The World Bank returns to Myanmar

After many years of military rule, Myanmar is now transitioning to a civilian led government. When Myanmar President Thein Sein showed up at the U. N. General Assembly in September, the U. S. granted the World Bank permission to begin dealing with the country. The Bank plans on studying the country's economy for 18 months before making suggestions to the leadership. They hope the suggestions will improve the private workforce, regulation and the country's central bank. The World Bank might also issue new loans to the Myanmar.

Human rights observers warn that the World Bank should not dive in too aggressively, just in case the military junta tries to resume control. They also say that there are still human rights abuses occurring under the current leadership.

In this snippet, Inter Press Service writer Carey Biron focuses on the abuse. 

Civil society observers in and out of Myanmar have increasingly been warning donors against being overeager in re-engaging with the country. A primary worry here is that offering significant concessions would weaken the international community’s ability to react punitively should the Myanmar government begin to renege on the current reforms process.

Many thus see the World Bank’s interim strategy as an important test case.

“The World Bank’s re-engagement plan for Burma looks naive on human rights,” Jessica Evans, a researcher with the Washington office of Human Rights Watch, a watchdog, told IPS. ”The strategy celebrates Burma’s steps toward reform while closing its eyes to the ongoing repression.”

Indeed, recent weeks have publicly underlined the Myanmar government’s still problematic relationship with the country’s many ethnic communities. Most notably, sectarian violence has again flared up in the western state of Rakhine (Arakan) involving the Muslim minority Rohingya, a long oppressed group that has been systematically denied citizenship since the early 1980s.

In addition, there are ongoing allegations of the arrest and prosecution of peaceful protestors, alongside flagrant abuses in conflict zones where government forces have battled armed ethnic minorities for decades.

The recommendations also noted that the bank “does not have non-discrimination safeguards, but considering the recent inter-ethnic violence in Arakan State and history of ethnic conflict and discrimination generally, this is of crucial importance for all projects in Burma”.

Evans noted, “A principled donor should offer a frank, honest assessment of the climate for development, and identify the urgent changes that are still needed, but the World Bank instead suffers from a rose-tinted view on human rights in Burma.”

In a detailed set of recommendations sent to the World Bank in September, Human Rights Watch called on the institution to “require that proposed projects in Burma go forward only after specific human rights safeguards have been rigorously implemented”.

Treatment for a drug resistant strain of malaria could be years away

A new strain of drug resistant malaria is growing in Thailand and Myanmar. As of yet, there are no new drugs developed to treat this strain. It might take years for scientists to develop the new treatment. The development might take even longer because there is still no new funding available for research.

From Reuters Alert Net, we learn more about this gap in combating malaria. 

The strain is resistant to the most effective malaria drug available to doctors – artemisinin. Experts say it has spread because of the incorrect use of artemisinin and fake and substandard versions of the drug.

Doctors have little alternative to artemisinin and it would take years to develop a new malaria drug. They’re worried that if the drug-resistant strain goes unchecked it will spread to Africa where the majority of malaria cases and deaths occur.

Malaria killed 655,000 people in 2010, 90 percent of them in Africa, the majority children.

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In the 1970s and 1980s, strains of malaria that were resistant to previous generations of medicines, such as chloroquine, originated in Cambodia and spread to Africa via Myanmar and India.

The first cases of confirmed artemisinin resistance were found in the late 2000s in western Cambodia along the Cambodia-Thailand border. They have since been reported in Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam.

“If we don’t care about (this resistance), what will happen is what happened with the chloroquine resistance – more cases, more deaths … We don’t have any products to replace artemisinin,” Fatoumata Nafo-Traore, executive director of Roll Back Malaria, a partnership of U.N. agencies, the World Bank, leading drugmakers and aid experts, said.

“What needs to be done is to say, ‘Now we have a small window of opportunity to contain it and let’s contain it’,” said Nafo-Traore, who was in Thailand prior to the Malaria 2012 summit in Sydney which began on Oct. 31.

One of the main challenges is funding.  

Frank Smithuis, a doctor who’s worked in Myanmar since 1994, criticised donors in an earlier interview with AlertNet, saying Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam were included in malaria containment programmes but not Myanmar, despite it having the highest malaria burden in the Greater Mekong region.

Donors have traditionally been reluctant to fund programmes in Myanmar for fear of propping up the previous military regime, which ruled for five decades. But a military-backed reformist government which took over last year is generating more goodwill.

Myanmar Government open to microcredit expansion

From IRIN, a story about a statement from Myanmar's President about expanding microcredit services that has aid and credit workers in the country excited.

Myanmar President Thein Sein’s statement in May that a sustainable microfinance system should be established has sparked interest among aid workers and those already involved in the country’s embryonic microfinance system.

The president made the announcement at a rural development and poverty alleviation workshop where he acknowledged the country’s poor are concentrated outside the cities and in need of assistance.

“We expect [from the president’s statement] that we would be able to work more broadly in the future,” said Maung Maung, general manager of international NGO Pact which recently hosted Myanmar’s largest microfinance project. As of March, Pact had 478,404 clients in 22 townships from three zones - Delta, Dry and Shan.

More than 85 percent of rural households in Myanmar rely on loans from multiple sources to meet basic needs, according to the UN Development Programme (UNDP), which brought microcredit lending to the country in 1997.

“The need for credit in the rural economy is substantial,” Akbar Usmani, acting UNDP resident representative, told IRIN. He estimated the present demand for loans in rural Myanmar at around US$340-471 million per year.

Current microfinance activities in Myanmar are conducted on the basis of specific authorizations provided to microfinance actors. These take the form of a set of Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) signed by the various microfinance actors with their line-ministry.

Microfinance is, therefore, not yet mainstreamed into a regulated financial sector, but is rather authorized on a case-by-case basis by the government. There is no specific microfinance regulation in Myanmar, according to a 2010 microfinance industry report published by France-based NGO ACTED and the Banking with the Poor Network in collaboration with the Foundation for Development Cooperation.

Both Maung Maung and the UNDP’s Usmani agreed that a strengthened legal framework could fortify and sustain microfinance lending in this agriculture-based country, where 70 percent of the population live in rural areas and about 26 percent below the poverty line, according to UNDP’s country-wide survey conducted in 2009 to 2010.

Guessing game

Still, no one knows what form the rules and regulations will take, and agencies are wondering how the government will amend current restrictions on lending from financial institutions. A law passed in 1990 forbade both state and privately-owned banks from providing uncollateralized credit.

This means all bank credit has to be backed by either real estate or by a fixed deposit account, which always worries agencies that rely on donor funds to run their projects.

“How can we borrow money from the [local] banks, when we have nothing to collateralize?” said Nyunt Hlaing, executive committee member of Myanmar Business Executives Association, which is one of the local groups engaging in the microfinance sector. “This is a big challenge in expanding and sustaining the projects for the long-run.”

