Desperate and tainted: Malaysia's leadership crisis | theage.com.au: "Martin Jacques
August 17, 2008
Page 1 of 2 | Single Page View
COMMENT
A FEVERISH atmosphere now grips Malaysia. The country is awash with rumours. Until the resignation in 2003 of prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, politics were entirely predictable. Now they are becoming highly unpredictable.
Malaysia is a great Asian success story. It has enjoyed a growth rate of up to 8% for much of the past 20 years, and the fruits of prosperity are everywhere. Malaysia is the economic star of the Muslim world. The architect of this economic transformation was Mahathir, but since he stepped down, the country has been engulfed by growing doubts about his legacy and new priorities."
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Desperate and tainted: Malaysia's leadership crisis | theage.com.au
FT.com / Home UK / UK - The money heads for Panama and Singapore
FT.com / Home UK / UK - The money heads for Panama and Singapore: "By Vanessa Houlder in London and Haig Simonian in Zurich
Published: August 16 2008 03:00 | Last updated: August 16 2008 03:00
Tax dodgers are transferring money from Liechtenstein to Panama, Singapore and other secretive offshore centres, intelligence from foreign tax authorities shows.
One official said the switch had been prompted by the greater focus on evasion after the theft of client details from LGT and Liechtensteinische Landesbank.
The banks themselves have said little about the extent of outflows from the principality. LGT revealed earlier this year it had suffered only limited damage. However, updated information when the two banking groups report first-half results later this month should show accelerated withdrawals, according to some local financiers."
Global Economy Shifting Center | Article Discovery - News Analysis
Global Economy Shifting Center | Article Discovery - News Analysis: "Most investors know by now that the economic center of the world is in the process of shifting from West to East. Transfers of funds to pay for crude oil imports are a big part of this shift as far as America is concerned. You can not pay out over seven hundred billion dollars a year to oil exporting nations without creating a huge balance of payments problem.
The following list of “tallest, biggest, and largest” shows in a down to earth basic way the results of the global economy shifting its center. These interesting facts are from an author named Ferrez Zagawriteit. Just look at some of these. Some are trivial and some are important. However, all together they paint a pretty stark picture for Westerners staying on top of the economic heap in the 21st century :
· World’s tallest building – Dubai, UAE
· Largest publicly trading company – Beijing, China
· Biggest oil refinery - Under construction in India
· Largest passenger airplane - Airbus - Europe
· Largest investment fund on the planet - Abu Dhabi, UAE
· Biggest movie industry - Bollywood, India. (Not Hollywood)
· Largest Ferris wheel - Singapore
· Largest casino - Macau. (Macau actually just passed Las Vegas in gambling revenues.)
· The Mall of America in Minnesota was once one of the largest shopping malls in the world. Now it doesn’t even make the top 10."
FT.com / Home UK / UK - Japan unlikely victim of global economic woe
FT.com / Home UK / UK - Japan unlikely victim of global economic woe: "By Michiyo Nakamoto and Chris Giles in London
Published: August 14 2008 03:00 | Last updated: August 14 2008 03:00
Japan's economy had been seen as relatively immune to the ravages of the credit crisis hitting the US and Europe.
Its banks were much healthier than those on either side of the Atlantic; it was benefiting from an export boom to the rest of Asia; and its economy grew unexpectedly quickly in the first quarter of the year, recording an expansion of 0.8 per cent, four times the rate of anaemic US growth.
But although a bad quarter was expected - and there was an almost equally bad period exactly a year earlier - the contraction of Japan's gross domestic product by 0.6 per cent in the second quarter has jolted everyone out of any complacency that the world's second largest economy could continue to operate untouched by events elsewhere."
Virtual Collector: Analysis: Russia is a foe to be reckoned with
Virtual Collector: Analysis: Russia is a foe to be reckoned with: "Last month, Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's hawkish ambassador to Nato refused to reveal how the Kremlin would retaliate if Poland agreed to co-host an American missile defence shield.
