THE RM3mil restoration work on the Penang Thai Pak Koong (Fu De Ci) Temple in King Street has won it the 2021 Unesco Asia Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation.
In early 2020, just as the Covid-19 pandemic was peaking in China, Sasapin Siriwanij, artistic director of Bangkok International Performing Arts Meeting (BIPAM), departed Thailand for a month-long performance tour in northern Europe. Her trip was quickly interrupted, however, by the rapid spread of the pandemic across the continent. After spending several days in limbo, Sasapin regretfully headed home to Bangkok, where she was compelled by the Thai government to spend a fortnight in self-quarantine. Every arts festival in which Sasapin had intended to participate would soon thereafter be cancelled, postponed indefinitely, or converted to an online format.
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Boost Asean growth by promoting universal access
published : 29 Dec 2020 at 04:00
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In recent decades, the Asean Economic Community (AEC), which represents more than 620 million people across 10 member states, has experienced rapid socio-economic growth. The distribution of this prosperity though has not been uniform. Inequities abound, with no better example than the 3-4 million children in the region who still do not have access to basic primary level education.
However, this is not a recent phenomenon. According to Unesco UIS statistics, efforts to achieve universal primary education access for marginalised and vulnerable children in the Asean region has stagnated with little improvement for more than several decades.