The Irrawaddy Magazine |
- All the World’s a Stage
- Not a drop to drink
- Making Opium (and the Past) Go Away
- ‘Railway Man’ Revisits War Prisoner’s Horror and Forgiveness
- The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (April 12, 2014)
| Posted: 11 Apr 2014 10:00 PM PDT  Thingyan is a time of high spirits for many, but others prefer more traditional celebrations. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) YANGON — Never mind the heat: If you're one of Myanmar's hip young things, April is by far the coolest month. For a wet, wild week in the middle of the month, thousands of young people in Yangon and other cities around the country will do their best to wash away whatever sorrows they may have in a water fight that has to be seen to be believed. Despite the Buddhist origins of the Thingyan water festival, which marks the start of the traditional Myanmar New Year, this is for many an occasion to indulge in a lot of loud, free-spirited fun. Around Yangon, stages are erected and whole neighborhoods are turned into impromptu outdoor dance clubs, complete with blaring sound systems. Just add water—lots and lots of water—and your image of Myanmar as a staid, conservative country will dissolve before your eyes. But this is not to say that everyone is happy with the way many now celebrate the nation's most important holiday. "This is such a loss of our culture," says Mandalay-based writer Hsu Nget. "We used to celebrate peacefully, without spending huge amounts of money. Now if you go anywhere near Mandalay Moat, all you can see is big stages covered with ads." Particularly galling, he says, is the enormous waste of water, in a country where many of the poor in urban areas have little or no access to clean water. According to the outspoken writer, Thingyan revelers throw away 60 million gallons of water every year.
Fortunately for those who don't like the modern way of bringing in the New Year, some of the older customs live on. One is the Thingyan Thangyat, satirical performances that mock the wrongdoings of people in power—something that was banned until the government started introducing political reforms in 2011. Writers work on their Thangyat scripts for a month before Thingyan begins, both to ensure that they are funnier than those of their rivals—contests are held to choose the best performance—and to make sure that they don't cross any of the invisible lines that still mark the limits of free expression in Myanmar. "I have started writing my scripts and will have to submit them to the authorities [to be scrutinized] before Thingyan," Mitta, an artist living in Yangon, told The Irrawaddy in mid-March. Also on display will be colorful floats, which will feature more traditional music and dancing than that of the noisy stages that tend to steal the show every year. Lest the more spiritual side of Thingyan be forgotten, many will also mark the occasion by making offerings at Buddhist temples. "The younger people will throw water, but we will also clean the monasteries and stupas, and offer food to the monks," said Ko Ko Lay, a Mandalay resident. And to make sure that nobody gets left out of the fun, groups of traditional musicians, such as the Myoma Association in Mandalay, will travel around from place to place in colorfully decorated trucks to perform for elderly members of the community. Today's Thingyan might not be the way it used to be, but for those who have a chance to witness it in full swing, it will always be an event to remember. The post All the World's a Stage appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. | |
| Posted: 11 Apr 2014 09:57 PM PDT  Not a drop to drink The post Not a drop to drink appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. | |
| Making Opium (and the Past) Go Away Posted: 11 Apr 2014 09:43 PM PDT  Former intelligence chief Lt.-Gen. Khin Nyunt appears in a poster with UWSA leader Pau Yuqiang, in an image taken in Pangsang, on the Chinese border, in 1999. (Photo: Reuters) MONG LA, Shan State — Mong La's opium museum has to be one of the more interesting institutions created during the days of Myanmar's State Law and Restoration Council (SLORC). Located in Shan State's Special Region No. 4, an almost completely autonomous corner of northeastern Myanmar, the museum was founded by Lin Mingxian (also known as Sai Lin or Sai Leun), a former rebel commander in the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) and long-time leader of his own 5,000-strong militia, the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA). During the 1990s, Lin and his group were alleged by US authorities to be heavily involved in the drug trade. Lin, who is of mixed Chinese and Shan heritage, has ruled over his 1,900-square-mile (4,950-square-km) Golden Triangle fiefdom ever since 1989, when he and his fellow ethnic comrades rebelled against the CPB's overwhelmingly Burman politburo and reached verbal ceasefires with the SLORC that split the CPB's territory and its massive cache of weapons four different ways. Built at the base of a hill close to Mong La's standing Buddha, the museum offers an interesting alternative to the NDAA region's other attractions—namely, its casinos, brothels and stores selling tiger skins and ivory. It is especially likely to appeal to those adverse to large crowds: On a recent