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 […]
Read more...Organic Farming – Expanding Business
In Myanmar, organic farming is gaining ground. While most farmers are still used to working with pesticides, thousands have already changed their methods. This happened for different reasons. For example, in 2015/16, 1300 farmers including 440 women had been involved in a training program in Pyn Oo Lwin (Mandalay Division). International donors like the Nordic […]
Read more...Israel and Myanmar: Beyond Military Assistance
As announced in December 2018 by Israeli Ambassador Ronen Gilor, the Middle-East country engages with Myanmar in selected sectors of the economy. Currently, there is a cooperation in the fields of agrar-technology like drip irrigation, greenhousing and water management in general, as reports say. Here, Mandalay and Taunggyi in Southern Shan state are the main […]
Read more...Shan State Governance
Sometimes, Myanmar is kind of bizarre. In this sense, taming wildlife trading can result in surprising effects. In January, a rat infestation took place around Pekon township, situated at the Southern tip of Inle Lake, overlapping Kayan territory. As a consequence, paddy „and other cerial crops“ were devastated. The rodents‘ invasion could not be brought […]
Read more...Coping with Wildlife Markets
China is going forward in curbing wildlife breeding. According to the Bangkok Post, farmers of the provinces of Hunan and Jiangxi will be bought out, if they give up animal breeding. This sort of generating income has come under scrutinity in the context of Covid-19. Both of the provinces are bordering Hubei with Wuhan as […]
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