AsiaLIFE in Vietnam

Published on Jan 14, 2024 by Luke Hunt

AsiaLIFE and Publishing Hip Magazines in Vietnam Jonny Edbrooke speaks about his various media ventures and the importance of being nice in Southeast Asia.Jonny Edbrooke studied book making and worked for a printing company in Britain before moving to Hong Kong via Bangkok in 1985, when he began carving out a career in publishing as a designer of high-end magazines.In Hong Kong, he worked for Marco Magazine, which was produced for the Hong Kong Group, Epicure, and the South China Morning Post’s Sunday Magazine. All were full color, glossy and targeted an audience with money to spend.Ten years later he took that knowledge to Vietnam. The country was still recovering from war, the expat communities in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh....

Rainforests and Rights

Published on Dec 24, 2023 by Luke Hunt

Suwanna Gauntlett arrived in Cambodia in 2000 and through Wildlife Alliance has sought to protect the rainforests in the pristine Cardamom National Park, where she has trained rangers for the Special Forestry Task Forces and the Royale Gendarmerie Khmer.Lately, however, her work has attracted controversy amid reports of bullying and intimidation of local farmers by wildlife officers, resulting in at least eight complaints to officials and a human rights NGO detailing alleged abuses since 2019.Those complaints have been attributed to an as yet unpublished report by Human Rights Watch, which is expected to be released early next year.Gauntlett says there has been no bullying by her rangers in the Cardamom National Park but adds that outsiders had moved into the....

Making Art

Published on Dec 16, 2023 by Luke Hunt

Nico Mesterharm has spent more than 15 years as director of Meta House in Phnom Penh, producing films, plays, and books, while offering a stage for aspiring local and international artists who have rebuilt Cambodia’s arts scene with the backing of foreign donors.However, Cambodia is no longer a struggling post-war country nor is it a major recipient of foreign aid, with conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza grabbing the majority of the world’s attention.For that reason, finding backers to support fresh projects in Cambodia is proving difficult but Mesterharm still has a number of works in the pipeline, including the documentary “Fraternal Help,”  Mesterharm spoke with Luke Hunt.Click here to listen to from Beyond the Mekong.

World Music

Published on Dec 2, 2023 by Luke Hunt

Chris Minko and his daughter Anya have carved out prominent lives in Thailand and Cambodia through music, sport, and education that came with the backing of Australian World War II hero Sir Edward “Weary” Dunlop and Thai philanthropist Mechai Viravaidya.Chris was raised in the small town of Myrtleford in the alpine valleys of southeastern Australia and initially found fame as a musician with jazz band Bachelors from Prague in the mid-1980s before moving into event management.He courted controversy with Melbourne’s Moomba Festival when he defied orders and put an Aboriginal float at the head of an annual parade but also found favor with the trade unions and the Australian Football League (AFL), where he organized half-time entertainment at the Grand....

A Dutchman in Cambodia

Published on Nov 18, 2023 by Luke Hunt

Hans van Zoggel taught English in his early 20s when he first met Cambodian refugees in The Netherlands. He was barely out of college and jobs were hard to come by but he left home for the Thai border camps where he succeeded in putting his students in touch with their relatives.He was also struck by their plight – refugees and internally displaced people huddling in a mishmash of shabby huts and surrounded by the Khmer Rouge. He stayed and went to work in the camps where he prepped those lucky enough to be accepted as refugees for a life in the United States.Click here to listen..