
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