Tiger Woods says travel concerns led him to skip Saudi event

Tiger Woods's decision not to play the European Tour's inaugural Saudi International was based on a desire to limit his travel, the 14-time major champion said Wednesday.

"I haven't really played a lot overseas and I turned the opportunity to go to Saudi Arabia down last summer," Woods told reporters on the eve of the US PGA Tour's Genesis Open.

The tournament and players who opted to go to came in for criticism because of the country's human rights record, and especially the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia's Istanbul consulate in June.

Woods indicated his decision had nothing to do with politics, saying it was made "well before anything had transpired".

"I just think, I'm trying to keep the traveling down to a minimum and just focus on our tour," Woods said.

Source - TheJakartaPost

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#Cambodia - Sambar deer given to Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre

A Poipet casino and a resort have donated 14 sambar deer to breed at 

Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre.

In order to help protect and preserve wildlife in Cambodia for the next generations, Grand Diamond City Hotel and Casino and Poipet Resort in Banteay Meanchey province’s Poipet town have donated 14 sambar deer to Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre (PTWRC) to be raised and bred in the capital.

The companies’ representative, Soeum Sa Im, told The Post on Thursday that four sambar cubs, one male and three female, were bought by the companies 18 years ago from local villagers living near the Thai border.

After years of breeding, he said, there are now a total 14 sambar deer in the area. “We bought them from villagers while the animals were small and injured. We treated them and then protected them."

“First, the sambar deer were raised in cages and were fed daily. After that, they were released into the nearly 5ha of forest land that was owned by the companies."

“The hope was that they would breed and produce more cubs. But because of the increase in temperature in recent years, a lot of them became sick and died. Currently, only 14 remain,” he said.

Three already arrived

Sa Im, who has researched wildlife preservation and visited PTWRC experts, said the companies lacked the expertise to protect and care for the remaining sambar deer. The animals keep getting sick, he said, so the decision was made to donate them to PTWRC.

“We are optimistic that the experts at PTWRC would preserve and protect the deer far better [than us]. The sambar will keep breeding and multiplying,” he said.

PTWRC director Nhek Rattanak Pich said on Thursday that three of the deer had already arrived at the centre.

“Currently, experts are trying to transfer the remaining 11 sambars to our park for protection and breeding. Soon the number of sambars will increase. Then they will be released into the wildlife sanctuary so they can live in natural conditions,” he said.

Rattanak Pich said PTWRC has received many donations in the form of wildlife, such as sambar deer, red muntjac deer, crocodiles, gaurs (also called Indian bison), leopards and an array of birdlife.

There have been a variety of donors, from private companies to government institutions.

The programme has been a huge success, he said, because a large number of donated animals have been released into natural forests and wildlife sanctuaries around the country.

PTWRC has also, with backing from the government and the World Wide Fund for Nature, striven to increase the Kingdom’s population of tigers.

Source - PhnomPenhPost

#Thailand - Princess is Thai Raksa Chart’s sole candidate for Prime Minister

Princess Ubolratana, who relinquished her royal status in 1972, was named on Friday by the Thai Raksa Chart Party, a major ally of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, as its sole candidate to be the next Prime Minister.

While the constitution allows parties to include a maximum of three people in their list of PM candidates, Thai Raksa Chart submitted a list containing only the princess’s name to the Election Commission. 

Party leader Preechaphol Pongpanit said that everything was in accordance with the Constitution - the fact that an immediate member of the royal family was now Thai Raksa Chart’s candidate for Prime Minister would not give it any advantage over its rivals, he said.

Ubolratana Rajakanya Sirivadhana Barnavadi is the eldest daughter of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej and older sister of HM King Maha Vajiralongkorn. 

Her candidacy will only become official after the EC has verified and approved her eligibility to stand for PM, according to Preechaphol.

“One of the party members proposed her name during an executive meeting,” he said. “And she was kind and accepted our invitation.”

Princess Ubolratana posted details of her recent work in the north to her Instagram account on Friday morning. The post included the message: “We’ll walk together.”

It is the first time in recent Thai political history that an immediate member of the Royal Family has taken part in parliamentary politics but Ubolratana has shown a strong connection with the Shinawatra clan for a long time. 

Thaksin was toppled from the premiership by a military coup in 2006, while his sister Yingluck Shinawatra was ousted by another coup in 2014.

That coup was led by General Prayut Chan-o-cha, who has also been listed by the Phalang Pracharat Party as its PM candidate in the March 24 election.

Source - TheNation 

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#Cambodia - Koh Paen residents aim to keep bamboo bridge tradition alive

Each year, Koh Paen residents built a seasonal, kilometre-long bamboo bridge for cars and pedestrians to cross the Mekong when the water levels were too low for a ferry.

Connecting the island of Koh Paen to Kampong Cham city in Kampong Cham province is a giant 779m concrete bridge, opened in March last year, able to carry loads of 20 to 30 tonnes across the Mekong river.

