Nat Yogachandra

The death toll from Burma 's devastating cyclone has now risen to more than 22,000 and another 41,000 are missing three days after Cyclone Nargis hit the country We prayed last night and we were all in tears, listening to the latest reports from Burma . Like millions of people around the world we are deeply distressed to learn the great loss of life and property of friends in Daidanaw cluster, in Yangoon district. 22,000 died and 41,000 missing - If the figures are accurate, it would amount to the worst natural disaster in Asia since the 2004 tsunami. We have seen the destruction of tsunami personally in Asia , during early 2005, and we can feel the pain. We want to go there as soon as we can to show our love and comfort to the families, especially children. All telephone lines are out and drinking water is hard to get now. We ask our close friends to contribute any amount towards the fund for the Burmese – rebuilding their lives, and we will take this amount to Burma ...

I read an article in a recent issue of The Guardian Weekly on Global warming. A former Shell executive, James Lovelock has been predicting the future of the environment since mid 1960’s from his own experiment station in Cornwall , UK and his accuracy has made him one of Britain ’s most respected independent scientists. In his latest book, The Revenge of Gaia, he predicts that by 2020 extreme weather will be the norm, causing global devastation and that by 2040 much of Europe will be Saharan; and parts of London will be underwater. He also said Britain is going to become a lifeboat for refugees from mainland Europe , so we need to start planning how to survive. Nuclear Power, he argues, can solve our energy problem. He fears we won’t invent the necessary technologies in time, and expects “about 80%” of the world’s population to be wiped out by 2100. This is very scary. Currently I live in Bangkok , coordinating several activities for the According to a recent report publish...

I was very pleased to notice that the government of Socialist Republic of Vietnam recently allowed the members of the Bahai community to elect a Bahai Administrative body for the first time. This is an important occasion for the Baha’is around the world because it was the first time in 33 years that the government had approved that such a gathering could take place. The first Bahá'í in Vietnam was Shirin Fozdar, who arrived in February 1954, which was followed by periods of large growth for Bahai’ Faith in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1950 Shrin Fozdar (popularly known as Mommy Fozdar, and her husband volunteered, to go to Singapore, which at that time was part of the Federation of Malaya at the request of Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, to expand the religion to South East Asia. The first Local Spiritual Assembly, a Baha’i Administrative body in South East Asia was was formed in Singapore in 1952, exactly two years after Fozdar’s arrival. In February 195...

This past weekend, both Debbie and I visited a few villages in Chiengmai in the northern part of Thailand , at the invitation of Rev. Father Peter Pattarapong, Head of School of Ruamrudee International School in Bangkok . Father Peter has spent several years living with members of the Karen tribes serving more than 60 villages. He has worked very hard to enhance their standard of living, providing educations for the young children , and a great spiritual supporter for them for many years. The Karen people are very sincere and friendly people. They lead simple, largely traditional lives, though the pressures of modern life have forced some changes on them. They prefer to continue with their traditional, self-sufficient agricultural methods instead of depending on tourists. A Karen mother and her son Father Peter is seen saying "blessings" to the oldest woman in the village, more than one hundred years old ...

I recently visited Cambodia on behalf of the Hope is Life Foundation with Debbie, my wife and our youngest daughter, Natascha. Our aim was to visit many orphanages and community centers and see how we can work with them to improve the educational standard of Cambodian children in remote villages. It was a very productive trip and we were able to initiate a few projects. In order to facilitate social transformation of communities, suffered after years of war and to assist poor children in their education and heath programs, Hope is Life Foundation has initiated a project, among others to build several community learning centers in remote villages in Cambodia. Our Foundation will be collaborating with Cambodian Organization for Research and Development (CORDE) to build learning centers to help children, families and society transform through literacy and empowerment, moral development and health programs. These Centers invite the youth and adult population to deepen their literacy abili...

Nat Yogachandra worked for Eastman Kodak Company headquartered in Rochester , New York , USA in various marketing and management positions for more than 20 years living in Asia , Europe and the Middle East . He worked as the Worldwide Director for Retail Business for Eastman Kodak Company, before his early retirement. Nat and his wife Deborah with their 14-year old Natascha moved to Thailand in August 2007. Nat was also the Director of Key-Zen International , a cross-cultural communications consultancy firm in New York before moving to Thailand . Nat is a results-driven leader with track record of maximizing revenue and improving efficiency and productivity. He has successfully led the growth of the retail network of more than 30,000 franchised Kodak Express stores in Asia , Europe , Africa , Latin America and the Middle East that generated more than $1 billion sales revenue through innovative marketing programs. During his assignment in Hong Kong , he developed comm...