Great essay from the Bangkok Post.  Be sure to click through and read the full essay, Inequality lurks under facade of prosperity.

What if the gap between the rich and poor grew and grew in Asia, and no one noticed?

Amidst skyscrapers and shopping malls from Bangkok to Beijing, that’s a question worth pondering given an increasingly affluent and growing middle class often far removed from the poverty that persists across the Asia-Pacific region…

Even as a changing Asia helps drive the global economy, the region remains home to two-thirds of the world’s poor, and an estimated 1.7 billion people still struggle on less than US$2 (59.7 baht) a day. Approximately 700 million live on less than $1 a day.

Ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples are often marginalised and excluded from the benefits of the region’s growth. Some 43% of the Asia-Pacific population do not have access to improved sanitation facilities, and growing numbers moving to Asia’s teeming cities face deteriorating sanitation and environmental conditions and inadequate housing and infrastructure, according to the ADB.

This is far from the shimmering images of a modern China, a dynamic Indonesia or a tourist-friendly Thailand…