Does The Issue of Kachin State’s Displaced People
The Issue of Kachin State’s Displaced People. As the sixth anniversary of the resumption of Burma’s civil war between the Burma Army and ethnic armed group the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) arrives, civilians in Kachin State continue to be displaced by conflict....
For Laos, Chinese Banana Boom a Blessing and Curse
BOKEO, Laos — Kongkaew Vonusak smiles when he recalls the arrival of Chinese investors in his tranquil village in northern Laos in 2014. With them came easy money, he said. The Chinese offered villagers up to US$720 per hectare to rent their land, much of it fallow...
Arakan Communities Demand Support to Halt Mangrove Loss
KAN NGU VILLAGE, Arakan State – Until fairly recently, the residents of Kan Ngu, a coastal village in southern Arakan State, had considered the mangroves in their area simply as another source of firewood and paid little attention to the shrinking forest. “The locals...
Ten Things to do in Rangoon This Week
Film français programmé en mai 2017 à Rangoon The second Myanmar Guitar Festival will feature more than a dozen guitarists, plus songs by J Maung Maung, R Zarni and Kaung Hset. This festival will feature world famous artists such as CL (2NE1), Nelly, Soulja Boy and...
A Fight to Control Chainsaws in Burma
SAGAING, Burma — Pyar Aung still remembers the first time he saw a chainsaw. It was a German-made number being used by one of the logging companies operating in the forest around his remote village in Burma’s northwest Sagaing Division in 2013. “It was so powerful and...
A Brighter Future for Burma’s Juvenile Offenders?
RANGOON — As he waits impatiently for his time in custody to end, the first thing 16-year-old Zaw Thein Htike does every morning is count the days. There are almost four hundred of them left. “Aug. 1, 2018—that’s my release date,” he says, his words tumbling out all...
Advocates: NLD Govt Has Failed to Advance Press Freedom
RANGOON — The National League for Democracy (NLD) government failed to make progress in increasing press freedom during its first year in office, local lobbyists and rights groups claimed on Tuesday, stressing that there is “no clear path forward” developed by the new...
Burmese Migrants Living in Garbage Dump on Thai Border
MAE SOT, Thailand — When entering the landfill on the outskirts of Mae Sot on Thailand’s border with Burma, flies buzz chaotically around the waste, which ranges from metal devices to worn out clothes to rotten food, the pile standing taller than a grown man. “We...
Hearing Burma: Teaching Artistry in Rangoon
RANGOON — Community music center Gitameit’s brand new three-story building has just been finished. It sits with fresh concrete and sparkling glass right beside the center’s old, slightly ramshackle building in a small plot on a quiet road of Rangoon’s Yankin Township....
Workers Replaced by Automation Demand Jobs Back
Despite negotiations on Tuesday, management and employees of the Myanmar Mayson Industries Co. Ltd. did not reach an agreement regarding a massive dismissal of factory workers. Myanmar Mayson Industries Co. Ltd., which manufactures Good Morning brand bread and...