The Japan Times Articles
Korean television dramas are not the real problem
By PHILIP BRASOR
On July 23, actor Sosuke Takaoka tweeted that he was sick of all the Korean dramas on Fuji TV, a network he "used to be indebted to," and demanded more "traditional" Japanese programming. "If anything related to South Korea is on," he continued, "I just turn it off." The backlash was swift, and the actor eventually apologized for his rant, saying many people had misunderstood him. In any case his talent agency fired him soon thereafter.
Dropping the ball: The Fuji TV building in Odaiba, Tokyo FABIAN REUS, CREATIVE COMMONS
Takaoka's comments were understood to be the catalyst for the demonstrations outside Fuji TV's offices on Aug. 7. Hundreds of people carrying Japanese flags and singing the national anthem called on the network to stop broadcasting Korean content. As with Takaoka's comments, response to the protest was divided. Some agreed with it, while others despaired over the obvious outpouring of anti-Korean nationalism if not downright racism.
But there was another reaction, characterized by comedian-musician Ryo Fukawa, who said on his FM radio show that however one interprets Takaoka's opinions, he had a right to voice them. "Freedom of speech is only a phrase in Japan," he declared. This sentiment was echoed by show biz columnist Yoshiko Matsumoto, who wrote, "I am not interested in Korean dramas, but if I said that, would I become a target?" Some might say the fact that both Fukawa and Matsumoto said these things proves they're wrong about freedom of speech, but neither have any direct relation to television. Fukawa admits that he's washed up on TV because of his attitude. Matsumoto makes her living from writing.
Takaoka, on the other hand, happens to be married to Aoi Miyazaki, one of the most popular actresses in Japan. The tabloid press, which loves to pick on men whose wives are more successful than they are, would like nothing better than to see them divorce. The weeklies Bunshun and Friday demanded to know why Miyazaki hasn't left her husband over his comments. Matsumoto takes a different tack: "Why doesn't she publicly defend him?"
The reason she doesn't do either is that she's protecting her own interests, which depend on TV, and Takaoka's beef is not so much with Korean pop culture but with Fuji, which presumably no longer hires him. For sure, his anger indicated latent resentment toward Korea, which is ironic since his most famous role was a Korean-Japanese character in the movie "Pacchigi," but his real complaint is against Japanese TV, whose reliance on Korean product is one aspect of a larger issue that he may see as a brake on his career. From 2 to 5 p.m. every weekday, Fuji TV broadcasts Korean dramas. According to a Fuji employee interviewed by the weekly magazine Gendai, these dramas garner a 4 percent audience share, which isn't great but is nevertheless "good for that timeframe," and "licensing Korean dramas is really cheap." The decision to run Korean content is a financial one.
The circumstances surrounding Takaoka's dismissal are vague, but his agency relies a great deal on TV. According to a recent article in Shukan Post, the complacency of mainstream media pundits in the face of Japanese television's towering irrelevance is in direct proportion to the existing commercial networks' stranglehold on the airwaves. Citing countless examples of pointless programming, the article fixed TV's decline as starting in the 1980s, when the first wave of Japanese TV producers — mostly idealists who entered the industry to change society — were replaced by a new generation who wanted to make money. They didn't even solicit advertising. Sponsors threw money at them.
The secret to their success was lack of competition. The five networks were given the rights to public airwaves practically for free, and the yearly usage fees remain ridiculously low. In Japan there are 128 TV stations that, altogether, pay about ¥5 billion a year in fees and make ¥3 trillion a year.
According to the Post, politicians are in thrall to broadcasters because TV is seen as the only key to electability in Japan. When analog broadcasts stopped on July 24, it freed up 200 megahertz of bandwidth, an incredible resource for the nation, but rather than auction off frequencies to broadcast ventures, the government does nothing. There are rumors that the networks will receive some bandwidth to broadcast "one-seg" TV programs to cell phones, but the one-seg boom has passed, eclipsed by smart phones. Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Kaoru Yosano has suggested that the reconstruction of Tohoku be funded by a tax targeting cellphone users. Relative to how much bandwidth they use, providers already pay 200 times what broadcasters pay for rights to the airwaves.
Without competition, quality is an afterthought, and the Post shows how commercial TV became a game of one-upmanship. If somebody had a popular show, you copied the format. When this sort of thing goes on long enough, all shows become the same show. With ad revenues down drastically, the point now is to save money, and it's much cheaper to buy Korean dramas than it is to produce original shows. When Panasonic recently pulled its long-time sponsorship of the drama series "Mito Komon" TBS cancelled it, even though it was still popular, rather than look for a new sponsor. Programming, and thus public service, is no longer the prime task of broadcasters. TBS made more money last year from real estate than from advertising sales; and one reason home shopping is so prevalent on TV is that the networks now have their own catalogue sales subsidiaries. Fuji TV's is Dinos, which means a portion of the money Dinos makes over the air goes to Fuji TV. A professor interviewed by the Post says this is a violation of the Anti-monopoly Act (Dokusen Kinshi-ho).
Takaoka's anger inflamed jingoistic resentments, but few media pundits identified the real source of his discontent, which was the sad state of Japanese TV. It doesn't mean he shouldn't apologize, but his inability to understand and articulate that discontent appears to be a symptom of the equally sad state of public discourse. When no one knows what they can or can't say, they never get the chance to learn how to say it.
Philip Brasor blogs at philipbrasor.com.
The Japan Times: Sunday, Aug. 21, 2011
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Friday, October 7, 2011
Korean television dramas are not the real problem
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Why India is Embracing Burma’s Junta
http://thefastertimes.com/india/2010/07/28/why-india-is-embracing-burmas-junta/
Why India is Embracing Burma’s Junta July 28, 2010 -Jeremy Kahn
Jeremy Kahn is an independent journalist based in New Delhi, India, where he covers everything from politics and foreign affairs to business and the arts. In addition to The Faster Times, his work has recently appeared in Newsweek International, The International Herald Tribune ...
Read more about Jeremy Kahn ->
The leader of Myanmar’s repressive military junta, General Than Shwe, is in India this week for his fourth state visit. I have a story in this week’s issue of Newsweek in which I explain why India, which once sheltered Burmese refugees and saw itself as a champion of democracy in South Asia, has in recent years been cuddling up to one of the world’s worst regimes. In short, it is all about securing energy — in the form of Burmese natural gas — that India desperately needs to continue its torrid rate of economic growth, and about checking the growing influence of China in India’s own backyard. In the Newsweek piece, which is very short, I also argue that India’s increasing ties — including military sales — to Myanmar, along with China’s continuing warm relations with Yangoon, highlight how ineffective Western sanctions policy against Myanmar is. Those sanctions only apply to certain key Burmese generals and industrialists — and to Western companies doing business in Myanmar in certain key industries. But Western trade with Burma was never very great. To create a sanctions policy that works, the U.S. and EU will either need universally applied multilateral sanctions — or they will need sanctions that punish third countries (like India and China) for doing business with the junta. The U.S. just imposed these kind of sanctions on Iran. But if the U.S. is unwilling to do the same against Burma then it might be better off simply scrapping the sanctions policy and trying something else. The sanctions are clearly not working.
