For the wildlife and people of Koh Sralau, the mangrove forests and the sand that roots and grounds these forests are jewels in and of themselves. They are valued for what they are and not for what they could be.
Never before have I witnessed the mass movement of land from one country to another, not for farming, not for housing or economic development, but for pure unadulterated entertainment.
What kind of world can be built from sterile and lifeless sand and land that has no roots, no history, and no memory, except for the violent extraction from its homeland? And what kind of world is left behind, when roots, history, and memory have been torn from beneath our feet? It is already enough to be removed from one’s land. It is another thing entirely to have one’s land removed as well.