My review od Daniel Perdersen’s Secret Genocide has been published as part of the special supplementary issue of the SIU Journal of Management just published (http://ejournal.som.siu.ac.th).
Pedersen, Daniel, Secret Genocide: Voices of the Karen of Burma, SIU Journal of Management, Vol.3, No.S1 (May, 2013), pp.154-6, available at: http://jcwalsh.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/pedersen.pdf.
A para-state is a discrete piece of territory wholly or partly within another recognized state that is run according to different policies and laws than the official state. The idea comes largely from Maoist strategy.
Read the ful article here.
In common with other East Asian states such as Japan and the Republic of Korea, China lacks oil and gas resources in its own territory. There may be some reserves available in the South China Sea but it is far from clear what level of reserves, if any, that there will be, as well as which of various states making claim to the region will be proven to be legally permitted to exploit them.
Read the full article here.
We managed a few days in the northern town of Chiang Rai just before Christmas, which was very pleasant. The town was founded by the legendary (but real) King Mengrai at the end of the thirteenth century as part of the Lanna state.
Lanna was, with the Sukothai of King Ramkhamhaeng, among the first independent Tai polities. Together with the Prince of Phayao, the two kings formed a triple alliance which resisted the onslaught of the Mongols (in fact, the Yuan Dynasty Chinese), although mosquitoes and disease probably also had parts to play.
Chiang Rai has a number of wats to visit (of course) and one of the more interesting is the so-called White Temple (Wat Rong Khun), which has been created by the famous artist Ajarn Chalermchai Kositpipat as a form of dedication to the Buddhist philosophy and to house his own artwork. Here is one of the main buildings:
It is well-worth visiting: a lot of Ajarn Chalermchai’s work focuses on the suffering that people face before they can reach Nirvana (enlightenment) and that makes for some startling and enjoyable scenes.
We also popped up to the border town of Mae Sai, which is part of the Golden Triangle region and an important border post for trade and labour migration (mostly temporary). Here are some people crossing between the two posts, with Myanmar (Burma) in the background.
All throughout Mae Sai are markets, some for general items and some for the gems, particularly jade, for which Burma has been known throughout history. These days, many of the items are imported from China, including the packet of Chinese ‘chocolate’ sitting on my desk in front of me, from the Tianjin Dagang Chunrong Food Factory.
Here are the women looking at some stuff and a picture of Chinese and domestic wine-selling vendors from the other side of the road (if you know the place, I mean).
It was cold, for Thailand at least, with temperatures dipping below the 20 degree mark during daytimes – I note that 18 provinces have already been declared ‘cold weather disaster zones,’ which is a little premature. Here in Bangkok, it is struggling to get over 25 degrees some days and that is also considered cold winter weather, although extremely pleasant for foreigners such as self. It is unfortunate that people in this office think it is too cold to turn on the air conditioning in a building designed for its use, making the place somewhat stuffy and airless. Never mind.
Just landed on my desk is the handsome, two volume set of Slavery in the Modern World: A History of Political, Social, and Economic Oppression from ABC-Clio (http://abc-clio.com/product.aspx?isbn=9781851097838). I mention this because I have half a dozen entries inside:
Walsh, John, “Burma” (Vol.1, pp.151-3), “Cambodia” (Vol.1, pp.158-60), “State Law and Order Committee” (Vol.2, pp.501-3), “Thailand” (Vol.2, pp.517-9), “World Bank” (Vol.2, pp.586-8) and “World Trade Organization” (Vol.2, pp.591-3), in Junius P. Rodriguez, eds., Slavery in the Modern World: A History of Political, Social, and Economic Oppression (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2011).
Order a set for your library or buy one for your friends, if you have any.
Announcing: Walsh, John, “Robert Gordon and the Rubies of Mogok: Industrial Capitalism, Imperialism and Technology in Conjunction,” Asian Culture and History, Vol.3, No.1 (2011), pp.94-100, available at: http://journal.ccsenet.org/index.php/ach/article/view/6995/6558.
Abstract:
Robert Gordon’s trip to the Mogok ruby mines in northern Burma, as reported in his testament to the Royal Geographical Society in 1888, represents one of the most blatant uses of travel as empire building in the Mekong Region. While European explorers and adventurers had been travelling to and along the region for centuries, most had been intent on mapping, surveying and categorizing its contents for purposes of their own profit, in one way or another. Gordon, while of course not unmindful of his own career, represents the traveller aiming to be of service to the greater power. He was strongly motivated by the desire to bring the ruby mines of Mogok into the reach of the British Empire through the building of a railway and the necessary infrastructure to pacify the countryside and its people, thereby enabling the enclosure of another type of commons.
Capitalism, Imperialism, British Empire, Burma, Ruby mining
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is reported to have been released from her interminable house arrest. Let us hope it is true and that she can be safe – the junta are now no more well-disposed to her than they were before.
Opium has been known in East Asia for millennia: according to Buddhist teaching, taking opium in moderation is acceptable for medicinal purposes but otherwise had little to say about it. It was, indeed, not until the British colonialists fought two wars with China to force the latter to permit the former to export opium from India into the Middle Kingdom in large amounts that it became a social problem.
Read the full review here.
This slim volume consists of two separate documents: a reprint of Book 12 of The Silken East; London, 1904, the original goes from Chapters XLIV to XLVIII, pp.751-832 and, secondly, Robert Gordon, C.E., “On the Ruby Mines near Mogok, Burma,” Proceedings of the Royal Geographic Society and Monthly Record of Geography, Read at the Evening Meeting, February 27th, 1888. It will be part of three volumes gathering together documents concerning the ruby mine district in Burma and lavishly illustrated as ever by White Lotus Press in Bangkok.
Read the full review here.
One of the more surprising events of recent years here in mainland Southeast Asia was the rapidity of the announcement and implementation of the relocation of the capital city of Burma [Myanmar] from Yangon (Rangoon) to Naypyidaw, a hitherto little regarded place seemingly more or less in the middle of nowhere. Given the fact that, under the baleful military junta rule, Burma has declined from being the richest country in the Sub-Region to the poorest, the kind of aggrandisement involved in building numerous new ministries and palaces for the generals seemed to be needlessly reckless. Presumably, it was Chinese money that was being used, in one way or another.
Read the full review here.
