Stand by themselves

Aung Hla Tun reports for Reuters:

Myanmar's junta lashed out at offers of foreign aid on Thursday, criticizing donors' demands for access to the Irrawaddy delta and saying Cyclone Nargis' 2.4 million victims could "stand by themselves". "The people from Irrawaddy can survive on self-reliance without chocolate bars donated by foreign countries," the Kyemon newspaper said in a Burmese-language editorial.

The Burmese people can always "stand by themselves" according to the junta. It doesn't matter how poor and helpless they are. The government just does not care.

Cry Tears for Burma -- A letter

Once, this was Thabyekyaing village, a quiet coastal village in Labutta township, Ayeyawaddy Division. Once, the laughter of children filled the air as they played football or toke-si-do in the fields and yards. Once, men went out on fishing boats or worked in the fields. Women planted rice, fetched water and firewood and kitchen fires burnt brightly.

Once, on Sunday mornings, the church bell would ring and people would gather to sing, praise and worship god and listen to the pastor, Rev. Maung Bay's or his son, Pastor Klo Htoo's sermons. Once, on Lenten days the monastery gong would sound and the Buddhists would go to hear the Sayadaw's sermons while observing a fast. Once, the village was shady with fruit trees, the gardens with vegetables and the fields green with rice plants or yellow during harvest time.

Now, there is an eerie silence over what once was Thabye Gyaung. The sound of laughter, song and raucous shouting is stilled. The trees, the fields, the houses, school, church, monastery, clinic are no more. Now, what remains is death and destruction, bloated bodies, shattered lives.

On the night of May 2, the cyclone Nargis with gale force winds, rain and sea water that rose to 17 feet and higher destroyed the village and all the life that had made up that village.

The pastor, Thra Maung Bay, MIT (Burma Divinity School Certificate) Class of 1969 died in that disaster. Once, in 1992, Thra Maung Bay had faced flood waters, that time of a political nature in what is known as Bogalay Ayay-Akin (Bogalay Affair). Pro-democracy forces had infiltrated the delta region from across the border. Thra Maung Bay was interrogated, tortured and sent to prison. But once released, he went back to his village and people and ministered to them as best he could in spite of his broken health. His son, Saw Klo Htoo, following the steps of his father went to seminary, Karen Baptist Theological Seminary for his Bachelor of Theology and after graduation became a pastor. But on that fateful night, Pastor Saw Klo Htoo also died, never fulfilling his dream of studying at MIT. Mrs. Maung Bay, a KBTS graduate, survived as she was visiting relatives in Rangoon at that time. Now, she is alone, without family, home and village.

This family's, this village's, tragedy is replicated in the areas struck by Nargis Cyclone, Haingyi Island, Labutta, Bogalay, Daydaye, Pyapon, Mawlamyinegyun and Rangoon and nearby towns. The latest government figure of deaths (12 May '08) is 85,000 the final figure will be higher. Relief work is going on but at a slow rate. Relief goods are accepted but not personnel with expertise. Some camps are experiencing medical problems. Some people still in isolated pockets are without food and water. In Bassein, there are over 2000 survivors in Ko Tha Byu Camp with more arriving every day.

In the Myanmar Baptist Convention, the hardest hits are Karen Baptist Convention, Pwo Karen Baptist Conference, and Myanmar Baptist Churches Union and Asho Chin Baptist Convention. Karen Baptist Convention reported over 39 villages totally destroyed in Bassein area alone and 13 pastors dead. The Self-Supporting Kayin Baptist Churches also report destruction of churches, seminary and houses.

The Myanmar Baptist Convention Headquarters suffered damages totaling about kyats 1500 lahks. It was to host the Myanmar Council of Churches Bienniel General Meeting on May 20-24 but now had postponed to middle of June.

Myanmar Council of Churches' main meeting hall is wrecked and some glass windows were blown off. Judson church's roof was also damaged and worship services could not be carried out.

The Myanmar Institute of Theology's buildings' roofs were lifted off and the computer lab with 12 computers totally water logged. Our newly appointed chaplain, Dr. Khin Kyu Kyu has just moved in to the Guest Apartment and she agrees with Neil and Diana Sowards that the apartment should be named "Falling Waters," though very different from Frank Lloyd Wright's model house, "Falling Waters" in America. Trees fell on Alan Po's, Ashee's and U Tha Wah's houses. The roofs are all gone. Alan and Nyunt moved to Maharsaung Dining Hall just in time.