But he did promise that the response would come as a 'pleasant surprise' for the West.
Just as he intended, the Kremlin's reply was neither pleasant nor, entirely, a surprise.
Alongside the ambitions of Georgia and Ukraine to join Nato, missile defence has been the principal source of tension between Moscow and the West. Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, has threatened to retrain nuclear missiles on Europe for the first time since Soviet times and Russia has already walked away from an arms treaty that was pivotal in ending the Cold War.
But the Russians have gone even further in their threats. Poland faces not just the prospect of having Russian missiles pointing in its direction but also risks '100 percent' a military attack. And not just any attack, if Gen Anatoly Nogovitysn is to be believed, but a nuclear attack."
Asian Energy: China's Energy Strategy: Panda or Dragon?
Asian Energy: China's Energy Strategy: Panda or Dragon?: "Until 15 years ago, China exported oil to neighbouring countries. Today, it has an almost insatiable appetite for the stuff. Since the Great Helmsman’s death in 1976, the People’s Republic has become the world’s second largest oil consumer (behind the U.S.) During those years Chinese consumption has quadrupled to about 7.7 million barrels per day while production – about 3.7 million barrels per day – has barely doubled.
The International Energy Agency thinks China will burn 16.5 million barrels per day by 2030, after buying 13.1million barrels abroad. Think about it: Saudi Arabia’s total output is now less than 11 million barrels per day."
Myanmar party hopes envoy visit will revive talks - International Herald Tribune
Myanmar party hopes envoy visit will revive talks - International Herald Tribune: "YANGON, Myanmar: Myanmar's main opposition party said Sunday that it hopes a visit this week by a U.N. special envoy will help restart stalled talks between pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the ruling military junta.
U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who is promoting national reconciliation and democratic reform in Myanmar, is to spend five days in the country starting Monday."
Burmese exiles seem resigned to status quo
Burmese exiles seem resigned to status quo: "(08-17) 04:00 PDT Chiang Mai, -- Thailand - President Bush breezed through Thailand on his way to the Beijing Olympics last week and used the occasion to rail at the Burmese government - putting smiles on the faces of Burmese activists here.
This city, about 75 miles east of the Burmese border, is the capital of the Burmese resistance. And, as many Burmese noted, Bush's visit coincided with an important anniversary. On Aug. 8, 1988, Burma's military junta crushed the first major citizen uprising, killing 3,000 people.
'I want the people of your country to know, the American people care deeply about the people of Burma, and we pray for the day in which the people will be free,' Bush told a group of Burmese dissidents. The same day, first lady Laura Bush spent two hours visiting a Burmese refugee camp in Mae Sot, near the border."
Gambari begins a five-day visit to Burma
Gambari begins a five-day visit to Burma: "Mizzima News
Saturday, 16 August 2008 11:54
New Delhi — Ibrahim Gambari, the United Nations special envoy to Burma, on Friday has departed for a five-day visit to the Southeast Asian nation.
Gambari will arrive Rangoon on August 18 to begin his fourth visit since the Burmese military regime has crackdown on monk-led protests in September 2007."
UNDP provides loans to Myanmar cyclone-affected farmers - People's Daily Online
UNDP provides loans to Myanmar cyclone-affected farmers - People's Daily Online: "The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has provided loans to farmers in a Myanmar cyclone-hit area to help them in their rehabilitation work including recultivation, the local weekly Voice reported Sunday."
What Lessons do we get from Georgia in the Burmese Context?
Kanbawza Win
Now that the world media is highlighted by the Beijing Olympics and the conflict in Georgia, and as a teacher of the history of Imperialism may I take this opportunity to highlight some of the facts and figures of the Georgia crisis especially to the pro ethno democratic forces and draw lessons as we can no longer afford the trial and error method. A country living under the shadow of the evil Chinese empire must be able to see things clearly and visualise all the trappings for the future of Union of Burma.
