Hunger is back in the cities of Myanmar, especially in its commercial hub Yangon. Main cause is a steady decline of the country’s economy following the coup d’état of February,1. Hundreds of thousands have lost their jobs related to Covid-19 and the post coup-situation. This mass unemployment results in catastrophic financial situations of the households […]
Read more...Author: CM
‘Myanmar in Turmoil’ Seems to Vanish from The World’s Attention
With the coup d’état of February 1 probably an “irreversible” event, and the country being dragged into a spiral of violence, the world seems to lose interest in Myanmar. The worldwide media coverage of the first weeks after the military’s power seizure answered by the energetical formation of the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) and other […]
Read more...Loving Kindness, Unheard Calls. The Potential Political Role of Buddhism
Myanmar`s senior abbots have tried to influence the events unfolding in the country after February,1 for the better. As it is widely known, they have not succeeded so far. According to The Irrawaddy, just three days before the military’s power seizure, members of the Ma Ha Na (Burmese short form for State Buddhist authority) had […]
Read more...22.02.2021: The People’s Peaceful Veto
History is the record of human behaviour. Today, most people of Myanmar vetoed the military’s power seizure of three weeks ago. Undeterred and calmly, the announced general strike brought hundreds of thousands, if not millions, onto the country’s streets. Beyond banging pans and pots at night for driving out evil spirits, a “tech-savvy” generation Z […]
Read more...Under Military Rule Again
On Monday morning, February 1, the leadership of the Tatmadaw ( Burmese military) seized power in Myanmar, putting the country under military rule again. On the ground of sections 417 and 418 of the Constitution (2008), Interims President Myint Swe, so far Commander of the powerful Yangon troops, transferred the legislative, executive and judicative power […]
Read more...Sabre-Rattling in Myanmar. No More, No Less?
A politically tense situation has evolved in Myanmar, a country „coming out of decades of darkness of military rule“. In 2010, it started its path towards democratic transition, an endavour which in these days seems endangered by a renewed power struggle between the military and the civilian government. An „End-of-January-Sabre-Rattling “, performed by the Tatmadaw, […]
Read more...Another WHO-Mission to Wuhan
There will be a mission to Wuhan, mainland China, organized by the World Health Organization (WHO), starting in the first week of January 2021. It will be the second of its kind. On January 11 2020, China officially announced the first person dead, having been infected with the then novel „SARS-CoV-2-virus”, the Corona-virus. On January […]
Read more...A New Outlook for Myanmar
The National League of Democracy (NLD) with its „crowd-attracting“ founder and leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has become the stunning winner of this year’s elections, securing each possible parliamentary seat. Myanmar‘s voting folks enabled the rolling out of the NLD’s red carpet almost all over the country, also in cities former called „strongholds of […]
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Election Observation in Times of the Pandemic
As in South Korea in April 2020, Myanmar will hold its election under conditions caused by the pandemic. Meaning also, that foreigners only have a very restricted right of entry into Myanmar. Currently, the country struggles even more than its neighbours in the ASEAN-region. The European Union has almost totally stopped its monitoring plan to […]
Read more...Freedom of Press: Myanmar’s Actual Ranking
In 2016, Myanmar ranked place 143 on the Reporters Without Borders’ (RSB) barometer of Freedom of the Press. In 2020, it changed to the 139th. Reasons for the only slight improvement, over a span of four years, are especially related to the handling of news covering the pandemic. Main reasons mentioned are „the blocking of […]
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