Articles tagged with: Burma
Mapping the Human Development Index (HDI) in Greater South Asia
Levels of social development as measured by the Human Development Index vary greatly across the various regions of South Asia. Particularly low HDI figures are found in India’s central Ganges Valley, in eastern and western Afghanistan, and in Pakistan’s province of Baluchistan.
Dams and the Ignored Ethnic Conflict of Northern Burma
Recent news reports have trumpeted Burma’s (Myanmar’s) decision to suspend construction of the massive, Chinese-financed Myitsone Dam on the Irrawaddy River in the northern reaches of the country. The Economist magazine, for example, claims that the cancellation provides “mounting evidence that the new government in Yangon is serious about reform.” That assessment may well be
Burma Takes on the United Wa State Army
As recently mentioned in this blog, James C. Scott’s new book The Art of Not Being Governed is essential reading on the history of state-level sovereignty. As Scott brilliantly shows, pre-colonial states in Southeast Asia, and much of the rest of the world, actually governed relatively small areas. Our conventional
The Plight of the Rohingyas
The standard linguistic map of Burma/Myanmar (below) reveals a significant number of ethnic groups. Unfortunately, it also conceals much of the country’s diversity, as a number of separate peoples are joined together into composite ethnic categories, while others are simply ignored. The most important group in the latter category are the Rohingyas, a distinct people