On a related note, The Wall Street Journal today has a good item on the fact that not only is Than Shwe visiting India right now, but so is British Prime Minister David Cameron, who has brought with him a huge delegation of Cabinet ministers and British business leaders. The Journal points out how the two contemporaneous visits of these very different leaders to India tells one a lot about the dual nature of India’s foreign policy and position in the world. I would quibble only in the sense that the dualism in Indian foreign policy that the Journal highlights is actually less contradictory than the Journal makes out. The whole reason that India needs Burmese natural gas is because its economy is booming — and that booming economy is one of the prime reasons the British Prime Minister is so interested in forging a new “special relationship” with India. India is also interested in Burma because it wants to check Chinese influence, and this too is sort of the flip-side of India’s own growing military strength and world profile. As it becomes a more important world player, it is bumping up against the other global player and emerging economic superpower in the region: China. Places like Burma become zones where China and India compete for influence. But India’s emerging military and strategic importance are also a reason for Britain’s desire to refresh its historically-close ties to New Delhi.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
India, Myanmar boost ties, sign counter-terror pact
http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/newdelhi/India-Myanmar-boost-ties-sign-counter-terror-pact/Article1-578616.aspx
India, Myanmar boost ties, sign counter-terror pact
Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, July 27, 2010First Published: 22:06 IST(27/7/2010)
Last Updated: 22:08 IST(27/7/2010) Email printBookmark & Share more...
India on Tuesday signed a clutch of pacts to boost counter-terror cooperation and cement cultural ties with Myanmar, the energy-rich Southeast Asian country whose military junta is considered a pariah in many Western capitals. The two countries signed five pacts after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held talks with visiting Myanmar military ruler General Than Shwe over a wide range of issues, including counter-terror cooperation, enhanced energy ties and collaboration in a string of developmental projects.
Among the pacts is a treaty on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters that will be crucial in enabling India get access to insurgents from India's northeast states who continue to shelter along the sprawling 1,650-kilometer India-Myanmar border.
The treaty aims at deepening bilateral cooperation in combating transnational organized crime, terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering and smuggling of arms and explosives.
Increased collaboration for developing cross-border connectivity and infrastructure development figured prominently in the discussions.
The two sides also signed pacts in the areas of small development projects, science and technology and information cooperation.
A memorandum of understanding on Indian assistance in restoring the Ananda temple in Bagan, a renowned Buddhist shrine and a major tourist site in central Myanmar, was also inked.
Against the backdrop of China's growing clout in Myanmar, India has rolled out the red carpet to welcome Than Shwe, who began his five-day visit to the country Sunday by offering prayers at the Mahabodhi temple at Bodh Gaya in Bihar. Than Shwe, who heads State Peace and Development Council, as the junta calls itself, was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan Tuesday morning.
He met Vice President Hamid Ansari, External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Sawraj before sitting down for talks with the prime minister.
Than Shwe's visit to India, the world's most populous democracy, takes place days after the US renewed sanctions barring trade with companies tied to the junta in Myanmar. On the eve of the visit, the US has said it “expects to send a clear message to Burma that it needs to change its course".
Thousands of Myanmarese refugees staying in India for years aired their outrage at Than Shwe's visit and have urged the Indian government not to endorse the upcoming elections in that country. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has officially said about 3,500 Myanmarese refugees are in India, with another 4,500 asylum seekers. Unofficial figures put the number at about 100,000, mostly in the northeastern states.
"We feel outraged with his visit as India is the largest democracy in the world, and the land of the Buddha and tolerance," said Tint Swe, who was elected a member of the Myanmarese parliament in 1990 and is now a leading member of the Burmese Pro-Democracy Movement in India.
India supported the pro-democracy uprising in 1988 led by iconic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, but started engaging the junta in the mid-1990s in view of Beijing's surging trade, energy and defence deals with Myanmar.
Besides energy, India sees Myanmar as a gateway for increased connectivity of its northeastern states to Southeast Asia. The transport corridor that would give India's landlocked northeastern states access to the Bay of Bengal through the Myanmar port of Sittwe was also discussed between the two sides.
India focuses on economy, security with Burma
India focuses on economy, security with Burma
Nirmala Ganapathy
The Straits Times
Publication Date : 27-07-2010
As the international community presses the Burmese junta on democratic reforms, the Indian leadership will focus on economic cooperation and border security during talks with Burmese Senior General Than Shwe.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to meet Gen Than Shwe for talks on Tuesday (July 27), during which issues such as increasing connectivity and stepping up economic engagement are high on the agenda. But more than that, the message from the Indian leadership continues to be this: engagement with Burma remains a priority for India.
"We regard Myanmar (Burma) as an important neighbour and there have been regular high-level visits. There is a steady progress and consolidation of ties," said official sources.
In an indication of the high level of comfort enjoyed by the two sides, Gen Than Shwe is currently on one of the most wide-ranging visits undergone by a visiting dignitary, travelling to four different parts of the country.
His visit started in the Buddhist holy place of Bodhgaya and will end with visits to Hyderabad, India's IT hub, as well as Jamshedpur, the steel city of conglomerate Tata.
On both sides, ties are being driven by strategic considerations. On the economic front, India wants to move fast on the Kaladan multi-modal transit project, a US$120 million project, which involves sea, river and road connectivity, and to see some movement on a trilateral highway project connecting India, Burma and Thailand.
Due to its geographical position, India has always considered Burma a gateway to Southeast Asia and also to India's northeast. At present, access to the north-eastern states is through a bottleneck access point through the state of West Bengal. Although Bangladesh provides the natural alternative, due to domestic reasons, Dhaka has been hesitant in allowing access. Nevertheless, India has found a willing partner in Burma.
The Kaladan project will establish a transport corridor that starts in Sittwe port in Burma and leads to the northeastern states.
Apart from connectivity, border security is also high on the Indian agenda. Officials point out that Burma has helped India out with insurgents in the north-east who have been unsuccessful in building safe havens across the border.
In the wake of these considerations, coupled with New Delhi's fear of Beijing extending its influence in Burma, the debate on democracy has had little impact on India's ties with Burma.
India's former foreign secretary, Lalit Mansingh, said: "We have important economic interests but more than that, there is the strategic interest, Myanmar (Burma) is vital for security interests."
Experts say India and China offer alternatives to Burma in the face of increasing international isolation over its lack of democratic reforms.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Irrawaddy: Burma on new China ‘watch list’ for resources – William Boot
Irrawaddy: Burma on new China ‘watch list’ for resources – William Boot
Thu 8 Jul 2010
Filed under: Business / Trade
BANGKOK—China has put Burma on a special “watch list” for potential acquisition of urgently needed natural resources, including coal, gold and copper as well as oil and gas.All China’s land border neighbors are the subject of a resources study with a view to future acquisition, Beijing’s Ministry of Land and Resources has disclosed in the Chinese official media.
The study follows a the rejection of some takeover bids made by Chinese state firms in minerals-rich Australia, where China has already spent billions of dollars acquiring coal and gas assets.
State-owned Chinese companies venturing abroad are backed by huge national reserves of more than US $2 trillion, and the results of the neighbors’ resources study will be assessed by Beijing’s ministry of finance, the China Business Journal reported.
The study includes Burma, Mongolia, Russia’s Siberian Far East, Vietnam, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the paper reported.
It comes as China prepares to become Burma’s biggest natural gas buyer, after it acquired all the gas to be produced from two blocks in the Shwe offshore field in the Bay of Bengal.
But despite huge and increasing imports of gas and oil, China’s main fuel remains coal and millions of tons are being bought from Australia, Indonesia and South Africa.
China is also the world’s biggest buyer of copper, iron ore and some foodstuffs.
Burma has coal, copper and gold.
The recent discovery of new coal reserves in Burma was highlighted by Chinese state media only this week.
“Newly found coal in the Mongma area holds the highest deposit of quality coal and it is estimated to yield thousands of tons of the mineral annually,” said the People’s Daily, noting that China is among several countries vying to help develop Burma’s coal industry.
