I write from a patio overlooking the palmed courtyard of the Raffles Hotel Le Royal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The colonial vestiges have their appeal. Phnom Penh, which I imagined as a sleepy French influenced capital with rickshaws and tuktuks, is a bustling metropolis, sprawling with new, shiny office skyscrapers, municipal buildings, commercial districts, marked by traffic jams of cars and swarms of scooters, honking and braking in the day's heat. China has invested over $1.2 billion here. Hillary Clinton just announced that the U.S. will "put its money where its mouth is," and offered up $50 million for the Mekong Delta Regional Development project. The U.S. is said to be "pivoting" to Asia, but this is like Britain reclaiming the colonies after World War I. We are operating on former glories, military prowess and fumes. China is the force here. And these capitals have the energy of America's first Gilded Age: corrupt, vibrant, pulsating, oppressive, alive.
But I didn't write to offer a travel guide, but a thought. Myanmar is opening -- after decades of sanctions -- to the West, seeking to counter the Chinese influence. There is a mother-lode of jewels, minerals, oil, etc, on the crossroads between India and China.
European and U.S. companies are like horses moving into the gates, snorting, pawing at the earth, eager to join the race.
Someone will win a Pulitzer and more by reporting on the transformation. The rush of capital. The corrupt deals with the military that still demands its piece of everything, even as it opens more quasi democratic space. The exploitation of a workforce that now is the literal bottom of the world labor market. The cowboys and confidence men, the gamblers and adventurers all descending on a country previously oppressed by a vicious dictatorship, but cut off significantly from the rapacity of modern capitalism.
Since HuffPost is the only growing newsroom that I know of, I thought I'd suggest this beat to them. It doesn't fit in naturally with the daily pace of the blogosphere. But there will be an unending stream of stories between the contrast of the military, the Chinese and Western investors, the dignity of Aung San Suu Kyi and what will be beleaguered Democrats, the efforts to build a labor movement in the frenzy, etc.
It strikes me that one could get philanthropic support for a project, perhaps jointly with the Asia Society, to place a reporter there with the explicit beat of covering what surely will be the rape and, less certainly, the redemption of a society suddenly opened to the global market. Not a lot of readership is for this kind of thing, I know, but it would be a great service to our understanding.
Abrazos
Follow Robert L. Borosage on Twitter: www.twitter.com/borosage
Andrew Lam: Monks Gone Wild: When Buddhism Derails in Myanmar
My non-expert take is that in the wake of the Arab Spring, the government saw two choices - continue to cozy up to China (with whom it has a troubled history) or start to institute some reforms to make themselves a more acceptable partner for the west. It chose the latter. As the author suggests, this will result in some profihteering by Western corporations, but also a dramatic and long-overdue rise in living standards for the Myanmar people. (Note to another commenter: The NGO workers that I met with, none of whom loved the government, very pointedly referred to themselves as "Myanmar people" - the Burmese are just one of many ethnicities there.)
The folks talking about how the US government ignores human rights... in this case (not universally), you couldn't be more wrong. It was US and Western pressure that caused Myanmar to break toward democracy, against Chinese pressure to maintain a corrupt but untenable status quo. For once we're on the right side, and we should be proud.
Harry Truman once said..."The only thing new is the history you don't know."
reclaiming the colonies after World War I.
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WWII methinks? And moreso France and Holland.
If we give them another 4 years, Korea might be reunified and peace will break out in the middle east.
While western corporations clammer to extract and profit from Burma's abundant natural resources the regime through their military has been clearing the land for international financial/business development. When the miltary regime clears land it does it with guns, fire and other forms of brutality. The regime will charge the companies $ millions for the land that the military took for free, give or take thousands of bullets and matches, liters of blood and many more lives than the regime will allow to be published. Arakan and Kachin states are full of highly profitable natural resources and the regime has labeled any violence as local, sectarian or civil war. The regime is behind the violence as people run for their lives and the military regime is left holding the valuable land.
Also, capitalism will lift these people out of abject poverty. Capitalism and the free markets have lifted more people out of pverty than any other system EVER. Instead of bemoaning the influx of capitalism in this poor country, he should be celebrating it.
Communist China lifted more people out of poverty than any system in history. The BRIC nations are all socialist, they are the fastest growing. China will soon have as many middle class, as the US has people. Both capitalism and socialism are proven failures, only hybrids work.
I challenge your assertion. China still has huge swaths of abject poverty in their country, most of their people have not been lifted up, just the favored elites.
As for Cuba...where did the figures come from for the wealth and health statistics you cited? From communist liars. Cuba is just as poor as it was in the sixties, they just lie through their teeth about the stats.
Shock Doctrine describes what happens when there is no rule of law governing capitalism. Socialism only lasts until you run out of money or can't borrow any more money. Then everything is down the crapper. Witness the EU for the crash coming when socialism fails.
Capitalism and the free markets coupled with rule of law has produced the most economic growth and lifted more people out of poverty than any other system in history. The record is absolutely clear on that point.
The system you are describing is crony capitalism or capitalism without rule of law. Neither of which truly produce wealth