The Rangoon streets are blocked with fallen trees and electric posts. Water and electricity is a problem. BARS classes have been suspended until further notice. Summer School closed for a few days but have re-started. Master of Ministry classes started today but some students from Bassein area are too busy with relief works to attend.

The Myanmar Institute of Christian Theology had pushed back the opening date of 2008-2009 academic year to September because of lack of electricity, water, building repairs and rising costs of rice and other food commodities. The Myanmar Institute of Theology will hold a meeting on May 14 on how best to carry on with limited resources. Dr. Simon and Faculty are determined to begin classes as scheduled. The main costs will be diesel oil to run the generators for light and water and food costs. It's a challenge as we face the ATESEA Accreditation team visit in August.

Say Pa and I had the roofing over one bedroom blown off and water in the bedroom so our computer also is water logged. 23 fell in our compound. Some mango and jackfruit trees planted by my mother but still bearing fruit. Workers were very scarce at this time for repair work and cutting trees and clearing the land. Our loss is minuscule compared to the loss of family, homes and villages suffered by so many people.

You will want to know how to respond to this disaster. We certainly need your prayers. The people also need aid to recover from destruction of this magnitude. Please send donations to MCC, MBC, KBC, PKBC who are directly doing ground level relief work. MCC is coordinating with various NGOs and ecumenical partners to provide immediate relief. Send financial help only to trusted individuals. There are many people profiting from this disaster. The merchants are raising their prices and even some relief goods do not reach the victims but are being sold off. So be careful in your response.

MIT needs help with buying 12 computers for BARS program, roofing and other building materials for staff houses, Mahasaound and Ann Judson Villa, diesel to run generators (for now only water is available for Mahasaung where there are 2 section, for male/female use), funds to buy food commodities for 180 hostel students.

Cry for bleeding, suffering Burma she is so small, her people struggling so long for survival. It seems as if not only political forces but God herself/himself is determined to teach us some sensible lessons. Sermons nowadays sound like platitudes. Our land and our people are being put through the wringer, squeezed dry till there is no more life juice left. Cry with us, cry for us in solidarity in our despair.

Anna May Say Pa
13 May 2008

Nargis

Photos from our colleagues on the ground

Please join our relief efforts through the various Christian organizations in Burma.

Evacuation

A dead body

The injured

Helping each other out

They need your help

Diary by Andrew Kirkwood and unsung heroes in Burma

Burma diary - the relief effort

Andrew Kirkwood, Burma director of Save the Children, has been keeping a diary of his life in Rangoon in the days following Cyclone Nargis.

It's a good source coming from someone on the ground.

Read his diary here and here.

Burmese people helping each other out

A few days ago, I wrote about DIY, in which I elaborated how we, the Burmese, have learned to struggle through hardships by being creative and innovative. That spirit is seen in the hard work of volunteers in reaching out to the cyclone victims.

From the Irrawaddy:

"Since I don't have the means to provide cash or kind, I contribute labor by helping distribute relief goods," said Nyi Nyi, a 21-year-old university student. "Whenever we distribute rice and clothing, I can see the faces of the cyclone victims light up. It is very rewarding to see them smile."

"They are true humanitarian heroes," said Bridget Gardner, the International Red Cross representative in Burma, after touring an area where volunteers were giving first aid to the injured.

After enduring decades of poverty and government oppression, Burmese people are known for their resilience, having learned to depend on each other from day to day especially in times of crisis.

The gospel according to the New Light of Myanmar and the truth on the ground

The gospel according to the New Light of Myanmar

Here is an excerpt from the New Light of Myanmar, May 8, 2008 issue.

At the relief camp of Kungyangon BEHS No 2, Lt-Gen Myint Swe and the ministers met with the storm-hit victims and presented foodstuff, purified drinking water and tarpaulin to them.

A cultural note for the Burmese: If you have lived in a free and open society (or fake democratic Singapore) long enough, there is something about the above picture that will make you irk.