In the absence of access to institutional credit from the private and public banks, the rural poor rely on relatives, friends, moneylenders and pawn shops for small loans which charge interest rates as high as 60-200 percent a year.

UNDP introduced microfinance to Myanmar in 1997 using the Grameen model of group-based lending in which typically a small group takes on the responsibility of repaying the debt. The initiative was originally implemented through several sub-organizations, but in 2006, Pact took over all of UNDP's microfinance programmes.

Several other government-sponsored groups, semi-governmental organizations and local and international NGOs have microfinance projects thanks to individual MoUs with the government.

There are institutional microfinancing lenders in 46 of the country's 330 townships, and according to UNDP, only 10 percent of Myanmar’s demand has been met.

Experts and economists believe that poverty could be effectively reduced if modern rules and regulations are implemented for the microfinancing sector.

Urgent need to prepare for earthquakes in Myanmar

From IRIN, a story about the need to improve early warning structures in Myanmar.

The recent 6.8 quake that shook Myanmar's northeastern Shan State, killing 74 and affecting 18,000, serves as a stark warning for this largely unprepared, earthquake-prone country, say experts.

Myanmar rests on one of the world's two main earthquake belts, with one of its many fault lines running 1,000km north to south through the country's agriculturally rich central plain, placing major Burmese cities, including Mandalay, Bago and Yangon, at risk.

Historically, strong earthquakes have resulted in rural temple damage but relatively few casualties. However, research shows that increased urbanization, without attention to disaster preparedness, could lead to higher death rates in the event of a major quake.

"There have been earthquakes in the past but the impact was not substantial in areas that were sparsely populated, but if a big earthquake happened to one big city, that would be very devastating because they are not very prepared," said Peeranan Towashiraporn, a senior project manager and earthquake expert at the Asia Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) in Bangkok, citing poor construction quality.

ADPC deemed the northern city of Mandalay - home to one million inhabitants and located on the main Sagaing Fault - as the most at-risk.

The ADPC's Hazard Profile of Myanmar, published in 2009, reports that the fault, part of the Alpide Belt, and the cause of 13 of 17 major earthquakes in Myanmar in the past 172 years, has been mostly quiet for 75 years. This could mean accumulated stress will be soon looking for a release.

Among predictions of imminent earthquakes is a geophysical study by researchers in Japan, who warn that an earthquake with a magnitude of up to 7.9 could shake central Myanmar, near the newly built capital, Naypyitaw, at any time.

"But I'm not worried about the new capital, as the buildings there were well built," Soe Thura Tun, secretary of the Myanmar Earthquake Committee, a subdivision of the Myanmar Engineering Society said. He was more concerned about the 4.4 million inhabitants of Yangon, who reside in old buildings constructed in a zone considered to have strong seismic potential. The Sagaing Fault, Dedaye Fault and Western Bago Yoma Fault are all close by.

When a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck Bago in 1930, many buildings were destroyed and 500 people died. The tremors were felt 80km away in Yangon, resulting in 50 more deaths.

Many buildings in the former Burmese capital built before the 1990s would be at risk, while those constructed in the past two decades are believed to be resistant, as happened in the recent quake in Shan State, Soe Thura Tun explained.

A case study of Myanmar's earthquake preparedness presented at the 2010 New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering Conference states, "Before 1988, most major structures were designed by the government and seismic resistance was optional." Furthermore, soil investigation before construction work began, an initial step in earthquake preparedness, was not mandatory pre-1999.

In addition to a proliferation of unsafe commercial buildings, Shihab Uddin Ahmad, country director of ActionAid, an international anti-poverty organization in Myanmar, said the public sector had neglected to design a disaster plan.

"There is no hospital that has the capacity to handle mass casualty management. Children in school are not trained to deal with earthquake evacuation... Civil population and rescue volunteers are not yet trained [for search and rescue]," he said.

In a bid to reduce high risk of fatalities and casualties, risk assessments, such as the one ADPC is doing, should be conducted in the quake-prone cities, Soe Thura Tun said. Then, risk-management should be planned, he added.

Ahmad said, "DRR [disaster-risk reduction] is very new in Myanmar. A few agencies have started working with the government to include earthquake knowledge in the education curriculum, but coverage is still very low."

Rights abuses lead to health "catastrophe" in Myanmar

From IRIN, a story on human rights abuses in Myanmar.

Human rights abuses and counter-insurgency campaigns in Chin State, western Myanmar, are causing a "health catastrophe", says a new study, results which echo an earlier survey in the eastern state of Shan.

"The indirect health outcomes of the abuses likely dwarf the actual killings by the military leaders," said Richard Sollom, deputy director of the US-based NGO Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and author of a recent medical study on Chin State.

Persecution of civilians has resulted in a "man-made health catastrophe" in ethnic areas, according to Vit Suwanvanichkij at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the US.

In eastern Myanmar, the child mortality rate is almost double and maternal mortality triple the national average (122 per 1,000 live births and 380 per 100,000 live births, respectively, according to World Health Organization, WHO), which is related to the "epidemic" of human rights abuses committed against ethnic groups in that area, said Suwanvanichkij.

"Public health indicators in ethnic areas are similar to that of long-term war-torn countries like Rwanda and Sierra Leone," said Debbie Stothard, coordinator of the Bangkok-based Burma rights advocacy group, Altsean.

Nearly one-third of all households in Shan State in eastern Myanmar reported one or more human rights abuses from 2009 to 2010, according to a separate 2010 health survey, conducted by community health organizations.

"Consistently, the minority of deaths are directly from violence. Far more... lose their lives indirectly from the malign neglect of the Burmese military regime," said Suwanvanichkij.

Not only does the government invest the least worldwide in its healthcare system - less than 2 percent in 2009 according to the WHO - but rights groups say it also obstructs healthcare in conflict areas.

"The military actively prevents healthcare workers from doing their jobs by destroying healthcare facilities controlled by communities or insurgent groups," said David Scott Mathieson, Myanmar's senior researcher for Human Rights Watch.

Six out of 10 deaths among internally displaced persons in the east are from preventable illnesses, said Suwanvanichkij.

Babies and hunger

Shan State researchers found the occurrence of human rights abuses in a household increased the odds of an infant dying by up to 50 percent.

In Chin State (western Myanmar), almost 92 percent of households experience forced labour and reported the military stealing or destroying their family's food stock.

"With already amongst the worst food insecurity in the world, such predatory practices by the government can easily push families over the brink - worsening poverty, increasing malnutrition, and further barring access to healthcare," said Suwanvanichkij.

Forty-three percent of families in Chin State reported moderate to severe household hunger to PHR.

Families in Chin State whose food was destroyed or seized reported hunger levels more than six times higher than those left alone, according to PHR.

"If people are forced to give food to the military out of fear, have household crops destroyed or their food stores stolen and livestock stolen or killed, they are obviously going to be more likely to suffer from hunger," said Sollom.

