The Hidden History Of Burma Race Capitalism And The Crisis Of Democracy In The 21st Century

Author : Thant Myint-U
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2019-11-12
Category : History
ISBN : 9781324003304

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The Hidden History of Burma: Race, Capitalism, and the Crisis of Democracy in the 21st Century by Thant Myint-U Pdf

How did one of the world’s "buzzy hotspots" (Fodor’s 2013) become one of the top ten places to avoid (Fodor’s 2018)? Precariously positioned between China and India, Burma’s population has suffered dictatorship, natural disaster, and the dark legacies of colonial rule. But when decades of military dictatorship finally ended and internationally beloved Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi emerged from long years of house arrest, hopes soared. World leaders such as Barack Obama ushered in waves of international support. Progress seemed inevitable. As historian, former diplomat, and presidential advisor, Thant Myint-U saw the cracks forming. In this insider’s diagnosis of a country at a breaking point, he dissects how a singularly predatory economic system, fast-rising inequality, disintegrating state institutions, the impact of new social media, the rise of China next door, climate change, and deep-seated feelings around race, religion, and national identity all came together to challenge the incipient democracy. Interracial violence soared and a horrific exodus of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees fixed international attention. Myint-U explains how and why this happened, and details an unsettling prognosis for the future. Burma is today a fragile stage for nearly all the world’s problems. Are democracy and an economy that genuinely serves all its people possible in Burma? In clear and urgent prose, Myint-U explores this question—a concern not just for the Burmese but for the rest of the world—warning of the possible collapse of this nation of 55 million while suggesting a fresh agenda for change.

Author : Thant Myint-U
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2021-03-04
Category : History
ISBN : 1786497905

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The Hidden History of Burma by Thant Myint-U Pdf

Author : Åshild Kolås
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 167 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2019-06-17
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781000300833

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Women, Peace and Security in Myanmar by Åshild Kolås Pdf

This book describes women’s efforts as agents for change in Myanmar and examines the potential of the peace process as an opportunity for women’s empowerment. Following decades of political turbulence, the volume describes the contributions of women in Myanmar in the midst of a difficult peace process and reflects on the significance of the Women, Peace and Security agenda in this context. The book examines how women have mobilized for peace, while also addressing women’s participation in the conflict, and investigates the perspectives and aims of women’s organizations and the challenges and aspirations of women activists in Myanmar’s ethnic areas. Contributions in the volume discuss and critically assess the argument that war and peacebuilding add momentum to the transformation of gender roles. By presenting new knowledge on women’s disempowerment and empowerment in conflict, and their participation in peacebuilding, this book adds important insights into the debate on gender and political change in societies affected by conflict. This book will be of interest to students of peace and conflict studies, gender studies and security studies in general.

Author : Thant Myint-U
Publisher : Faber & Faber
Page : 378 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2011-08-18
Category : History
ISBN : 9780571277780

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Where China Meets India by Thant Myint-U Pdf

China and India have always been seperated not only by the Himalayas, but also by the impenetrable jungle and remote areas that once stretched across Burma. Now this last great frontier will likely vanish - forests cut down, dirt roads replaced by superhighways, insurgencies ended - leaving China and India exposed to each other as never before. This basic shift in geography is as profound as the opening of the Suez Canal and is taking place just as the centre of the world's economy moves to the East. Thant Myint-U has travelled extensively across this vast territory, where high-speed trains and gleaming shopping malls now sit alongside the last remaining forests and impoverished mountain communities. In Where China Meets India he explores the new strategic centrality of Burma, the country of his ancestry, where Asia's two rising giant powers - China and India - appear to be vying for supremacy. Part travelogue, part history, part investigation, Where China Meets India takes us across the fast-changing Asian frontier, giving us a masterful account of the region's long and rich history and its sudden significance for the rest of the world. Thant Myint-U is the author of The River of Lost Footsteps and has written articles for the New York Times, the Washington Post and the New Statesman. He has worked alongside Kofi Annan at the UN's Department of Political Affairs and currently works as a special consultant to the Burmese government.