Burma and Beijing signed a deal on mining among 15 cooperation agreements during a visit in early June by China’s Premier Wen Jiabao.
“One of China’s big five energy firms, the Guodian Corporation, is supposedly going to build a coal-fueled electricity generating plant in Burma, but there must be doubts about that as much of Burma’s current coal output is exported to China and Thailand,” industry analyst-consultant Collin Reynolds told The Irrawaddy this week.
“Burma is desperately short of electricity but Chinese know-how would be needed to revamp Burma’s power transmission infrastructure for any expansion in power capacity to be any use.
“China’s Yunnan Province adjoining northern Burma is also desperately short of electricity and coal,” Reynolds said.
According to unspecified “statistics” Burma has 82 “coal mining blocks” which “produced 233,983 tons of coal in the fiscal year 2009-10,” the official Chinese news agency Xinhua said this week in a report on Beijing’s new assessment of its neighbors assets.
“Burma’s generals have never hesitated from selling out their country’s resources for short-term cash or political protection, and so we cannot see this latest announcement from China as anything but confirmation that the scouring of Burma will go on and on,” prominent Burma economy analyst Sean Turnell told The Irrawaddy.
“In a country where nothing else can be relied on, this one is in the back of the net,” he said, referring to China’s assessment of Burma’s natural resources.
Turnell is an economics professor at Macquarie University in Australia and co-editor of the Burma Economic Watch bulletin.
Despite its highly polluting nature—except maybe when burned in costly plants using the latest technology—coal is being increasingly seen in Asia as the best cheapest substitute for oil and gas.
To underline this trend, Thailand’s state oil and gas giant PTT announced just this week that it intends to expand its acquisition of coal resources abroad.
PTT’s offshore gas fields in the Gulf of Thailand, as well as concessions held by its subsidiary PTTEP in Burma, supply about 70 percent of Thailand’s electricity generating fuel.
But the Thai government has ordered diversification of power fuel to reduce dependency on gas
Foreign investment in Myanmar tumbles
Foreign investment in Myanmar tumbles
Foreign investment in Myanmar down last year as China's figure falls, sanctions continue
On Wednesday July 14, 2010, 6:06 am EDT
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Foreign investment in Myanmar, one of the world's poorest and most authoritarian countries, dropped more than two thirds last fiscal year as Chinese investment tailed off and
economic sanctions on the military-ruled nation continued, according to government figures.
A statistical report from the country's Ministry of National Planning and Development that was seen Wednesday said foreign investment in the 12 months through March 2010 fell 68 percent to $315 million from $985 million the previous year.
The main reason for the drastic drop was because of China's unprecedented investment in Myanmar in 2008-2009. It spent $855.9 million in the mining sector, accounting for 87 percent of total foreign investment. China signed an agreement with resource-rich Myanmar for nickel-production in 2008.
Up-to-date information on Myanmar's economy is difficult to come by and the few official figures that become available are often regarded as unreliable. Though a substantial gas exporter, the revenues barely register in the government's accounts, suggesting the cash is diverted into projects favored by its ruling generals, according to Burma Economic Watch, a group based at Australia's Macquarie University that studies Myanmar's economy.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, saw seven new foreign investments during 12 months, four of which were in its oil and gas sector. These resource extraction investments -- three from Malaysia and one from the United Arab Emirates -- were worth $278.6 million and accounted for more than 88 percent of the total investment during the fiscal year.
Thailand spent $15.25 million in the hotel and tourism sector, China put $15 million into the mining sector and Hong Kong added $6 million to the manufacturing sector during 2009-2010, the government report said.
The United States and the European Union have imposed economic sanctions against Myanmar to pressure the military government to improve human rights and release detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Sanctions, including banning U.S. companies from investing in Myanmar and banning Myanmar exports to the United States, were first imposed in 1997.
Since Myanmar liberalized its investment code in 1988, it has attracted large investments in hydroelectric power, oil and gas and mining -- mainly from neighboring countries such as Thailand.
Meanwhile, Myanmar's exports rose 12 percent to $7.6 billion in year through March from $6.78 billion the previous year, according to the report. Imports dropped 8 percent to $4.18 billion from $4.54 billion.
The government report said that natural gas exports, which accounted for about 38 percent of all export revenue, increased 9 percent to $2.56 billion from $2.35 billion. Myanmar gas exports go to neighboring Thailand.
Myanmar is believed to have a large amount of unmeasured trade, mostly goods smuggled across its land borders, especially with eastern neighbor Thailand and northeastern neighbor China.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Big Oil Firms Accused of Human-Rights Abuses in Burma
Big Oil Firms Accused of Human-Rights Abuses in Burma
Time
July 06, 2010
Vivienne Walt
To the list of Big Oil companies with p.r. problems add two more: Chevron and French energy giant Total. In a report published on Monday, the NGO EarthRights International accuses the firms of being implicated in human-rights violations in Burma, claiming that soldiers guarding Chevron and Total's natural-gas pipeline in the country have murdered locals and forced others to do backbreaking, unpaid labor in order to keep the gas exports flowing smoothly. The report also holds that the revenues from the operation have been propping up the country's oppressive military government for more than a decade, thus fostering harmful political outcomes that affect the entire country.
EarthRights' complaints against Total and Chevron are not new. Last year, the NGO, which is based in Washington and Chiang Mai, Thailand, published interviews with locals describing how soldiers protecting the pipeline had dragooned them into unpaid manual labor. The pipeline, which crosses more than 40 miles of Burmese territory, is a joint venture among Chevron, Total, a Thai energy company and the Burmese state oil and gas authority. Activists say it is a short section of the pipeline that travels overland through a remote part of the country that has led to ongoing conflicts between residents and the Burmese army's Battalion 282, the soldiers charged with protecting the pipeline. Until the pipeline was built in the mid-1990s, the area saw little military action. But according to the EarthRights report, in February some soldiers of the battalion murdered two residents in the pipeline area after suspecting them of being linked to an armed militia group. (See pictures of the Gulf oil spill.)
The report goes on to say that Total and Chevron's operation - which for more than a decade has been exporting gas to Thailand from Burma's Yadana field - is keeping the country's military government afloat. Last October, Total took the rare step of revealing how much it pays Burma's government for its share of the gas revenues, saying that the previous year, Total's portion of the Yadana project had earned the Burmese government about $254 million. In all, EarthRights says, the operation generated about $9 billion in revenues for Burma and the oil companies between 1998 and the end of 2009, with $4.6 billion of that paid directly to Burmese officials.
But should Total and Chevron be held responsible for the actions of Burma's government? For years, energy companies have argued that they operate in scores of countries across the world - many of them authoritarian - and cannot be accountable for the behavior of each of those governments, especially since their contracts can last up to 25 years, often longer than the governments themselves. Total and Chevron reject EarthRights' claims that their operations in Burma led to human-rights violations, and both companies have invested in community programs, such as health clinics and schools, in the country. (See pictures of the world's most polluted places.)
Total spokesman Jean-FranÇois Lassalle told TIME on Monday that the company is "deeply shocked" by the accusations in the report, adding that they "rest on a biased interpretation and a vision that is totally disconnected from the Burmese reality. We work daily for the respect of human rights in our operations and beyond our operations for better governance," he said. After EarthRights made similar accusations last year, Total published an interview with Lassalle on its website in which he said, "Total has never used forced labor, either directly or indirectly through contractors. We always insured that forced labor was not used in the area in which we operated." He also said that when the company learned of forced-labor cases involving the Burmese pipeline, "we paid compensation immediately, on humanitarian grounds."
