http://www.inthesetimes.com/archives/tags/south+asia/ In These Times features award-winning investigative reporting about corporate malfeasance and government wrongdoing, insightful analysis of national and international affairs, and sharp cultural criticism about events and ideas that matter. en-us Expression Engine jessica@inthesetimes.com seamus@inthesetimes.com Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3971/paving_the_road_to_hell/ Find the common thread and win a free Prozac prescription: Treating cattle for lameness and fever drives vultures to the brink of extinction; planting biofuel crops fuels forced labor and sickness; drilling wells for the poor poisons a country. Not so long ago, millions of vultures swirled in dark, majestic clouds above the Asian subcontinent and performed a vital role: By eating carrion and waste--everything from ritually laid out human corpses to dead livestock--the scavengers cleansed the environment and checked infectious disease. Then, in the '90s, the birds began mysteriously disappearing, until today, when 99.9 percent of them are dead. Scientists finally linked the massive die-off to the anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac, widely used to keep lame or fevered livestock on… environment Burma ecological damage Rachel Jefferson Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:00:09 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4303/sex_drugs_and_esl/ Like many young English teachers abroad, I was enthusiastic about--but woefully under-qualified for-- my new profession. I wanted to see some of the world before I transitioned to another "more respectable" job. So, after graduating from college, I flew to Thailand and took a bus to a fishing village a few hours east of Bangkok, where I spent three weeks binge-drinking and hanging out on the beach with 15-or-so classmates--and emerged with certification to teach English to speakers of foreign languages. I was promptly offered a job at a language school in Bangkok, teaching after-school lessons to high school and college students. I once ran into the head teacher of my school on his way home with a prostitute he… south asia gender Rachel Jefferson