According to a recent flash-forward episode “Grey’s Anatomy,” that is.
‘City of Imagination: Kowloon Walled City’
That’s the name of a new Wall Street Journal documentary:
The Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong was once the densest place on earth, a virtually lawless labyrinth of crime, grime, commerce and hope. A Wall Street Journal documentary tracks its colorful legacy 20 years after its demolition.
The link above leads to the doc on WSJ.com, and there’s also a YouTube version.
Very much worth a watch.
How I’ve helped with our Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 coverage
Yesterday marked three weeks since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing.
For the latest news, keep an eye on our streaming MH370 updates.
Meanwhile, I spent some in time Kuala Lumpur and elsewhere helping with our coverage, and wanted to share a few of the stories I worked on.
First, I helped out with an in-depth narrative piece telling the stories of some of the people on board on the flight.
The story begins:
As night fell last Friday in Kuala Lumpur, businessman Philip Wood hurried to gather his bags for a trip to Beijing. He had confused the dates, but his girlfriend in China texted him to make sure he got on the plane.
A group of Chinese artists capped off their exhibition at a local cultural center in Malaysia’s capital city with a day of sightseeing and a banquet lunch of duck soup, fried shrimp and pork in brown sauce.
Norli Akmar Hamid finished packing for her long-overdue honeymoon and posted a photograph on Facebook of her cat trying to sneak into her suitcase. The cat chewed the lining near the administrative assistant’s neatly folded blue T-shirt and beige towel.
All of them boarded Malaysia Airlines 3786.KU -2.08% Flight 370 late Friday night and flew away shortly after midnight in the tropical night sky toward Beijing. Soon after, the widebody Boeing 777 jet carrying 239 people vanished from radar screens.
The flight manifest included Americans, Australians, Indians and passengers from a host of other countries. There were more than 150 Chinese on board, many of them tourists who belong to China’s burgeoning middle class. A country between Thailand and Singapore, Malaysia has emerged in recent years as a major transit hub and tourist destination for globe-trotting travelers.
Flight 370 took off carrying 239 life stories, each filled with moments big and small, ordinary lives soon to be swept up in a tragic mystery. Now, as the hopes for a miracle fade by the day, memory transforms the random and routine into the meaningful and momentous.
I encourage you to read the whole thing.
Separately, I wrote a short piece on pilots and aviation buffs sharing their musings on Flight 370 via blogs, Facebook, Tweets, and more.
I also helped with a story about chaotic scenes as Chinese relatives of missing passengers were separated from the media by security personnel.
In the video embedded at the top of this post and on YouTube here, I discussed the scene and some video I shot.
And finally, in the video embedded above and on YouTube here, I participated in a live Google Hangout with our Southeast Asia Bureau Chief, Patrick McDowell, and aviation expert Harro Ranter to answer readers’ questions about Flight 370.
Stay tuned.
And if you don’t already, follow me on Twitter, as I’ve been posting frequently Flight 370-related updates there.
Belatedly, my story on Singapore startups
Silicon Valley East? My @WSJD story on venture capital flowing to Singapore’s startups: http://t.co/LrUzFMfD46 pic.twitter.com/5Qaqo5bcUp
— Newley Purnell (@newley) February 26, 2014
I’ve been remiss in sharing some of my recent stories here.
In case you you missed it last month, I wrote an in-depth piece on Singapore’s increasingly lively startup scene.
Click through for an interactive feature on some Singapore-specific apps and a rundown of some local tech companies — and some potential challenges to the industry.
(The story is for WSJ subscribers only — if you don’t already, subscribe! — but here’s a non-paywalled blog post introducing the piece.)
Next up: How I’ve helped out with Malaysia Flight 370 coverage. Stay tuned…
Our Story on WhatsApp in Asia
Quick note to share a WSJ story I helped out on Thursday about challenges Facebook may face in Asia following its acquisition of WhatsApp:
Facebook Inc. ‘s $19 billion deal for WhatsApp in part is a move to bolster the U.S. company’s position abroad.
