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The brand new FCCT Members' Directory and Source Book has just come off the press and is now available to members in the FCCT office. To save on the substantial cost of postage and the chance of copies being lost in the mail, we'd like to ask all members who are in Bangkok to drop by the office and personally pick up your copy within March 15, 2010. Please bring your current membership card along with you when you come.

While we've tried our best to make sure everyone's entry is correct, we'd also like you to check your listing when you pick up your Directory and let our office staff know if there are any inaccuracies.

Members who live outside of Bangkok, those who are unable to drop by the office, and overseas members who have paid postage with their membership dues will receive the directory by mail after March 15th.

Please note that the Members' Directory and Source Book is made available to FCCT members only.

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As part of the continual development of the FCCT's programmes and publicity, two sub-committees are being set up — the Publicity Sub-Committee and the Programmes Sub-Committee.

Club members who have ideas to help develop these two key areas of activity, and the time and effort to transform ideas into reality, are invited to join either of the two sub-committees which will start meeting in the next couple of weeks.

For more information, watch this space or contact info@fccthai.com

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This photo exhibition of Paula Bronstein's work offers a “slice of life” in Afghanistan, looking at the worn-torn country starting in late 2001 to present day.

Afghanistan is a country in transition, experiencing a very “ fragile peace”. Over the last two years violence has increased in the country to an alarming level as the Taliban continue to show they can successfully carry out brazen attacks inside Kabul, most recently attacking the Ministry of Justice last month. Pakistan is accused of exporting its problems, pushing more of the radical fighters across the Afghan border. In addition to the many problems, there is a growing disillusionment with the government and with that brings fears that the Taliban will continue gaining strength as it uses more “Iraq-style” tactics moving into some rural districts closer to Kabul.

Although women have more freedom then before they still maintain a classic subordinate position in the Afghan society where conservative Islamic laws and traditions dictate what a female is allowed to do in a male dominated world. In the worst cases, violence against women is not under control by any means and women are attempting to commit suicide by self-immolation to escape their horrific lives.

Afghanistan still remains the world's largest producers of opium, which is refined into heroin for sale in many parts of the world. The fight against the narcotics economy is a slow and arduous process. The price of heroin is so cheap on the streets of Kabul, a day’s supply costs about $3.00 US dollars thus making it an easy temptation.

Paula Bronstein is a senior staff photographer with Getty Images since 2002. She has been working as a photojournalist for over 25 years covering a variety of news and features, natural disasters, wars, photographing in various conflict zones. After September 11, 2001 she was assigned to cover Pakistan and Afghanistan, and since that time has been covering the issues closely in the region returning to Afghanistan frequently.

She has won numerous awards for her work over the years and exhibited in many different countries. Among some of the prizes are World Press Photo to Overseas Press Club-John Faber award, Pictures of the Year (POY-I), National Press Photographer’s Assoc. (NPPA), China’s Photo of the year.

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The FCCT invites you to "Happy Friday", the club's new weekly promotion with happy prices for happy people from 6pm till closing every Friday.

Come along and enjoy the fun with sublime jazz sounds supplied by our in-house band.

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FCCT is now on both Facebook and Twitter, join both groups to keep up to date on club info and discussions.

Facebook Group: FCCT: Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand
http://bit.ly/c8Je6j

Twitter: FCCThai

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What's happening in Malaysia? A recent stream of negative news has portrayed the country as intolerant, repressive and extremist, which is at odds with its long-established image.

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is on trial for sodomy -- again. At least 11 Christian churches were attacked after a controversy involving the use of the word "Allah". And three young women have been caned for having sex outside marriage.

Barry Wain, author of the recently released "Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times", contends that these events are symptomatic of a political, economic and social crisis that clouds Malaysia's future. And, he says, former prime minister Mahathir, who ruled the country in authoritarian fashion for 22 years before retiring in 2003, bears a heavy responsibility for this dismal state of affairs.

Speakers

- Barry Wain, a former editor of the Wall Street Journal Asia who is currently Writer-in-Residence at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. An ex-member of the FCCT, he will be on hand to sign copies of his book, which has not yet been approved for sale in Malaysia.