visit, this correspondent found the museum devoid of any other visitors, or, indeed, of any staff. One of the museum's more memorable attractions is a life-size diorama portraying a drug addict's journey to recovery. Unfortunately, however, the glass case was caked in so much dust that it was rather difficult to see inside. But you can still see enough to get the general idea. The first scene shows two young men injecting heroin. Besides the telltale hypodermic needle, you can tell they are addicts because they are sporting long hair, jeans and matching "Bad to the Bone" T-shirts. In the next scene, one of the duo is lying dead with a needle protruding from his arm while the other is being led away in handcuffs. The survivor is then seen in a hospital bed being well looked after. In the last scene, the survivor is clearly a changed man: Not only has he kicked drugs, he's also gotten a haircut and put on a longyi. Much of the rest of the museum is made up of faded propaganda photos from the military's anti-narcotics drives and similarly themed murals. Another section has a series of pictures from the SLORC regime's negotiations with various factions that broke away from the CPB. Unmentioned in the captions is the presence of the late Lo Hsing Han in several of the photos. Dubbed the "godfather of heroin" by US authorities, Lo was an ethnic Kokang Chinese drug lord turned tycoon who served as a key mediator during SLORC's talks with the ex-CPB groups. Although Snr-Gen. Than Shwe officially stepped down as Myanmar's head of state nearly three years ago, a large portrait of him still hangs next to the front entrance, with an awkwardly worded quote of his in English. "The drug abuse control because it is related to all the people of the entire world is a very huge and difficult task. We are willing to warmly welcome sincere participation by anybody. Even if there is no assistance whatsoever, we will do our utmost with whatever resources and capability we have in our hands to fight this." The same quote is also featured in the Yangon drug museum, which opened in 2001 and was apparently modeled after the one in Mong La. One thing you won't find here are any reminders of another former SLORC leader who played an even bigger role in bringing the region's drug lords "into the legal fold," to use the old SLORC-speak. The numerous photos previously on display of the NDAA's long-time ally, deposed Military Intelligence Chief Gen. Khin Nyunt, were removed long ago. Prior to his fall from power in 2004, the notorious spy chief inaugurated the museum's opening and frequently attended Mong La drug-burning ceremonies. When the museum was officially opened in April 1997, Lin and his NDAA were making regular appearances in the US State Department's annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Reports. The reports accused Lin of being heavily involved in the drug trade, alongside his former CPB comrades in the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and the Kokang-based Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), led at the time by Lin's father-in-law, Pheung Kya-shin. Apparently Lin didn't appreciate his annual denunciation by the US government. "I don't think I need to defend myself at all. It's not worth refuting what the United States has alleged about me," Lin told international reporters during a stage-managed anti-drug event held in Mong La in 1999 on the 10th anniversary of his group's ceasefire with the government. The comments reported by Reuters appear to be one of the few times anyone from the NDAA has ever spoken to international media. The official opening of the opium museum coincided with Lin declaring his little kingdom opium-free—a move that appears to have impressed US authorities enough that in 2000, the US State Department described Lin as having "successfully rid his area of opium cultivation." Although he was no longer appearing in their annual narcotics reports, US diplomatic cables continued to describe Lin as a "drug trafficker" who oversaw what one embassy official described in 2005 as a "James Bondian private police force." Like the NDAA, the UWSA and the MNDAA have also implemented opium bans. The shift away from opium saw all three groups establish large-scale rubber plantations across their respective territories. But not everyone is celebrating. According to a February 2012 report published by the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute (TNI), these plantations, financed by Chinese government crop-substitution programs, have benefited Yunnan-based business interests, but pay former opium farmers far less than they could earn in the past. But if anyone is complaining, Beijing doesn't seem to be listening: In a report cited by TNI, the Chinese government said it was "a blessing for mankind that Yunnan has helped the 4th Special Zone of Myanmar." Apart from working on huge rubber plantations or migrating, farmers who used to grow opium are left with few options. "Development interventions by international NGOs and UN agencies to provide farmers with sustainable, alternative livelihood options to offset the impact of opium bans have been grossly insufficient, and are merely emergency responses to prevent a humanitarian crisis," write TNI researchers Tom Kramer and Martin Jelsma in an article published shortly after their report was released. Of course, none of this makes it into Lin's museum, where unpleasant aspects of the present—like the embarrassing facts of the past—are treated like things sometimes best forgotten. The post Making Opium (and the Past) Go Away appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. | |