Author : Mary Patricia Callahan
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Page : 300 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Burma
ISBN : 0801472679

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Making Enemies by Mary Patricia Callahan Pdf

The Burmese army took political power in Burma in 1962 and has ruled the country ever since. The persistence of this government--even in the face of long-term nonviolent opposition led by activist Aung San Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991--has puzzled scholars. In a book relevant to current debates about democratization, Mary P. Callahan seeks to explain the extraordinary durability of the Burmese military regime. In her view, the origins of army rule are to be found in the relationship between war and state formation.Burma's colonial past had seen a large imbalance between the military and civil sectors. That imbalance was accentuated soon after formal independence by one of the earliest and most persistent covert Cold War conflicts, involving CIA-funded Kuomintang incursions across the Burmese border into the People's Republic of China. Because this raised concerns in Rangoon about the possibility of a showdown with Communist China, the Burmese Army received even more autonomy and funding to protect the integrity of the new nation-state.The military transformed itself during the late 1940s and the 1950s from a group of anticolonial guerrilla bands into the professional force that seized power in 1962. The army edged out all other state and social institutions in the competition for national power. Making Enemies draws upon Callahan's interviews with former military officers and her archival work in Burmese libraries and halls of power. Callahan's unparalleled access allows her to correct existing explanations of Burmese authoritarianism and to supply new information about the coups of 1958 and 1962.

Author : Thant Myint-U,Thant Myint-U.
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 300 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2001-03-26
Category : History
ISBN : 0521799147

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The Making of Modern Burma by Thant Myint-U,Thant Myint-U. Pdf

"Burma has often been portrayed as a timeless place, a country of egalitarian Buddhist villages, ruled successively by autocratic kings, British colonialists and, most recently, a military dictatorship. The Making of Modern Burma argues instead that many aspects of Burmese society today, from the borders of the state to the social structure of the countryside to the very notion of a Burmese or Burman identity, are largely the creations of the nineteenth century, a period of great change, away from the Ava-based polity of early modern times, and towards the 'British Burma' of the 1900s. The book provides a sophisticated and much-needed account of the period, and as such will be an important resource for policy-makers and students as a basis for understanding contemporary politics and the challenges of the modern state. It will also be read by historians interested in the British colonial expansion of the nineteenth century."--BOOK JACKET.

Author : Aung San Suu Kyi
Publisher : Penguin UK
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2010-02-04
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780141039534

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Letters From Burma by Aung San Suu Kyi Pdf

Letters from Burma - an unforgettable collection from the Nobel Peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi In these astonishing letters, Aung San Suu Kyi reaches out beyond Burma's borders to paint for her readers a vivid and poignant picture of her native land. Here she celebrates the courageous army officers, academics, actors and everyday people who have supported the National League for Democracy, often at great risk to their own lives. She reveals the impact of political decisions on the people of Burma, from the terrible cost to the children of imprisoned dissidents - allowed to see their parents for only fifteen minutes every fortnight - to the effect of inflation on the national diet and of state repression on traditions of hospitality. She also evokes the beauty of the country's seasons and scenery, customs and festivities that remain so close to her heart. Through these remarkable letters, the reader catches a glimpse of exactly what is at stake as Suu Kyi fights on for freedom in Burma, and of the love for her homeland that sustains her non-violent battle. Includes an introduction from Fergal Keane 'Aung San Suu Kyi has become a global symbol of peaceful resistance, courage and apparently endless endurance' Guardian 'A real hero in an age of phony phone-in celebrity, which hands out that title freely to the most spoiled and underqualified' Bono, Time Aung San Suu Kyi is the leader of Burma's National League for Democracy. She was placed under house arrest in Rangoon in 1989, where she remained for almost 15 of the 21 years until her release in 2010, becoming one of the world's most prominent political prisoners. She is also the author of the collection of writings Freedom from Fear.