- Leslie Lopez, a Malaysian citizen, has reported extensively on political and economic affairs in the region for the past two-and-a-half decades.After brief stints with two local news papers in Malaysia, Lopez, 44 years old, served as the Reuters correspondent covering Malaysia and Brunei before moving to Jakarta as the Indonesian bureau chief for The Business Times of Singapore.
He returned to Malaysia to head The Asian Wall Street Journal news bureau in Kuala Lumpur in 1996. Lopez joined The Straits Times of Singapore as the paper’s Southeast Asia Correspondent, covering political and economic issues. He is based in Kuala Lumpur.Reservations: To ensure sufficient food for the buffet, we would greatly appreciate your making a buffet reservation at least one day before the program if you plan to join us for the dinner. (No penalty for cancellation if last minute conflicts arise.) Please also note that tables/seats will be reserved only for those with advance buffet bookings. To reserve, please call 02-652-0580-1 or click here to send an e-mail to info@fccthai.com .

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A well-seasoned traveller with a taste for the exotic, Garry Marchant (Pacific Asia Travel Associations’ former ‘Travel Writer of the Year’) writes of more than 30 years of jaunts around Asia. He takes readers from the Mongolian plain to the coast of Vietnam, and all points in between, climbing mountains and crossing rivers, sleeping in tents, dining on snakes and mountain cats, and meeting many a colourful characters along the way. Armed with a journalist’s insatiable curiosity and a fluid pen, he brings a fresh and often hilarious perspective on lesser-known points East.

Garry Marchant is a Canadian-born author who has travelled extensively through every continent. He has worked a number of jobs including, English teacher, movie extra, burglar alarm installer, malaria control officer and a merchant marine. He has worked as a reporter, editor and freelance writer for publications including the Brazil Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Far Eastern Economic Review.

To date he has visited some 244 countries.


There will be Q&A with the author and copies of books will be available for sale at 595 baht on the night.

Media inquiries, please contact Irene Chen: tel +8621 5187 9633,
email: irene.chen@sinomedia.net

*This program is a paid event. Responsibility for programme content is solely that of the event organizer.

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Learn how you can improve your performance, enhance your career, discover creative and innovative approaches to business through the use of Mind Mapping.

Invented by Tony Buzan over 40 years ago, Mind Maps - dubbed the ‘Swiss Army knife of the brain' - are used by over 300 million people globally, including leading business and political figures such as Bill Gates and Al Gore.

About the speaker
- Dumkerng Raiwa, Mind Mapping Trainer
An alumnus of Thammasat and Chulalongkorn Universities, Khun Ong has been an avid Mind Mapping user for more than 10 years. Five years ago, he became a Mind Map trainer. Today he’s a certified trainer and works with Buzan Thailand. He has taught more than 2000 people and his clients range from multinationals to large Thai corporations such as P&G, Unilever, Chevron, Central, Sony, Panasonic, PTT, TCC, KBank, TMB Bank, BBL, KTC, Nation, Amway, AIA, Chula, Thammasat, Novatis, Singha, The Mall Group and Tetrapack.

Aside from training, Khun Ong is a networker at heart. He is the President of BNI (Business Network International) Warrior Chapter and recently became a Director of BNI Thailand.

Contact: Ramon (Oh) Rueangnaram
Mobile: 085 920 1863 (English & Thai)
E-mail: HYPERLINK "mailto:oh@bnow.org" oh@bnow.org

*This program is a paid event. Responsibility for programme content is solely that of the event organizer.

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Mong La is a town in northern Burma's Shan State which grew rich first from the opium trade, then more recently as a centre for gambling and prostitution aimed at nouveau riche Chinese businessmen and tourists from across the border in neighboring Yunnan province.

The visitors brought with them an appetite for specialty wildlife foods, which could no longer easily be satisfied inside China. Restaurateurs in Mong La were eager to meet demand and on one main street can be found an open display of live bear cubs and monkeys, cobras, reptiles of every description, pangolins and an aviary's worth of birds. Tiger-bone wine is a popular after-dinner drink. In the central market are butchered dogs, live owls and other rare birds, along with a charnel house of dried flesh and bones from tigers, various primates and other threatened or endangered species destined for the Chinese medicine market.

Just a few feet from the border is the bear-breeding center, where endangered Asian black bears are kept caged to have their gall bladders milked for Chinese medicine until they are smuggled through a porous border into China and electrocuted before becoming the centerpiece of a bear banquet. A similar fate awaits monkeys that are trussed and bound before being devoured alive.

This gruesome business is well entrenched, in direct contravention of the laws of both Burma and China, and, as it moves across the border, in violation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to which both countries are signatories. It is tolerated because semi-official government policy holds that it is better than growing opium, and because there is money involved.