Displacement and disease

Displaced families are about three times more likely to have acutely malnourished children, according to PHR. Almost half a million people are displaced in Myanmar, according to the Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot, Thailand.

"Being on the move in the rainy season without access to clean water leaves them vulnerable to malaria and diarrhoea - a major killer of children under five," said Stothard.

Local health workers continue to risk their lives in conflict zones to bring much-needed healthcare to the displaced, but as long as human rights violations continue, the health crisis will not improve, Stothard added.

Video: The people of the Mae Sot dump site

From Reuters Alert Net, a video about a garbage dump in a Thailand border town that is home to many Myanmar refugees.

Multiple disasters in Asia

Here is an update on the multiple disasters in Asia. The volcano Merapi erupted on Tuesday killing 31 people in Indonesia. On top of the volcanic eruption an earthquake and tsunami hit the country which killed over 250 people.

First, this news story from the Jakarta Post details some of the evacuation efforts from the volcano eruption.

On Wednesday, the stench of sulfur and dead livestock was in the air with thick ash covering flattened houses, turning the area eerie white.

Most fatalities came from Kinahrejo hamlet in Cangkringan district, Sleman regency, Yogyakarta, or the home of the volcano’s spiritual keeper Ki Surakso Hargo, better known as Mbah Maridjan. The 85-year-old’s body was found at his home in the hamlet, located 5 kilometers from the mountain’s raging crater. The burnt and prostrated body, presumed to be in prayer, was identified by relatives and this image was instantly circulated through mobile phones.
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Merapi’s eruption, which took place the day it was put on top-alert status, took residents by surprise, forcing many, including those living outside the 10-kilometer danger zone, to flee to shelters.

Resident Tukirah of Pangukrejo hamlet in Cangkringan, said the disaster happened quickly. “Suddenly we heard loud roars followed by sirens,” after which everyone fled.

About 19,000 residents took refuge in seven shelters in Yogyakarta, which in all can only accommodate 12,000 evacuees. Some 30,000 others took to 39 shelters in Magelang.

Many locals from Yogyakarta who arrived in the shelters after the 5:03 p.m. eruption on Tuesday were not provided with food supplies.

“Supplies such as bottled water arrived at shelters at 1:30 a.m. [on Wednesday],” said Agusti Handayani, who took refuge with her family.

Next, this Save The Children press release talks about the emergency assistance for not only Indonesia but also the recent disasters in the Philippines and Myanmar.

Media Contact:
Kate Conradt

202.640.6631 (W)
202.294.9700 (M)

WESTPORT, Conn. (Oct. 28, 2010) — Save the Children staff is delivering emergency relief and readying to respond to the needs of children and families affected by multiple disasters in countries throughout Asia, including Indonesia, Myanmar and the Philippines, over the past 10 days.

“When emergencies strike, children’s health and well-being are most at risk,” said Annie Foster, Save the Children’s associate vice president for humanitarian response. “It is critical that we respond to their needs in the immediate hours, days and weeks following a major disaster.”

Foster added, “We learned a lot following the 2004 Asian tsunami, and now our field offices have emergency preparedness plans in place with governments and communities so that when disasters strike — even multiple ones like those this week — we are ready to help.”
Assessing Needs in Indonesia Following Major Quake and Volcanic Eruption

In Indonesia, Save the Children has deployed emergency teams to the sites of twin disasters in separate parts of the country, preparing to respond if necessary.

On Monday morning, a 7.7-magnitude earthquake rattled West Sumatra and triggered a tsunami that slammed into the remote Mentawai Islands last Monday, causing damage to villages in the south and claiming more than 300 lives, with hundreds more missing, according to the government.

Across the country, on the isle of Java, the volcano Mt. Merapi erupted on Tuesday, sending ash and searing volcanic material into the air and forcing the evacuation of thousands of people living the area.

“Save the Children has deployed a team to both the tsunami- and volcano-affected areas to look into the situations of children and their families. We have a long history in Indonesia and the ability to launch rapid responses and reach affected children and families thanks to preparedness efforts in the country,” said Lala Borja, Save the Children’s country director in Indonesia. “We store relief supplies in warehouses in Java and Sumatra, ready for distribution at the onset of a crisis, and have experienced local and international staff on call to respond.”
Providing Relief to Cyclone-Affected Families in Myanmar

In Myanmar, Save the Children has deployed emergency response teams to assist families in remote coastal areas of western Myanmar hit by Cyclone Giri, a Category 4 storm, last Friday.

Save the Children staff traveled 36 hours across mountains blocked by mudslides to reach the coastal region. They are reporting that the full extent of the storm’s impact on children and families is only now starting to become clear.

“Our teams on the ground are reporting that whole islands have been destroyed — schools, homes and, in some cases, entire villages swept away,” said Andrew Kirkwood, country director for Save the Children in Myanmar.

According to the UN, 400,000 children and adults have been affected.

Save the Children has 26 staff in the impact area distributing emergency supplies of food and water to vulnerable children and adults. Over the past three days, Save the Children has reached 20,000 people with rice. The organization aims to reach 80,000 in the coming weeks with food, water, oral rehydration salts, water purification tablets and plastic sheeting. It is also distributing children’s kits with clothes, sandals and toys for families who will have lost everything in this disaster.
Assisting Families Affected by Super Typhoon in the Philippines

In the Philippines, Save the Children will begin distributing relief supplies, including household and school kits, to children and families in Isabela Province, which sustained extensive damage when Category 5 Typhoon Megi tore across the northern Philippines on October 18.

More than 2 million children and adults have been affected by the storm, according to the Phillipine government’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC). Megi destroyed more than 30,000 homes and damaged an additional 118,000 houses.

“Thousands of families have been displaced, and many will have no homes when they return. Their immediate needs include food, materials to help rebuild or repair their homes, and household necessities to replace those lost in the storm,” said Rowena Cordero, Save the Children’s country director in the Philippines.

The organization also will support education and the economic recovery of parents so that they can better provide for their children.

“In addition to providing the basics to help the storm-affected population through the immediate days after this crisis, we also plan to support children’s return to school,” said Cordero. “Children lost their school materials when Megi roared through their villages and homes, and many schools suffered damage. We will work to help repair or refurbish schools and plan to provide back-to-school kits so that children do not miss out on their education.”

The organization aims to reach more than 154,000 people from eight of the worst hit municipalities in Isabela Province.

Save the Children is the leading, independent organization that creates lasting change for children in need in the United States and around the world. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Human trafficking victims shunned when returned home

From IRIN, a story about human sex trafficking victims from Myanmar who are shunned when they return home.

When Kyi Kyi Thein* and her teenage daughter took up an offer for work in neighbouring Thailand, they did not expect to be smuggled by sea and locked up in a shrimp factory.

Fortunately, they and 64 others were rescued by police in 2006. They stayed in Thailand for two more years during court proceedings against the shrimp factory and won the case, along with US$950 each in compensation.

