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Burma

Stranded

To be born and raised and, in time, to die on the sea; to live out one’s seamless days together with one’s family, wandering the turquoise waters of the Andaman Sea in a hand-built boat and feeling suffocated by contact with land or civilization—this is the heritage of the Moken. It is an easily romanticized way of life that has captivated the land-locked souls of the Western world since the Moken were introduced to us by anthropologist Pierre Ivanoff in 1957.

Standing Up for Burma

A photo essay in this issue of the Cultural Survival Quarterly exposes in graphic detail the horrors that have been imposed on Burma’s indigenous peoples by that country’s military junta and armed forces.

Banished in Burma

Fifty years of civil war under a military junta has left Burma devastated, submerged in human rights abuses, poverty, and instability. An estimated 1 million people are internally displaced and another million have fled across borders. Particularly targeted are indigenous groups, including the Mon, Shan, Karen, and Karenni people. Originally fighting for autonomy from the Burman majority, they are now fighting for basic human rights and the right to continue living on ancestral lands.

A Home Away from Home

Maintaining cultural identity is hard enough for indigenous peoples in countries that are politically stable, but the problems are vastly more difficult when war and persecution push indigenous people into refugee camps across a border. Few indigenous people have had as much experience with those challenges as the Karen.

Burma's Elusive Liberation

No pie chart, list, nor map, patchworked with stripes and dots, can properly convey the beautiful yet tragic complexity of Burma's population. Inhabiting a diamond-shaped land the size of France, people representing cultures from the far reaches of Asia have been thrown together for many centuries. Migrating along great rivers -- the Salween, the Chindwin, the Irrawaddy, the Mekong -- they formed glittering civilizations and fiercely independent tribes.

Modern Conflict and Militarization

Keeping Their Own Records<br>The Record of Truth Participatory Photography Project

The Karen are the largest ethnic minority in Myanmar (Burma) (see CSQ 24:3). Due to an ongoing civil war with the Burmese military regime, more than 120,000 Karen have fled Burma. Many now reside in refugee camps in Thailand.

In refugee communities undergoing a rapid political and cultural transition, the entire population must face the challenge of adapting their culture to survive. The community must recognize the importance of active dialogue about cultural survival. Critical examination of cultural traditions and shared experiences is a crucial step in this process.

Power & Money: Economics and Conflict in Burma

General Ne Win overthrew Burma's short-lived democratic government in 1962's military coup, and, in an effort to move toward a socialist economy, instituted a new economic plan dubbed the "Burmese Way to Socialism." As part of this plan, Ne Win nationalized business and created government monopolies on staple goods such as rice and salt. More notably, in order to keep food prices low for urban workers and to procure cheap rice for export, Ne Win instituted a policy forcing farmers to sell their rice to the state at fixed prices.

Pa-O "Relocated" to Thailand: Views from Within

The Pa-O are one of the ethnic minorities of Burma. They live primarily in the Taunggyi area of southwestern Shan State. A smaller number live in the Thaton area of Mon State in Lower Burma. The Pa-O in the Thaton area have become "Burmanized" -- like their neighbors the Mon and Karen, they have adopted Burmese language, dress and customs. The Pa-O in southwestern Shan State have learned to speak Shan, but have maintained their own distinct language and customs, including their traditional dark blue or black dress.

Free Burma Movement Regains Momentum after Court Decision

On June 19, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Massachusetts Burma Law. While this ruling is a setback for Free Burma advocates, it is not a fatal blow to the movement. The decision in fact sets the stage for renewed advocacy at local, state and federal levels.

Double Jeopardy: Abuse of Ethnic Women's Human Rights in Burma

Many sociologists, anthropologists, and even Burmese politicians have maintained that Burmese women face less gender discrimination than do their sisters in other Southeast Asian countries. Burma's relative isolation for nearly forty years has helped perpetuate this myth, even as women's groups in exile make concerted efforts to debunk it. Despite Burma's ratification of the Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), discrimination is apparent in virtually every facet of women's lives.

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