Alarmingly, the Mong La model is proving very attractive, and two new casino towns are already operating on the Lao-Chinese border, offering similar gastronomic experiences.

Karl Ammann is a Swiss conservationist, wildlife photographer, activist and documentary filmmaker who has made his home for the past three decades in Kenya. He is an adviser to several international conservation organizations, including the World Society for the Protection of Animals and the Cheetah Conservation Fund.

He was honoured with the Dolly Green Award for Artistic Achievement at the 11th Annual Genesis Awards in 1997, given the inaugural Chimfunshi Pal Award in 1999 in recognition of his work on behalf of chimpanzees, nominated by Time magazine and a board of well-known conservationists in 2007 as a Hero of the Environment, and was the winner of the Brigitte Bardot International Genesis Award in both 2008 and 2009. He is a co-author and photographer for several highly regarded books, including "Eating Apes," documenting Africa's bush meat crisis, "Great Apes and Humans: the Ethics of Coexistence," "Consuming Nature," and most recently, "Elephant Reflections."

Please join us as we welcome Karl Ammann to the FCCT, as we screen his award-winning documentary, The Mong La Connection, and engage in a thought-provoking discussion of the future of Asian wildlife and role and effectiveness of CITES in preserving diversity in the wild in this, the United Nations Year of Biodiversity.

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Featuring new research findings on the state of CSR in Thailand, the launch event will include a press briefing on the new CSR Asia Center at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) and the sustainability challenges that make this new Center an important and timely initiative.

The event will feature new research findings on the state of corporate social and environmental responsibility in Thailand. The research highlights success stories and sustainable business practices of leaders in the field, analyzes gaps in uptake and performance amongst Thai companies, and provides new insights on challenges and opportunities for Thai businesses in the context of urgent sustainability challenges. 

Speakers

- HE Dr Tej Bunnag, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, AIT and Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Thailand

- Chaovalit Ekabut, President, SCG Paper and President, AIT Alumni Association

- Prof Said Irandoust, President, AIT

- Dr Richard Welford, Founder and Chairman, CSR Asia

Background: The CSR Asia Center at AIT, located at the AIT campus in Pathum Thani, Thailand, is a joint venture partnership between CSR Asia and the AIT. Bringing together the strength of the two founding organizations, the Center can draw on considerable expertise in business and CSR, technical excellence, access to the networks of governments, business, and NGOs, as well as skills in knowledge generation and capacity development.

The mission of the centre is to advance the development and implementation of effective sustainability solutions for and by business as well as to facilitate the development of supportive framework conditions for corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable development.

To advance its mission, the centre will provide training, research, and consultancy and deliver a professional Master’s degree in CSR.

*This program is a paid event. Responsibility for programme content is solely that of the event organizer.

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An international book publisher seeks an experienced sales representative for its new Bangkok office. Candidates should be sales driven with some
experience in marketing, preferably in the media, publishing or hotel industries.

He/she will be an enthusiastic self-starter with the imagination and flair to handle all aspects of the company's sales to high-level clients.

A very good command of both Thai and English languages is required.

On top of a basic salary a commission will be paid based on sales achieved.

Please send a cover letter and CV to nicholas@edmbooks.com.sg

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Ensign Media, Thailand's most dynamic English language publisher, is seeking an energetic multi-tasker to work on a variety of projects in
its Phuket office. Are you ready for the challenge of working in one of Asia's most exciting media environments? Can you write engaging
copy on any subject? Can you switch between business and lifestyle writing with ease?  Are you a fast and efficient proof-reader? Do you
want to live and work in a tropical island paradise? If the answer to all of the above is yes, you could the person Ensign is looking for.

Duties will include:
News and feature writing for Property Report Thailand, the country's leading real estate publication and www.property-report.com
Sub-editing the annual Phuket Marine Guide.
Feature writing for Ensign's lifestyle contract publications
News writing for Thailand Marine Guide website.
News and Feature writing for SuperYacht Asia magazine

Requirements
1-2 years professional writing experience.
Degree level education.
Full driving license.

Contact: terry@ensign-media.com

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Experienced journalist/ editor sought for one month training project in Cambodia with the Phnom Penh Post, starting ASAP. The successful candidate will guide a young group of Sasakawa Peace Foundation/ Post Media Limited Leaders in Journalism as they produce a survey of the NGO sector in Cambodia scheduled to be published in the Post in early April. You will be working with five young Cambodians currently in journalism school but gaining experience at the Post through the programme, plus five young journalists from around the world with a mix of experience. The ideal candidate will be experienced in all stages of the production process, from editorial planning to story development, to page layout and production. Salary is US$2,000 for the period, plus an accommodation allowance and airfare support to be discussed.