Many Burmese, who have faced exploitation, violence, forced labour or forced prostitution abroad, return home penniless and are shunned as failures. But for Kyi Kyi Thein and her daughter, the payment helped them to rebuild their lives.

“They received compensation, and it has really helped those victims to be reintegrated into the community,” said Ohnmar Ei Ei Chaw, of the UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking.

An estimated 32 percent of the population live below the poverty line, but of the millions of Burmese who attempt to escape poverty by working abroad, many accrue huge debts and repatriation can be difficult.

“We need to put more pressure on the destination country and the offenders there. If those at the origin [country] have to bear the burden, we feel it’s really unfair," Ohnmar Ei Ei Chaw said.

Tough times abroad and at home

After arriving at the Ranya Paew shrimp factory in central Samut Sakhon Province, 50km west of Bangkok, Kyi Kyi Thein and her daughter were told that their earnings of 30 cents per kilogram of peeled shrimp would go toward a $1,000 debt for their trafficking fees.

For the next several months, they were forced to work 20-hour shifts and saw co-workers who tried to escape stripped and tortured.

One worker peeled 18-20kg per day, but did not receive any salary until her fourth month - even then, it was only $5, according to the AFL-CIO-affiliated Solidarity Center.

Back home, villagers at first did not believe their story.

“For four or five months, people discriminated against us,” Kyi Kyi Thein said during a visit to Yangon from their home in Bago Division. “They didn’t know the real story and thought we had been in prison.”

“Even if they were working as domestic workers in the other country, the community thinks the girls are coming back from brothels or were being abused or sexually exploited by their employers,” said Khin Thant, who works in the anti-trafficking in persons unit of World Vision.

“People call them bad women, and sometimes people refuse to buy the food or the things they are selling,” said Moe Moe Swe, also with World Vision’s anti-trafficking unit.

“Sometimes the families had to invest some amount of money for their trip abroad. When they come back empty-handed, the families don’t welcome them back,” Moe Moe Swe said.

Destination Thailand

The International Organization for Migration (IOM), reported that an estimated three million Burmese have migrated abroad but cited other figures suggesting that as many as five million might be living abroad, with Thailand the main destination. Myanmar has a population of around 50 million.

The Thai government, in an effort to legalize migrants, has registered more than 800,000 Burmese, but the IOM estimates there are another million undocumented labourers from the region in Thailand.

Since the 2007 establishment of the Myanmar police anti-trafficking unit, there have been more prosecutions, Ohnmar Ei Ei Chaw said.

Myanmar police tallied 1,251 traffickers and 265 smugglers arrested between 2006 and 2009. Those cases were linked to 2,000 trafficking survivors and smuggled migrants – a mere fraction of the actual numbers, experts say.

The US State Department’s 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report has placed Myanmar among 13 countries not making sufficient efforts to combat trafficking.

An uneasy relationship in Myanmar

From IRIN, a story on the uneasy relationship between the military junta in Myanmar and the few humanitarian aid workers they allow into the country.

Soon after floods and landslides killed 68 people and displaced thousands a month ago in western Myanmar, the prime minister and two other ministers went to assess the damage first-hand.

They delegated duties for aid delivery. They greenlighted humanitarian shipments. Minister of Social Welfare U Maung Maung Swe met local and international NGOs to brief them on the government response, hear their assessments and “thank [them] for their support”.

This is not the ruling military government of yesteryear, when only a visit from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon - three weeks after Cyclone Nargis struck in May 2008, leaving 140,000 dead - could secure international aid workers unfettered access to the battered Ayeyarwady Delta region.

This is the post-Nargis junta.

“The government’s response capacity has much improved since Nargis. The government has shown willingness to work with the UN and NGOs,” said Bhairaja Panday, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) representative in Myanmar. “The government has shown more confidence in dealing with the aid community and now understands better how the latter functions.”

It is far from a perfect union, with many aid workers grumbling about restrictions on travel outside Yangon and nervous of openly criticizing the junta for fear of being shut out of the country altogether.

Yet judging by the junta’s actions - not only after the landslides, but also with respect to policies - a fragile trust has coalesced between the government and international aid workers.

“The relationship between NGOs and the UN agencies and the government on substantive policies has gotten much better in the five years since I got here,” said Andrew Kirkwood, Myanmar director of Save the Children.

Two steps forward… sometimes

Kirkwood pointed to HIV, forced labour and child rights programmes as concrete signs of better cooperation for the benefit of the people of Myanmar.


For example, trafficked children picked up in Thailand are now safely repatriated and no longer charged with illegal migration, Kirkwood said.

The government has also given its blessing for a forced labour and underage military recruitment complaints desk run by the UN International Labour Organization (ILO).

Still, challenges remain. With the exception of the cyclone-hit delta, visas and travel permits were just as difficult to get as before, aid workers said.

A staff member of an international health NGO, who spoke on condition of anonymity, complained that the government processed mandatory operating licence applications at a snail’s pace.

“Although we are under the process of renewal, we can do our work under the previous (memorandum of understanding), but low profile. We cannot scale up; we cannot extend to other areas, but we are still working,” he said.

In some cases, international aid workers are barred from areas where help is needed most.

During severe flooding in many parts of Myanmar in 1998, “the government restricted information from the affected area, as a policy,” said Win Zin Oo, the director of humanitarian and emergency affairs for World Vision. “At the outset of the Nargis response, the policy of the government was ‘we can do [this] by ourselves’.

“Now, the approach of inviting international agencies for assistance can be seen as change, due to the humanitarian space created by cooperation during the Nargis response.”

Willing to cooperate

Kirkwood, of Save the Children, recalled that during the annual water festival in April 2009, a cyclone looked to be headed for Northern Rakhine State. Everyone across the country was on holiday, but the government called to set up a meeting to plan a joint assessment and response mission. The storm narrowly missed Myanmar and hit neighbouring Bangladesh.

“That, to me, was a great indicator of where we’ve come since the tsunami [in December 2004]. I was here when the tsunami happened as well, and that kind of cooperation wasn’t there,” Kirkwood said.

In the case of the recent landslides, the government issued its assessment of the situation in Northern Rakhine State, heard the UNHCR and NGOs’ take and then adjusted its own accordingly.

“They were not only saying you have to go by our assessment. They wanted us to share information with them on our findings,” said Panday of UNHCR.

For Northern Rakhine State, the government has mobilized key ministries to manage the aid, agreed to facilitate shipments and passed out contact names, focal points and phone numbers, said Vincent Hubin, deputy head of office for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

“They are open to receiving support and are continuing to engage. This is exactly the sign that the cooperation built after Nargis is continuing. We have engagement.”

The poor rice production in Myanmar

Myanmar could be one of the worlds biggest exporters of rice, but they are way behind their neighbors Thailand and Vietnam. Many of Myanmar's farmers are drowning in debt, and rice yields are declining. Some of these factors were only made worse by 2008's cyclone.

