Lost In Translation
Insight Myanmar29 Huhti 2025

Lost In Translation

Episode #340: Having taught at Payap University in Chiang Mai from 2016–2022, Tony Waters mentored doctoral students grappling with Myanmar’s long history of war, repression, and foreign interference. His students’ pride in their cultures, alongside their questioning of the country’s fragmentation, helped shape his own understanding of Myanmar’s deeper crises and multi-layered history.

One dissertation, exploring Ne Win’s Burmanization policy, particularly influenced his thinking. It traced the policy’s roots to the CIA’s Cold War counterinsurgency training, and its evolution into the Tatmadaw’s brutal Four Cuts strategy. Waters further critiques how America’s anti-Communist strategies, enacted covertly by the CIA, indirectly empowered the expansion of the drug trade.

Waters argues that Myanmar’s ethnic militias are not reflective of any cultural deficiencies, as some outsiders have implied, but rather rational responses to the absence of a stable, inclusive state. He is also sharply critical of the Western aid sector, particularly USAID, for prioritizing donor interests over local needs, and perpetuating cycles of ineffective development. Skeptical of post-coup “political dialogue” initiatives, Waters asserts that the military junta is structurally incapable of genuine negotiation.

Ultimately, he frames Myanmar’s continued suffering as the product of Great Power rivalries, stating that as long as China and the U.S. treat the country as a Cold War playground, real change remains elusive. Waters concludes by stressing the nuance required to better understand and engage in Myanmar, “I'm not looking for good and evil, I'm [just] looking for the story and trying to understand the processes.”

Jaksot(519)

Across the Universe

Across the Universe

Episode #433: Raul Saldana's journey began in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he grew up in a Catholic household. As a teenager, he questioned the rigidity of Catholicism and turned to nature, finding insp...

18 Marras 20252h 29min

Scamland

Scamland

Episode #432: Myanmar researcher Lin Jin Fu investigates the rise of scam compounds that blend human trafficking, digital fraud, and organized crime. His study, Scam haven: Responding to surging cyber...

17 Marras 20251h 21min

Hit ’Em Up

Hit ’Em Up

Episode #431: “I’m a sniper,” says Maui, deputy commander of the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF). He and four top commanders describe being pushed from peaceful protest into armed resistanc...

14 Marras 20252h 16min

The Long Baht Home

The Long Baht Home

Episode #430: Ngu Wah is a Research Fellow at Knowledge Circle Foundation and a PhD candidate at Chiang Mai University focusing on migration and political economy. In this episode, she speaks about th...

13 Marras 202542min

From Rio to Rangoon

From Rio to Rangoon

Episode #429: Emmanuel Flores' journey into meditation began at the age of nine in Rio de Janeiro, seated before a candle. His formative years were marked by a quest for positivity, but without a soli...

11 Marras 20251h 6min

Trajectories in Flux

Trajectories in Flux

Episode #428: This panel gathers five voices from Myanmar’s unraveling present—specialists in food, economy, energy, education, and digital life—who together trace the anatomy of a country still fight...

10 Marras 20252h 41min

Meditating on History

Meditating on History

Episode #427: Daniel M. Stuart describes his newest work, Insight in Perspective, as the product of decades of scholarship and meditative practice, aimed at practitioners and academics alike. The book...

7 Marras 20251h 36min

Reclaiming Ground

Reclaiming Ground

Episode #426: The Karenni Interim Executive Council was formed in 2023 to provide services to people in dire need, with an estimated 80% of the civilian population displaced by the conflict. As people...

6 Marras 20251h 51min

Suosittua kategoriassa Politiikka ja uutiset

uutiscast
aikalisa
ootsa-kuullut-tasta-2
rss-ootsa-kuullut-tasta
politiikan-puskaradio
tervo-halme
rss-vaalirankkurit-podcast
rss-podme-livebox
rss-asiastudio
otetaan-yhdet
viisupodi
et-sa-noin-voi-sanoo-esittaa
rikosmyytit
the-ulkopolitist
rss-tasta-on-kyse-ivan-puopolo-verkkouutiset
aihe
radio-antro
rss-hyvaa-huomenta-bryssel
rss-merja-mahkan-rahat
rss-girls-finish-f1rst