This fascinating but somewhat elaborate story aims at nothing less than explaining the nature of the birth and death of the universe from a human perspective. From a far-distant future, a horrifying and tyrannical alien being, the Typhon, is destroying the physical universe by converting it into a different form or configuration of matter and energy that is described in human terms as ‘chaos.’
Read the full review here.
A special supplementary issue of the SIU Journal of Management has now been published (http://ejournal.som.siu.ac.th). All papers may be freely read or downloaded from the website. Here is the table of contents:
CONTENTS
|
Special Supplement 1, May, 2013. |
||
| Editor’s Introduction | 5 | |
Foreword to the research articles
| Makha Khittasangka | 7 |
RESEARCH ARTICLES
| 1. | Workforce Diversity for the Sustainable Economic Development in the Mekong Sub-Region and Asia–Pacific from the Learning Perspective
Ta Thi Hong Hanh |
10 |
| 2. | Antecedents and Outcomes of Integrated Water Resources Management in Community Conflicts Resolution of the Mekong Part I and Kok Basins.
Vicharn Amarakul |
26 |
| 3. | Social Networks and Migration of People from the Southern Border Provinces of Thailand to Work in Food Shops (Tom Yam Shops) in Malaysia
Nisakorn Klanarong, Sirirat Sinprajakpol & Suparat Pinsuwan |
44 |
| 4. | Market Segmentation of Thai Herbal Products: the Southern Thailand Market
Sasiwemon Sukhabot |
61 |
| 5. | Guidelines for Knowledge Dissemination about Garbage Elimination and Water Treatment through Folk Media under the Laem Pakbia Royal Project at Lablae District, Uttaradit Province
Radee Thanarak & Sirikran Yimprayat |
73 |
| 6. | Human Resource Management of Small Independent Hotels: A Case Study of Cha-am Beach, Phetchaburi, Thailand
Rosamarin Arunothaipipat |
88 |
| 7. | A Study of Factors Influencing Lubricant Purchases by Logistics, Mining and Construction Business Entrepreneurs in the Three Lower-North Thai Provinces of Uttaradit, Pitsanulok and Sukhothai
Manee Choo-Iead & Wattana Keawpoolpakorn |
101 |
| 8. | A Study of Development Strategies for OTOP in Chiang Rai
Nongnout Kanthachai |
112 |
| 9. | Sufficiency Economy as a Human Development for Economic, Social and Environmental Sustainability with Emphasis on Ethnic Communities
Makha Khittasangka |
123 |
BOOK REVIEWS
| Mediums, Monks, and Amulets: Thai Popular Buddhism Today by Pattana Kitiarsa
John Walsh |
150 | |
| Secret Genocide: Voices of the Karen of Burma by Daniel Pedersen
John Walsh |
154 |
CALL FOR PAPERS 157
AUTHOR’S GUIDELINES 159
ABOUT SHINAWATRA UNIVERSITY 161
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD 164
My review od Daniel Perdersen’s Secret Genocide has been published as part of the special supplementary issue of the SIU Journal of Management just published (http://ejournal.som.siu.ac.th).
Pedersen, Daniel, Secret Genocide: Voices of the Karen of Burma, SIU Journal of Management, Vol.3, No.S1 (May, 2013), pp.154-6, available at: http://jcwalsh.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/pedersen.pdf.
My review of Pattana Kitiarsa’s Monks, Mediums and Amulets has now been published as part of the SIU Journal of Management Special Supplement (http://ejournal.som.siu.ac.th).
Kitiarsa, Pattana, Monks, Mediums, and Amulets:
Thai Popular Buddhism Today, SIU Journal of Management, Vol.3, No.S1
(May, 2013), pp.150-3, available at: http://ejournal.som.siu.ac.th/files/Kitiarsa.pdf.