From the Christian Science Monitor, we learn more about the failing rice production in Myanmar.

The cyclone opened the door to more humanitarian aid for Burma (Myanmar), the poorest country in Southeast Asia. It also led to a rare debate between its military rulers and foreign donors over how to tackle poverty among farmers and fishermen left at the mercy of natural disasters.

The result has been tentative efforts to reform the dismal rice sector and channel more assistance to rural communities. Development experts say much more outside help is needed, including commercial bank loans, to boost productivity and reverse a longtime trend of rice farmers falling into debt and losing their land.

The end goal, say these experts and independent economists, should be a vibrant rice industry that can underpin broader economic growth, as it has in Thailand and Vietnam, the world’s largest rice exporters, a title that Burma last held in the 1930s. By contrast, few buyers snap up Burmese rice, which is grown from low-quality seeds and milled in rusted factories.

“If you want to revitalize the country, you must look at the rural economy,” says Noleen Heyzer, United Nations undersecretary general and head of its Asia headquarters in Bangkok.

At the tumbledown house of Kyaw Myint, the prospects look bleak. He owns 20 acres of rice paddy along the riverbank and has set aside the seeds from his last crop. But he will only plant some of his fields this year because he can’t afford fertilizer, pesticides, or quality seeds. A rice merchant who used to give him credit stopped after the cyclone, and the government agricultural bank will only lend $20 per acre, much less than the $100 or so that a farmer typically spends to produce a crop.

Even if Kyaw Myint, not his real name, did get a loan, he worries that he won’t make enough from his harvest in November, leaving him in hock to creditors. “We’re running in circles,” he says.

"We are cheap labour, we have no rights"

From IRIN, one man's story of having a lack of labor rights in Myanmar.

Umpiem is one of about a dozen refugee camps along the Thailand-Myanmar border for displaced persons who have fled poverty as well as ethnic, religious and political persecution. The camp is home to about 27,000 people, according to the Karen Refugee Committee. Under Thai law, displaced persons are prohibited from leaving the camps, but authorities often allow refugees to leave for day labour. Maung Win*, 36, an ethnic Arakan, told IRIN about his recent arrest outside camp.

"I leave the camp most days to find work nearby. I leave early in the morning, walk 5km to the area where we wait by the side of the road to be picked up for day labour at 4am, and I return to the camp at 5pm.

"I get 80 baht [US$2.50] a day. A Thai worker is paid more than twice this amount. We are cheap labour, and we have no rights. This is the only way I can earn a bit of money. Without work, it's hard to survive just on the rations we are given.

"More and more people from the camp started going out for work, so there was a smaller chance of getting chosen for the day. A couple of hundred people leave the camp each day now. There was no more work nearby, so I had to start going farther away.

"Once a week, I would to go to Umphang to work on a farm. The last time I tried to go to Umphang, I was arrested [at a roadside check point] and sent to jail for being outside the camp.

"In jail, the guards had me carry bricks for them, and my wife had to send money for the police to provide me with food. We sold some of our possessions.

"I fled Myanmar in 1990. After our local Arakan leader was executed in jail, we demonstrated and then it was dangerous for some of us to stay around.

"From 1990 to 1994, I lived in Mae La camp with my uncle. After that I worked in a factory in Mae Sot. During that time the police would harass me but I managed to avoid getting arrested. I met my wife in Mae Sot in 2005.

"Now it's impossible for me to work in a factory because of the new [nationality verification] programme that says we must register with the Burmese government in order to get permission to work here. Of course, that's not possible. So now I can only try to work near the camp, if there is any work available."

New report on human rights in Myanmar shows no improvement

Human Rights Watch has issued an update on rights within Myanmar, the humanitarian group says human rights are less even after Cyclone Nargis. After the cyclone killed 140,000 people in 2004 the world hoped that the military junta that rules the country would be more open, but the reverse has happened.

From Reuters Alert Net, we read more about the report.

"Civilians in cyclone-affected areas continue to be subjected to various forms of forced labour, everyday restrictions on movements, and infringements of the rights to freedom of expression and association," according to Human Rights Watch's new report.

It said ongoing international recovery efforts are not accompanied by measures to protect human rights and 21 people who were arrested in the immediate aftermath of the cyclone, for speaking out against the iron-fisted junta's handling of relief efforts, remain in jail.

The report called for their release as well as those of nearly 2,100 political prisoners. It cautioned that while the rise of civil society groups in Myanmar - formed to provide relief to cyclone survivors in the first few weeks before international aid was allowed in - is to be applauded, their existence remains extremely fragile.

The cyclone was the worst to hit Asia since 1991, and the country's ruling generals came under harsh international criticism for initially refusing to allow foreign aid workers into the country.

The government finally relented but progress was slow. Without the government's stringent restrictions in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, the survivors would be much farther down the road to recovery, the report said.

Despite estimated foreign reserves of US$5 billion and income from lucrative natural gas sales, "the Burmese government has failed to adequately support reconstruction efforts that benefit the population," it added, calling the country by its former name.

According to the report, the junta had allocated a mere 5 million kyats (US$50,000) to an emergency fund immediately after the storm.

Guest Voices: Building Stupas in the Sand

Introducing our new guest blogging series called "Guest Voices."

To inaugurate our series we turn to Jane Ginn, who writes for Sedona Cyber Link. Jane recently took a trip to Myanmar, the country that is ruled by an oppressive military regime. The military government was so oppressive that it prevented humanitarian aid from reaching it's people after Cyclone Nargis.

Jane was thinking about how much better life in Myanmar if some bottom of the pyramid opportunities were allowed into the country.

On my recent trip to Myanmar (Burma) I took the time to read several important books analyzing the root causes of the economic crisis of 2008. As I was floating up the Irrawaddy, one of the major rivers in Asia flowing from the Himalayas, I reflected on the way of life of the peasants living along the banks while immersing myself in the abstract thoughts of macroeconomics and theoretical finance [more on these books in a later article]. One image was especially poignant for me; two children were building stupas (Buddhist-style temples) along the banks of the Irrawaddy. When they had almost completed their masterpiece, two older children came by and destroyed it by bombarding it with sticks.

The readiness of the older children to destroy the fruits of the labor of the others was, in some ways characteristic of the governance of the country. During this excursion I began to see the effects to the real economy of the type of zero-sum thinking that is practiced in Myanmar by the ruling elite. This same type of thinking is what led to the bursting of the housing and credit bubbles in the U.S. and beyond: zero-sum thinking [more on this later].

Although most of export-dependent Asia was severely hit by the economic downturn, countries like Myanmar were relatively insulated from the excesses of the developed world markets. This is because they had not yet become integrated into the global trade community. This was true both by fiat, and by design. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the 30+ year rule by a military junta has so severely arrested economic development in Myanmar that the commercial landscape is more like 10th century Europe than a post-modern S.E. Asian country.