EarthRights says in its report that Chevron and Total could be liable for major legal challenges if Burmese residents choose to sue the companies in their home territories, the U.S. and France, respectively. For Chevron, that would be familiar territory. In 2005, the now defunct Unocal oil company, which Chevron bought that year, paid an undisclosed sum of money to Burmese plaintiffs after fighting a nine-year legal battle in a California court over human-rights abuses around the pipeline. (See pictures of Burma.)
EarthRights consultant Matthew Smith says Total and Chevron have refused to meet with the group to discuss the situation in the pipeline area and that the Burmese government seems increasingly jittery about the revelations of human-rights abuses by those protecting the gas exports. "There's much more of a concerted effort by security forces to identify people who are documenting what's going on," says Smith, who authored this week's report. Villagers are ordered to report any unusual visitors to the pipeline area. Most of all, perhaps, those writing international reports.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Privatization? What Privatization? -BY IRRAWADDY
COMMENTARY
Privatization? What Privatization?
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By YENI Saturday, February 27, 2010
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Residents of Mogok, the center of Burma's gems industry, have been in a panic recently. Since last week, earth-movers and other heavy equipment have begun appearing in the town's residential neighborhoods.
This follows an earlier survey of the area carried out by local officials, the Ministry of Mines and two private companies—Htoo Trading Co, Ltd, owned by junta crony Tay Za, and Ruby Dragon Jade & Gems Co, Ltd, which counts a number of high-ranking generals among its shareholders.
“We are very worried now that our houses and land will be confiscated,” said one man living in Mogok, located some 200 km northeast of Mandalay in the “Valley of Rubies”—a land famous since ancient times for its gemstones, especially its rare pigeon's blood rubies and blue sapphires.
This is “privatization,” Burmese-stye, in action. And it is going on all over the country these days, as the ruling junta counts down to the election that will, at least nominally, end their total control of one of the world's most resource-rich yet woefully underdeveloped economies.
What is happening in Mogok—where the generals and their close associates are laying claim to anything worth owning—is also taking place everywhere else. From gas stations to hydropower plants, cinemas to telecommunications companies, factories and warehouses to airlines—everything is up for grabs.
This would be welcome news if it were a sign that the regime is finally getting around to the economic reforms it has been promising for the past two decades. Unfortunately, however, that isn't the case. What we are actually witnessing is the formal transfer of the nation's wealth into the hands of an entrenched elite who, until now, have been able to simply take whatever they want without having to worry about rival claims.
After the election, things won't be quite that simple. Although the ruling generals and their “business partners” will continue to hold a commanding position in the economy, when the new Constitution comes into effect, it will mean that, at least in theory, others will also have the right to possess property. That is why they are preemptively buying up everything in sight, before they find themselves actually having to pay a fair price for properties and concessions that they can now get virtually for nothing.
In its recent round of sell-offs, the regime has not invited public tendering or released information about the proceeds from the sales or how non-state ownership will work. Whereas privatization that takes place under more transparent circumstances usually benefits the public, resulting in lower prices, improved quality, more choices, less corruption, less red tape and quicker delivery, in the case of Burma, the country's people will once again be the biggest losers.
Since 1989, the ruling junta has periodically sold off state-owned properties as part of its so-called “open-door” economic policy. But instead of undoing the damage done by former dictator Ne Win's “Burmese way of socialism,” the regime has merely replaced it with crony capitalism.
Of course, Burma is not alone in practicing this particularly pernicious approach to economic development; nor are well-connected Burmese tycoons the only ones bargain hunting in the country.
While Surin Pitsuwan, the secretary-general of the the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and former foreign minister of Thailand, was defending the 10-member regional bloc's position on Burma's upcoming election on BBC's Hardtalk recently, a group of Thailand-based investors were visiting the country. A few weeks earlier, a similar delegation from Vietnam was also looking at investment opportunities in Burma.
But even if the Burmese regime's disregard for economic transparency and accountability is hardly unique, there's no denying that the country's standards are among the worst in the world.
According to the “2010 Index of Economic Freedom,” a report prepared by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, Burma ranks 174th out of 179 countries in the world in terms of economic freedom.
The report identifies a number of factors contributing to Burma's low ranking, including government interference in economic activities; structural problems such as fiscal deficits; continuing losses by state-owned enterprises; and underdeveloped legal and regulatory frameworks and poor government service. On property rights in Burma, the report states succinctly: “Private real property and intellectual property are not protected.”
What Burma needs now is not self-serving “reforms” by the country's current rulers, but a return to the rule of law under a democratically elected government. But since the coming election is not likely to deliver real change, the people of Mogok—like the rest of the country's population—can do no more than stand back and watch as the generals take away what little they have left.
Yeni is news editor of the Irrawaddy magazine. He can be reached at yeni@irrawaddy.org.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
Friday, May 15, 2009
Teamsters Call for Transparency at Chevron in Shareholder Proposal
http://sev.prnewswire.com/oil-energy/20090512/DC1548212052009-1.html
Proposal Focuses on Chevron's Role in Burma and Resulting Risks to Shareholder Value
WASHINGTON, May 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Representatives from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Simon Billenness, Co-Chair of the U.S. Campaign for Burma, gave presentations via teleconference today on the Country Selection Criteria shareholder proposal at Chevron Corporation, which goes to a vote at the company's May 27, 2009 annual meeting of shareholders.
The presentations focused on Chevron's role in Burma and the resulting risks to shareholder value, and the need for Chevron to be transparent about the standards used by the company in its assessment of high-risk countries for potential or continued investment.
Chevron, in partnership with Total of France, the Petroleum Authority of Thailand, and Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise, holds equity in the largest investment project in Burma: the Yadana gas-field and pipeline, which is reportedly the single largest source of income for the Burmese military regime.
Chevron's investment in Burma exposes the company to staggering legal, financial, political, and reputation risks and raises serious questions about Chevron's current policies and processes for evaluating and managing in-country operational risks.
The Teamsters General Fund is the lead filer of the Country Selection Criteria proposal, which asks Chevron to disclose the criteria under which it starts and ends investments in high risk countries like Burma. If adopted, the proposal would provide shareholders with the information they need to evaluate Chevron's procedures and policies in this area and make informed choices regarding Chevron's governance.
Described by the New York Times as "a super-specialist" in human rights and shareholder advocacy, Simon Billenness has over 15 years of experience helping institutional investors address key issues concerning human and labor rights, the environment, and country risk. He is a pioneer in shareholder engagement with companies operating in countries racked by conflict and under repressive regimes. His country and regional expertise includes Latin America, Burma (Myanmar), Nigeria, Sudan/Darfur, and China.
Simon Billenness developed his professional expertise as a Senior Analyst for Trillium Asset Management, Senior Policy Advisor for Corporate Engagement at Oxfam America, and Special Advisor with the Office of Investment at the AFL-CIO.
Billenness is a member of the Board of Directors of Amnesty International USA, where he serves as liaison to the Investment Committee and the Business and Human Rights Program. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the U.S. Campaign for Burma and the Unitarian Universalist Association Committee on Socially Responsible Investment.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
How I took on the Burmese junta and won -by Ben Bland
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/asia_file/blog/2009/05/11/how_i_took_on_the_burmese_junta_and_won
Posted By: The Asia File at May 11, 2009 at 13:41:04 [General]
Posted in: Business
The repressive Burmese junta may have to put plans for an extensive new airport in their secretive capital Naypyidaw on hold after one of Australia's largest engineering companies pulled out of the project in rather hasty fashion because I exposed their involvement in the questionable development.