Washington is no innocent bystander in this bloody struggle, which provoked a response by Russia that now dominates the news. Long before Aug. 8, Georgia, a country in the Caucasus Mountains south of Russia, attacked a small autonomous region known as South Ossetia. Georgia's military assaulted the city of Tskhinvali the capital of Ossetia destroying the parliament building, the university and the main hospital. According to AP interviews with survivors, there was hardly a single building left undamaged. Eduard Kokoity, the South Ossetian leader, estimated that more than 1,400 civilians were killed in the assault (Reuters, Aug. 8). Russian military forces then struck back at Georgia's military bases, airfields and the main Black Sea port of Poti. Most news coverage in the West, however, is slanted to give the impression that Russia initiated the conflict with Georgia.
Of course Washington does not claim credit for the invasion of South Ossetia ordered by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, especially now that his forces have been routed. But the White House made clear its political support for Saakashvili and had sent Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State. Georgia has been closely allied with the U.S. military in its war in Iraq.
Everybody knows the U.S. and NATO have heavily armed and trained the Georgian military. There are U.S. military "advisers" in Georgia today. A thousand U.S. Marines from the Third Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment just finished three weeks of joint manoeuvres there called "Operation Immediate Response." In the period leading up to Georgia's attack on South Ossetia, the Pentagon had supplied Georgia with hundreds of tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery weapons, rocket launchers and dozens of combat helicopters and anti-aircraft missile systems. Hundreds of other weapons systems have poured in from other NATO members and from Israel. (Interfax, Aug. 7) In exchange Georgia had provided the third-largest military force in the U.S. occupation of Iraq. But on Aug. 10 the U.S. began ferrying the 2,000 Georgian troops out of Iraq to the war zone in Georgia. Along with the "advisers" and U.S. troops sent for manoeuvres, U.S.-origin mercenaries and privatized military trainers function in Georgia. Tens of thousands of "civil society" operatives, international consultants, policy experts and technical assistants operate in Georgia, Ukraine and other former Soviet Republics.
Now in the Burmese context, Prof. Dr Khin Mg Kyi has said we are but in name, that Burma is an autonomous region of China, the Generals has secretly sell the country long ago to the Chinese in return to support the Junta to maintain in power. Hence if we were to take the covert support from the West, particularly form the US, to make a coup de grace which I have highlighted in my previous article, what will China do is food for thought? The country under the occupation of the Chinese army will be worst that the marauding Burmese Generals. Shall we jump out of the frying pan into the fire? But this does not mean that we have to accept the status quo.
The media's war reporting on Georgia's invasion of South Ossetia has echoed the kind of misinformation that characterized the reporting on the U.S. invasion of Iraq. One must know that Georgia is at the centre of U.S. imperialism' s moves to control the oil-rich Caspian Sea region. Georgia is the energy highway for Europe, with at least two major pipelines passing though it. These pipelines are emerging to rival the Russian oil pipelines that have been Europe's primary source for natural gas and oil. Until 2005, the only pipeline from the Caspian oil centre of Baku in Azerbaijan was through Russia. In 2005, the Baku-Tbilisi- Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline opened. Owned by British Petroleum and Unocal, this pipeline goes through Georgia to the Turkish port city of Ceyhan. The BP consortium also owns the Baku-Tbilisi- Erzurum pipeline, which opened in 2007. Another pipeline, named Western Early, goes through Georgia passing the border of South Ossetia to the Georgia port city of Supsa. Hence s the oil that was once the most valuable resource of the former Soviet Union is now going to market through facilities controlled by U.S. and its allies.
With Iraq's oil resources conquered, and Iran's under threat of blockade or bombardment, the U.S. is determined to also control the Caspian oil fields. By removing Russian control over these oil fields, the U.S. would deliver a major blow to the possible emergence of Russia as a capitalist power. For all its flowery words of democracy and freedom, the U.S. ruling class has no intention of freeing Burma or allowing Russia to become an imperialist rival, like Europe and Japan. The U.S. has been working covertly and overtly to break up Russia and the states that were formerly part of the Soviet Union, concentrating on the states around the Caspian oil fields. The Caspian Sea has two huge oil fields. One is east of Baku. The other is the Tengiz oilfield, on the Caspian's northwest shore in Kazakhstan. In addition there are massive reserves of natural gas throughout the Caspian region. It is the primary supplier of natural gas to Europe.