Author : Azeem Ibrahim
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 259 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2018
Category : Burma
ISBN : 9781849049733

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The Rohingyas by Azeem Ibrahim Pdf

The Rohingya are a Muslim group who live in Rakhine state (formerly Arakan state) in western Myanmar (Burma), a majority Buddhist country. According to the United Nations, they are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. They suffer routine discrimination at the hands of neighboring Buddhist Rakhine groups, but international human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) have also accused Myanmar's authorities of being complicit in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya Muslims. The Rohingya face regular violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, extortion, and other abuses, a situation that has been particularly acute since 2012 in the wake of a serious wave of sectarian violence. Islam is practiced by around 4% of the population of Myanmar, and most Muslims also identify as Rohingya. Yet the authorities refuse to recognize this group as one of the 135 ethnic groups or 'national races' making up Myanmar's population. On this basis, Rohingya individuals are denied citizenship rights in the country of their birth, and face severe limitations on many aspects of an ordinary life, such as marriage or movement around the country. This expose of the attempt to erase the Rohingyas from the face of Myanmar is sure to gain widespread attention.

Author : Francis Wade
Publisher : Zed Books Ltd.
Page : 210 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2017-08-15
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781783605309

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Myanmar's Enemy Within by Francis Wade Pdf

For decades Myanmar has been portrayed as a case of good citizen versus bad regime – men in jackboots maintaining a suffocating rule over a majority Buddhist population beholden to the ideals of non-violence and tolerance. But in recent years this narrative has been upended. In June 2012, violence between Buddhists and Muslims erupted in western Myanmar, pointing to a growing divide between religious communities that before had received little attention from the outside world. Attacks on Muslims soon spread across the country, leaving hundreds dead, entire neighbourhoods turned to rubble, and tens of thousands of Muslims confined to internment camps. This violence, breaking out amid the passage to democracy, was spurred on by monks, pro-democracy activists and even politicians. In this gripping and deeply reported account, Francis Wade explores how the manipulation of identities by an anxious ruling elite has laid the foundations for mass violence, and how, in Myanmar’s case, some of the most respected and articulate voices for democracy have turned on the Muslim population at a time when the majority of citizens are beginning to experience freedoms unseen for half a century.

Author : Thant Myint-U
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2020-01-16
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1786497883

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The Hidden History of Burma by Thant Myint-U Pdf

Author : Sebastian Strangio
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 369 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2020-08-07
Category : History
ISBN : 9780300234039

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In the Dragon's Shadow by Sebastian Strangio Pdf

A timely look at the impact of China's booming emergence on the countries of Southeast Asia Today, Southeast Asia stands uniquely exposed to the waxing power of the new China. Three of its nations border China and five are directly impacted by its claims over the South China Sea. All dwell in the lengthening shadow of its influence: economic, political, military, and cultural. As China seeks to restore its former status as Asia's preeminent power, the countries of Southeast Asia face an increasingly stark choice: flourish within Beijing's orbit or languish outside of it. Meanwhile, as rival powers including the United States take concerted action to curb Chinese ambitions, the region has emerged as an arena of heated strategic competition. Drawing on more than a decade of on-the-ground experience, Sebastian Strangio explores the impacts of China's rise on Southeast Asia, the varied ways in which the countries of the region are responding, and what it might mean for the future balance of power in the Indo-Pacific.

Author : Thant Myint-U
Publisher : Faber & Faber
Page : 436 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2011-02-03
Category : History
ISBN : 9780571266067

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The River of Lost Footsteps by Thant Myint-U Pdf

Burma is currently ruled by a harsh dictatorship unmoved by Western activists and sanctions. It is also the sight of the longest-running conflict in the world. Drawing both on his own family's stories and his years of hands-on political experience working with the United Nations, Thant Myint-U has written an illuminating account of how Burma's rich past informs its violent present, and of how the world might transform the country's future. In The River of Lost Footsteps, Thant Myint-U tells the story of modern Burma, in part through a telling of his own family's history, in an interwoven narrative that is by turns lyrical, dramatic, and appalling. His maternal grandfather, U Thant, rose from being the schoolmaster of a small town in the Irrawaddy Delta to become the UN secretary-general in the 1960s. And on his father's side, the author is descended from a long line of courtiers who served at Burma's Court of Ava for nearly two centuries. Through their stories and others, he portrays Burma's rise and decline in the modern world, from the time of Portuguese pirates and renegade Mughal princes through the decades of British colonialism, the devastation of World War II, a sixty-year civil war that continues today, military repression and the immergence of Nobel Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.The River of Lost Footsteps is a work both personal and global, a distinctive contribution that makes Burma accessible and enthralling. Thant Myint-U is the author of Where China Meets India and has written articles for the New York Times, the Washington Post and the New Statesman.