Rather bizarrely, the company in question, Downer EDI, claimed that it was unaware that its wholly-owned Singapore-based consultancy arm CPG had been contracted to design the airport until I informed them of the fact last week (see the full story here).
CPG was working alongside some pretty shady characters on this project and it really doesn't reflect well on a sizable publicly-listed company such as Downer, which is a constituent of Australia's benchmark ASX 200 share index.
Downer has also been a big donor to Australia's ruling Labor party, which has spoken out strongly against the Burmese junta and last year increased the scope of sanctions against the regime and its cronies.
But the company has moved to rectify the situation pretty quickly, saying it will pull out of the airport contract as soon as it can regardless of the possible financial penalties involved.
Most companies opt for damage limitation when caught out but not many executives would put their hands up so quickly and perform such a rapid U-turn. It's either a sign of how transparent and contrite they are or how seriously they believe they have erred.
I doubt the generals or their henchmen at Asia World, the Burmese conglomerate charged with building the airport, will be too pleased to have lost their major design partner. Particularly as they have worked with CPG, which used to be the Singapore public works department before it was privatised, in the past on other projects such as the redevelopment of Yangon (Rangoon) airport.
No international company with an ounce of decency should be involved in Burmese projects such as this that only benefit the generals at the expense of their people.
But I don't believe that extensive sanctions are the best way to curb the excesses of the vile military government in Burma and to promote democracy. The only hope for the country lies in greater engagement with the outside world, not more isolation.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Daewoo Int'l extends Myanmar field exploration
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSSEO3885220090403
SEOUL, April 3 (Reuters) -
South Korea's Daewoo International Corp said on Friday it had extended exploration rights to Myanmar's AD-7 oil and gas field despite other members of the project dropping out after the original exploration period ended in February.
Daewoo International (047050.KS) will have a 100 percent stake in the field under the new deal, from its previous 60 percent stake.
India's ONGC Videsh Limited had owned a 20 percent stake in the field, while another Indian firm, Gail (GAIL.BO), and state-run Korea Gas Corp (KOGAS) (036460.KS) each had 10 percent, it said.
(Reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)
Myanmar: Web Slowdown Hurting Myanmar Businesses
http://www.mysinchew.com/node/22845?tid=37
Foreign 2009-04-03 13:38
YANGON, MYANMAR: Disruptions to Myanmar's Internet service will continue indefinitely, a state-owned service provider warned Friday (3 April), saying it does not know when it will complete repairs to an undersea cable.
The slowdown has hit local businesses hard, causing some Internet cafes to close their doors and prompting travelers to cancel trips to the impoverished nation.
State-owned Myanmar Teleport blamed the problems on maintenance it has been doing since 21 March on a cable in the Bay of Bengal. Teleport initially said work would be finished on 25 March but now says it does not know when the repairs will be completed.
"Currently we do not know the schedule for repair completion," Teleport said in a statement.
The junta in Myanmar aggressively censors the Internet and routinely blocks politically sensitive Web sites such as those promoting human rights. During a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Sept 2007, it cut all access to the Internet and shuttered many cybercafes.
But this time around, there is no indication that government meddling is behind the slowdown. While hard to confirm, business owners said they believed the problem was technical. (AP)
MySinchew 2009.04.03
Thursday, April 2, 2009
When Burma Policy is Really China Policy
http://washingtonindependent.com/36807/when-burma-policy-is-really-china-policy
By Mike Lillis 4/1/09 12:20 PM
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made headlines in February when, during a spin through Asia, she revealed that the Obama administration is reviewing its Burma policy, in search of more effective ways to sway the tyrannical military regime.
“Clearly, the path we have taken in imposing sanctions hasn’t influenced the Burmese junta,” she told students at Tokyo University.
Today, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) weighs in with a message for the White House: “Stay the course” on Burma policy, particularly as it pertains to support for Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel-Prize winning head of the National League for Democracy who’s been under house arrest on and off (mostly on) since 1990. From an op-ed in The Boston Globe today:
While it may be expedient for some diplomats and aid workers to marginalize the National League for Democracy, Clinton must recognize that no political reconciliation in Burma is possible without that party’s full participation along with ethnic representatives who remain imprisoned.
Further down, Gregg reveals what this issue, in his mind, is really about: Stemming the spread of Chinese influence in Southeast Asia.
Burma is more than just a human-rights problem. Illicit drugs, diseases, and refugees migrate to neighboring countries, creating major social — and financial — burdens on local and national governments. Geostrategic interests, including natural resources and access to deep water ports for a growing Chinese navy, should be of increasing concern to the region, as well as the United States and Europe. [...]
It is far from certain that engagement with the military junta will produce any significant reward (tigers don’t change their stripes), and the United States is not in a position to effectively counter China’s growing presence in Burma, whether through high-risk investments or security assistance. The best antidote to a growing Chinese footprint is transparent and accountable governance, long championed by the NLD and one of America’s best exports to the region.
Can’t wait for the next Cold War.
–
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Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Toshiba Said to Buy Majority Stake in Nuclear Fuel Company
http://asianenergy.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
By Megumi Yamanaka
March 30 (Bloomberg) -- Toshiba Corp., Japan’s largest supplier of reactors, plans to buy a controlling stake in a nuclear fuel supplier to help compete with global rivals for new atomic power plants, officials said.
Toshiba’s Westinghouse Electric Co. seeks to buy more than 50 percent ofNuclear Fuel Industries Ltd. from Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. andFurukawa Electric Co., said two officials close to the negotiations who declined to be named before an announcement. Yuichiro Horiba, a spokesman at Osaka- based Sumitomo Electric confirmed the talks and said the companies have yet to reach a decision.
Better access to fuel may help Toshiba win orders as competition with France’sAreva SA and an alliance between Hitachi Ltd. and General Electric Co.intensifies. Nuclear power generation is set to increase as developing countries led by China and India build more reactors to meet demand and cut carbon emissions blamed for global warming.
“It’s more profitable to package reactors with the fuel,” Fujii Tomoyuki, an analyst at Okasan Securities Co., said by phone from Tokyo today. “Customers don’t want to take risks associated with the nuclear fuel business, and offering them together will help win orders.”
Toshiba spokeswoman Hiroko Mochida and Furukawa spokesman Toshinori Kimura declined to comment.
The two officials didn’t say how much Toshiba may pay for the proposed stake. The Yomiuri newspaper reported yesterday that Toshiba will buy all of Nuclear Fuel Industries at a cost of more than 20 billion yen ($205 million).
Hitachi Venture
Toshiba wants to buy a stake in Nuclear Fuel Industries partly because of concern that the company may be pushed out of another fuel venture with General Electric and Hitachi, one of the officials said.
Toshiba and Hitachi each own 24.5 percent of Global Nuclear Fuel Japan Co. while General Electric holds 51 percent. General Electric and Hitachi merged their nuclear energy business in July 2007, a year after Toshiba bought Westinghouse.
Toshiba, which is forecasting its first net loss in seven years, is focusing on nuclear energy as the global recession cuts profit from semiconductors, its main business. The company aims to win orders to build 39 reactors by 2015, it said in the mid-term business plan unveiled in January.
Shares in the company have tumbled 42 percent in the last six months,outpacing the 27 percent decline in the benchmark Topix index. The stock fell 8 percent to close at 263 yen at in Tokyo.
Nuclear Fuel Industries was formed in 1972 and sells atomic fuel rods to companies including Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Kansai Electric Power Co., the country’s biggest utilities. The company operates one plant at Ibaraki, north of Tokyo, and another in Osaka.