Walsh, John, “Thailand and the East Asian Economic Model,” Pacific Business Review: A Quarterly Journal of Management, Vol.5, No.10 (April, 2013), pp.81-8, available at: http://pbr.co.in/Vol%205%20Iss%2010/11.pdf.
Abstract:
The East Asian Economic Model (EAEM) focuses closely on the economic aspects by which first Northeast Asian and secondly Southeast Asian nations attained rapid economic growth from the second half of the twentieth century. The EAEM considers the important economic aspects of the process: import-substitution, export-orientation, openness to inward investment and low wage cost competitiveness with an Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) approach. This model was officially introduced into official Thai policy as part of the First National Economic Development Plan of 1961. Since then, the Thai economy has developed along parallel lines, with a large subsistence agricultural sector, in addition to repressive acts by authorities, serving to dampen any significant movement towards higher labour costs. This form of the EAEM was quite successful in promoting growth until the 1997 crisis, when its limitations were first thrown into sharp relief. The governments of 2001-6 attempted to create a different trajectory for the economy but this was brought short by a military coup and a stultifying period of junta rule. The economic crisis that emerged around the world in 2008 and is becoming manifested in 2009 in Thailand in major job losses in the manufacturing industry represents a further threat to the value of the EAEM. New competition from Vietnam and China, in particular, make low-labour cost competitiveness no longer a viable strategy. The country has become lodged in what the World Bank calls the Middle Income Trap, in which the means by which a low-income country reaches a middle-income situation cannot be the same means by which the country can move from middle-income to high-income. As a means of exiting this trap, the current Pheu Thai administration has launched a range of measures, including a significant rise in the minimum wage and support for commercial enterprises to add value to their production. It remains to be seen how successful these efforts will prove to be.
Announcing: Chintraruck, Alin and John Walsh, “Water Allocation Issues in Thailand,” paper presented at the 2nd EnvironmentAsia Conference (Pattaya: May 15th-17th, 2013).
Abstract: The allocation of scarce resources has been problematic throughout modern history, particularly in the case of a resource as critical to human existence as water. Grounds for allocation include considerations of ideology, politics and equity. In conditions of increasing uncertainty regarding the supply of water resulting from global climate change and its effects, as well as continuously intensifying demand for water from industrial, agricultural, tourist and residential interests, the means and effectiveness of allocation decisions has become one of the most important decisions that governmental agencies are required to make. This issue is examined through the case study of Thailand, which is a country in a sub-tropical region receiving considerable rainfall during the monsoon season but with enormously elevated levels of demand for water in the contemporary period as the result of industrialization, population increase and the creation of a mass tourism industry. Historically, water allocation has taken place as the result of political contestation between government agencies and the provincial and national levels and private sector organizations and individuals. However, in a changing political and natural environment, new directions and approaches must be explored. This paper introduces new approaches to the issue of water allocation and highlights the changes in thinking required for future decision-making under conditions of greater unpredictability of supply and intensification of demand.
Keywords: industry; resource allocation; scarce resources; tourism; water
My paper for the ICAICTBM 2013 conference to be held on Hainan Island(*) has been accepted for publication. Here is the abstract:
Abstract
The use of industrial estates in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) has been very successful in terms of numbers of projects launched, number of factories opened, amount of goods manufactured and so forth. However, although aggregate levels of creation are impressive, it is not clear that the value added to the economies involved overall is very high. One important means of enhancing the quality of the connectivity between economic actors located within an industrial estate and other economic actors in the wider economy. This would involve connectivity that would be characterized as becoming greener and smarter. This paper argues that the concepts of environmental friendliness and intelligent relationships can be folded into the construct of connectivity as a framework for analysis. This is used to inform the study and discussion of a series of case studies of industrial estates within the GMS and helps to refine a future research agenda, which is in the process of being conducted.
Keywords: connectivity, Greater Mekong Subregion, industrial estates, special economic zones
* I have wanted to visit Hainan since I started studying GMSR issues some years ago and this was the chance to do it. More information is available at: http://icaictm2013.org/.