Is it functional? Perhaps. Does it have any charm? Absolutely not.

But 2km south down the Mekong used to sit another bridge fulfilling a similar function, less robust and practical, but exuding an antiquated charm by anyone’s estimation.

Each year, for decades, the island residents of Koh Paen built a seasonal, kilometre-long (1,000m) bamboo bridge for cars and pedestrians to cross the Mekong when the water levels were too low for a ferry. And each year, when the rains swelled the river, the elements would tear it down again.

For local residents, the bridge was a backdrop to daily life since they can remember – only disrupted between 1973 and 1986 with the civil war and emergence of the Khmer Rouge – though the specific history of the bridge remains hard to pinpoint.

Prior to 1973, the bridge was owned collectively by a company established by 14 villagers from the island, according to 74-year-old Nai Seang, speaking to The Post back in 2017. She joined the company in 1964, purchasing two shares for 7,000 riel (approximately $1,500 after adjusting for inflation).

Back then, the bridge was only a foot and bicycle bridge built from locally sourced bamboo, with a 1 riel toll for pedestrians, or 2 riel for a bike (equivalent to $0.19 and $0.37 today, respectively). As the youngest in the company when she joined at the age of 22, she was the sole surviving member.

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The bamboo bridge also serves as a major tourist attraction for both local and international visitors.

 “The knowledge would be passed down from one generation of builders to the next,” she said. While Seang says she never asked the older members of the company about the bridge’s history, she remembers it when she was an infant, which indicates that it dates back to at least the 1940s.

That the bridge has become a tourist attraction was a strange curiosity for Seang. “I did not know the bridge has become such a tourist attraction. I was very young when I bought my shares, and to me it was just a thing that helps people cross the river, and a business,” she says.

But back in March last year, as the concrete monolith neared completion, for the first time in decades the residents of Koh Paen decided against building their bridge as a river crossing for vehicles.

Yung Oun, the owner of the old bamboo bridge, told The Post that it served as a major tourist attraction in the province, for both local and international visitors, so the loss of the bamboo bridge signalled a loss of money for the area too.

To avoid this, last year enterprising locals decided to keep the tradition alive on a smaller scale by building a tourist friendly, pedestrian only bridge as a replacement.

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 “Last year, our new bridge was only 700 metres. This year, we will construct it up to 800 metres,” said 60-year-old Bun Dara, a former Institute of Technology of Cambodia engineer and owner of the new bamboo bridge.

The bridge, built using more than 20,000 bamboo sticks, was officially opened on December 1. It is open from dawn to dusk, including weekends and holidays.

“On a normal day, I see about 30 to 50 people walking across the bridge,” said Dara.

To cross the bridge, pedestrians cost 2,000 riel, a motorbike costs 5,000 riel, a vehicle or tuk-tuk costs 10,000 riel and a larger vehicle costs 20,000 riel.

Source - PhnomPenhPost

#Bangkok - Police seize sex toys, ‘Viagra’ worth Bt2m in Nana raid

Sex toys, aphrodisiacs and fake Viagra worth Bt2 million were seized on Tuesday night from 10 stalls operating in Bangkok’s Nana area. 

The raid was conducted by a team of police officers and members of the Army and protection services following several public complaints about street vendors selling illegal items in the Sukhumvit Soi 3/1 area. 

The vendors had already been warned by the public protection service to clear out by the end of last year, but to no avail. The team said some of the pills sold on the street could be harmful to health and that the sale of obscene items could affect the Kingdom’s reputation. 

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The vendors have been charged with possessing and distributing drugs without a licence as well as selling restricted items. The haul was put on public display outside Lumphini Police Station.

Source - TheNation / Thaiger

#Thailand - ‘Overshooting’ Thai Baht raises fears of sluggish growth

WITH THE stronger baht constraining Thai economic growth, other small emerging market economies are facing the risk of recession, economists warn.

Teerana Bhongmakapat, former dean of economics at Chulalongkorn University, expressed concern about the baht’s rise against the US dollar and regional currencies. “The overshooting baht doesn’t align with economic fundamentals and could hurt growth,” he told The Nation. 

With Bt31 now worth $1, Thai exporters fret it will render their products less competitive on the global market. The average exchange rate on Friday was Bt31.347 per dollar, down from Bt32.351 on January 2, according to the Bank of Thailand.

Teerana said a combined central-bank rate hike in December and foreign investors’ positive sentiment have contributed to the baht’s rise in value relatively to the dollar and other Asian currencies. Meanwhile economic fundamentals are not keeping pace, he said. Economic growth is expected to be less than 4 per cent this year.

Current growth is sluggish while private investment remains weak, with capacity utilisation ranging from 60-68 per cent, Teerana noted. Exports are expected to slow due to global economic deceleration.

With Thailand so economically reliant on tourism, he warned, any global factors that have an adverse effect on foreigners’ travels would badly hurt here.