The world needs 32 new nuclear power plants a year to meet a goal of halving emissions by 2050, International Energy Agency Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka said in June.
India plans to add 40,000 megawatts of nuclear capacity by 2020, while China has increased its goal to 75,000 megawatts from a previous target of 40,000 megawatts, the Shanghai Securities News said today.
To contact the reporter on this story: Megumi Yamanaka in Tokyo
China, Burma to build cross border gas pipeline
http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/1906-china-burma-to-build-cross-border-gas-pipeline.html
by Mungpi
Friday, 27 March 2009 21:09
New Delhi (Mizzima) - China and Burma on Thursday signed four contracts, which included the construction of a cross border oil and gas pipeline, Burma’s state-run media said.
The New Light of Myanmar, Burma’s official newspaper on Friday reported that the Burmese Energy Minister Brig-Gen Lun Thi and Head of China’s National Energy Administration, Mr. Zhang Guobao signed a cooperation agreement on the Sino-Burma Oil and Gas pipeline.
The other contracts include a framework agreement on Development of Hydropower Resources in Burma by China, a Memorandum of Understanding on Buyer’s Credit for Construction Projects between the Export-Import Bank of China and the Ministry of Finance and Revenue of Burma. Both China and Burma also agreed on Economic and Technical Cooperation between the two countries.
The contracts were signed between Burmese and Chinese officials, who accompanied Li Changchung, member of the politburo of the central committee of Communist Party of China (CPC), during his visit to military-ruled Burma.
According to the Chinese central government website, the Sino-Burma cross border gas pipeline is designed to link a port city in Burma with Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province.
According to a Reuters report, Yunnan is to start construction of the pipeline in the first half as part of its 72 billion Yuan (S$15.9 billion) worth of energy projects this year.
The pipeline, according to a Sino-Burmese analyst Aung Kyaw Zaw, is strategically important for China as it could cut down on the detour of oil cargoes through the congested Malacca Strait and also strengthen China's access to Burma’s rich energy reserves.
Burma in December awarded China the right to buy oil from its offshore block–A gas field in the Bay of Bengal for a period of 30 years.
Aung Kyaw Zaw said Li’s visit to Burma, which is part of a four-nation tour, could also be to push Burma to implement the agreement.
“China is worried that Burma is delaying work on the gas pipeline construction,” said Aung Kyaw Zaw.
Li, during his visit to Burma, met several officials including the junta supremo Snr. Gen Than Shwe, and exchanged views on developing good-neighbourly and friendly ties between China and Burma, according to the Burmese state-run paper.
Western nations particularly the United States and the European Union have imposed stringent economic sanctions on Burma, restricting its companies from investing in the country.
But China, which has raised its voice against western sanctions on Burma, has been investing in Burma and has signed several contracts for business deals.
China and Myanmar seal gas export deal
http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20090327-131496.html
Fri, Mar 27, 2009
Reuters
BEIJING - A Myanmar gas consortium led by South Korea's Daewoo International has signed an agreement to sell natural gas to China, China's Xinhua news agency said on Thursday.
China and Myanmar plan to build oil and gas pipelines through Myanmar and into China's southwestern Yunnan province, bypassing the long journey around the Malacca Strait for oil cargoes and solving the problem of getting the gas to market, Chinese media have reported.
Few western companies will invest in the former Burma because of its poor human rights record and continued detention of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, which has led to a broad range of U.S. and European sanctions.
China, typically wary of supporting or imposing sanctions and one of Myanmar's few diplomatic allies, has shown no qualms about investing in its neighbour, eager for its natural gas, oil, minerals and timber to feed a booming economy.
Daewoo said last year it had picked China as a preferred bidder for natural gas from a project in Myanmar, putting it at the front of a queue that also includes India and Thailand.
Top Chinese officials have said that Beijing will encourage its energy companies to make more forays abroad to ensure the country's energy security, an even more important strategy than exploration at home.
Beijing also offered incentives such as cheap loans and tax breaks to energy firms to fund their foreign exploration. --REUTERS
TATA Motors to make trucks in Burma
http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/1902-tata-motors-to-make-trucks-in-burma.html
by Salai Pi Pi
Friday, 27 March 2009 17:52
New Delhi (Mizzima) – India’s leading automaker TATA Motors on Thursday met Burmese Minister of Energy (2) Vice-Admiral Soe Thein, and held parleys on setting up a truck manufacturing unit in Burma, the state-run media said.
The New Light of Myanmar, Burma’s official newspaper, on Friday reported that Mr. Manas Kumar Mishra of TATA Motors Ltd. on Thursday met Soe Thein in Naypyitaw, Burma’s new jungle capital and discussed setting up a truck manufacturing unit in Burma.
“Both sides discussed the speedy implementation of a heavy turbo truck assembly and component parts production factory project and starting manufacturing operations from December 2009,” the paper said.
A document of India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), which is in Mizzima’s possession said the project is part of India’s “Look East Policy”, which includes setting up several bilateral development projects such as construction of roads, power projects, oil refinery units, transmission lines, telecommunications, and Information technology services in Burma, by India.
The MEA said India has sanctioned a USD20 million Line of Credit (LoC) for setting up a truck manufacturing unit to be taken up by TATA Motors.
Since the formal launch of the “Look East Policy” in 1994, India has engaged Burma in areas of trade and development and has maintained regular exchange of high-level officials visits.
India’s Vice-President M. Hamid Ansari last month, paid a four-day visit to Burma, during which the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on setting up a Industrial Training Centre and a Centre for English Language Training (CELT).
According to the MEA, bilateral trade between India and Burma for the fiscal year 2007-08 stood at USD 901.3 million. For the same fiscal year, Burma’s export to India was USD 7272.85 million, while India’s export was USD 173.46 million.
TATA Motors Ltd is the world’s fourth largest truck manufacturer and second largest bus manufacturer.
Edited by Mungpi
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
The Scramble For A Piece of Burma
http://kaylatt.blogspot.com/2009/03/scramble-for-piece-of-burma.html
By Hannah Beech / Arakan and Kachin States Thursday, Mar. 19, 2009
Last year, the Chinese came. The villagers living in western Burma's remote Arakan state couldn't quite fathom what the Chinese told them, that below their rice fields might lie a vast reserve of oil. For three months the Chinese drilled the earth near the muddy Kaladan River in search of black gold. Then, just as suddenly, they left.
In December, the Indians arrived. Through Burmese intermediaries, they took the village's paddies as their own, depriving locals of their main source of income. Compensation was promised, villagers tell me, but none has been paid so far. So the impoverished residents of Mee Laung Yaw village, who lack electricity and eat eggplant curry as a poor substitute for meat, spend their days gazing at their expropriated fields, now fenced in and dominated by an oil-exploration tower that dwarfs their bamboo shacks. Several villagers took lowly construction jobs on the site but they were never paid so they've stopped showing up for work. "I hope they don't find any oil," says village chief Aye Thein Tun. "Because even if they do, none of it will come to us. It will just go to other countries."
The Western dialogue over what to do about Burma's repressive military regime is often framed as a single dilemma: whether or not to impose international sanctions. The debate is polarizing. The pro-sanctions crowd claims the moral high ground, deploring the enrichment of a clutch of ethnocentric Burmese generals whose impulses are most brutal against the roughly 40% of the population that, like the villages of Arakan state, is composed of ethnic minorities. The engagement side preaches practicality, arguing that some investment will trickle down to the populace and that cultural exchange is better than imposed isolationism. When U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Asia on her inaugural foreign trip last month, she weighed in on the Burma question, acknowledging: "Clearly the path we have taken in imposing sanctions hasn't influenced the Burmese junta ... [which is] impervious to influence from anyone." (See pictures of Burma's discontent.)