| ‘Railway Man’ Revisits War Prisoner’s Horror and Forgiveness Posted: 11 Apr 2014 07:34 PM PDT  Tourists walk on the infamous Thailand-Burma "Death Railway" at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery in Kanchanaburi province, Thailand. (Photo: Reuters) NEW YORK — Shortly before wrapping up filming for "The Railway Man," a World War Two drama about a former British Army officer and victim of torture, actor Colin Firth dreamt he was drawing a map of a railway but was bluffing and didn't know how to do it. The English Oscar-winner saw the dream as a metaphor for the film, based on a true story and best-selling autobiography, and the responsibility he felt in portraying a man who had suffered in silence for decades before finding the power of forgiveness. "I was supposed to know and I didn't know. And in the dream there were old men needing me to get it right, saying you've got to join it up. You've got to say where it goes," the actor said in an interview ahead of the film's US release on Friday. Firth, 53, plays Eric Lomax, a man with a passion for trains and railway timetables who meets his wife on a train decades after he had been tortured as a prisoner of war during the building of the Thailand-Burma Railway, or what became known as the "Death Railway." The railway, built by the Empire of Japan in 1943 to support its attack on the British colony of Burma, used forced labor, including Asian civilians and Allied prisoners of war, many thousands of whom died of beatings, disease, starvation and exhaustion. Like many men of his generation Lomax didn't talk about the war but relived his experiences in nightmares, until he was coaxed into confronting his demons and tormentor. Firth won a best actor Oscar in 2011 for "The King's Speech," about King George VI's battle to overcome a speech impediment, and was no stranger to playing silent, brooding types. But Lomax's harrowing story of the suffering of thousands of prisoners of war, the torture inflicted by their captors and their inner torment was different. "It did reflect how it felt because nothing equivalent to this had ever happened to me," Firth said about the dream. "Every so often you're called to interpret a story which is very, very precious and that was the case with this. It became personal," he added. Silent Suffering Australian director Jonathan Teplitzky ("Burning Man" and "Better than Sex") thought Firth was perfect for the part and that it was a role and a character the actor couldn't say no to. Nicole Kidman, the 2003 best actress Oscar winner for "The Hours," plays his wife Patti Lomax, and Jeremy Irvine, who made his feature film debut in "War Horse," is the young Lomax, whose story is told in flashbacks. Sweden's Stellan Skarsgaard ("The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) plays Lomax's friend Finlay. Hiroyuki Sanada ("The Wolverine") rounds out the cast as the Japanese interpreter and tormentor Takashi Nagase, whom Lomax confronts decades later and amazingly forgives and befriends. "It reminds us of what we are capable of as human beings, the very best and the very worst," said Teplitzky. The film was shot in Australia, Thailand and Scotland, where Firth and Kidman met Lomax and his wife. Lomax died in 2012, at the age of 93, while the film was being edited. Reading the book and meeting Lomax were invaluable for Firth because his role is so silent and the feelings are internalized. "I had to inhabit imaginary memories," he said. "Being equipped with so little, it meant a lot to be equipped with that." Firth was also surprised by the reaction to the film, which has already opened in Australia and Britain, and what it has unearthed. He said people have contacted him and Patti Lomax saying their father, grandfather or uncle had been there too during the war and hadn't spoken about it until now. "Sometimes you are an instrument for a story that really needs to be told properly and I think Eric was conscious of the fact that it wasn't just his precious book, that he was actually speaking for all the guys that didn't speak out," Firth said. The post 'Railway Man' Revisits War Prisoner's Horror and Forgiveness appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. | |