The known reserves of Caspian oil are larger than the oil fields of Nigeria or Libya, putting the Caspian oil fields in the same league as the fields of Iran or Kuwait.
A consortium of 11 major oil corporations set up outposts on the Caspian. Atlantic Richfield, Chevron, Exxon, Mobil, Pennzoil, Philips Petroleum, Texaco and BP Amoco spent billions of dollars buying up Soviet-era oil interests and drilling rights. But the Caspian Sea is landlocked. The oil must be transported out of the region by pipeline. Whoever controls the pipelines will ultimately control the oil. South Ossetia is but one of the targets.
Within the United Nations Security Council, U.S. and British representatives blocked a Russian-drafted resolution calling on Georgia and South Ossetia to immediately put down their weapons. The U.S. rejected the three-sentence statement that would have required both sides "to renounce the use of force." It was a clear confirmation of U.S. support for Georgia's continued "use of force" against the small Ossetian nationality. However, Russia succeeded in repelling Georgia's invasion of South Ossetia. So as of Aug. 13, Georgia and Russia agreed to a "peace plan" brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
This is the true story, at least from my humble perspective. The point which I am driving it is that will the Chinese stand by now that the construction of the oil pipe line from Arakan to Kunming is being implemented? With the current situation in Burma, it will not be so much of a problem to deliver a coup de grace to the Burmese Junta. But after that what? Has the ethnics and the pro democracy group has come to a broad understanding? The ethnics have their own fighting force whereas the pro democracy has the masses. Have they ever made an attempt to thrash out their different perspective for a common good of the country?
The Burmese resistance (including the ethnics) have lacked the most important factor and the joke, that if two Burmese were put into the cell they will form three political parties captures a shameful truth. In other words these numerous resistance group actions are indicating that they would prefer the Burmese military Junta then come to agreement with each other. Every resistance leader knows that once they become a united political force under one umbrella then the Junta will fall and yet they would not lift a finger to help that unity.
Until and unless these two groups have an understanding of each other, I don't see any bright future for the Union of Burma. We must present to the international community that we are the better alternative than the Junta. If the Maha Bama drives it to the position prior to 1962, surely the ethnic will not join and there is the danger of Balkanization. On the other hand the Chinese will give credence to the Maha Bama headed by the Junta and the Burmese revolution will be driven back for a couple of decades and the people will continue to suffer. I think Burmese democracy starts in our hearts and if we don't agreed and compromise with each other after more than half a century Burma will set up a record of being a century under the heels of the military. It is far better to reach a sort of understanding an agreement than relying on the imperialistic power or the evil empires or the cutthroat neighbouring countries as the example of Georgia unfold before our eyes.
Vancouver
-- ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ------The Kanbawza is an online freelance or a free contributing media and distributing news, commentary and information from individuals, professional and non-professional journalists. The issue does not focus on one particular group people or region, anyone is free to join and work with TK as a voluntary or a free writer. TK believes in unity in diversity which all human being can work together for their common interests. Please send your article to thekanbawza@ gmail.com
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The New Straits Times Online........
The New Straits Times Online........: "THAUNG HTUN: 888 has dark significance in Yangon
Thaung Htun"
In Broken Economy, Burmese Improvise or Flee, 壊れた経済では、ビルマ語は即席に作るか、または逃げる
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, August 16, 2008; A08
RANGOON, Burma -- For the crowds of young Burmese outside the Immigration and Customs Office here, the commodity of choice is a shiny, tomato-red, cardboard-stiff new passport.
