Stories & Photographs by Jofelle Tesorio

Now that the ASEAN Summit ended, the chairmanship of Cambodia also ended and passed on to Brunei until the end of 2014. The recent summit marked important milestones for the bloc but also left some lingering issues.   United front but divided on China Sea territorial dispute. (AFP Photo) First, the leaders adopted the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration that raises the standards of human rights in the region. But many believe that the declaration has missed a lot of important issues and not even at par with the international standards. NGOs and activists are calling for a more realistic look at the human rights situation in the region. As the ASEAN Summit took place in Phnom Penh , more than 4,000 human rights activists, NGO workers and victims of forced eviction from land grabbing in Cambodia  protested near the venue at what they called a rampant human rights violations in the country. US President Barack Obama, who attended the summit after visiting Burma and T...

Fresh from his second term victory, US President Barack Obama flies to Southeast Asia to strengthen his country’s engagement with the region. This is seen as a pivotal move for the US that focused too much on Pakistan and Afghanistan and gained nothing more but anti-US sentiments from those countries. I wrote on this blog previously about what the US President’s second mandate mean to Asia this time . Immediately after Obama’s victory speech, the White House announced that he will visit Burma , Thailand and Cambodia at the end of November.  Obama on his way to Bangkok . Photo by Jewel Samad/AFP The choice of countries to visit in Southeast Asia has rubbed nationalist sentiments of some ASEAN countries, notably The Philippines, Viet Nam and Indonesia that have long been seen as allies but often side-swiped by the Obama administration. The President only visited Indonesia (where he spent some years as a child) once but was never followed up. News reports said the v...

Asians are happy people. They smile, sing and dance a lot and have a carefree and positive attitude. So it is not surprising that Asia is relatively a ‘happy region’ according to some happiness index surveys. The World Database of Happiness study indicates that Asian countries are within the middle range of happiness—how long and happy people live. Asians’ response to the question “how happy do you feel as you live now?” has been fairly high with communist Viet Nam topping the list. In a recent study called Happy Planet Index (HPI) by a British think-tank New Economics Forum (NEF), Viet Nam (2), followed by Bangladesh (11) and Indonesia (14), have been cited as the happiest in Asia, even happier than the United States (105). Conspicuously missing is  Bhutan , which has been cited as the happiest country in Asia and the only country in the world that uses Gross National Happiness rather than Gross Domestic Product as indicator. The previous overall topnotcher Pacific Islan...

Based on earlier reports , many Asian countries were expecting that Barack Obama will win a second mandate. Despite a strong anti-American sentiment in Pakistan , Afghanistan and scores in China and India , majority of Asians support the American President when it comes to his Asian policies. He is also seen as an embodiment of the great American dream not only for Americans but by others outside the country. Students pose near a life-size cut-out of the  US  President Barack Obama in  Chennai ,  India  after Obama was re-elected US President in Nov 6. (Press Trust of India photo) The way Obama (who doesn’t have political lineage or money) catapulted to presidency not only gave inspiration to common people or minority Americans but to all the young people in the world that they too are capable of becoming a leader one day. But what about his engagement with Asia ? Many thought that he will go all the way in embracing Asia as an extension of Ame...

Twenty-two-year old Kevin Balot, a nursing graduate from the Philippines, won the prestigious Miss International Queen , the worldwide pageant of transgenders and transvestites. Kevin was also voted Ms Photogenic according to pageant organisers Tiffany Show and Piton Communications. Jessika Simoes of Brazil won 1st runner-up while Thailand’s Panvilas Mongkol was 2nd runner-Up. The yearly event held at the resort city of Pattaya, Thailand, on Nov 2, was aired live on Thai television and watched by millions. An offshoot of Tiffany Show Pattaya, a cabaret show, Miss International Queen has grown into one of the most popular pageants in Thailand and has attracted international media coverage. It is also dubbed as the Miss Universe for transvestites and transgenders, whose aim is to empower transgenders, promote LGBT rights and provide a venue for showcasing their talents. The pageant has also launched the careers of several winners including Ai Haruna and Treechayada 'Poy' M...

The weather has turned from sunny to very chilly. It is the worst time of the year to visit China. But worst weather aside, it is still the most promising country in Asia by far. And while the government is busy preparing for the coming-out party called the Beijing Olympics 2008, little is attention is being given to a new revolution that has been going on for years. In a cold winter month, a number of Chinese twenty-somethings are knocking at dorm rooms, asking students to spare some of their time to an important calling, frantically writing letters of invitation, checking whether an important email has reached the head of another organisation and setting meetings to ‘evangelise’ the new recruits. This is not a preparation for another Tiananmen Square demonstration but the usual activities of student volunteers who, during their spare time, busy themselves with socially relevant activities. There is neither Nintendo Wii nor the latest iPod model in the conversation, but there are...