Today, canned fish, coffeemix packets, instant noodles, biscuits, blankets, tarpaulin, clothes, soap, purified drinking water and pencils weighing 2.5 tons were distributed to the victims of Twantay and Kungyangon townships. Lt-Gen Myint Swe and Minister Maj-Gen Hla Tun left there by helicopter and arrived back here in the afternoon.

The truth on the ground

The disaster response teams in Burma are ill-equipped, and lack material support. Here is an email from Sakhorn Boongullaya, who is in charge of logistics operations for all UN and NGO in mobilizing food and relief supplies to the survivors.

From: Sakhorn Boongullaya [mailto:Sakhorn.Boongullaya@wfp.org]
Sent: Sunday, May 11, 2008 6:47 PM
To: Myanmar Nouveau Company Limited
Dear all,
I need all help from our community. I need trucks, waterway transport, warehouse space up to 10,000 tons capacity. I am in charge of logistics operation for all UN and NGO in mobilizing food, and relief supplies to help those affected people from Cyclone Nargis, one and half million people that we are helping now. If you have any contact of the said pls advise them to come and see me at UN building on the Namuak road, Yangon, or call 09-5007688, 09-8601279.
Contact Sakhorn or my staff, Nyunt Win Htay.
We are not asking for free but we will pay. Please please help.
Many thanks and best regards,
Sakhorn
UN WFP Logistics

A kid who needs warm clothes and better shelter [Photo: Khin Maung Win (AFP)]

AFP photos

http://burmachannel.com/nargis/?path=./&page=0

DIY

Photo from LA Times: the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis

LA Times said: MAKING DO: Using basic hand tools, two men in Yangon, like many Myanmar residents, are performing much of the cleanup work themselves for lack of foreign or domestic assistance.

DIY Way of Life

We, the Burmese, are used to solving problems on our own because we all know our government does not care about us. Almost everything in Burma is DIY (Do It Yourself), to borrow a geeky terms.

Electricity

In our town in Southern Burma, the electricity from the government is not reliable at all (We honor Thomas Alva Edison every day by staying in the dark) Guess what the solution of the community is? A well-to-do family would buy a generator and install power line -- only the home-quality one -- to each house in the street, who wants the electricity. The family runs the generator, let's say, from 6:00 PM till 9:00 PM. The family then collects the fees every two weeks, based on the number of fluorescent lamps you have agreed to install in the first place. How democratic and market-oriented our community is! :)

Telecommunication

Burmese migrants in Thailand have been using the family-run telephone exchange in the border area to call their family back home. Here is what you do. You dial a Thailand registered number of the family-owned telephone switch in the border and tell them the number in Burma you are trying to call. The exchange having several phones registered both in Thailand and Burma, can route your call from Thailand's phone system to Burma's. You have just dialed a telephone number in Thailand and yet you are talking to your family in Burma. They collect the fees at the end of the month based on how many minutes you talked (or hours if you talked to your sweethearts :). Well, the Burmese have just installed a home-made telephone switch without any investment from governments or businesses.

Survival of the Fittest

We have learned to survive and live with inefficiencies, thanks to our government. The educated Burmese also acknowledge that this is not good in the long run. But what else can we do, except to live with it? To fight the mighty guns pointing at us is an insurmountable task (at least for me).

Back to Nargis

If the government does not care about the victims, and relief experts cannot get to ground zero in time, we will have to do what it takes to survive. Not a good solution, I agree. But what else can we do? What would you do?

Help as much as you can

This morning, I talked to one of my former students from the seminary (Myanmar Institute of Theology), who lives in Shwe Pyi Thar, a poor suburb north of Rangoon. He is highly educated, graduated from the best seminary in Burma (Myanmar) with a degree in English, and very bright. He said he and his family were fine. But people in his neighborhood in Shwe Pyi Thar were going hungry. He said he was quite depressed, not knowing what to do next. If a bright and educated person like him is depressed, please think of how poor and uneducated families who have nothing to eat and no shelter will have in their minds right now.

The victims cannot wait for MRTV (Myanmar Radio and Television) crews to come in with some government officials handing out nicely packed rice bags or Mama noodle from Thai army.

So please act with your own network as much as you can to mobilize the people in the ground so the relief aids will get to the victims before they die of diseases and hunger or MRTV get there. :)

Weak planning and slow decision making

Weather Forecast from the Burmese official newspaper (Photo taken from Khin Min Zaw's blog)

The above warning on April 29 in the state-owned newspaper said the storm would not be devastating and the wind would be only 40-45 miles per hour.