But in Asia—which has the world’s largest, and possibly most avid, social-media audience—Facebook still has its work cut out for it.
That is because in Asia, even more than on Facebook’s home turf, the big, growing social-media market is on mobile phones. And if Facebook wants to be as dominant on smartphones in Asia as it has been on personal computers, WhatsApp will need to lure users away from three popular apps in the region: Naver Corp.’s Line, Tencent Holdings Ltd. ‘s WeChat and Kakao Corp.’s Kakao Talk.
Visit WSJD for more stories on the deal.
Singapore’s getting its first Bitcoin ATM
That’s the subject of a story I wrote Friday for The Wall Street Journal‘s Digits.
Following Thailand protest news: blogs, my Twitter lists, local media, and more
Since I’m now in Singapore covering technology news across Southeast Asia, my posts about the ongoing unrest in Thailand will probably be limited in the weeks and months ahead.
So, as I’ve done in the past, I wanted to offer suggestions for following the news as things develop.
Blogs
- The Wall Street Journal often live-blogs big events, like the beginning of “Bangkok Shutdown” and last weekend’s elections. Keep an eye on WSJ.com when things heat up. And the WSJ‘s Southeast Asia Real Time provides coverage of events as they happen in Thailand. There’s a Thailand tag.
- Another resource is Asian Correspondent, where Bangkok Pundit and Saksith Saiyasombut provide continuous updates when there’s developing news.
- For an academic perspective, check out New Mandala.
- The ever-prolific Richard Barrow, a long-time Thailand resident, Tweets, blogs, posts on Facebook, maintains a Google Map of protest sites, and even practices drone journalism.
- As I’ve mentioned before, you can follow my list of more than 100 Bangkok journalists.
- I also maintain a list of more than 500 Thailand-related Twitter accounts. These include Thai news organizations and various individuals, either in Thailand or Tweeting about the country.
- The most commonly used Twitter hashtags seem to be #BangkokShutdown and #BKKShutdown.
- And, as ever, you can always follow me: @newley.
Google News search
- It’s a no-brainer, of course, but simply searching google news for “Thailand” or “Thailand protest” yields timely results.
Local media
- The Bangkok Post and The Nation offer English-language coverage. Other resources include Khaosod English and Prachatai.
- At The Bangkok Post, I suggest Voranai Vanijaka’s columns. He wrote an excellent one last month called “With all sides wrong, there can be no right.”
Wikipedia
- There’s a Wikipedia page called 2013-14 Thai political crisis. Worth keeping an eye on, especially for background information.
Programming note: I’ve joined The Wall Street Journal
Friends, I’m delighted to tell you that I’ve joined The Wall Street Journal/WSJD. (I tweeted the news a few weeks back, and wanted to share it here, as well.)
I’ll be working as Tech Reporter, Southeast Asia, based in Singapore. I’m excited to work with some of the very smartest people in the journalism world, covering important issues in this dynamic, populous region.
Posts will likely be few and far between in the immediate future, but normal programming will resume shortly.
As ever, thanks for reading.
‘Bangkok Shutdown’ update: Court says government can delay Feb. 2 election — but will it?
The Wall Street Journal reports:
Thailand’s Constitutional Court ruled on Friday that contentious elections set for February 2 can be postponed, adding further pressure on Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s government to delay the vote, as antigovernment protests continue.
And:
The court said Thailand’s constitution doesn’t prohibit postponing an election in the case of an emergency or if there are other obstructions to the polls going ahead safely. It said that if the Election Commission considers it necessary to postpone the ballot, it should propose a delay to the government, which could then seek a royal decree to postpone the vote or set a new date.
And:
Varathep Rattanakorn, a minister in the prime minister’s office, told local media that the government will have to study the court’s verdict on delaying the election to determine whether it was an order or a suggestion.
But Somchai Srisutthiyakorn, one of Thailand’s five election commissioners, told reporters in southern Thailand, where he was meeting with local officials, that the commission could meet with the government on Monday. He said he expects to government to seek a new royal decree by Tuesday to scrub the Feb. 2 election date.
