Another Video...

Here is a video a good friend shared with me. It gives a good idea of the current situation in Burma and in Thailand for refugees...

Resources and Research

Here is the link to my annotated bibliography, which I will update as this master progresses. It will have a citation for each source that I site on this blog, as well as other research that I have done. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

temple, myawaddy, burma

What can you do???

I am often asked by people what they can do to help with the situation both in Burma, and with refugees outside. Because Burma's government closely monitors what goes on inside of it's borders, it is very difficult to work directly with people in Burma (remember the cyclone a few years back?) However, you can follow groups such as the the US Campaign for Burma and The Burma Campaign UK, both of which are active in political policy and raising awareness. They can also be good sources to gather information from.


Another approach would be to volunteer in the border regions with refugees. There are literally hundreds of NGO's working in the area, and cover everything from traditional handicraft/ income generation (WEAVE) to education (World Education) to native language preservation and accessibility (Drum Karen). Many organizations are eager to have committed volunteers, and this can be a very rewarding experience.


However, for most people it is not possible to take time away from life and go to Thailand. If you are in the States, there are many ways to get involved with refugee families. Quite a few cities around the U.S. accept a certain amount of refugees each year to resettle in their city. Often times, refugees come with only a small bag of clothing and a few cooking utensils and photos from home. They usually come with limited to no english skills, and very few transferable job skills. Resettlement agencies are eager to have volunteers come to work with families, either teaching english, helping adjust to life in America, or simply having a friend they can count on. The commitment is small, usually only a few hours a week, but the rewards are immense. Several organizations offer volunteer opportunities... here are a few of the major ones:


Follow the link and then search for your city:


The International Rescue Committee


Catholic Charities


Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society


Church World Service


Lutheran Family Services

Myself with a family from Chin State, in San Diego on World Refugee Day

Mae La

Here is a short video from a CNN reporter who visited Mae La Refugee Camp, which is on the Thai Burmese Border. It gives a good picture of living conditions and daily life in the camp.



Here are a few of my pictures from the summer of 2009 in Mae La Oon Refugee Camps, which is about 8 hours north of Mae La...

Human Rights

As part of my research I have been studying human rights abuses in both Burma, as well as Burmese refugees in Bangladesh and Thailand. Since the 60's Burma's Human Rights record has become increasingly worse, and continues to worsen. Burma's ethnic minorities are often victims of discrimination and human rights abuses. The SPDC forces many people into unpaid labour, often as porters or construction workers, rape, destruction of villages and burning of crops. On top of this there is little to no access to education and healthcare both in rural villages and refugee camps. I have worked with several refugee men who were forced to act as porters for the SPDC, and if they refused their families would be killed. Many of the women that I worked with were raped by SPDC soldiers and forced to house them for weeks at a time as they occupied their village. Children are often forced into labour or recruited as child soldiers, and in fact, Burma has more child soldiers than any other country in the world (Heppner, 2002). 

Karen woman forced to leave her village after it was burnt by
the SPDC. Photo courtesy of KHRG



Family in hiding on their way to refugee camps inThailand.
Photo courtesy of KHRG

Village members assembling to work as porters for the SPDC
Photo courtesy of KHRG



Children working as porters near an IDP camp
Photo courtesy of KHRG

Here are a few organizations that I would consider a reliable source of news and human rights info working inside of Burma and along the border regions...

Human Rights Watch- HRW is an organization dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world. They stand with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring offenders to justice. 

They highlight many countries around the world, and for Burma's page you can click here.

Karen Human Rights Group- The Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) is an independent local organisation committed to improving the human rights situation in Burma by projecting the voices of villagers and supporting their strategies to claim human rights. They train and equip local people to document villagers' stories and gather evidence of human rights abuses; disseminate this information worldwide; and work directly with local villagers in enhancing their strategies to resist human rights abuses.

Be advised that some reports published by the KHRG can be quite graphic. 

Free Burma Rangers- The FBR's mission is to bring help, hope and love to people of all faiths and ethnicities in the war zones of Burma, to shine a light on the actions of the dictators' army, to stand with the oppressed, and to support leaders and organizations committed to liberty, justice and service. They provide both direct services inside Burma, as well as publish reports about the current situation inside Burma. 

Burma and Refugees

When I first started working with refugees a couple of years ago, I remember that I had no idea about the extent of Burma's refugee crisis. I had heard of Burma, and saw the word Myanmar, but had no idea where the country was or how to pronounce it's name. I have had the opportunity to work with refugees originating from Burma (Karen, Karenni, Shan, Burman, Chin and Rohingya) over the past few years and have become passionate about refugee issues. Below are some statistics that I have put together, taken from the UNHCR website, as well as a powerpoint presentation I made for my class about refugee resettlement in the US, a process which is currently greatly affecting the Burmese refugee population.

