The Inconvenient Truth about the Military Coup
Insight Myanmar5 Maj 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.”

Avsnitt(515)

A Moral Reckoning

A Moral Reckoning

Episode #406: “I didn’t come to study this subject deliberately with a focus on Buddhism,” says Justine Chambers, author of Pursuing Morality, a book that explores Buddhist moral life among the Plong ...

2 Okt 20252h 12min

The Silence of the Valkyries

The Silence of the Valkyries

Episode #405: “Myanmar deserves better,” reflects Olle Thorell, a Swedish Member of Parliament whose nearly two-decade commitment to the nation is both political and personal. Elected to the Riksdag ...

30 Sep 20251h 7min

In The Crosshairs

In The Crosshairs

Episode #404: Before the coup, Pandora was a tour guide with little interest in politics. That changed in 2021, when the generals seized power and she found herself leading protests in her hometown of...

29 Sep 20251h 17min

A Deeper Renunciation

A Deeper Renunciation

Episode #403: Annai had always been attracted to spirituality. Growing up in a devout Catholic family in Barcelona, she preferred spending time in church while her friends only wanted to watch TV, an...

26 Sep 20252h 31min

Apocalypse Now Redux

Apocalypse Now Redux

Episode #402: “In stable times, sustainability may be seen as a long term aspiration,” says Tin Shine Aung, a Burmese scholar and sustainability expert whose work bridges research, policy, and on-the-...

25 Sep 20252h

From Ashes to Sunshine

From Ashes to Sunshine

Episode #401: “Look at my eye. Trust me! You can do this!” With steady assurance, Nay Chi Linn describes her work at the Sunshine Care Center (SCC), a border-based facility she founded to care for Mya...

23 Sep 20252h 6min

Between Guns and Ghosts

Between Guns and Ghosts

Episode #400: James Rodehaver, head of the UN Human Rights Office on Myanmar, offers a sobering account of the country’s accelerating crisis and the limits of the international community’s response. D...

22 Sep 20251h 13min

Protected by the Dhamma

Protected by the Dhamma

Episode #399: Insight Myanmar was very fortunate to conduct a series of interviews with Friedgard Lottermoser between 2023 and 2024, amounting to more than forty hours before she sadly passed away las...

19 Sep 20251h 51min

Populärt inom Politik & nyheter

svenska-fall
aftonbladet-krim
p3-krim
rss-krimstad
fordomspodden
rss-expressen-dok
flashback-forever
motiv
aftonbladet-daily
rss-sanning-konsekvens
spar
blenda-2
rss-vad-fan-hande
olyckan-inifran
svd-ledarredaktionen
rss-krimreportrarna
rss-frandfors-horna
dagens-eko
rss-flodet
kungligt