Myanmar

Validating Kachinland’s Independent Colleges- Between market and ethnic communities 

Education has long been an area of friction between the state and the Kachin people. Schools have become a site for ‘Burmanization’, the cultural imposition of the dominant Bamar ethnic group onto the country’s minorities in terms of language, cultures and historical narratives. In common with other ethnic minority organisations with high degrees of autonomy, the political wing of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) has been running its own secondary schools outside of state control.

How Transnational Corporations are rendering Myanmar’s Sanctions Ineffective

Presidential Palace, citing dubious claims of election fraud and reinstated stratocracy in Myanmar. Back on 18February 2021, the UK, in tandem with the US, EU, New Zealand, and Canada, issued a set of sanctions intended to limit the capacity and strength of the junta following an onslaught of violent suppression of protests fighting for the reinstatement of National League for Democracy government.

Rohingya Relocation and Repatriation: Bangladesh is in the Paradox of Buridan’s Donkey

It has already been more than four years since more than seven million Rohingya refugees fled to Bangladesh for refuge to escape from violence and abuse by the majority Buddhist population and security forces of Myanmar (Beech, 2021). At the last count, more than 1.3 million Rohingya refugees are living in Bangladesh (Reid, 2021). Most of them live in the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

Myanmar – a country opening up?

After 50 years of isolation Myanmar, formerly named Burma, is finally opening up to the outside world. According to the media the country is now welcoming tourists, foreign investment and development aid. But exactly what does the picture of openness look like in reality?   Photo taken in a small village in the Ayeyarwaddy Delta: […]

So..what is the definition of Genocide, again?

Rohingya: Rohingya is an ethnic minority with dark skin, Muslim beliefs and, for the most part, no citizenship anywhere. Some groups live as sea nomads.  Others live as illegal immigrants in Thailand, India or Bangladesh. Some live in refugee camps different places. Most live in poverty and most live in Burma.   Nobody likes the […]

Myanmar open for business, not its people

by Gerhard Hoffstaedter, School of Social Science at the University of Queensland Aung San Suu Kyi has just left Myanmar (Burma) for the first time in 24 years visiting Thailand and Europe and calling for more foreign investment in Myanmar. Meanwhile, ethnic tensions in Myanmar continue to erupt to the surface in a country that […]

A brief report from a Burma visit 13-21 February 2012

Mikael Gravers, Aarhus University The situation: On the surface there is a more relaxed mood in Rangoon when I visited Burma. However, all agree that the old totalitarian system is still working. People are still arrested during the night. Thus, we are cautioned that the situation could change rapidly again after the by-elections. There is […]

The waiting

Ang San Suu Kyi was released. And there was an election. And
that’s about as concrete as this post is going to get – of course there are
more to be said, but as is always the case with Burma
and her elusive leadership, there are no answers to be found in Rangoon.

As always, details are sketchy, indecipherable and
insufficient and what is really the situation for the average Burmese citizen
is unclear. Getting more concrete than just stating the two above things is not
an easy task.

Is this what they call momentum? by Anya Palm

The Lady is free. She speaks to her people and what comes
out of her mouth is the definition of grace and dignity – listen to some of her
words here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11752918