Andrew Haffner

As ASEAN summit opens, Cambodia is at a crossroads

Just weeks before ASEAN bloc leaders arrived in Phnom Penh for the upcoming summit, an outspoken, retired Thai diplomat took unusually square aim at the meeting’s host, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, in an editorial published in The Diplomat. “The…

The Anakut podcast: What comes next for rapidly changing Phnom Penh?

Hello and welcome to the finale of the Anakut podcast: Season 2. And what a season it’s been! Eight episodes, each on a different big subject for modern Cambodia, and 16 guests to guide us through. I can speak for the rest of the Anakut team when I…

The Anakut podcast: Cambodia’s coal-fired energy roadmap

Hello and welcome back to another week of the Anakut podcast. We’re down to our second-to-last episode of Season 2 and things are heating up! That might be because we’ve almost wrapped a whole season, or quite possibly just because of this week’s…

The Anakut podcast: Corruption and the destruction of Prey Lang Forest

Hello and welcome to Episode 6 of the Anakut podcast. We’re getting into the last leg of the season here with only two more installments to go before completing our eight-episode run. If you’ve been following us from the start, I want to thank you…

The Anakut podcast: The state of Cambodia’s garment sector today

Hello and welcome back to Anakut! We’re now more than halfway through the season here with Episode 5. It’s been quite the ride so far, but never fear – we still have plenty of Anakut coming right up! This week, Thina and I wanted to learn more about…

The Anakut podcast: Beyond being Khmer in Cambodia

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Anakut podcast! Symbols of Khmer identity abound here in Cambodia, where Angkorian motifs still feature front and centre in the modern aesthetic. But while you don’t have to look far to find references…

The times, they are a’changing

This week, I’ve been thinking about transitions. A lot is changing at the Globe right now and, in the weeks and months ahead, you’ll no doubt be introduced to a crew of new faces tasked with the enviable job of running this ship. It’ll be different —…

Vietnamese flavours are changing Texas BBQ for the better

Our dispatch from Globe-world is pretty light this week, so I can start the letter with news of a little personal victory for me: On Monday, I got my second dose of the Sinovac innoculation for Covid-19. My timing was good, as just a few days after I…

Anakut season 2, episode 2: Cambodia’s role in ASEAN

Welcome back to Anakut! In today’s episode, Thina and I are getting geopolitical. That’s because we’re talking about Cambodia and ASEAN, the bloc of Southeast Asian Nations made to pull together its 10 member states into a more cohesive partnership.…

Anakut Season 2 is here! First up, Cambodia’s LGBTQ+ community

It’s good to be back! If you’re new to the show, welcome to Anakut, a podcast about Cambodia as it is today and where it might be heading tomorrow. If you’re a returning listener, we’re very happy to have you along as we dive right into Season…

House of 1,000 stories: The mysterious Hotel Renakse

This week, we’re almost all about the implications of the pandemic, a topic I’m sure you’re not at all fatigued with by now. The subject has been inescapable since our first introduction to Covid-19 and, though vaccines promise to deliver us once and…

Thai gastrodiplomacy and visions of Phnom Penh

This week, we got into a wide menu of stories from across the region, starting with this tasty number from Thailand. Over past decades, Thai cuisine has enjoyed a booming popularity making it near-ubiquitous the world over. But not all that growth…

The evolution of Phnom Penh, as seen through maps

Phnom Penh’s frenetic growth has changed the face of the city again and again. But while the city has been remade in the past decade, it’s never remained static for long. This series of historic maps starts in 1864 with one of the first produced by…

Our big fundraiser has officially begun

We’re very happy to announce that, as of yesterday, we’ve officially launched our fundraiser! I’ve plugged the fundraiser on here before but now we’re going even further to make the case for giving to Globe. Check out the homepage for the fundraiser…

A region under fire

This week marked a return to (some semblance, perhaps fleeting) of normalcy in Phnom Penh after authorities lifted yesterday the city-wide state of lockdown. But we’re not celebrating just yet. The Mekong region might have avoided the worst depths of…

Growing Covid-19 outbreaks dampen vaccine optimism

While some of the world’s wealthiest countries are now seeing a light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, Covie-19 outbreaks in Southeast Asian countries are shaking the optimism of vaccination campaigns. We started this week with personal stories…

‘The poor won’t survive’: Lockdown hits Phnom Penh’s hand-to-mouth workers

For weeks now, the world of Phnom Penh moto-taxi driver Tim Tin has steadily folded into itself, shrinking a little more each day before squeezing finally into his family’s one-room apartment in the capital’s Meanchey district. First went his work,…

A complicated New Year’s celebration and a somber anniversary for Cambodia

For those of you observing the Khmer/Thai/Burmese New Year, as well as the other lunar holidays marked this week in Southeast Asia and beyond, we can say this is the very first editorial of the year. Conditions across the region, from coup in Myanmar…

Wrapping up: Webinar footage and reflections on our Myanmar trip

The offer seemed ludicrous at first. It still does, in hindsight, and maybe even more so now that it’s all over. After an unrelated interview, Ari Ben-Menashe, the PR man for the brutal new Myanmar junta, had just offered one of our new reporters,…

Photoshopping history: The true story behind the smirking man of Tuol Sleng

Despite the almost half-century that has elapsed, it takes little effort for Senyint S. Chim to recall the last time he saw his older brother. They said what would prove their final goodbyes in 1974 as Senyint boarded a Lockheed C-130 Hercules US…