ラングーン、ビルマ -- ここの移住および税関事務所の外の若いビルマ語の群集のために、選択の商品は光沢がある、トマト赤く、ボール紙堅く新しいパスポートである。
One recent morning, hundreds of men and women flooded in and out of the office, located on a rickshaw-crammed boulevard, or camped under umbrellas along the sidewalk to wait for their passport applications to be processed. Some scoured billboards that listed openings in garment factories, shipyards and other workplaces in Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.
人もの1最近の朝、何百および女性は人力車詰め込まれた通りにあるか、または彼らのパスポート塗布を処理されるべき待つために歩道に沿う傘の下でキャンプされたオフィスを出入りしてあふれた。 ある人々はシンガポール、タイおよびマレーシアの衣服の工場、造船所および他の仕事場の開始をリストした掲示板を磨いた。
A pair of 22-year-olds took turns using each other's backs to fill out forms. Both said they hoped to go to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, to find jobs as hotel waiters for a year, maybe two.
組の22歳は記入するのに背部形作る互いを使用することを交代でした。 両方言われて彼らは多分2ドバイに、アラブ首長国連邦で、仕事を1年間ホテルのウエーターとして見つけるために行くことを、望んだ。
"It's like the collapse of the Berlin Wall," said a passing 29-year-old man, meaning the pent-up outflow of people. Unemployed for three years, he has yet to hear back about a passport application he filed last year.
" それはベルリンの壁、"の崩壊のようである; 人々の抑えた流出を意味している渡る29歳の人を言った。 3年間失業者、彼はまだ彼が去年ファイルしたパスポート塗布について聞くために持っている。
The run on the passport office reflects a social crisis at the heart of an economy in free fall.
パスポートオフィスの操業は自由な落下の経済の中心に社会的な危機を反映する。
Sixty years ago, Burma, also known as Myanmar, was among the wealthiest countries in Southeast Asia, outshining its neighbors with higher standards of living and greater social mobility. Its universities attracted students from across the region, and its rich stock of natural resources promised steady growth.
60年前に、ビルマ、別名ミャンマーは生存およびより大きい社会的な移動性のより高い標準の隣人を凌ぐ東南アジアの最も豊かな国間に、あった。 その大学は地域から学生を引き付け、天然資源の豊富な在庫は安定した成長を約束した。
But decades of mismanagement by military rulers who have kept as tight a grip on the economy as on their political power have sent the country to the bottom of regional and global rankings -- among the worst for poverty, health care and corruption. The education system has been deliberately weakened in response to students' anti-government organizing, and virtually all avenues to prosperity are controlled by senior generals.
しかし彼らの政権の経済のグリップを地方および全体的なランキングの底に送るために国を同様に堅く保った軍の定規による不始末の十年 -- 窮乏、ヘルスケアおよび堕落のための最も悪いのの中。 教育制度はstudents'に応じて慎重に弱まった; 繁栄への反政府組織、および事実上すべての道は年長大将によって制御される。
When the military seized power in 1962, it set the country on what it called the "Burmese Road to Socialism," confiscating private property and curtailing free enterprise. After a failed street uprising in 1988, there were limited moves toward liberalization. But today the government remains heavily involved in the economy, with military officers heading most state enterprises, often as a reward for political loyalty. A handful of enterprises known as "crony" companies for their closeness to the junta benefit from policies that promote monopoly.
"と呼んだことをの1962年のそれに軍の握られた力が国を置いた時; 社会主義、"へのビルマの道; 没収の私有地および自由企業を省略すること。 1988年に壊れる通りの反乱の後で、自由化の方に限られた移動があった。 しかし今日政府は政治忠誠のために報酬としてほとんどの国営企業の、頻繁に先頭に立っていて軍当局者が経済で重く含まれて、残る。 "として知られている一握りの企業; crony" 会議への彼らの近似のための会社は独占を促進する方針から寄与する。
"Our view is that Burma is an accident waiting to happen," said Mark Canning, Britain's ambassador to the country.
" 私達の眺めは"ビルマが起こるために待っている事故であることである; 缶詰になる言われた印国への英本国の大使。
Diplomats and analysts say that economic grievances could at any moment trigger another street revolt akin to the two major ones of the past twenty years. Both began among disaffected youth.