The leadership has, evidently, based their leadership and management philosophy more on zero-sum thinking than on the non-zero-sum type thinking that is so evident in the Tiger countries like Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. The closed-society, total control approach has created an impoverished nation with the poorest transportation and communications infrastructure in all of Asia, except perhaps, North Korea. It has also led to an autarky-type economy whereby almost all of the products (such as they are) are produced locally, that is, except for the trickle of products coming in from China. For other nations of the world that would like to participate in the growth of this economy, this early dominance by the Chinese is a bit distressing. This is especially true given the current state of the global economy and the recognition that the growth of a consumer base in Asia would help to ameliorate the global imbalances so evident in the current account and trade deficits of countries like the U.S. The U.S. has only recently begun a rapprochement with Myanmar after many years of trade sanctions. Perhaps this can lead to an opening of trade relations.

The large segment of the population that live on less than $1/day would make this an ideal country for targeting some Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) products. And, given the well established handicraft industries that I witnessed, a fair trade initiative sponsored by the government would help to bring some of their unique products to the world markets. A regional model from the Malaysian or Indian governments could be emulated; much like the Kraft Komplex in Kuala Lumpur or those storefronts in Chennai established by the provincial government of Tamil Nadu.

Any producer of products, whether BOP or mainstream, seeking to penetrate that market will encounter many other obstacles other than the “keep the prosperity pie small” syndrome practiced by the military junta officials. Since the infrastructure is so poor, there are few formalized and efficient distribution systems. The river continues to be the main route for nbound and outbound commercial and passenger traffic; however there are virtually no docks and cargo are loaded and unloaded almost entirely by hand.

The lack of a transportation infrastructure is not the only problem.

The electrical grid is highly unreliable. We stayed one extra day in Mandalay after the 15-day cruise on the Pandaw river boat. We had an electrical surge about every hour. It is hard to work on a computer or do anything productive under those conditions.

The other key element that is lacking that could significantly enhance the development potential is a communications infrastructure. Cellular coverage that is linked to region-wide systems is non-existent. SIM cards for operating on the Myanmar-controlled cellular system are priced so high that only members of the ruling elite and a few foreign business men and women can afford them. It is only with integration of the world telecommunications community that prices will be brought down so that cellular phones are affordable by the common person, family or village.

Furthermore, the Internet is also not widely available and slow dial-up connections at Internet Cafe’s are prohibitively expensive.

The role of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank in the financing of an infrastructure for economic development must first be ascertained. Further, the willingness of the junta to “liberalize” trade and capital markets will, in some ways, depend on how integrated with the global trade community they would like to be. It is rumored that an election is upcoming; although no date has been set and there is some question about who could run for the opposition. This is because the European-educated leader of the opposition has been under house arrest for much of the past 20 years.

Resolution of this issue and a more gradual development approach such as has been implemented by the Chinese would be more suitable in Myanmar, given the need to be concerned about the equity implications of economic growth. Joseph Stiglitz, who recently visited Myanmar to advise them on their development strategy, outlines a valuable approach in his 2003 book “Globalization and Its Discontents.”

The innocence of the young people building their stupas in the sand is a reminder of the frailty of life and the economy in Myanmar. To improve the state of the economy they need to use sound, rational management and avoid crony capitalism. I am not necessarily advocating shock capitalism or strategies such as those advocated under the auspices of the Washington Consensus; however, a gradual opening to trade would greatly enhance the quality of life of millions. The lessons that the world investment and trade community have learned from the 2008 global economic crisis can be put to work in a creative way for supporting gradual development in Myanmar that will help to benefit the poor, and integrate the society with the global community.

Non-zero sum thinking, if practiced by those children on the banks of the Irrawaddy, would not have led the older children to destroy the work of the younger ones. Quite the opposite would be true; the older children would have offered to help. When will the adults set the right example?

Non-zero-sum thinking and gradual development is the way of a hopeful future for the people of Myanmar.

An update on recovery from 2008's Cyclone Nargis

From the Voice of America, the United Nations says that there are some successes in the recovery efforts from Cyclone Nargis that hit Burma in 2008.

A United Nations report on Burma's recovery from Cyclone Nargis says progress has been achieved in key areas such as child development and health care. But communities in the Irrawaddy Delta still struggle to sustain their livelihoods and rebuild homes lost in the 2008 storm.

The report issued Tuesday provides an upbeat assessment of recovery in the Irrawaddy Delta less than two years after Cyclone Nargis swept through the region in May 2008.

Cyclone Nargis left up to 140,000 people dead or missing. Over two million people were affected by the storm. Total losses were estimated at over $4 billion.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Burma's military government and the United Nations formed the Tripartite Core Group shortly after the storm to assess and coordinate the recovery effort.

The group's latest survey covered 1,400 households, and particularly focused on the most vulnerable, such as landless families and those headed by women.

The survey reported improvements in child mortality, and child nutrition, as well as greater access to health care and clean water.

Esben Harboe, a special assistant in the office of the U.N.'s resident coordinator in Burma, says the survey shows despite the gains, there is still much to do.

"The key message is progress is evident but there's still a lot more to do in terms of recovery and especially within two areas, which is [are] livelihood and shelter. These are the areas where the respondents in the survey said that they still need assistance," said Harboe.

The survey found that 50 percent of the shelters surveyed were judged to be safe, but over 80 percent of surveyed households considered their homes to be of poorer quality than before the cyclone.

Harboe says the delta region still faces challenges because of its lack of development and poverty. Burma is one of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia.

"It's very positive we can record improvements within a number of areas but there's still - even it is back to a pre-Nargis situation - pre-Nargis it was very bad. So it's not to say that there's nothing more to do even if it's back to normal so to speak," said Harboe.

A reconstruction plan by the United Nations, ASEAN and Burma's military government has called for $690 million in aid. Aid workers have also say that additional international funds will be needed to fully rebuild Irrawaddy Delta communities.

Burma's isolated military government originally refused and blocked most foreign aid after the massive cyclone. It took the intervention of the United Nations and ASEAN to persuade the military to allow in foreign aid workers and donated supplies.

Children vulnerable to disease in Myanmar

From IRIN comes this story on the life of children in the remote villages of Myanmar. Children often have to take care of themselves while their parents are away working, that means many children unwashed, unfed and unhealthy. This story focuses on education efforts to help turn that around.

In the mountains between Mindat and Madupi towns in Myanmar’s remote Chin State, 45-year-old Mo Reen is searching for orchids to sell during the cold season.

Her husband, meanwhile, works the land for their slash-and-burn farm in Mindat Township, about an hour away. Their children, aged six, eight and 11, are left alone at home.

"When we were young, we were left by our parents, the way we leave our children now," Mo Reen said. "The eldest of the siblings takes care of the younger ones, while the parents are away working. It's traditional here."

But without proper care, her barefoot children run around unwashed and unkempt.

