Southeast Asia | PRI's The World

Background ⋅ BBC ⋅ Books ⋅ Cartoons ⋅ Economy ⋅ Environment ⋅ Health ⋅ History ⋅ Language ⋅ Religion ⋅ Science ⋅ Special Reports ⋅ Technology ⋅ Travel

Southeast Asia

RSS feed for this section

This category contains 28 posts

World Books Review: Perils of the Pansexual

By World Books ⋅ January 23, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment ⋅ Transcript

This novel about a young woman who wakes up to find that her big toe has become a penis was a major bestseller in Japan, and it’s easy to see why. The book is titillating, disturbing without being disgusting, and reads like a self-help guide on the subjects of sex and love.

Hebrew’s revival, Turkey’s banned letters, and Q

By Patrick Cox ⋅ January 11, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment ⋅ Transcript

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Hebrew is most successful attempt ever at language revival. We find out why. Also, Malaysians are rioting after a court rules that a Catholic newspaper can use the word Allah. Then, two reports on alphabet letters: in Sweden, parents win the right to name their newborn Q; and in Turkey, using the Kurdish-associated letters Q, W or X can land you in jail. And, a two-nations-divided-by-one-language examination of the word grit.

World Books: International Reads for the Holidays

By World Books ⋅ December 13, 2009 ⋅ One comment ⋅ Transcript

“Your Face Tomorrow, Volume Three: Poison, Shadow, and Farewell”: the final volume in Javier Marías’s trio of spy novels extraordinaire is part of World Book’s idiosyncratic round-up of first-rate international literary stocking stuffers.

Raising Bangladesh

By The World ⋅ October 6, 2009 ⋅ One comment ⋅ Transcript

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

bangladesh150

Some of the countries most at risk from climate change are low-lying nations. And chief among them is the South Asian country of Bangladesh. Rising seas threaten to inundate this already disaster-prone land. But Bangladesh is experimenting with new ways to protect itself. One possible solution uses floods to prevent floods. Reporter Daniel Grossman has our story. Download MP3 (Photo: Dan Grossman)

Illustrated transcript

Surviving the Sumatra quake

By The World ⋅ October 5, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment ⋅ Transcript

padang-aid150 Indonesian officials in West Sumatra say some villages engulfed by landslides after last week’s earthquake will be left as mass graves. A spokesman said money would be better spent on the living than on retrieving about 400 bodies believed to be buried under the mud and rocks. Some semblance of normal life is returning to the provincial capital, Padang. Reporter Ann Dornfeld visited a village near Padang.

Indonesia rescue effort

By The World ⋅ October 2, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment ⋅ Transcript

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

indonesiaquake-rescue150

International rescue teams are heading to Indonesia in a last-ditch effort to free trapped earthquake survivors. More than 1,000 people are already known to have died after the 7.6-magnitude quake two days ago, the UN says. Rescue efforts are focused on the city of Padang but aid workers and reporters said that in rural areas thousands more buildings had been destroyed and whole villages flattened. Marco Werman gets an update from the BBC’s Rachel Harvey in Padang. Download MP3

BBC coverage
In pictures: Indonesia rescue effort

The Nuclear Disarmament Movement

By Jeb Sharp ⋅ September 25, 2009 ⋅ One comment ⋅ Transcript

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

It was striking this week–with all the talk at the United Nations of getting rid of nuclear weapons–that the rhetoric was coming from the mouths of world leaders rather than the megaphones of demonstrators. It got us wondering what ever happened to the nuclear disarmament movement? Jonathan Schell and Lawrence Wittner have some answers.

Trains, a Bio-Truck, and Winston the High-Speed Pigeon

By Clark Boyd ⋅ September 11, 2009 ⋅ 2 comments ⋅ Transcript

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Meet Winston, the 11 month old carrier pigeon who is faster than broadband Internet in South Africa. At least, that’s what one company in South Africa set out to prove. You can hear more about that in this week’s podcast. You can also take a ride on the Battambang Bamboo Railway in Cambodia, and follow along with Briton Andy Pag as he tries to circumnavigate the globe in a tricked out bio-truck. We ask you: where else can you find this kind of podcast? Wow.

Papua New Guinea’s new creatures

By The World ⋅ September 7, 2009 ⋅ One comment ⋅ Transcript

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

bug

You could be forgiven if you’re skeptical about the claims of an expedition team that just got back from Papua New Guinea. They include the discovery of a camouflaged gecko, a fanged frog, and a fish that makes grunting noises. But leave your skepticism at the door. We speak with Professor George McGavin of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Download MP3

BBC Pictures: Weird crater creatures
Video of the giant rat
BBC Earth News

Global Hit

By The World ⋅ August 28, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment ⋅ Transcript

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The US hip-hop group, the Black Eyed Peas, are scheduled to perform in Malaysia next month…but the country’s Muslims are being told they can’t attend. Islamic leaders say it would violate Islamic law. The BBC’s Robin Brant has the story.

Singapore’s science dreams

By The World ⋅ August 27, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment ⋅ Transcript

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Singapore is laying the foundation for a future economy based on science. It’s sending its own citizens abroad for a top education, and enticing some the world’s best minds in science to its shores. Reporter Ari Daniel Shapiro has more.

Global spellers gather in NYC

By The World ⋅ August 10, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment ⋅ Transcript

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
A regional contestant in the SpellEvent Championship

A regional contestant in the SpellEvent Championship

Today in New York City, teenagers from seven non-English-speaking countries competed to become the best speller in English. It was the First Annual Global SpellEvent Championship, organized by Franklin Electronic Publishers. The winner received a scholarship worth $10,000. >>>Click here for more information on the event.

Moscow 1993, Revisiting the Taliban, Curtis LeMay

By Jeb Sharp ⋅ August 6, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment ⋅ Transcript

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Our “How We Got Here” history podcast is back after a vacation hiatus. Journalist Otto Pohl journeys back to Moscow to find out who shot him during a demonstration in 1993. Veteran foreign correspondent Charles Sennott returns to Afghanistan and Pakistan on the trail of the Taliban. And Warren Kozak tells us about the legendary Curtis LeMay.

Restoring Indonesia’s mangroves

By Clark Boyd ⋅ August 4, 2009 ⋅ One comment ⋅ Transcript

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Mangrove restoration in Indonesia

Mangroves were once widespread throughout the world’s warm coastal areas. The maze of tangled trees along the shore are a crucial ecosystem and a buffer against erosion But over the past few decades, mangroves have been disappearing around the globe. Now there’s growing recognition of their importance, and renewed efforts to restore and preserve them. Reporter Ari Daniel Shapiro visited one such project in Indonesia. >>>Click here to see more of Ari’s photos.

Cambodia’s Unique Lake Threatened

By The World ⋅ July 23, 2009 ⋅ One comment ⋅ Transcript

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
The World’s Mary Kay Magistad reports on Southeast Asia’s largest lake — Cambodia’s Tonle Sap — and why environmentalists are worried about its future. Dams, logging and overfishing are some of the factors threatening the lake’s ecosystem.