Many analysts are worried about the US and China entering recessions in the next few years, but Teerana believes the world’s largest economies are unlikely to face either a recession or a growth contraction in two consecutive quarters. 

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Rather, they’re likely to have slower growth, he said. 

The US has a large and sound services sector and China has embraced a high-technology value chain in the wake of its manufacturing slowdown, he said.

However, small economies have a higher risk of falling into recession, especially those being targeted for US economic sanctions, such as Turkey and Venezuela, Teerana said.

The slowing of global growth could also adversely disrupt Thailand’s production chain, he advised.

Teerana opposed the central bank’s previous rate hike, noting that the Thai economy has remained in a lower “growth trap” and inflation is quite low. 

He did not accept the central bank’s argument that the current 1.75 per cent policy interest rate could still accommodate economic growth. 

“Look at the US – the world’s largest economy – which has had high growth and low interest, ranging from 2.25 to 2.5 per cent,” said Teerana. “The interest rate market is expecting that most other countries will be cutting rates within one year, with the exception of Thailand,” noted Kobsidthi Silpachai, head of capital markets research at Kasikornbank. 

So the upcoming meeting of the Bank of Thailand’s monetary policy committee (MPC) is critical, he said.

If the MPC continues to flag concerns about policy space and search for yield, market expectations that the Thai interest rate is on the way up – even as neighbouring countries are lowering theirs – will continue. 

“That will create a diversifying of monetary-policy expectations that will be reflected in the exchange rates,” Kobsidthai added.

Sompop Manarungsan, president of the Panyapiwat Institute of Management, said he didn’t think China would suffer a hard landing, thanks to its wealth of financial resources. China has already boosted domestic consumption to compensate for the impacts of the trade war with the US, he said.

“However, should China’s growth rate drop below 6 per cent, it would be cause for concern for other countries, including Thailand, which have participated in China’s supply chains,” Sompop warned. 

Teerana and Sompop agreed that the US-China trade dispute would continue for some time, with current negotiations likely to produce nothing more than another temporary truce. 

Source - TheNation

#Indonesia - Government to boost sustainable tourism in small villages

Tangkahan village near Mount Leuser in North Sumatra and Pemuteran village in Bali are two of many villages in Indonesia that offer unique ecotourism attractions. 

They can set an example for other villages across the country to develop sustainable tourism as envisaged by the government during a United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) meeting recently.

Tourists could enjoy ecotourism activities in Tangkahan such as jungle trekking and elephant riding, said Valerina Daniel, the head of the Tourism Ministry’s sustainable tourism acceleration team. 

“In this village, people who used to be illegal loggers are now part of developing the tourism village by offering packages to tourists, which helps to preserve the forests,” she said in Jakarta recently.

Tourists visiting Pemuteran, which is known as a fishing village where residents are active in marine conservation, can go diving and snorkeling while participating in activities like coral conservation and feeding turtles. 

Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said after the UNWTO meeting that the ministry wanted to create 2,000 tourism villages by the end of this year, an increase from the 1,734 created last year.

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 The program, managed in conjunction with the Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Ministry, is part of the government’s commitment to accelerate sustainable tourism.  

 According to UNWTO guidelines released in 2005, sustainable tourism should take full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impact while addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, environment and host community.

Meanwhile, Tourism Minister Regulation No. 14/2016 stipulates that sustainable tourism should empower local communities, preserve culture and conserve the environment.

Valerina said the development of tourism villages would be focused around the 10 priority destinations, or 10 New Balis, adding that the development was a sustainable tourism model that suited Indonesia, which has 75,000 villages across the archipelago.

“There are many villages in Indonesia and a village is the smallest instrument where we can directly empower the community by developing its potential while preserving its culture and environment based on the sustainable tourism principle,” she said.

He added that the development of the homestays and villages could be funded by state-owned enterprises’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs.

Another financing option would be using low-interest rate loans from banks with long-term maturity so that local players can thrive, Arief said. 

He added that the government would also establish more Sustainable Tourism Observatories (STOs) in seven locations, adding to the five existing STOs so far. The STOs monitor research and give recommendations to the local government on how to develop sustainable tourism.

The sustainable tourism program was a positive move for Indonesia, although it had yet to become the umbrella policy for general tourism development in the country, said Muhammad Baiquni, a tourism expert at Gadjah Mada University’s Center of Tourism Studies. 

“The sustainable tourism concept could be a good balancer for Indonesia’s tourism, which still tends to be quantity oriented instead of quality oriented,” added Baiquni. 

He, however, reminded the government to make sure that village tourism had a positive impact on society, culture and the environment, as well as putting local communities first so that sustainable tourism could be achieved. 

“Are the villagers benefitting and sovereign on their own land? Does tourism in the villages make their environment and socioeconomic situation better? All of these must be assessed.”

Baiquni suggested that the government should focus on creating tourism villages that were of high standards and sustainable, rather than setting a specific target for homestays and villages.

Source - TheJakartaPost