経済的な不満が過去の20年の物いつでも2専攻学生と同類別の通りの反乱を誘発できると外交官および分析者は言う。 両方とも不満を抱いた青年の中で始まった。
A student-led response to the overnight demonetization of small bank notes in 1988 evolved into a massive pro-democracy protest. And last August, a sharp rise in fuel prices and bus fares prompted thousands to take to the streets, including a young generation of Buddhists monks, who often are keenly aware of lay folk's financial difficulties because daily donations in their alms bowls decrease.
(Note by Phone Hlaing -FWUBC-It mean here that the monks came out for the people ,not for themselves.)
1988の小さい銀行券の夜通しの通貨廃止への学生導かれた応答は大きい民主化の抗議に展開した。 そしてこの前の8月の燃料価格およびバス代の急激な上昇は施しボールの毎日の寄付が減るので頻繁に置かれた民俗財政の難しさ鋭くに気づいている僧侶の若い生成を含む通りに、取るためにたくさんを促した。
修道士が人々のために出て来たこと中間それここに.Note by Phone Hlaing -FWUBC
Today, more than a third of children are malnourished, the average household spends up to 70 percent of its budget on food, and more than 30 percent of the population lives under the poverty line, according to United Nations estimates.
今日、子供の三番目より多くは栄養不良である、平均世帯は食糧に予算の70%まで、および最低生活線の下で国際連合の見積もりに従って人口生命の30%以上、過ごす。
At tea shops or grocery stalls, people pull out bricks of local bills to pay for basics in an economy that the International Monetary Fund estimates suffered inflation of 40 percent in 2007.
茶店か食料雑貨の停止で、人々はローカル手形の国際通貨基金が2007年に40%の苦しまれたインフレーションを推定する経済の基本原則の支払をするために煉瓦を引き出す。
Fuel rationing and price controls have insulated the country from much of the recent shocks to the world economy. Nonetheless, black market prices for gasoline and diesel fuel have continued to spiral upward in recent months, residents say. A cyclone three months ago that wrought havoc on the country's rice production areas has pushed the economy further toward desperation.
配分し、価格統制燃料は最近の衝撃の多くからの世界経済に国を絶縁した。 それにもかかわらず、ガソリンおよびディーゼル燃料のためのやみ市場の価格は最近の数か月の間に上向きに螺線形になり続けたと居住者は言う。 サイクロンは破れかぶれの方に3か月前に国の米の生産区域のその細工した破壊経済を更に押した。
So far, the generals have been able to largely shrug off Western sanctions, by dealing instead with India, China and Thailand, to which they funnel vast stores of natural gas.
これまでは、大将は天燃ガスの広大な店を漏斗で注ぐインド、中国およびタイを代りに取扱うことによって西部の認可を、受け流せた主として。
Revenue from energy sales is set to increase significantly once production begins at the offshore Shwe and Shwe Phyu fields, which are estimated to hold up to 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. South Korea's Daewoo International Corp. is partnering with Burma to develop the fields, and Chinese firms, including Sinopec and China National Petroleum Corp., have exploration projects underway in the country.
エネルギー販売からの収入は生産が10の兆立方フィートの天燃ガスに遅れるために推定されるShweおよびShwe沖合いのPhyu分野で始まればかなり増加するために置かれる。 南朝鮮Daewoo International Corp.はビルマと分野を開発するために組んで、Sinopecを含む中国の会社に、国でChina National Petroleum Corp.、進行中の調査のプロジェクトがあり。
Even without the new fields, sales of oil and gas topped $3.3 billion last year, with $2 billion in sales of gas to Thailand alone, according to Sean Turnell, a professor at Macquarie University in Sydney.