Mungpi from Mizzima reported:

Though Burma's Meteorology and Hydrology department posted a warning on its official website on April 27, the information was not widely disseminated. The department said that a cyclone was forming in the Bay of Bengal and was heading towards Burma.

State-run media did not issue a cyclone alert until the afternoon of Friday, May 2. The storm first struck the Irrawaddy Delta in late afternoon Friday and swept into Rangoon early Saturday.

Many Rangoon residents said they missed the announcement, broadcast on state-run TV and radio, which usually runs state propaganda.

If Rangoon residents missed the announcement, the worst hit delta residents would not even get wind of it. Here is Mungpi's report again:

"Though my daughters said they knew about the announcement, I was not aware of the cyclone because I am not interested in watching TV, and there was no public announcement in the locality," said a Rangoon resident whose house was smashed by a falling tree.

A leading Thai meteorological expert said the failure to issue a timely warning may have costs thousands of innocent lives.

Dr. Smith Dharmasaroja, chairman of Thailand's National Disaster Warning Centre, said the Burmese government's response was insufficient.

"The government must issue an early warning and send teams to evacuate villagers in the disaster-prone zones as a preparation for the cyclone," Dr. Smith told Mizzima.

Dr. Smith famously predicted that a tsunami would strike Thailand long before the deadly Indian Ocean waves of December 2004, but was widely ignored.

While it is important for the government to issue an announcement, the warnings must be properly disseminated, Dr. Smith said. The authorities must also take precautionary steps, including relocating villagers in the path of the predicted cyclone to higher ground.

The Burmese officials ignored warnings from Indian Meteorology Department and Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) (McCartan, 2008). On a side note, Thai government also ignores Tsunami warning in 2004. (This shows how ASEAN governments do not give planning and decision-making powers to the officials in the field and do not care about the poor and weak).

As of the latest situations, Burmese government is very slow in issuing visas for relief workers (Denby, 2008). They are working at a snail space while people will be left to struggle on their own in the delta areas in Burma.

Holmes [the emergency relief coordinator of the United Nations and under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs] said that during discussions with Burmese officials, the explanation given for the delay in issuing visas was that it was a question that needed to be decided by higher authorities. (Jha, 2008)

I am sure the officials are covering their asses waiting for the decisions from "higher authorities" at the expense of suffering victims who need help right now.

Source:
Denby, K. (2008, May 7). Burma junta drags its feet over visas for aid workers as cyclone victims suffer. The Times Online. Retrieved May 8, 2008 from http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3887278.ece
Jha, L.K. (2008, May 8). UN Frustrated over Visa, Custom Delays The Irrawaddy. Retrieved May 8, 2008 from http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=11837
McCartan, B. (2008, May 7). Myanmar courts political disaster The Asia Times Online. Retrieved May 8, 2008 from http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/JE08Ae01.html
Mungpi. (2008, May 6). Burma knew of cyclone nearly a week before it hit. The Mizzima. Retrieved May 7, 2008 from http://www.mizzima.com/nargis-impact/18-nargis-impact/445--burma-knew-of-cyclone-nearly-a-week-before-it-hit

ကံဆိုးမ သွားလေရာ မိုးလိုက်လို့ရွာ

Cyclone Nargis hits Burma

Severe tropical cyclone Nargis lashed Myanmar's main city Saturday, downing power lines and tearing rooves off houses as residents took shelter in their homes as they waited for the storm to pass.

Electricity supplies in Yangon have been cut since late Friday night as the storm bore down from the Bay of Bengal, packing winds of 190-240 kilometres (120-150 miles) per hour, residents said.

Meteorologists have warned of a tidal surge up to 3.5 metres (12 feet) due to the cyclone.

State-run radio was off the air Saturday and Internet connections were down, with even government sites unavailable.

The storm ripped the rooves off several houses in the city. There were no immediate reports of casualties but a Red Cross official said they had lost contact with Ayeyawaddy district since Friday.

Read more at AFP.