According to the UNHCR, as of January 2010....

• there are 406,669 documented refugees originating from Myanmar
• there are 22,583 documented asylum seekers originating from Myanmar.
• there are 0 refugees originating from Myanmar that have officially been repatriated.
• there are 67,290 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPS) currently in Myanmar.
• there are currently 496,542 people that are in danger of becoming refugees in Myanmar currently.

map and statistics courtesy of UNHCR (www.unhcr.org)

You can also look at my slideshow HERE

mon lone yae paw

photo and recipe courtesy of hsa ba (www.hsaba.com)

Burmese food has to be one of my favorite types of international food. It is similar to Thai in quite a few ways, but also very different. Working with people from several of Burma's ethnic groups, I have been able to sample a variety of dishes from different regions. This is a recipe that is one of my absolute favorites (a dessert, of course.) It is usually made around the Burmese New Year (mid-april) and is a traditional food to accompany the annual water festival, Thingyan. Thingyan is one of my favorite holiday's in Asia, as everyone takes to the streets throwing water on each other to welcome the new year and wash away bad luck.

ingredients



75g glutinous rice flour
35g rice flour
¼ teaspoon salt
100ml cold water
20g palm sugar (or brown sugar)
½ fresh coconut, grated


method


Put both flours and salt in a mixing bowl, then add the water and stir with a spoon until everything comes together. The mixture should feel dry but forms a ball when a handful of it is rolled in the palms. If it is too dry, add a little extra water. Next, grate or cut the palm sugar into small pieces prior to making the dumplings.


Roughly divide the mixture into 12 portions, roll each into a ball. Push with a finger to form a small hollow in the centre and put ½ teaspoon of palm sugar inside. Seal the hole by squeezing the mixture together again and rolling in the palms to reshape into a ball. Put the dumplings on a piece of cling film so they don’t stick to the work surface.


Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and pop half the dumplings into the boiling water and simmer for 3-5 minutes, uncovered. When the balls have floated to the top, they are cooked. Remove with a slotted spoon. Cook the remaining dumplings as before and serve them warm sprinkled with freshly grated coconut.

Elections

Since the elections in Burma should be happening within the next month or two, I feel it is an intersting topic to look at, as it should be a much-publicized event. After gaining independance from the the UK in 1948, Burma enjoyed relative peace and stability. In 1962, there was a military takeover, and Burma changed drastically. The government shifted from a civilian led goverment to a military dictatorship whose ultimate goal was to achieve the "Burmese Way of Socialism." During this time, Burma's economy and standard of living dropped immensely. For example, in 1960, Burma averaged to export about 1.8 million tons of rice per year, as opposed to 1995, where they only exported 400,000 tons. Additionally, in 1996, only 38% of Burma had access to safe water, as opposed to neighbouring Thailand, where 86% of people had access to safe water (Kyi, Findlay, Maung, Oo, 2000). On August 8, 1988 there was an uprising and thousands of civilians were killed, and General Than Shwe and Saw Maung took over the government, istituting the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) as the new ruling political power. Since this time, the SPDC has been responsible for an infinite number of human rights abuses, as well as strict control of the media and communications in Burma.

The current regime has proposed a "7 step path to democracy" and added this to a reformed constitution that was revised in 2008. The sixth step of the path to democracy is to elect leaders, and after that, the seventh is to build a democracy with these leaders. Many believe that this election coming up, the first in 20 years, (scheduled for November 7), is just for show to gain the support of the international community. The two main issues that are of concern are 1) pressure being put on citizens to make the "right choice" and 2) allowing Aung San Suu Kyi to participate in the election. The issue of Aung San Suu Kyi is a complicated one, but you can read more about it here(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100813/ap_on_re_as/as_myanmar_election). More or less, in 1990 in the last election, her party won by a landslide, but the results were not recognized by the SPDC, and she has been placed on house arrest since (Haacke, J, 2010). Her party has decided to boycott the election this year as a result of their not being allowed to participate.

I will be posting more news related to the elections as they approach.

Min ga la baa - Welcome!

Hi everyone and welcome to my first blog post! For the past several weeks I have been doing a lot of research for one of my classes, primarily focusing on human rights around the world, but particularly in Asia. For a project, we have to make a blog focusing on a particular development issue, incorperating the research that we have come across. As most of you reading this know, I have a deep fascination with Burma and its people, so this is what I have decided to focus on. Instead of simply highlighting human rights abuses and development issues, I want to share the beauty of Burma, its people, culture, food and land, and also address human rights and development issues, as well as giving you tools to take action if you feel so inclined. Enjoy!

photo courtesty of Hartfried Schmid