新しい分野なしで、の販売石油およびガスはシドニーのMacquarie大学で、ショーンTurnellに従って、単独でタイへのガスの販売の$2,000,000,000との$3.3十億を、教授去年越えた。
Those funds largely disappeared into the military's parallel universe of separate schools and hospitals, subsidized housing and the multimillion-dollar construction of a remote new capital, Naypyitaw, whose name roughly translates as "abode of the kings." It reportedly includes an artificial beach resort, golf courses and an air-conditioned zoo.
それらの資金は別の学校および病院の軍の平行宇宙、遠隔新しい首都、名前が"として大体翻訳するNaypyitawの助成金を支給されたハウジングおよび数百万ドルの構造に主として消えた、; kings."の従われる; それは伝えられるところによれば人工的なビーチリゾート、ゴルフコースおよび冷暖房がある動物園を含んでいる。
But 250 miles south of the junta's fantasyland, in the former capital, Rangoon, electricity functions erratically and abandoned government offices and colonial-era edifices molder and blacken in a peculiar form of urban leprosy. Decades-old cars sputter along with wires poking out and monsoon waters sloshing around below the passenger seats.
しかし会議のfantasylandの250マイルは南、前の首都で、不規則的にラングーン、都市ハンセン病の独特な形態で電気機能および断念された官庁および植民地時代の建物朽ち、黒くなる。 十年古い車は突くワイヤーおよび助手席の下でぼちゃぼちゃとかき回すモンスーン水と共に放出させる。
The junta sharply restricts car imports, which means that a 1988 Toyota Camry can sell for upwards of $20,000, according to local residents. A memory card needed to make a cellphone function costs anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000.
会議ははっきりと車の輸入高を制限する、従って1988年のToyota Camryが$20,000の上向きにのために販売できることを意味する地方住民に従って。 メモリ・カードは携帯電話を費用どこでも$2,000に$3,000から作用させる必要があった。
Official statistics on employment, and most other economic indicators, are notoriously unreliable, but analysts and Burmese residents say unemployment -- and underemployment -- is on the rise. Salaries that were already inadequate have failed to keep pace with inflation.
雇用の公式の統計、および他のほとんどの経済指標は、悪名高く信頼できないが、分析者およびビルマの居住者は失業を言う -- そして不完全雇用 -- 増加しているがある。 既に不十分だったサラリーはインフレーションに合わせなかった。
To make up the shortfall, professionals such as government geologists double as taxi drivers, professors sell exam scores, civil servants demand bribes to process paperwork and prison guards run elaborate operations allowing the smuggling of money to inmates, in return for a 20 percent cut, local residents and former detainees said.
不足を埋め合せるためには、政府の地質学者のような専門家はタクシー運転手が検査スコアを販売すると同時に教授、書類事務を処理するために、公務員の要求の賄賂倍増し、刑務所護衛官は精巧な操作を動かしとお金の密輸を収容者に許可する20%切口に対して、地方住民および前の抑留者は言った。
Teachers sometimes sell lunch to their students. "Can you imagine asking your students for money? I couldn't do it," said a 26-year-old former elementary school teacher who switched to being a tour guide.
教師は時々彼らの学生に昼食を販売する。 " お金をあなたの学生に頼むことを想像できるか。 私はそれをの"することができなかった; ツアー・ガイドであることに転換した26歳の前の小学校教師を言った。
So many people engage in corruption that the Berlin-based watchdog group Transparency International rated Burma in 2007 as tied with Somalia as the most corrupt country in the world.
そう多くの人々は堕落でほとんどとしてソマリアと結ばれるように2007のベルリン基づかせていた番犬のグループの透明物国際的な評価されるビルマが世界の国を買収すること従事する。
For many people in the business community, the line between the licit and the illicit is a blur.
ビジネスコミュニティーの多くの人々のために、licitと不法の間のラインは汚点である。
As he weighed a handful of knuckle-size green gems in his Rangoon shop, a jeweler said he regularly bribes a customs official so that he can smuggle rubies and jade to sellers in Hong Kong and Bangkok.
