Ten days ago, Cyclone Nargis hit Burma. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies recently estimated that the resultant death toll is between 68,833 and 127,990. The surviving Burmese citizens have been deeply affected by widespread destruction including power and telecommunication breakdowns, with some villages being completely destroyed. According to the World Food Program, vast acres of standing rice crops have been wiped out and flooding and road damages have cut off food supplies. More than a million people have become homeless and are suffering from an acute shortage of food and water.

On May 6, 2008 the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a general license to help facilitate the flow of funds for humanitarian assistance to the Burmese people in the wake of the cyclone.

With your support, the Give2Asia Burma Cyclone Relief Fund will work with organizations based in Southeast Asia to facilitate recovery programs. So far, Give2Asia’s partners include
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Lao citizens have a limited understanding of laws, citizen rights, the legal system, and the role of lawyers in their country, especially in remote areas and among ethnic populations. With a total of only about 70 laws currently on the books, the Lao government has given increased attention to improving the rule of law.

In response, The Asia Foundation recently launched a new effort to help the Lao Bar Association — a professional organization that represents lawyers throughout Laos — improve its services for poor and rural citizens and educate the public on laws and rights in Laos (click here to read more about this project).
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For more information about conflict and governance programs in Thailand, please contact Debbie Felix at dfelix@asiafound.org.

Nakmeen Waeming is a 14-year-old student who dreams of becoming a diplomat. “In the future I would like to be Thailand’s ambassador to Malaysia and work on border issues between the two countries.”

To achieve her goals, Nakmeen understands that having foreign language proficiency, in particular English, is an essential part of her future. Yet students from Thailand’s southernmost provinces face particular challenges.
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By Neil McCulloch

Neil McCulloch is Economics Program Director for The Asia Foundation in Indonesia. He can be reached at nmcculloch@tafindo.org.

More than 12 licenses must be obtained just to start a business in Indonesia. A study by The Asia Foundation in five districts in Indonesia shows that the time needed to obtain just a business registration, trade license, and a nuisance permit (all basic business licenses), has reached 107 days, at a cost of 931,00 Rupiah ($100 USD). The World Bank’s Doing Business Survey found that the number of days required to start a business in Indonesia increased from 97 days to 105 days between 2007 and 2008.

Given these difficulties, it is no surprise that the vast majority of all businesses remain in the informal sector. Improving licensing services is a key to creating a better investment climate in Indonesia. Business owners need licensing and registration documents not only to start a business, but also to access credit and to export.
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By Matthew Pendergast

Matthew Pendergast is The Asia Foundation’s Communications Assistant. He can be reached at mpendergast@asiafound.org. To watch a short film about the group of Mongolian educators discussed below, please click here.

Two weeks ago, I wrote a post on this blog about going to the Yosemite Valley with a group of Mongolian educators, and I talked about rivers and bugs and the importance of putting environmental monitoring tools directly in the hands of Mongolian citizens (click here to see a short film on the group visiting Yosemite).

After the Yosemite trip, I visited once more with the Mongolians before they returned home, this time along the shores of the Pacific Ocean at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, where they were continuing their study of water quality monitoring.

Seemed strange to me – isn’t Mongolia landlocked? What’s the point of teaching them about water quality in the ocean of all places? I posed the question to Chris Plante, The Asia Foundation’s Director for Environmental Programs.
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By Steven Rood

Steven Rood is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in the Philippines.

On April 7 and 8, an important conference on the Philippines was held in Washington, D.C., titled “Can the Philippines Break Out of its Affliction: Prospects for Democratic Governance, Economic Development, and Philippine-U.S. Relations,” organized by Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Southeast Asia Studies Program and The Asia Foundation, with generous support from Exxon-Mobil Corporation.
This program was a chance to focus attention in Washington on the Philippines, and it was occasioned by the Visiting Professorship at SAIS of Noel Morada, immediate past Chair of the Political Science Department at the University of the Philippines. This piece is a follow-up to last week’s, which discusses panels I-III.
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By Steven Rood

Steven Rood is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in the Philippines. He can be reached at srood@asiafound.org.

On April 7 and 8, an important conference on the Philippines was held in Washington, D.C., titled “Can the Philippines Break Out of its Affliction? Prospects for Democratic Governance, Economic Development, and Philippine-US Relations,” organized by Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Southeast Asia Studies Program and The Asia Foundation, with generous support from Exxon-Mobil Corporation.

This program was a chance to focus attention in Washington on the Philippines, and it was occasioned by the Visiting Professorship at SAIS of Noel Morada, immediate past Chair of the Political Science Department at the University of the Philippines.

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By Matthew Pendergast

Matthew Pendergast is based in San Francisco at The Asia Foundation’s headquarters, where he works in Communications. He can be reached at mpendergast@asiafound.org.

“Everything is connected. John Muir explored these very mountains and came to that same conclusion. That’s how we approach the environment in Mongolia – by understanding that everything is part of a system.”

We’re in the car descending into the magnificent Yosemite Valley in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. Chris Plante, The Asia Foundation’s Director for Environmental Programs, is explaining to me why we’ve brought a group of Mongolian educators here – 13,000 miles from the arid steppes of Central Asia to lush rolling hills, almond orchards, old mining towns, and fir-lined granite mountains still packed high with snow. These teachers are here to learn about the importance of water quality monitoring, and how they can introduce simple experiential learning into their own classrooms in some of Mongolia’s most remote areas.

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By Ruangrawee Ketphol

Ruengrawee Ketphol is a Senior Program Coordinator for The Asia Foundation’s Tsunami Rights & Legal Aid Referral Center (T-LAC) project in Thailand. To contact her, please write to dfelix@asiafound.org.

Last week, just before dawn on Tuesday morning, six boats loaded with over 120 people left the island of Sin Hai and sailed for the mainland. Elsewhere along the coast of Ranong province, hundreds of other people climbed into buses and pickup trucks to travel to Ranong city for an event held by The Asia Foundation in conjunction with the provincial government. The long-awaited day was the culmination of a program organized by the Foundation’s Tsunami Rights and Legal Aid Referral Center (T-LAC) to provide free DNA tests which enabled unrecognized Thai citizens to prove their nationality and obtain ID cards.

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Over 200 new identification cards were distributed by Governor Kanjana Keeman to Thai citizens at a ceremony held in Ranong province on Tuesday, March 25th. The new I.D. card holders are participants of a major initiative led by The Asia Foundation’s Tsunami Rights and Legal Aid Referral Center (T-LAC) program, which provided free DNA testing and guidance to each family through the application process. In addition, 200 children were added to their family’s household registration list, which will automatically qualify them for a state I.D. card once they reach the legal age of 15.
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