Please contact Ross Dunkley at rsdunkley@gmail.com and Seth Meixner at seth.meixner@phnompenhpost.com.

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Asahi Shimbun, Japan’s leading national newspaper, is urgently seeking for a talented person to join our team in Bangkok Bureau.

Requirements:
- Thai Nationality with excellent command of English
- Bachelor’s Degree or higher in any field
- Ability to work under deadline
- Willingness to work extra hour, and travel both upcountry and abroad occasionally
- Simultaneous translation skill is a plus
- Journalism experience is a plus, but new graduates are also encouraged to apply

Job Description:
- Assisting Japanese correspondents for news coverage
- Translating and drafting news coverage reports in English
- Attending press conferences and interviews, and providing simultaneous translation when required

Interested applicants are invited to send your resume by March 31, 2010 to:
Ms Chotika Kanchanakangwankun
Asahi Shimbun Asian General Bureau
Email: chotikak@csloxinfo.com
Tel.: 02-254 3224-5

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The FCCT's successful publishing project, The King of Thailand in World Focus, a 280-page collation of articles and photographs covering the life and reign of HM King Bhumibol Adjuladej, Rama IX, is back in the shops after selling out last year.

The third edition is more than a reprint, and includes 20 extra pages covering the king's 80th birthday celebrations, the death of his older sister, HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana, some of the recent political turmoil, and an extended profile of the Crown Property Bureau. There is also a transcript of the remarkable comments made at last years launch at The Oriental by former prime minister Anand Panyarchun regarding the past, present and future of the Thai monarchy.

The King of Thailand in World Focus is the only comprehensive reference work on the current reign as reported over the years by correspondents, journalists and photographers working for the overseas media.

Although the latest edition is better and larger, the price remains the same. It is available from Asiabooks, Kinokuniya, B2S, Chulalongkorn University's Chulabooks at only 1,450 baht.

Club members can do even better and buy up to three copies each for 1,200 baht apiece from the FCCT office. There are also special discounts for bulk purchases of over 25 copies. Hurry while stocks last.

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The FCCT gratefully acknowledges the generosity and support of our sponsors. Please support our sponsors when you can, as they support us!


Major Sponsors - Thanks for their generous contributions to the Club's programs and activities

* Coca-Cola Company and Thainamthip Ltd., authorized bottler for products including Coca-Cola, Fanta, and Sprite
* Maneeya Realty
* Pfizer (Thailand) Limited
* Diageo Moet Hennessy (Thailand) Ltd., distributor of Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky
* Star Alliance for air tickets which make it possible to bring exceptional guest speakers to the FCCT and for our Wi-Fi Internet Service
* Unilever Thailand


Sponsors
* Nation Multimedia Group, for daily delivery of The Nation
* NewspaperDirect, for daily delivery of a wide variety of leading international newspapers
* Post Publishing Co., Ltd., for daily delivery of the Bangkok Post
* True Visions Public Company Limited, for providing TrueVisions cable television access
* Heineken Thailand

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The Bulletin is published weekly by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand, Penthouse, Maneeya Center, 518/5 Ploenchit Road, Patumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand. President: Marwaan Macan-Markar. First vice-president: Daniel Ten Kate. Second vice-president: Tim Johnston. Treasurer: Henry J Silverman. Clubhouse manager: Thanutra Teerasuphaset. Office telephone: 02 652-0580-1; fax: 02 652-0582. Clubhouse telephone: 02 254-8165. E-mail: info@fccthai.com. Web site: www.fccthai.com. Opinions expressed may be entirely those of an individual writer or organization, and do not necessarily represent the policies, positions or opinions of the FCCT, nor does the FCCT, by virtue of publication in The Bulletin, assume any liability therefor. While all reasonable efforts are employed to ensure accuracy of announcements appearing in The Bulletin, including but not limited to dates, times and cover charges, the FCCT is not bound by those announcements and occasional errors or omissions may appear; we apologize for any inconvenience. Copyright © 2009, Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand and others. All rights reserved.

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For five decades, the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand has played a vanguard role as Southeast Asia's most active press club. The club advocates press freedom as a cornerstone of civil society in emerging democracies and is a vital venue for an open exchange of information. Our speakers range from heads of state to local activists to international advocates, many of whom address issues that might not get a full hearing without the support of the FCCT.

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