Reuters says:
One election commissioner, speaking to Reuters, said the vote could still go ahead on February 2 if Yingluck’s government dug in its heels.
“We will ask to meet with the prime minister and her government on Monday to discuss a new election date,” Election Commissioner Somchai Srisuthiyakorn said. “If the government doesn’t agree to postpone the election, then the election will go ahead.”
Meanwhile, the Bangkok Post says:
The caretaker government will postpone the Feb 2 election if anti-government protesters end their rallies, caretaker PM’s Office Minister Varathep Rattanakorn said on Friday.
The protesters must also promise not to obstruct the new poll and there must be no boycott of it, he said.
But postponing the poll would be futile if it continues to face disruptions, Mr Varathep said. The Election Commission (EC) will invite caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to discuss the poll postponement on Monday after the court also ruled that the premier should discuss a new election date with the EC chairman.
There are also stories from the New York Times, the AP, and the BBC.
And Bangkok Pundit has a post looking at what might come next:
We have no on-the-record confirmation, but BP would not be surprised if the government agreed to delay the election. The main reason is that timing-wise, the parliament would be convened around the sound time regardless of the election being delayed or going ahead…
And:
However, this is contingent on the Democrats participating in the election and then the PDRC going home – or at least limiting their protests to more defined areas and stopping obstruction of government offices. BP expects Puea Thai to either approach PDRC and the Democrats again to see what their position is.* If no change then, what would be the point of postponing the election?
‘Bangkok Shutdown’ day 3: overnight violence, Feb. 2 elections to go ahead
Here’s the latest:
- Two people were hurt in a shooting early this morning. And separately, the Bangkok residence of Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva was hit with a small explosive device.
- The Thai stock exchange moved some staff to another location after demonstrators threatened to take control of its offices.
- Prime Minister Yigluck said the Feb. 2 elections will go ahead.
The AP reports:
Gunshots rang out in the heart of Thailand’s capital overnight in an apparent attack on anti-government protesters early Wednesday that wounded at least two people and ratcheted up tensions in Thailand’s deepening political crisis.
Most of Bangkok remains unaffected by the latest wave of rallies. But the shooting was the latest in a string of violent incidents that have kept the vast metropolis on edge amid fears the country’s deadlock could spiral out of control.
Bangkok’s emergency services office said one man was hit in the ankle and a woman was hit in the arm in the shooting, which occurred on a street leading to one of Bangkok’s glitziest shopping districts that has been occupied since Monday by camping demonstrators trying to bring down Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s government.
Sompong Pongsattha, a 56-year-old resident who witnessed the attack in the Pathumwan district, said about 30 gunshots were fired from an unknown location toward a protest barricade over the course of about two hours.
And:
In another incident overnight, a small explosive device was hurled into a residential compound owned by former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, shattering windows and slightly damaging a roof, according to Police Col. Chumpol Phumphuang and Abhisit’s opposition Democrat Party. No injuries were reported, and Abhisit — who resigned from Parliament last month to join protesters — was not home at the time.
The WSJ says:
Thailand’s stock exchange moved some personnel Wednesday from its main building to a shopping mall following threats to seize the premises by antigovernment protesters who have tried to shut down areas of central Bangkok.
Thailand’s government stuck to a plan for a February election on Wednesday despite mounting pressure from protesters who have brought parts of Bangkok to a near-standstill, and said it believed support for the leader of the agitation was waning.
Some hardline protesters have threatened to blockade the stock exchange and an air traffic control facility if Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra does not step down by a deadline media said had been set for 8 p.m.
Meanwhile, Prachatai has a map of “anti-coup” rallies that took place around the country on Monday, the day “Bangkok Shutdown” began. A bigger version is here.
And finally, following my previous post, here are a few more snapshots from Asoke intersection — one of the protest sites — this afternoon. (I’ve also uploaded the pics to my “Bangkok Shutdown” Flickr set.)
Blog posts will be sporadic in the days ahead, but as always, you can find me on Twitter for more frequent updates.