Agencies say a lack of awareness about children’s health issues in Chin State, Myanmar’s poorest, is leaving them vulnerable to infectious diseases, some of them deadly.

"Most Chin parents, especially in the remote areas, lack knowledge, not only about personal hygiene, but also about the health of their children," said Syed Shah Miran, the project health coordinator for Chin State with Merlin, a medical NGO.

Poverty and low levels of literacy contribute to the lack of information, while there is a need for more health awareness-raising campaigns in the state’s isolated, hilly areas, he said.

“Because of this lack of knowledge among parents, their children are very vulnerable to … infectious diseases such as malaria,” said Syed Shah Miran.

Common ailments

According to the Canada-based Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO) tuberculosis, typhoid, malaria, HIV, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, diarrhoea and stomach problems are common ailments in Chin State, home to some 500,000 people and nestled along the border with India.

A health worker from the Department of Health said most illiterate parents did not know how to protect their children against common diseases.

“It’s very clear that they don't know how to keep themselves clean and healthy, [nor] do they know how to care for their children and keep them from being infected with diseases that could kill them,” the health worker said on condition of anonymity.

There is no data available on the mortality rate and causes of death in under-fives in Chin State, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

However, it is assumed that causes of child mortality are similar to other states, UNICEF says, including infectious diseases, especially pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria.

The most recent joint UNICEF and government Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey in 2003 showed a higher rate of malnutrition among under-five children in Chin State than the national average.

Chronic malnutrition-stunting among under-fives in Chin State is 36.5 percent, compared with the national average of 32.2 percent.

At the same time, acute malnutrition among under-fives in Chin State is 8.7 percent, against the national average of 8.6 percent.

Chin advocacy groups say malnutrition and chronic food insecurity have worsened since 2007 due to the destruction of crops by a rat infestation.

Challenges to raising awareness

To educate Chin people on the importance of healthcare, international agencies and the Ministry of Health are conducting awareness campaigns. However, there are challenges in Chin State such as accessibility, health experts say.

“One of the challenges is difficult access to its mountainous terrains, especially during the rainy season," Osamu Kunii, UNICEF Myanmar’s chief of health and nutrition, told IRIN.

Villagers have difficulty accessing health providers and facilities, while getting health providers to communities is a problem, he said.

There are only 12 hospitals and 56 doctors for the population, and just four viable roads in the state, according to a January 2009 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report.

In addition, there are restrictions in terms of data collection and sharing.

Officials also say they face difficulties in convincing parents of the importance of health education. “Persuading parents to come and join awareness-raising campaigns is quite challenging for us as they’re busy farming,” said the government health worker.

Most people in Chin State are subsistence farmers and live hand-to-mouth.

"I'm sorry that I cannot spend time with my children," said Lin Htan, 31, while she worked with her husband to prepare their farm in southern Mindat Township. "It’s because day in and day out, I'm busy finding food for them."

Her eldest child, aged seven, has been left at home to take care of his younger brother and sister. Lin Htan said she worried about her children being infected with malaria or other fatal diseases, but she had no time or opportunity to act on it.

The front lines of human trafficking

The border between Myanmar and China is considered a front line of human trafficking. A steady stream of people cross the border in either direction. Sometimes its hard to distinguish between those who were coerced into crossing, those crossing against their will, and those who made their own choice to cross.

From this Article in the Penninsula On-Line, we read more about human trafficking in the Chinese boarder town of Ruili.

On any given afternoon, a steady stream of people scale the six-foot-high fence, unperturbed by the Chinese border guards posted just a hundred yards away. Amid the men from Myanmar looking for day labour, or women coming to sell their vegetables in the wealthier Chinese markets, is traffic far less benign: Myanmar women being brought over for marriages with Chinese men — some forced, some voluntarily arranged through “matchmakers.”

Babies being brought into China to be sold. And Chinese women from poorer inland areas being moved in the opposite direction, often ending up in Southeast Asia’s sex industry. In the shadowy world of human trafficking, say government officials and advisers with foreign aid agencies, China has become a source country, a destination country and a transit country all at once.

“Some of the Yunnan women and girls think they’ll get a better job in Thailand,” said Kathleen Speake, chief technical adviser for the United Nations’ International Labor Office in Beijing. People from Myanmar “are coming into China. We’re looking at being trafficked for adoption, and women being trafficked for marriage.”

No firm numbers are available on the extent of trafficking. Kirsten di Martino, a project officer in Beijing for UNICEF, said that from 2000 to 2007, China’s public security bureau investigated 44,000 cases of trafficking, rescuing about 130,000 women and children.

But, she added, “this is just the tip of the iceberg.” China, she said, “is very big, and has a lot of border — and has a whole lot of problems.” Here in Ruili, two criminal gangs were cracked and 14 women rescued in the first half of the year, said Meng Yilian, who works for the newly formed group China-Myanmar Cooperation Against Human Trafficking. Myanmar is also known as Burma.

“In the villages bordering Myanmar, there are some people working as matchmakers,” she said. “And some of them are human traffickers. It’s hard to tell who are the matchmakers and who are the traffickers.” Matchmaking, which falls into a legally murky terrain, is rooted in Chinese tradition, which allows a man to make a gift to a woman’s family in exchange for marriage.

Mr. Stiglitz returns from Burma

Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz just completed his trip to Burma, also known as Myanmar. The nation run by a cruel military junta asked the economist to visit and help turn Burma's economic fortunes around. However, critics say that Stiglitz is just being used by the military to deceive it's public.

From the IPS, reporter Stanislaus Jude Chan attended a press conference where Stiglitz announced what he found.

At a press conference organised here Monday by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Stiglitz expressed optimism over the prospects for change in Burma’s rural economy. "In general, there is the hope that this is the moment of change for the country," Stiglitz said.

The former chief economist of the World Bank was in Burma last week to meet with the state’s Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Maj Gen Htay Oo and National Development Minister Soe Tha. He was part of a mission organised by ESCAP aimed at assessing and improving Burma’s rural economy.

ESCAP held a wide-ranging dialogue with the South-east Asian state to boost the country’s agricultural sector and to help it reclaim its status as the rice bowl of Asia. It was a "moment of hope," said Stiglitz.

"This is the moment of change for the country," opined the noted economist. "And it would be a mistake to miss this moment."

But some are sceptical about the changes that Stiglitz and ESCAP expect to bring to a country still ruled by a regime notorious for its oppression and secrecy. "The same as the junta’s sucker bait," charged one irate member of the audience, as he marched up to Stiglitz after the conference. The colloquial phrase suggests a scheme to deceive the ignorant.
...

Based on his talks with farmers during his visit to Burma, Stiglitz identified the high cost of credit in the rural areas, with interest rates of at least 10 percent a month, as one of the issues Burma will have to overcome.

"Irrigation has increased the potential for productivity, but because many could not get credit to buy fertiliser and for hydro-electricity, the full potential could not be reached," he said.

