TEN YEARS OF STRUGGLE IN SOUTHERN THAILAND

WAQF, COMMONS AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT: TEN YEARS OF STRUGGLE IN SOUTHERN THAILAND

Date: Fri 15th Aug
Time: 6.45pm - 8.30pm
Venue: Abrar House, 45 Crawford Place, London W1H 4LP (nearest tube: Edgware Road or Marble Arch)
Map: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLF_enES208ES209&q=W1H+4LP&um=1&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=title

Speaker: Larry Lohmann (The Corner House)

The struggle of Muslim villagers in southern Thailand to resist the construction of the Trans Thai-Malaysia gas pipeline and various spin-off industries illustrates some of the ways in which ethnic, religious and environmental conflict are closely connected. While Thai elites and international investors (including most, prominently, the UK's Barclays Bank) portray the project as 'socially responsible', the protesting villagers have increasingly turned to Islamic principles of waqf - land designated as given over to God and therefore available for common use - to articulate and organize opposition.

About the speaker:

Since 1997, Larry Lohmann has worked with the Corner House, a small research and solidarity organization based in Dorset (www.thecornerhouse.org.uk). In the 1980s he lived and worked in Thailand, mostly working with local development and environment organizations. Larry is co-author of Carbon Trading: A Critical Conversation on Climate Change, Privatization and Power (2006), Pulping the South: Industrial Tree Plantations and the Global Paper Economy (1996) and Whose Common Future? Reclaiming the Commons (1993) and co-editor of The Struggle for Land and the Fate of the Forests (1993). His articles have appeared in numerous journals including Race and Class, Science as Culture; Accounting, Organizations and Society; New Scientist; Red Pepper and Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars. Lohmann has degrees from Cornell and Princeton and has been a scholar in residence at Yale and the Dag Hammarskjold Foundation.

Websites / More info:
City Circle: http://thecitycircle.com; Tel: 07980 834 340
LINE (London Islamic Network for the Environment): http://www.lineonweb.org.uk ; Tel 0845 456 3960 (local rate)
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LINE is the UK's first local Islamic environmental group. We hold open monthly forums in central London. We engage in a transformative approach, and our activities include deep dialogue, educational talks and workshops, climate change campaigning, and nature outings. Find out more about us by visiting our website: http://www.lineonweb.org.uk

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