UN Begins Food Distribution in Cyclone-ravaged Burma

The agency [the UN's World Food Program] now has more than 800 metric tons of food stocks in Rangoon, "and will deliver these food resources to all areas in need," it said. The agency also plans to airlift additional supplies into Burma, such as high-energy biscuits, "as soon as possible." (Higgins, 2008)

I think the response is very slow from authorities concerned regarding the dispatch of rescue teams, experts and food supplies to the most affected areas. Nobody seems to know the exact time when the rescue team will be at ground zero. The locals are left to struggle on their own, which is quite a norm in Asian countries. I hope that food and aids will get there to the locals "as soon as possible", to quote the World Food Program Agency.

According to an email from one of the employees from the World Food Program (WFP), the WFP officials have met with the Burmese Deputy Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Recovery. The government officials mentioned that the needs for affected areas were:

• Shelters (iron sheets, nails, plastic sheets)
• Medicine
• Water purifying tablets
• Drinking water
• Hand saws and chain saws

They have set up a distribution channel from the Yangon (Rangoon) International airport to Pathein (Bassein). A liaising team at the airport will accept the donated materials and deliver them by helicopters from Yangon (Rangoon) to Pathein (Bassein). The social welfare department will then deliver the donated materials to the Pathein (Bassein) communities.

I didn't see any mentioning of how to get to the affected villages yet.

Source:
Higgins, A.G. (2008, May 7). UN Begins Food Distribution in Cyclone-ravaged Burma. The Irrawaddy. Retrieved May 7, 2008 from http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=11807

Thein Sein and Samak

Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein, left, and his Thai counterpart Samak Sundaravej. (Photo: AP)

There is something about this picture that made me want to print it here even though I don't have the permission to do so -- my apology to the AP photographer. Please look at the picture again and draw your own conclusion.

Thai PM jokes that neighbor Myanmar's draft constitution offers a '50 percent democracy'

Thailand's prime minister joked Wednesday that neighboring Myanmar is striving to become a "50 percent democracy" because the ruling junta's draft constitution would keep detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from elected office.

"Myanmar's prime minister said they are holding the referendum on the constitution because they want the world community to know that Myanmar is a democracy lover," Samak said on behalf of Thein Sein, who declined to speak to reporters.

It's beyond me why Thein Sein wouldn't speak to the reporters. He basically let the world know that the prime minister of Burma is a useless puppet, who couldn't speak for himself. Thai prime minister had to speak for him. What a shame!

Source:
Thai PM jokes that neighbor Myanmar's draft constitution offers a '50 percent democracy' (2008, April 30). The International Herald Tribune. Retrieved May 1, 2008 from http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/30/asia/AS-GEN-Thailand-Myanmar.php

Those who dare

The lights had gone down, the film was about to begin, and the young Thai couple were cosily ensconced in the big Bangkok cinema when the popcorn started flying. Most of it landed on the woman, hurled by a man to her right. Soon he was slapping her with a rolled-up film flyer, and screaming at her and her boyfriend to get out of the cinema.

As the rest of the audience joined in, jeering, throwing water bottles and urging on the assailant, the two made their retreat. The incident reached its climax this week when the boyfriend, Chotisak Onsoong, was charged with an offence that could land him in jail for 15 years. His alleged crime was simple: during the playing of the royal anthem which precedes all films in Thai cinemas, he had remained in his seat.

Mr Chotisak, a 27-year old businessman and political activist, is the latest person to be prosecuted under Thailands stringent lèse majesté laws, which make it a crime to defame, insult or threaten the King, Queen or heir to the throne.

Unquestionably, many Thais revere 80-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej, whose image is seen in almost every office, many homes and on giant billboards hung every few hundred yards above Thailands roads. But others see the law as a tool of oppression and a means of intimidating those who peacefully question the status quo.

"Not standing up is not an offence against anyone --- that's what I think," Mr Chotisak said in yesterdays Bangkok Post, after being charged on Tuesday. "The public have the right to make a choice whether to rise or not . . . I would like to stress that what I did was not intended to insult or express vengeance to the King. I was simply enjoying my right to freedom of expression." In Thailand academics struggle for the right even to discuss the monarchy, let alone criticise it. And in recent years there has been an increase in accusations of lèse majesté.

Mr Chotisak is that rare thing in Thailand --- an overt Republican. His girlfriend is a Muslim, and objects to the idolisation of a human. But their ordeal was mild, compared with those of some dissenters.