Author : Nehginpao Kipgen
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2016
Category : History
ISBN : 0199466300

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Myanmar by Nehginpao Kipgen Pdf

Myanmar, since its independence from the British in 1948, has witnessed decades of military dictatorship, a plethora of ethnic and political problems, and an arduous struggle to political normalcy and democracy. Reinventing its place in international trade, diplomacy, and geo-strategy, Myanmar today presents a complex pictureand how it engages with its own history plays an important part in this process of transformation. Myanmar: A Political History examines the politico-historical antecedents of contemporary Myanmar: from colonial rule to the establishment of its first civilian government; the subsequent fall into military dictatorship; and the transition from an authoritarian regime to a democratic government. Kipgen weaves in its relations with the United States, Myanmars political, economic, and military connect with China; IndiaMyanmar relations in the context of Indias Look East policy; and Myanmars cooperation problems on human rights within the ASEAN. Lucid and well researched, this book is a valuable guide to those interested in the future of Myanmar as well as South and Southeast Asia, to understand the historical knowledge as to how different political actors played differing roles in the countrys transition across governments.

Author : Jessica Mudditt
Publisher : Jessica Mudditt
Page : 313 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2021-05-08
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780648914235

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Our Home in Myanmar by Jessica Mudditt Pdf

Myanmar – shrouded in mystery, misunderstood and isolated for half a century. After a whirlwind romance in Bangladesh, Australian journalist Jessica Mudditt and her Bangladeshi husband Sherpa arrive in Yangon in 2012 – just as the military junta is beginning to relax its ironclad grip on power. It is a high-risk atmosphere; a life riddled with chaos and confusion as much as it is with wonder and excitement. Jessica joins a small team of old-hand expat editors at The Myanmar Times, whose Burmese editor is still languishing in prison. Whether she is covering a speech by Aung San Suu Kyi, getting dangerously close to cobras, directing cover shoots with Burmese models, or scaling Bagan’s thousand-year-old temples, Jessica is entranced and challenged by a country undergoing rapid change. But as the historic elections of 2015 draw near, it becomes evident that the road to democracy is full of twists, turns and false starts. The couple is blindsided when a rise in militant Buddhism takes a personal turn and challenges their belief that they have found a home in Myanmar.

Author : Jack Fong
Publisher : BrownWalker Press
Page : 375 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781599429946

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Revolution as Development by Jack Fong Pdf

The Karen Revolution for self-determination has the distinction of being one of the world's longest-running struggles for freedom, having begun in 1949 and continuing to this very moment. This sociological work makes visible how ethnopolitical, petropolitical, geopolitical, and ecosystemic issues affect the political economy of a people experiencing ethnic cleansing. From the inception of its self-determination struggle in 1949, readers will be taken on a historical journey with the Karen, finally "arriving" in the 21st century. Along the way, the author exposes readers to the anatomy of how Karen revolutionary dynamics attempt to shield the Karen people against internal colonization committed by the various military regimes of Burma, and how these complex dynamics engaged by Karen revolutionaries-in a novel reformulation and reading that transcends oversimplified economisitic indicators of progress-constitute development. A study of revolution that moves beyond the simplicity of a clashing dualism exemplified by Aung San Suu Kyi pitted against the military regime, this text is for readers desiring to examine how other significant players such as the Karen, a proud people living in systemic crisis, construct nation and aspire toward democracy in the labyrinthine ethnopolitical terrain of Burma.