The truth about Burma, renamed as Myanmar by its generals, is that the sanctions debate is immaterial. While American and European foreign policy thinkers ponder how to financially strangle an army government that has ruled since 1962, Burma's regional neighbors are embarking on a new Great Game, scrambling to outdo each other for access to this resource-rich land. "Sanctions don't work if most countries ignore them," says Naw La, an exiled environmentalist with the Kachin Development Networking Group in Thailand. "The military is selling our natural heritage without any concern for our people."
The Mosquito Coast
In return for oil, natural gas, timber, hydropower, gemstones, cash crops and a periodic table's worth of minerals, countries like China, India, Thailand, Malaysia and South Korea are propping up — and massively enriching — Burma's top brass. In the first nine months of 2008, foreign investment in Burma almost doubled year on year to nearly $1 billion, according to government figures that don't even take into account significant underground economic activity. Burma today is estimated to produce 90% of the world's rubies by value, 80% of its teak, and is home to one of Asia's biggest oil and natural-gas reserves. The country's jade is the world's finest, and its largely untouched rivers promise plentiful hydropower for its neighbors. "Multinationals are getting rich off Burma, and so is the military regime," says Ka Hsaw Wa, co-founder of EarthRights International, an NGO that sued U.S. energy giant Unocal, which eventually provided out-of-court compensation to villagers who are believed to have toiled as slave labor for the Yadana gas pipeline from southern Burma to Thailand. "It is the local people who are suffering and dying," says Ka Hsaw Wa.
But as resource-hungry countries cozy up to the junta, they are discovering that Burma's natural wealth is most bountiful in areas where ethnic minorities simmer under the rule of the ethnic Burmese generals. Officially, the Burmese junta recognizes that the country is a union of at least 135 distinct groups. Yet the top ranks of the military are practically devoid of any non-Burmese presence. Army persecution of Burma's diverse tribes has festered for decades, and the proliferation of junta-controlled mines and concessions in the minority regions only exacerbates the tensions. Hundreds of thousands of ethnic villagers have been forced to relocate or have been conscripted into chain gangs, according to human-rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Even when operations begin, paid jobs land disproportionately in the hands of ethnic Burmese migrants, not those of local minorities. A new report by the Geneva-based International Displacement Monitoring Center estimates that in eastern Burma alone nearly half a million minority people have been displaced.
The British, trying to hold together an ethnic patchwork of a colony, knew too well the perils of Burma's tribal politics. They resorted to divide-and-conquer schemes, much as the current military regime has done. Intense negotiations by the junta led to many ethnic insurgencies laying down their guns in the 1980s and '90s — and opened up a vast territory for resource exploitation. But as the inequities between the Burmese majority and the tribal groups — the Arakanese, the Shan, the Kachin, the Karen, the Mon, the Wa and the Chin, to name a few — yawns ever wider, the chance of renewed armed conflict grows stronger. "To the military, we [ethnic minorities] are like mosquitoes," says a young Arakanese Buddhist monk, who participated in the crushed antigovernment uprising of September 2007 and chafes at Burmese discrimination against his people. "We buzz in their ear, and they slap at us and don't care if they kill us." But, he adds, "there are many mosquitoes." In the end, it may be the foreign participants in this new Great Game, unschooled in how to navigate ethnic complexities, who will get bitten.
Minority Report
Arakan's capital, Sittwe, is a sleepy port near the Bay of Bengal where the pace of life inches along at the speed of a pedicab. But nearby, the rush for oil and gas is intense; last year, Russian, Thai and Vietnamese companies signed exploration deals with the junta. In late December, a consortium of four foreign companies, led by South Korea's Daewoo, inked an agreement with the junta and China National Petroleum Corp. to extract natural gas from Arakan's offshore Shwe fields and pipe it northeast through Burma to China's Yunnan province. The pipeline, along with a plan for a new deepwater port in Arakan where ships laden with Middle Eastern oil can dock and disgorge their valuable cargo, gives China an alternative to the expensive and sometimes dangerous Strait of Malacca by directly supplying energy to its landlocked west. The Shwe project is Burma's largest ever foreign-investment commitment. (The second largest is the Yadana pipeline to Thailand.) Though Arakan sits on the country's biggest oil and natural-gas fields, Sittwe only gets three hours of electricity a day. The town boasts an "e-library" located in a government building, but all the computers sit unused because there is no power during office hours.
When I flew on a wheezing Myanma Airways plane to Sittwe, a squad of military officers with pistols on their hips boarded the flight. As the plane climbed into the air, two men in uniform stood in the aisle and unrolled a large, laminated map that showed the Shwe pipeline route in red. Yet the general public in Arakan has not been told what many suspected and what the map I saw indicated: that the pipeline, on which construction is scheduled to begin this year, will travel through populous areas and will likely result in extensive village relocations. (Both Daewoo and the Indian company exploring for oil in Arakan did not respond to Time's requests for comment.) For locals, reporting what I had seen on the plane could land them in a labor camp for compromising national security. The week before I arrived, several Arakanese with vaguely political backgrounds were rounded up by the police and haven't been seen since. "They close our ears and they close our mouths," says an Arakanese political dissident, noting the heavy Burmese security presence that can make even casual conversation at a teahouse fraught. "And now, they are taking our treasures, our oil and gas. What do we get in return? Nothing."
The inequity is straining the network of fragile cease-fires in tribal areas. "We have sent many letters registering our complaints to the government, but we haven't heard back," says Colonel Gun Maw. Not hearing back from the Burmese junta is something to which the spokesman for the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) is accustomed. An ethnically based movement in northern Burma's Kachin state, the KIO waged a long insurgency against the Burmese regime before signing a peace treaty in 1994. Most Kachin are Christian, and they believe their faith makes them particularly vulnerable to persecution by the exclusively Buddhist junta. In a complicated arrangement, the KIO controls some territory on Kachin's border with China. Chinese trucks that rumble through KIO turf pay taxes on the jade, gold and timber they're carrying, and KIO officials say the Chinese generally pay up, lest instability infect the area. "China wants Burma as a buffer state," says Gun Maw. "It wants Burma to be secure — so China will be secure."
Today, the KIO is waging an information campaign on a series of seven planned dams in Kachin, which will flood hundreds of villages and could threaten many others because the region's frequent seismic activity could trigger reservoir floods. (Two previously built dams in Kachin were rendered useless after breaking, and nearby villagers, who never received any electricity, were killed by the rush of water.) The dams, which are slated to generate seven times Burma's entire current electricity capacity, are being jointly developed by state-owned Chinese companies and a Burmese firm, Asia World, whose managing director was the target of U.S. sanctions last year. China will receive most — if not all — the generated power, leaving the Kachin people literally in the dark. The largest dam will be at Myitsone, where two rivers meet to become the mighty Irrawaddy. Chinese engineers and ethnic Burmese workers are already on-site. "All we can do is pray that the dam doesn't get built," says Nlam Brang Nu, the Baptist pastor of Tang Hpre village, which will be inundated when Myitsone is completed. "It is in God's hands."