I have to respect Chotisak, who is brave enough to challenge and question status quo. He also said the following:

"In a country where the majority of the people eat rice and I choose to eat noodles, it is my right to choose. It's legal."

Source:
Parry, R.L. (2008, April 24). Filmgoer faces jail in Thailand for sitting during the national anthem. Times Online. Retrieved April 24, 2008 from http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3803939.ece
Thai activist challenges royalist ritual at nation's cinemas (2008, April 25). The International Herald Tribune. Retrieved April 25, 2008 from http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/25/asia/AS-GEN-Thailand-Royal-Anthem.php

People as tourist magnets By Christiane Oelrich

The residents of the village of long-necked women in northern Thailand say they feel like prisoners in a human zoo. The government says that is absurd.

Kayan Tayar, Mae Hong Son (dpa) - When Mu La talks, her voice sounds muffled because of the 27 heavy brass rings that the 44-year-old wears around her neck.

But the message from the refugee from Burma - who lives in northern Mae Hong Son province in a mock village purpose-built for tourists - is crystal-clear: "We want to leave here, never mind where to, only away from here. We feel like prisoners."

Visitors call the village a "human zoo," but Thailand's government rejects the term as "absurd."

Mu La is a member of an ethnic group whose women wear brass rings around their necks as status symbols. For them, the longer the neck, the more beautiful the woman.

Their rings can weigh 10 kilogrammes or more, and over the years, the weight pushes down the collar bones and shoulders, making necks appear longer and giving the women their nicknames of "long-necked" or "giraffe" women.

They are part of an ethnic group called the Padung in Thailand, but they reject that term as denigrating and call themselves Kayan and their village Kayan Tayar.

An Italian tourist couple has paid an entrance fee of 250 baht ($8) each to visit Kayan Tayar, which lies at the end of an unpaved road north-west of the provincial capital of Mae Hong Son.

The young woman shoots photos while repeatedly muttering, "Incredible," and getting as close to her subjects as her lens permits.

The village's oldest female resident, Ma Le, 80, was undisturbed. She is used to such intrusions.

"Sometimes we receive three or four, sometimes up to 20 tour groups a day," says Mu La, sitting on her wooden hut's veranda and weaving a scarf.

The village's huts are built on stilts because the dirt track in front of them is regularly flooded in the wet season. There is no electricity.

"The tourists think we are primitive people," 23-year-old Zember says. "The guides say they don't want to see good roads or clean villages or anything modern, so we have to live like this to please the tourists."

When business is good and enough tour groups arrive, each of the 60 women wearing neck rings receives 1,500 baht a month from the village's Thai operators. The children and men get nothing at all, so the money has to support all 260 villagers.

During the off season, they get nothing, the villagers say. They rely heavily on donations from charities to survive.

Like most of her fellow villagers, Mu La fled her home country in the late 1980s to escape its brutal military regime.

"The soldiers came all the time," she says.

They forced the men to become porters on the front lines of the government's war against rebel armies and drove the women ahead of their ranks in case land mines were laid in their path.

She and many like her fled. Initially, she was sent to one of the many refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese border.

But when Thai business people recognized the money-earning potential of the exotic-looking women, they suggested they move to three artificial villages near Mae Hong Son.

Some of the families aren't bothered that they have become "tourism magnets."

The village of Huay Sua Thao is populated mainly by economic migrants who were enticed to settle there to create a tourist attraction. Most of the villagers agree that their current lives are better than in Burma.

There also are people in the village of Huay Pu Keng who don't complain about their lot.

"We hope that more and more tourists will come," 52-year-old Mu Nan says.

She weaves shawls and sells souvenirs in front of her hut. She has worn her neck rings since she was a small child and says she has gotten used to tourists gawking.

She intends to sit it out until "better times arrive" and then return to Burma once peace returns, but Mu La in Kayan Tayar has given up hope after almost 20 years as a refugee.

In 2005, she applied with 20 other people from the three tourist villages for resettlement to New Zealand. The country accepted them and the United Nations agreed to cover the air fare, but her plan to start a new life was shattered when the Thai authorities refused to issue an exit visa.

"Those who don't live in the temporary shelters are not considered as refugees," says Tharit Charungvat, a spokesman for Thailand's Foreign Ministry in Bangkok. To grant the exit visas "would be unfair to those in the camps who are waiting in line for resettlement," he says.

