Thailand's long battle with HIV/Aids

article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8273486.stm

One of the main problems that remains in Thailand is the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS. Finally the country is trying to move ahead and find vaccines against the terrible disease. Many villagers are taking part in an experiments where they are given the vaccine and some are given a placebo vaccine. In many case the people that are offering themselves up to be tested, get AIDS. However the government had been very kind and is offering these people fully payed for treatments against the disease. Out of all the people that were experimented on only 2 have died so far. The government has also taken initiative in informing people of changes that they could make that would decrease their chances of getting AIDS.

I think that the Thai government is showing a lot of responsibility in this situation and that they are realizing that they have to slow down the rate at which this disease is spreading in their country. More that the government I think the villagers are showing the best character, because they are willing to risk getting AIDS just for sake of future generations and so that someone may find out how to battle AIDS.

Thailand's misguided rice policy

Although many of us do not think about it, the growing rice is actually a very complicated process that involves back breaking work. Rice is actually one of Thailand’s major exports; however, most of the farmers that actually grow the rice are living in poverty. Many of them are in debt because of the volatile nature of the rains in Thailand ad because of the lack of irrigation that they need to grow their rice. On top of this is the shady government policy called the rice mortgage scheme. Originally created to help out the poor farmers, this policy is supposed to help farmers ride out price volatility by allowing them to sell their rice to the government at a guaranteed price. However, this policy turned out only helping the rich farmers that had irrigation. Everyone else could not produce enough rice to have a surplus to sell to the government. It is suspected that this policy is heavily corrupted and that many government officials have ties with it and are benefited by its existence. Finally not trusting the government anymore, many of the farmers have taken in into their hands to fix this issue.

Being an Indian, rice is an important part of my everyday diet; however, I have never really thought about that rice had ended up on my plate. The story of these poor farmers is definitely not something that comes up in the news that often, but it is an important one. Because they have no voice with the government they are struggling everyday to grow there rice, and make a profit for themselves. The recent coups in the government are probably not helping their situation, and they are often overlooked because of the larger, much more successful rice producers that overshadow them.

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8130187.stm>

Muslim Insurgent confound Military in Thailand

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/world/asia/01iht-thai.html

This weeks article focuses once again on the ongoing conflict going on in Thailand. some of the groups in the fight are the Pattani Islamic Mujahadeen Movement and the National Revolution Front-Coordinate. It appears that their main goal is to cleanse the are of Buddhists, discredit the Thai government,and establish Islamic laws. Although the vilence level seemed to have come to a stop for a couple of years, it has started once again, and this time more that 3500 civilians are dead. Most of the people targeted have wither helped the government or the military. Many ordinary people have started carrying guns and there is a strong policy that if you shoot, I will shoot back.

I think that the amount of violence that if going on in Thailand is horrible, especially with the large number of people who are dying. Even innocent doctors who are there to try and help the injured people end up getting shot. From an outside view this violence seems completely unnecessary, however we can probably never tell the true logic of the people who are living there and why all this violence is going on.