Cycle of Depression
The Chinese are learning that the Kachin, like other ethnic groups in Burma, may not be willing to turn the other cheek much longer. Last year, armed KIO soldiers showed up at a pair of dam sites staffed by Chinese workers and demanded work cease until the Chinese paid them taxes. The projects are located in an area nominally under KIO control, but the former rebels were angry that the dam deal was negotiated directly between the Burmese government and Chinese hydropower firms without their input. (Eventually, the Chinese paid up.) More foreigners could get caught in the cross fire. Next year, Burma's generals will oversee nationwide elections, two decades after they ignored the results of the last polls. But for the cease-fire groups to participate in the balloting, the junta requires them to give up their guns. For many ethnic organizations, the KIO included, that's not acceptable. Between sips of whiskey chased by Red Bull, a gun runner in the Kachin capital Myitkyina tells me that he's fielding more orders for Chinese-made arms from various ethnic insurgent groups. "We have to defend ourselves," he says. "Otherwise the government will keep taking from us until we have nothing left."
That's the plight of most everyone in Burma, even the ethnic Burmese. Balancing on a narrow bamboo raft in the middle of the Irrawaddy River, ethnic Burmese migrant Aung Tun sifts for specks of gold. Over the past decade, Chinese demand for gold has skyrocketed, and thousands of ethnic Burmese have moved to Kachin to pan for the mineral, as well as mine jade. But for the right to float his raft on the river, Aung Tun must pay fees to the Burmese government, the Burmese police and the KIO. If the specks of gold add up, he can make the payments. Otherwise, Aung Tun goes into debt. If he survives, that is. During the five years that Aung Tun has panned the Irrawaddy, 25 people have died in his work group, which numbers no more than 40 laborers at one time. Some drowned during storms, while others succumbed to malaria or never came up after diving deep into the river. "The foreigners want gold," he says, squinting for yellow dust in the brown silt. "So we look for it." The equation in Asia's new Great Game is simple — and deadly.
Posted by Kay Latt at 11:11 AM
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Chinese company, called Chinnery Assents Ltd., will begin off-shore exploration along Burma’s western coast
A Chinese company, called Chinnery Assents Ltd., will begin off-shore exploration along Burma’s western coast, on March 23 where oil and gas prospects are a plenty for the requirement of energy-guzzling neighbouring economies.
2009 March 20
tags: Human Rights, Junta, Burma, Thugs and Thievesby peacerunningChinese firm to explore western offshore
by Moe Thu
Friday, 20 March 2009 21:05
Rangoon (Mizzima) - A Chinese company, called Chinnery Assents Ltd., will begin off-shore exploration along Burma’s western coast, on March 23 where oil and gas prospects are a plenty for the requirement of energy-guzzling neighbouring economies.
Exploration in the area sparked a maritime controversy a couple of months ago between military-ruled Burma and its neighbour Bangladesh mainly because of the storehouse of energy.
“The company, a division of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), is conducting 2D maritime seismic survey in deep-water offshore block AD-6, to tap natural gas,” said a company press release issued today.
The company’s exploration – from March 23 to April 30 – borders block A-1, which is already being explored by South Korea’s Daewoo International Corporation.
The Chinese company entered Burma’s offshore energy sector in January 2007, by signing a production sharing contract with military-run Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise to explore gas reserves in blocks AD-1, AD-6 and AD-8, which cover an area of 10,000 square kilometers off the Rakhine coast line in western Burma.
Chinnery Assets, which also acquired onshore block IOR 4 in central Burma, had found gas reserves that hold 300 billion cubic feet of gas. Mizzima News
from → Burma
Monday, March 9, 2009
Green Vs green: Jade Industry threatens environment
http://www.mizzima.com/edop/photo-essay/1801-green-vs-green-jade-industry-threatens-environment.html
by Phyusin Linn
Wednesday, 04 March 2009 18:39
Rangoon (Mizzima) - Hundred years ago, Phar Kant used to be a very quiet city nestled among the forests in northern Burma before someone found the great treasure lying beneath it.
Now Phar Kant is one of the most important and dynamic cities in the country's economic landscape. It is one of a few major places on earth that produce green gems – jade. Phar Kant always is a popular place in international gems market for its quality jade.
British people were noted to be the first explorers who started massively taking the green stones out in Phar Kant. Since then, that small city never had a chance to rest peacefully again. Since the country's independence in 1948, governments and rebels always had been trying to get control over it for their budget supports. During the socialist era, it was one of a few financial sources that allowed the government in Rangoon to keep marching on their dream road of so called Burmese way to socialism. But Phar Kant never forgot to support native Kachin ethnic rebels fighting for self-determination with its green treasure. Civil war in northern Burma was fuelled by Phar Kant for decades. It is a place where one can see both sides of Burmese Army officials and ethnic rebels digging stones out in the same place.
It is 100 miles north-west of Myitkyina, capital of Kachin State and is under control of Burma Armed Forces' Northern Command. It always is a place where every Commander who was appointed as the commander of Northern Command never missed to put their one eye on.
Nation wide uprising calling for multi party democratic system in 1988's changed the nation's political and economical features. Military government that promised to hold a free and fair election said that the country was opening its doors for market economy. And the new economic policy brought a new wave to the places like Phar Kant. New investors appeared and productivity was increased.
In early 1990s, government in Rangoon achieved a cease fire with Kachin rebels. And Kachin leaders into a new newly cease fire were meant to be accommodated in region's new economy with prosperous incentives. The military government strategically accommodated the Kachin rebels by giving plots in Phar Kant. Kachin rebels who once were well known for their guerrilla tactics have become businessmen. Since then Burma Army and Kachin rebels have been digging the soil together in Phar Kant.
But they are not alone in Phar Kant but many groups out of a total 18 cease fired groups in the nation are involved in the jade industry.
China's economic miracle was escalating the production speed in Phar Kant and the buyers from China's Yunnan Province were behind everyone who was running business in Phar Kant. Appetites of Chinese people who always believe that those green stones bring good luck are met by Phar Kant's support. Phar Kant's stones go not only to the people in mainland China but to Taiwan and Chinese Diaspora across the world via merchants in Yunnan. The more people want to decorate themselves with the jades, the more diggers Phar Kant receive orders. The environment in the region has changed.
Miners sliced the mountains and the lakes became plain fields. Trees were removed from the ground and forests were swept away. Since every acre in the region could be having gems beneath, every piece of land becomes precious. Government issues the license to the companies at 40 million Kyat per acre and anyone who wants to mine the jade has to buy the licence from the licence holder at 150 million Kyat per acre. Cronies who got the license from the government easily earn big profit by selling their licence back to others without doing anything.
Whenever authorities and the companies have no place left to start a new site, villages were moved from their place where they had been living for generations. Those villages can stay in near by areas until they are asked again to move to another place.
U-Ru Creek has been flowing through Phar Kant for centuries. Until early 1990s, U-Ru was a clean and a green creek, said a man who migrated to Phar Kant 15 years ago. Its water was clear as crystal and even the fish under the water could be seen. And the environment also was still green with trees, he continued.
But now the classic creek has been threatened by miners. (As shown in the pictures) Miners impatiently are trying to block the Wai Khar Creek that flows into the U-Ru Creek since they want to have a short cut road between the mining site and the city. Since the water way is cut, water could not flow naturally and flood spread to the villages. The more the miners dig, the more soil comes out and blocks both of U-Ru and Wai Khar Creeks.
Seikmu Village in Phar Kant, along the Wai Khar Creek was flooded and buried deep under the mud. (As shown in the pictures) Local people simply had to leave their homeland without benefiting from the jade industry.
Once one of the greenest regions has become a plain field with a man made landscape.
Phar Kant is the mayhem of a nature where human beings are cutting the parts of the earth with their knives.
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