"Apart from that, they voluntarily went to live outside of their camps," he adds. "They are free and earn money."

But the term "free" leaves a bitter taste in the villagers' mouths.

If they are caught outside their villages, they are arrested, they say, because they are not permitted to seek jobs elsewhere.

Kayan Tayar's women are particularly upset. They think the Thai authorities might deny them exit visas so their country doesn't lose a lucrative tourist attraction.

Disillusioned and angry, some of them decided to protest by removing their neck rings. They say they hope this makes it easier to get exit visas.

One of them, Zember, recalls: "After I had learned English, I was shocked when I finally understood the tourists' comments. They said they were disgusted that we displayed ourselves for a little money like animals in a zoo."

That was never the case, she insists. She remembers that she once was proud of her neck rings and that she even wanted to wear more.

"I wanted to be a proud Kayan woman," she says.

Today, Zember looks like any other young woman. "I just want to lead a normal life," she says defiantly.

Only her sloping shoulders belie her past years of wearing the heavy rings.

Mu La, a mother of eight, also contemplates taking off her 27 rings, which give her the longest neck in the village.

"I am proud of our tradition," she says but concedes that she is willing to sacrifice for a ticket to freedom.

"If that is the only way for me to leave here, I will take them all off," she asserts.

Ma Lo, another young woman, is equally frustrated and fed up with living in the village. She took her rings off, too.

There is a picture postcard in circulation that shows her breastfeeding her baby. Nobody asked her permission to publish the photo.

"I was so ashamed when I saw the postcard for the first time, but I couldn't do anything against it," she says. "I don't want to be treated like an exhibit anymore. I want some respect."

Source:
Oelrich, C. (2008, April 28). People as tourist magnets. Bangkok Post.

Illegal Burmese Labor Fuels Thailand Economy by William Boot

The deaths of more than 50 Burmese migrants last week in a sealed container truck transporting them to illicit jobs in southern Thailand starkly illustrates the growing reliance Thailand places on unofficial labor to help run its economy.

The Thai authorities acknowledge that there may be 1 million Burmese migrant workers living in Thailand, yet Thailands Migrant Assistance Program recently recorded that only 367,834 were registered with work permits in 2007.

Various NGOs campaigning for the rights of abused minorities and refugees say the number of illegal Burmese in Thailand is closer to 1.5 million. Many of them are children.

The Migrant Worker Group, a coalition of NGOs pressing for human rights, documents many instances of abuse by employers.

The MWG estimates that illegal Burmese laborers, especially in the booming construction industry, are paid up to 50 percent less than Thai unskilled labor and have no rights.

Migrant workers are very badly regarded and very badly treated by Thai society, wrote academic and former Thai Senator Jon Ungphakorn in the Bangkok Post. Yet it is hard to imagine how our economy would manage without them.

Ungphakorn says that since illegal laborers are not taking jobs away from Thais they should all be given legal status and employment rights.

Source:
Boot, W. (2008, April 19). Weekly Business Roundup. The Irrawaddy. Retrieved April 23, 2008 from http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=11461&page=1

A boom at the border By William Sparrow

I went to a "mom and pop" store for cigarettes. A very young woman was handling the transaction; thin, long hair, long legs, pretty face with no makeup. I wondered if she was 18.

As she turned and descended into the dark shop, an elderly women, presumably a relative, emerged from the shadows. She lunged from her seat, sensing opportunity. "You want she?" the woman asked, meaning "her" - the young woman.

I was shocked and caught off-guard and couldn't respond. In the silence, the elder woman continued "You want daughter? You take," she said, pointing. "Have hotel. Fifteen dollar."

"No," I said firmly. With that, the old woman scowled and slunk back to her seat.

The shop girl never met my eyes as she handed over the cigarettes. Still, I perceived a small smile.

A sex slave working as a shop girl; a young woman being sold by her own mother. It was a sad situation that I won't soon forget. Sadly, scenes like this will likely continue until the Myanmar government can improve the lives of its 55 million people. I was overcome by this realization as I settled the bill in that tiny shop on the Myanmar-Thai border.

As I turned to leave, I heard the shop girl whisper "thank you".

Read more at Asia Times

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