The Inconvenient Truth about the Military Coup
Insight Myanmar5 Mai 2023

The Inconvenient Truth about the Military Coup

Episode #163: Jack Jenkins Hill, a PhD student at the University College London, joins the show to discuss the state of capitalism and the deteriorating environment in Myanmar. Hill has spent the last decade studying such issues as deforestation, mining, and natural resource governance, as well as how indigenous communities have been impacted in Myanmar.

Since the colonial era, Burma has had a sorry history of exploitation of its natural resources. The British engaged in massive logging, while in the last decade, deforestation has largely come in the guise of agribusiness, such as palm oil and rubber plantations. There are also smaller, illegal logging operations whose lumber is smuggled across the border. The widespread clear-cutting—both legal and illegal—has led mass displacement of communities.


Gold, silver, tin and jade mining operations are also rampant, and more recently rare earth metals have been mined, all with no regard for the environment. The toxic processes used poison the surrounding area, displacing many communities.


Greed and lawlessness in post-coup Myanmar exacerbates the problems now being faced by those in the country, but may even give rise to more far-reaching implications, since this destructive cycle in Myanmar impacts worldwide climate change. For example, Myanmar is home to some of the largest contiguous rain forests in Southeast Asia, so their destruction would have a domino effect for both climate change, and also species extinctions.


Hill describes his outlook on the future as bleak. “I don't know when a breaking point or a critical point will come… But unless something changes quickly, I'm sure we'll reach it, probably sooner than we expect.”

Episoder(507)

Simplicity And Solidarity

Simplicity And Solidarity

Episode #157: In 1995, Burmese assaults into Karen territory created thousands of refugees who fled to Thai refugee camps, including Eh Nay Thaw’s family. He spent the next ten years in a refugee camp...

31 Mar 20232h 2min

From Democracy to Demolition

From Democracy to Demolition

Episode #156: Even two years after the coup, the Tatmadaw continues its campaign of terror, disrupting communities, causing a massive refugee problem and destroying the country’s infrastructure. And b...

24 Mar 20231h 49min

Yearning For Home (Panel Discussion)

Yearning For Home (Panel Discussion)

Episode #155: What is a “home?” It is more than just the physical structure we live in; “home” has overlapping dimensions. We say that the town or city we live in is our home, as is our country, and t...

17 Mar 20231h 57min

Kory Goldberg is Along The Path

Kory Goldberg is Along The Path

Episode #154: When Kory Goldberg was just nineteen, he spent a year studying in India. After the program ended, he traveled around and kept “seeking out whatever I was seeking out,” he recalls.He atte...

10 Mar 20232h 25min

Tears Matter

Tears Matter

Episode #153: Rahel and Damon Lam founded A Cup of Color in 2014. It is an organization with the goal of “bringing art to places where there is brokenness.” They have created art in public spaces in m...

7 Mar 20231h 4min

I Fought the Law (and the Law Won)

I Fought the Law (and the Law Won)

Episode #152: Kristina Simion’s book, Rule of Law Intermediaries, looks at the complex transition period of the 2010s in Myanmar, when dramatic changes were sweeping across the country. Simion notes h...

3 Mar 20232h 3min

The Revolution will not be Incarcerated

The Revolution will not be Incarcerated

Episode #151: Tomas Martin is a prison researcher who presently works with DIGNITY, the Danish Institute Against Torture. His interest in prison research was first piqued when he heard about ten-day v...

28 Feb 20231h 5min

Overcoming The Nightmare

Overcoming The Nightmare

Episode #150: Joining the podcast over a year after her previous interview, Thiri returns to update listeners on her own personal story, as well as to discuss the state of the resistance and the democ...

23 Feb 20231h 54min

Populært innen Politikk og nyheter

giver-og-gjengen-vg
aftenpodden
aftenpodden-usa
forklart
stopp-verden
popradet
det-store-bildet
fotballpodden-2
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
i-retten
rss-gukild-johaug
dine-penger-pengeradet
rss-ness
aftenbla-bla
hanna-de-heldige
e24-podden
rss-dannet-uten-piano
frokostshowet-pa-p5
rss-penger-polser-og-politikk
bt-dokumentar-2