| The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (April 12, 2014) Posted: 11 Apr 2014 07:18 PM PDT Burma's Economic Revival Leaves China Struggling to Compete China's investment in Burma "plummeted" in 2013 to only US$20 million or 5 percent of the value invested in 2012, Chinese media reported. And last year's figure was a mere 1 percent of the value of Chinese investment in Burma in the peak year of 2010, said China Radio International. "The rules of the game in [Burma] have changed. In 2011, a civilian government came to power. China's plummeting investment coincides with the announcement of the 2012 foreign investment law," the radio said quoting the China Business News newspaper. "As for ranking of foreign investors, China lost the leading position for the first time in four years and dropped to around 10th," the paper reported. "The sharp contrast of China's dropping investment in [Burma] and the rising total volume of FDI (foreign direct investment) is due to the failure of the Chinese companies to change their own game and catch up with developments [in Burma]," the radio station said in its report. It said there was a degree of inevitability about China losing its No.1 investor status with the ending of Western sanctions and a changing economic culture in Burma. "Chinese companies need to understand the situation, change their mindset, put themselves in Improved Business Confidence Boosts Burma's Growth Forecast Burma's economy is forecast to grow by an average 7.8 percent over the next two years. The annual increase is predicted by the Asian Development Bank for the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 financial years. It's slightly higher than the bank's estimate of economic growth during the financial year ended in March. "Growth [in 2013] was supported by rising investment propelled by improved business confidence, commodity exports, buoyant tourism, and credit growth, complemented by the government's ambitious structural reform program," said the ADB in a statement. Burma's international investment profile was raised last year by several major factors, including the award of telecommunications licenses, airport construction bids, hosting the World Economic Forum on East Asia and staging the Southeast Asian Games, said the ADB report. The higher profile has been helped with a "broad array of reforms, unifying the exchange rate, improving monetary policy, increasing tax collection, reorienting public expenditure toward social and physical infrastructure…and liberalizing agriculture and trade." Ancient Art Treasures on Show in New York Will Aid Burma's Tourism Burmese art treasures go on a show in New York next week for the first time at a prestigious exhibition which will draw attention to Burma as an attractive place to visit, a tourism newspaper said. The exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art will focus on the religious art of Southeast Asia's ancient kingdoms. "It features 160 stone, terracotta and bronze sculptures of which 22 are from [Burma], the first pieces of art loaned by Rangoon after emerging from decades of international isolation," said TTR Weekly. "We are especially honored that the government of Myanmar has signed its first-ever international loan agreement in order to lend their national treasures to this exhibition," museum director Thomas Campbell told TTR Weekly. The beautifully presented and painstakingly curated "Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia 5th to 8th Century," opens next Monday and runs until 27 July. The exhibition, which will also feature art from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, opens on April 14 and last until the end of July. Curator John Guy said the museum attracts over 6 million visitors a year and Southeast Asia "could expect spin-off benefits such as enhanced tourism and cultural cooperation." Indian Firm Says It's Still Hopeful of Share in Burma's Offshore Oil Hunt Indian state-owned oil and gas developer ONGC Videsh said that despite failing to win any of Burma's offshore exploration blocks awarded in March it still expects to be involved in the industry's development. Videsh had a swap arrangement with another international bidder which did win a block in the bidding round for 30 offshore blocks, India's Business Standard said. "We had a pre-bid understanding with an international oil company that if we were to win any shallow-water acreage, they will farm-in [take a share], Videsh managing director S. P. Garg told the newspaper. "Similarly, in case that company was successful in picking up any of the deep-sea acreages it bid for, we would get a stake." Gard declined to identify its potential partner. The firms that won deep-water bids are: Total, Ophir Energy, Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Mitsui Oil, ConocoPhillips and Statoil. Bangkok's Failure to Sign Labor Conventions 'Hurts Migrant Workers' The continuing problems of Burmese migrant workers in Thailand are directly linked with the fact that Bangkok has never signed international agreements on worker rights, a European NGO chief said. "Thailand hasn't ratified the core conventions on freedom of association and collective bargaining and migrants are not allowed to form trade unions," the executive director of Finnwatch, Sonja Vartiala, told The Irrawaddy. "Migrant workers are not able to represent themselves". Finnwatch, based in Helsinki, has published a new report exposing a range of labor abuses in factories in southern Thailand involving mainly Burmese migrant workers. These include below legal minimum pay, forced long hours without rest, and use of child labor. The NGO draws attention to goods imported by Finland and other European countries from factories in Thailand where workers are badly treated. "In the end it's always about the price—getting the products manufactured at the cheapest price possible," said Vartiala. The post The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (April 12, 2014) appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
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