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Three quarters of Myanmar's farmers live in poverty, with rural life expectancy, according to the UN, some seven years shorter than it is in the cities, but greater challenges may lie ahead. Myanmar, the World Economic Forum says, is now the fourth fastest growing economy in the world. It's rich in resources, from teak, rubies, jade and rubber to vast untapped oil and gas reserves, boundless riches, but what it doesn't have are any mechanisms to mitigate environmental and social impact or to share the profits more widely. And the strain is starting to show.
Upstream from Mandalay on the Irrawaddy River, plans for a Chinese-funded hydro project, bigger than the immense Three Gorges Dam which would flood tribal land to give power to China, have been postponed in the face of threats of armed conflict. Not far from Mandalay, twin underground pipelines are now being built to carry oil and gas from Myanmar's west coast direct to Kunming in China. After mass protests in April with demonstrators demanding compensation for their land, there are now military battalions stationed along the route.
If this is a resource carve-up, I want to know just what The Lady's position is. I meet up with Thein Than Oo, one of the human rights lawyers, leading the legal battle on behalf of the dispossessed. After 21 years in prison, ten of them in solitary confinement, he's now representing some 500 clients. | 
发表于 2016-10-25 19:01:32