Exploits in Southeast Asia
Poorer communities in the developing world bear the brunt of plastic pollution. Could a new digital payment system spark a clean-up revolution? It was once a shoreline buried by enough trash to render it invisible, warranting the unfortunate nickname “toilet bowl”. Now the Philippines' Manila Bay beach is unrecognisably clean compared with a few months …
Continue reading A simple online system that could end plastic pollution (BBC Future)
There are few places on Earth that rival the untamed wilderness and primal seclusion of Myanmar's Mergui Archipelago. Captain Thomas Bruning knows this all too well. Since leaving his job as an engineer, the Austrian native has been sailing the globe for over 20 years.
A handful of unabashedly macho politicians have begun to redefine global politics through their partiality for blunt pragmatism over political correctness. From Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines and Prayut Chan-o-cha in Thailand to Donald Trump in the United States and Vladimir Putin in Russia, the modus operandi of these tell-it-like-it-is tough guys more closely resembles …
The region’s swelling middle class is fuelling a rise in Southeast Asian self-help gurus dispensing motivation and advice Like many Filipinos her age in Manila, 24-year-old Maureen Usacdin wrestles with the daily struggles of city life. First, there is the notorious traffic, which pollutes her lungs and only promises to worsen as people pile into Metro Manilafaster than …
Continue reading The self-help gurus trading advice and inspiration for cash (Southeast Asia Globe)
Manila, Philippines -- If you’re having trouble understanding your colleagues in other countries, try taking a leaf out of the Filipinos’ book. Call centres in the Southeast Asian nation are training twenty-somethings to master a diverse — and often difficult — range of English accents, so that customers may never know they are talking to someone up to 12 time zones away.
Justin Calderón 