The print issue contains brief articles, but you'll find the complete stories and photographs below. Please keep us informed about your professional activities by emailing Judye McCalman . One good day, Professor Alfano handed me a letter from a company in Spain trying to recruit bilingual, graduating architecture students. These words often come to mind when tackling urban environmental problems in developing countries, a task which I have been working on for the last several years in Thailand. There are so many complex issues, problems, and constraints to overcome.
Thai people are a fascinating study in contrasts.
As human beings, they are incredibly clean, neat, and tidy, but they generally have a blatant disregard for their surroundings. As Buddhists, they do have a fundamental belief in and respect for the natural environment, but their Buddhist nature also makes it nearly impossible to monitor, report on, and enforce any sort of law or regulation. Interesting, but also incredibly frustrating. Through the NGO, we work with many other Thai organizations, the Municipal League of Thailand, Americans, Canadians, Danish, Germans, Japanese, and many other international groups, including the Earth Council based in Costa Rica. One major project is the process of establishing a Thai National Council for Sustainable Development.