Thailand

Imagine if, in the US, the House of Representatives was elected, but the Senate was entirely chosen by the Pentagon. That crudely approximates what Thailand’s junta has created.

He is beloved for relinquishing his meager rations, going hungry so the kids could nourish themselves — and for hugging them close to ward off hypothermia.

In northwest Thailand, tourists flock to a village where ethnic Kayah women from Myanmar wear coiled brass rings to elongate their necks. Many of these women say it’s a reliable way to make money as undocumented refugees after fleeing conflict and marginalization back home.

In Thailand’s underage sex industry, the word “trafficking” as we know it in the West, doesn’t get used much. The phrase “buying and selling” is more common. But however you describe it, the practice of taking underage girls from their homes in the north and forcing them into the sex industry in Chiang Mai (and beyond) hasn’t gone away.