He urged the Burmese government to promote access to appropriate agricultural financing, to boost access to seeds and fertilizers as well as spending on health and education, and create well-paid jobs in rural infrastructure construction in order to stimulate development and raise incomes and spending.

"If you don’t renew your human capital, it depreciates, just as fiscal capital depreciates," Stiglitz said as he urged the country to do more to bridge the demographic gaps in education in the country.

Traditional medicine in Myanmar

From IRIN, a look at traditional medicine making a comeback in Myanmar.

Four years after contracting rheumatic fever, Mee Naing, 28, finally beat the disease with the help of traditional medicine.

Rheumatic fever can recur if not treated with long-term antibiotics, but because Mee Naing could not afford the medicine, she suffered from a bad bout of the disease for many months.

She finally went to a traditional medicine clinic and underwent a course of pills and balms and her health gradually improved.

"Whatever ailments I have, nowadays I take traditional drugs, which I can afford," said Mee Naing, whose monthly income as a marketing assistant is less than US$40.

More than 85 percent of country's population of about 57.5 million uses traditional medicines, according to government figures, partly to supplement western medicine and partly as an alternative.

"Traditional medicine is quite affordable and accessible for people from all walks of life, which are the fundamental reasons why most people use it," Maung Nyan, president of the Myanmar Traditional Medicine Practitioners' Association, told IRIN.

Practitioners say people in rural areas - about 70 percent of Myanmar's population - rely more on traditional medicine than in urban areas, since it is more widely available and affordable than western medicine.

Traditional medicine is also 10-20 times cheaper than western medicine - a huge factor when 32.7 percent of people live below the poverty line, according to specialists.

Government promotion

Traditional medicine, in the form of pills, powders and balms, has been used in Myanmar since 600 BC, but only recently has the government moved to formalize its role in the healthcare system.

A Traditional Medicine Drug Law introduced in 1996 controls the quality, production and sale of the drugs. The government has also introduced good manufacturing practices, while the production, packaging and storage of medicines have been modernized.

These standards mean that "public trust and confidence in indigenous drugs has greatly been enhanced", notes the World Health Organization in Myanmar in its 2009 health report for the country.

"There is a progressive increase in demand for traditional medicine not only in rural areas but also in urban areas," it states.

There are 14 traditional medicine hospitals, and 237 district and township clinics and sub-centres across the country, while there are more than 10,000 practitioners, according to the Myanmar Traditional Medicine Practitioners' Association.

In 2007, the government established the first national herbal park on 81 hectares of land in the new capital, Naypyidaw, to grow plants to treat diseases such as diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera, diabetes, hypertension, malaria and tuberculosis.

A long tradition

"Traditional medicine has regained its golden age," said Aung Naing, who practises both traditional and western medicine, choosing one or the other depending on a patient's illness.

Most traditional practitioners combine traditional medicines with western equipment, such as blood pressure monitors.

"Traditional medicine is very effective in curing chronic diseases such as diabetes, rheumatic fever, rheumatoid arthritis, hypertension, stroke, paralysis, motor paralysis, malaria, and menstrual disorders," said Mya Win, 66, who has practised traditional medicine for 49 years.

While it cannot cure diseases such as cancer or HIV/AIDS, it has fewer side-effects than western medicine, said Mya Win.

Knowledge of Burmese traditional medicine has been handed down from generation to generation for centuries, and is influenced by traditions from neighbouring countries such as India and China.

Most of the medicines are of plant origin, although animal, mineral or aquatic material is also used.

In 1976, the government established the Institute of Myanmar Traditional Medicine to train traditional medicine practitioners, while the University of Myanmar Traditional Medicine was established in Mandalay in 2001. The curriculum covers traditional medicine, science and basic concepts of western medicine.

"Today, more and more young people are interested in learning traditional medicine as the role of the medicine becomes larger and larger in the country," Aung Myint, the university's rector, told IRIN.

A story and a video on the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis

Myanmar's government has decided to stop flights into the Ayeyarwady Delta for aid to the victims of Cyclone Nargis. The flights took only an hour, now it will take aid workers a lot longer to get supplies to the cyclone victims. Cyclone Nargis killed 140,000 in Myanmar.

From the IRIN, we read more about the impact this decision makes on aid.

"It is back to six-hour-long road trips or boat rides," grumbled an aid worker.

Chris Kaye, WFP country director, confirmed that the service had been discontinued. The agency had started off with a fleet of 10 helicopters after Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar on 2 and 3 May 2008. The service delivered 1,119MT of life-saving supplies, including food and shelter materials, and transported thousands of aid workers and people needing urgent assistance.

The operation was reduced to a single helicopter in recent months but continued to provide critical access to the delta not only for WFP but the entire humanitarian community as roads are often inaccessible after rains.

"The service was a great convenience also for government officials and donors conducting assessments of the various post-Nargis programmes," said Thierry Delbreuve, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Myanmar.

Last night PBS aired a program about the plight of the survivors of the cyclone. The show Wide Angle focused on orphans who now have to take care of themselves. The below video is an introduction to the show.

The growing problem of illegal gambling in Myanmar

Myanmar is having a growing problem with illegal gambling in the country. People who are earning only 1 to 3 US dollars a day are spending large portions of their money on the illegal numbers games. Many of the poor are lured into the gambling with dreams of big winnings and a way out of their lives in poverty.

Prosecution of the gambling is difficult because most police in Myanmar can be bought off with a bribe, some receive a cut of the money if the winner is from their patrol.

From IRIN, we learn more about the gambling from NGO's who are witnessing the problem.

On the streets of Yangon, the former capital, the so-called "two digits" illegal lottery is so popular that development workers call it one of the most serious problems facing the children of poor families. It is especially popular among the poorest, who can least afford to lose their daily wages of US$1-$3.

Agents willing to take bets are everywhere - in cities, market towns and rural areas across Southeast Asia's second-largest nation of 58 million. But there is no social safety net, nothing to stop a family from going under when the betting losses add up.

"They bet because they think they'll get a big win, and then their troubles will be over," said a Burmese community worker, who runs self-help groups for poor women living in temporary shelters around Yangon.

''When they've lost everything they must give up their house, take their children out of school and send them to work. Often they will end up begging.''

Myanmar's citizens are no better off now than 20 years ago, and most subsist on an average annual income of less than $200 per capita, the US State Department reports.

According to a 2005 UN Development Programme (UNDP) household survey, one-third of Myanmar's population lives below the poverty line.

Inflation is adding to the economic burden, with the price of rice, for example, up by 30 percent over the past year alone.

In an extensive survey by an international NGO, Myanmar children cited gambling as one of their biggest problems.

This story hits home for me, because we just decided to stop playing the legal lottery here in our home state of Michigan. Even those of us who are not poor will dream of having more. But those "dreams" seem pretty selfish in comparison to those who only earn a dollar a day.