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.
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Tag Archives: cowboy capitalism
Entrepreneurship in the Mekong Region: Cambodia
It is going to take a long time for Cambodian society to recover from the depredations of decades of civil war, the Khmer Rouge rule, invasion and occupation and all the other troubles the suffering Khmer people have had to suffer. However, life does go on and, in recent years, Cambodia has entered into its own version of the Factory Age with workers being drawn into establishments manufacturing garments, primarily, with some other products also beginning to be made.
Read the full article here.
Entrepreneurship in the Mekong Region: Myanmar
At the end of the Second World War, Myanmar [then known as Burma] was the richest country in the Mekong Region, albeit that a substantial portion of that wealth was managed by and for the colonial British masters. Now, after decades of predatory misrule by the military junta, Myanmar has become the poorest and most miserable countries not just in the Mekong Region but the whole world.
People who want to learn about how to improve Myanmar’s financial situation may choose to look into information via www.financedegreeonline.org.
Read the full article here.
What Is Cowboy Capitalism?
‘Cowboy capitalism’ is a term given to the kind of capitalist system that takes place outside the control and supervision of the state. Without such control, there is no enforcement of property rights, no protection for consumers or workers and no need to pay formal taxes or duties.
Read the full article here.
Invest SEA
My short trip to Hong Kong to attend the Invest SEA seminar has finished and from my point of view was quite successful – I gave my paper about Chinese investment in the Mekong Region and was not booed off the stage or subjected to criticism. So that is good.
The conclusions of the workshop were many – from 11 papers (only nine of which were actually given), a wide range of points emerged in terms of the scale of investment (e.g. micro, corporate and macro), strategic (emergent or deliberative) and outcome (positive, negative, too soon to tell and so forth). My point, echoed by others, that where conflict was accompanying Chinese investment was really the effect of the spread of capitalism and the conversion of existing primitive market conditions (I use the term ‘feudal’) into more advanced capitalist relations received some support. A lot of what is going on in parallel or shadow state spaces, which are no longer governed by state governments, is a form of ‘cowboy capitalism’ or ‘wild west capitalism.’ Discussions are due to continue as to how this set of papers will, if at all, be published – I am hopeful of something quite substantial emerging but we shall see.
Anyway, I was only there for a couple of nights and, since it ws raining almost non-stop, had very little time to walk about the city for sightseeing. Anyway, this is the view of the city from my room in the Royal Plaza Hotel.
I did pop out briefly on Thursday evening across the Prince Edward East Road to look at the bird market and the flower market. Here is a photo of some budgies in a cage:
There were also some other birds hanging around, including some sea birds and a version of what we call here the Oriental Robin Magpie. So, here are some sparrers:
I also had a quick look at the flower market, by which time it was starting to rain again and so I did not really hang around. This is one view of the aforementioned flower market:
