Some glimpses of South Thailand

From July 19 to August 2 this year, I joined 14 other fellow media students for overseas reporting in Phang Nga, Southern Thailand. The trip is part of a module called Going Overseas for Advanced Reporting (GO-FAR) and its funded by the Wee Kim Wee Legacy Fund. I also took the opportunity to snap some pictures :) 

Mok (centre) plays hopscotch at an orphange in Phang Nga, Thailand. She and her friends at the orphanage are survivors from the 2004 Asian tsunami which killed thousands of people on Thailand's west coast. 

A ship and a car share parking space in Baan Nam Khem. The 2004 tsunami had flung dozens of ships deep inland. Today, they serve as a memorial to a horrific past.

Raof, a Burmese worker on board a Thai trawler, passes a barrel to a fellow worker on a trawler at Kuraburi port, Thailand. The 38-year-old fled Burma after the failure of the 1988 pro-democracy protests. He came to Thailand in 2005 and has been surviving on border passes as a form of identification. 

Burmese workers untangle fishing nets as their trawler prepares to leave Thaplamu pier in Phang Nga province, Thailand. Many Burmese work on Thai trawlers, spending about ten to 15 days a month on sea. 

Wan Kankaew, 29, owns a commercial trawler and four longtail boats. Most of his workers are Burmese and they are a mix of registered and illegal workers. He complains that many Burmese run away after getting their work permit and its really difficult to keep his entire crew registered.

Pristine mangrove forests line the shore near Kuraburi port in Thailand. Mangrove forests are home to a rich variety of marine life. Once popular sites for logging and charcoal making, these mangroves are protected by Thai law today. 

Manat Onsuwan lived in Baan Kanim village as a fisherman. During the monsoon period, the 47-year-old would fish for crabs in the safety of the mangrove forest. He fears that with the rise of commercial trawlers, traditional fishermen like him can no longer survive and fishing villages will disappear within his lifetime. 

Hern Laokam is a retired dive fisherman from Baan Nam Khem. The former miner spent 15 years on the seas but his 3 children, drawn to jobs in the modernizing Thai economy, are unwilling to inherit his trade. 

My dialogue with Mr Lee Kuan Yew

Nothing to do with pictures or articles. After being a news writer for 3 years, I became a news maker for once.

Piece by piece, Malaysia builds a new metropolis by Singapore

During my internship at Thomson Reuters, I was sent on a media tour to Legoland. Upon return, I wrote a story on Iskandar Malaysia, and it was used as a sidebar to a special report, Malaysia's Dilemma, written by my editor, Bill Tarrant.

The sidebar in PDF:

I took some pictures during the media trip too...

Songkran in Singapore – A pocket of joy

Today, I took a visit to the Wat Ananda Metyarama Thai Buddhist Temple, the biggest Thai temple in Singapore, to capture a little of Thailand. Its a place where even photographers are not spared from water attacks. But I guess that got me plenty of luck. My camera remained dry despite ending up soaking wet myself. Best of all, I immersed in the pure joy of people there.

Two girls having fun at the water splashing tradition at Songkran, the Thai new year. The water is believed to bring good luck, and cool down the body in the midst of the hot, dry season.

Thais pay respect to the monks of the temple. The Buddhist sangha is highly respected in Thailand and forms an integral part of their culture.

Win or lose, its just a match

The Singapore Sports Council, together with Reuters and Action Images - a division of Reuters Media, have lined up a series of sporting photography workshops. I signed up for the one on March 5, which was conducted by Russell Boyce, the Chief Photographer, Asia (Reuters). After 1 hr plus of introductions, we were given the chance to shoot a football match going on in Jalan Besar Stadium where two teams of teenagers were playing off against each other. Here are 2 photos of contrasting moods, the winners and losers.

The blue team celebrates after scoring the 2nd and final goal of the match.

The goalkeeper of the opposing team after letting in the first goal of the match.

It was a pretty short session but I got to know more about professional photography. Russell shared with us some experiences with covering a major match, including issues such as logistics, negotiating terms and conditions, filing photos from the site to the newsroom, and automatic photography. It was a short session but pretty insightful. In addition, I got to meet many photographers out there. 

iPads in Singapore classrooms

One of my first stories in Reuters was about iPads being used in Singapore classrooms. I followed a TV crew to Nanyang Girls' High back in January. Both the text and video is published around the world. You can view the video here, done by fellow Reuters journalist Christophe Van Der Perre for Reuters TV.

It is also aired on NTDTV and shown on youtube:

Here is the story I wrote:

Apple's iPad enters Singapore classrooms

By Xue Jianyue

SINGAPORE | Mon Jan 24, 2011 3:53am EST

(Reuters Life!) - If Oprah can do it, so can schools in Singapore.

Two schools in the wealthy city-state have begun handing out Apple iPads to students, relieving them of the need to carry satchels full of bulging text books and notes.

Nanyang Girls High School has spent S$135,000 (about $100,000) to buy 150 iPads for 140 students and 10 teachers in a pilot project. Users connect to the Internet using the tablet, and download books and course material.

They can take notes on the iPad, and use worksheets.

"It's much more convenient," said 14-year-old Chloe Chen, sitting in a classroom with her iPad in front of her. "Teachers can just tell us to go a website, and we can immediately go and do our work.

Last year billionaire talk show host Oprah Winfrey gave staff at her magazine an iPad and a check for $10,000 each.

Seah Hui Yong, dean of curriculum at Nanyang Girls school, said the iPad was chosen because it complemented a new method of teaching under which students are given more freedom to learn themselves, instead of relying solely on the teacher in traditional classrooms.

"It's not so much about the iPad," she said, adding that if some other better device comes along, the school could switch.

"If you talk to the girls you will realize that they practically don't need training. I think if anything, the joke is the teachers are probably taking a little bit longer time in getting used to it.

Safeguards are being put in place as well.

"There will be some concerns - making sure that the girls are going to appropriate websites, also making sure that the girls don't get addicted to the device and use it too much," said Physics and Information Technology teacher Mark Shone.

Nanyang Girls is a secondary school, which means the youngest students are 12. Other schools in Singapore using the tablet include Tampines Secondary School and teachers at Nanhua Primary School. A fourth, Dunman Secondary School, will use iPads in project work in the future, a teacher said

(Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)