Other highlights:
- average sentence for protesting the military government: 64 years
- 140,000 refugees are located in camps in Thailand
- Burma/Myanmar listed by the WHO as 190 out of 191 countries ranked on public health
- at least one-third of Burmese children are under-nourished in a country that has an over-abundance of natural resources
- U.S. and France still have companies building and utilizing natural gas pipelines in the country that are/were built by slave labor (the U.S. company - Chevron)
- military also uses slaves/forced laborers to carry supplies for them and as human mine-sweepers in mined areas
- rape is used as a systematic tactic of war
- any government project - such as gas and oil pipelines, hydroelectric dams - and areas they fear rebels travel - jungle paths, roads, past bases, ethnic minority villages - are heavily mined, making travel through the country extremely perilous
- previously opium, and currently production and sale of methamphetamines is the main source of income for most people and is tacitly supported by the government (because they can pretend to crack down for the international community, and continue to squander the country's resources for their own benefit)
- the government's arms providers: china, russia, singapore, israel
Links:
Shan Women's Network (Shan is one of the ethnic minorities being targeted and chased out of the country) - if all you can see at this link is the newsletter, look to the left and click on "about"
Burma Rivers Network (the rivers are one of the resources being exploited by the government with the support of - currently - China, India, and Thailand. Slave labor is often used to build the hydroelectric dams, or the other countries - particularly China - import their own workers, doubly damaging the local economy.)
I will post more about the week and our culture class later, but I needed to share some of this information as quickly as I could.
1 comment:
I remember this class. I remember the anger I felt of how there is NOTHING being done by the Americans. Crazy huh? Wait till you go to Cambodia. It literally makes you sick to your stomach.
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