彼が重量を量ったので彼のラングーンの一握りの指の関節サイズの緑の宝石は買物をする、彼が香港およびバンコクの販売人にルビーおよびヒスイを密輸してもいいように彼が規則的に税関の係員を買収することを宝石屋は言った。
Sales of diamonds are less problematic. For those, he said with a grin, there is no need to travel because diamonds are the gems of choice of senior generals. A broker coming directly from Naypyitaw visits regularly, he said.
ダイヤモンドの販売はより少なく問題となる。 それらのために、ダイヤモンドが年長大将の選択の宝石であるので彼はにやにや笑いと言った、移動する必要性がない。 Naypyitawの訪問から規則的に直接来る仲介商彼は言った。
The junta's penchant for diamonds hasn't gone unnoticed. In 2006, outraged Rangoon residents circulated a bootleg DVD of Senior Gen. Than Shwe's daughter at her wedding, showing her covered with diamond-encrusted jewelry.
junta' ダイヤモンドのための好みは見過ごされている行かなかった。 2006年に、ラングーンの憤慨させた居住者は年長の一般的なThanShwe'の禁制品DVDを循環した; 彼女の結婚式の娘、彼女がダイヤモンド覆われた宝石類でカバーした提示。
Meanwhile, the climate of nepotism and capricious junta policies means that uncertainty pervades even among the most seemingly successful.
その間、縁故採用および気まぐれな会議の方針の気候は不確実性が最も表面上は成功したのの中で浸透することを意味する。
In his sparsely furnished living room, an avowed former "crony" of senior generals recounted how he grew a small logging firm that traded rosewood and teak to China into a sprawling foreign investment firm that eventually bankrolled three ministers and a mayor, all of them senior military officers. In return for supplying licenses and contracts, the four received large deposits in private Singapore bank accounts, he said.
彼のまばらに供給された居間では、公然の前の" crony" 詳述される年長大将の彼が結局3人の大臣および市長を資金援助をした不規則に広がる海外投資の会社に中国にシタンおよびチークを交換した小さい記録の会社をいかに育てたか、すべて年長の軍当局者。 供給免許証および契約に対して、4つは私用シンガポールの銀行口座の大きい沈殿物を受け取ったと、彼は言った。
Profits, however, one day started to slip, the deposits to those bank accounts slimmed, and the businessman was thrown in jail, charged with the very thing that swelled the officers' accounts, he said -- using a local company as a front for illicit foreign dealings.
しかし利益は1日細くされたそれらの銀行口座に、沈殿物入れ始めビジネスマンはofficers'を膨らましたまさに事と満たされた刑務所で投げられた; 記述、彼は言った -- 不法な外国の取引のための前部としてローカル会社を使用して。
But nearly eight years behind bars hasn't dissuaded him from attempting another trek down Burma's twisted path to prosperity. Only six months since he was released, gray-haired and frail, from Insein prison, he says he searches the Internet daily for information on how to tap the booming emigrant industry -- funneling unskilled Burmese workers to jobs outside the country. "This is not a legal way. It is a form of trafficking," he said.
しかし棒の後ろのほぼ8年は別のTREK試みることからの彼をBurma'を思い切らせなかった; 繁栄への歪んだ道。 彼が解放されてので、Inseinの刑務所から、6ただ月、白髪まじりおよび弱い彼は活気づく移民企業を叩く彼が方法の情報をインターネットの日刊新聞を捜すことを言う -- 国の外の仕事への未熟なビルマの労働者を漏斗で注ぐこと。 " これは法的方法ではない。 それはの"の形態売買である; 彼は言った。
For help, he said, he would be turning to old friends in the Home Ministry. As for his clients, he added, they don't really know what they're getting into. But "if they have a chance to go abroad, they can make money."
助けのために、彼は言った、彼は家大臣の旧友に回っていた。 彼の顧客に関しては、彼は得ているものに、彼ら実際に知らない加えた。 しかし" 外国に行くチャンスを有すればお金をもうけてもいい。
Business Round-up (August 16, 2008)
Business Round-up (August 16, 2008): "Junta Silent on Asean Mutual Energy Security Pact"
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