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Joined 28 days ago
Cake day: March 6th, 2025
  • klu9@lemmy.catoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.world•*Permanently Deleted*English
    2·
    15 days ago

    OK, here goes, everything I can think of. Probably forgetting some things or remembering them wrong. I’ll put question marks around things I’m not sure of. Feel free to correct anything I get wrong.

    • Burma / Myanmar: two different names derived from the same language but from different registers. “Myanmar” is from ¿the formal register? And “Burma” from ¿the informal register?
    • Also related to “Bama”, the main ethnic/linguistic group, who are traditionally Buddhist and speak a language that is part of the greater Sinitic-Tibeto-Burman group. Its own script (¿but related to Indic scripts?)
    • Many Buddhist monks and nuns, ¿often not for life but for a shorter period? A few monks extreme ethno-nationalists, expressing / inciting hatred of ethnic minorities in public and on social media (Facebook).
    • Lots of other ethnic groups around the edges of the country: Karen, Shan, Rohingya etc. Several long-running (like, since the 1940s) ethnic rebellions against the central Burmese state, often based in inland mountainous areas. These ethnic groups and rebels often finding refuge just across the border in Thailand, sometimes fleeing by boat to Bangladesh, India and Malaysia.
    • History of wars with Siam (Thailand). ¿Powerful empire 11th to 18th centuries? War elephants!
    • Bordered by Thailand to the east, China (¿Yunnan province?) to the north and Laos to the northeast; India and/or Bangladesh to the west, and the Bay of Bengal. Amazon Prime series Jack Ryan got the geography wrong (IIRC they claimed some “cove” (i.e. an inlet of sea or ocean) in the Shan state, which is up in inland mountains).
    • Mandalay is a major city ¿and port? there. And the inspiration for a casino in Las Vegas.
    • Coastal areas subject to cyclones, occasionally truly devastating.
    • Former British colony, briefly united with British India. Eric Blair (George Orwell) worked there in the British colonial administration.
    • Occupied by Japan during World War Two. British and some US forces fought against IJA there, inc Chindits and Joseph Stillwell. Lots of dense jungle warfare. “The Bridge on the River Kwai” was set there, written by Pierre Boulle, the same author who wrote “The Planet of the Apes”!
    • “Golden Triangle”: Kuomintang forces exiled from China by Communist takeover established themselves in northern Burma and went into the opium growing business. The Triangle, I think a reference to the area where the borders of three countries meet: Burma, China and Laos. Later, that area became a centre of both legitimate cross-border trade, and transnational (often Chinese) organized crime: people-trafficking/slavery, scam call centres, smuggling, casinos etc.
    • Aung Saan key leader in Burmese independence, assassinated. Father of Aung Saan Su Kyi.
    • Since independence, mostly long periods of authoritarian, military control, often with a socialist bent. The military is often called the ¿Tatmadaw? Oppressive, ready to use violence against the people.
    • Ne Win was one such military leader, Burmese of Chinese (¿Hakka?) ancestry.
    • Occasional periods of democracy or almost-democracy (e.g. the military writes rules that favour themselves, like guaranteed seats in the legislature; ¿veto power on legislation?). Periods of democracy usually ended by violent action from the military.
    • The Tatmadaw have dictated changes to names, flag, capital etc. “Burma” to “Myanmar”, “Rangoon” to “Yangon”. Moved capital from largest city Rangoon to ¿purpose-built? ¿Napidaw?
    • Old flag a bit similar to and often confused with the flag of the Republic of China (Kuomintang, still used in Taiwan). Some people from Taiwan now bring the old Burmese flag to international sporting events that ban the Republic of China flag, e.g. the Olympics.
    • Aung Saan Su Kyi long a leading figure in the democracy movement (NLD?). British husband. Spent long periods in exile and house arrest. The military wrote the rules to specifically exclude her ¿and her kids? from power e.g. ‘no one with a foreign spouse or parent or children may become president’. So when she did “achieve power”, she essentially governed through a proxy president. Subject of the film The Lady. Lost some favour outside of Burma when she seemed to be OK with the Tatmadaw’s persecution of Rohingyas (Muslims accused of being Bangladeshi migrants).
    • Latest coup… 2-3 years ago? (The yoga influencer with the coup happening live in the background!) Led by a general whose “business interests” were beginning to be threatened by the actions of the almost-democratic government. Tacit or open support for the coup from China and Russia (including ¿arms sales?), condemnation from the West. ¿China building/already built major port or naval base in Burma?
    • Finally greater cooperation between mainstream Bama democracy supporters (especially younger ones, students) and the ethnic rebellions. Quite a lot of defections/surrender by Tatmadaw personnel to the rebels. Some battlefield successes for the rebels, including taking the major city in the Golden Triangle and freeing the slaves in the scam call centres. China maybe now more ambivalent: they prefer the pro-China authoritarians of the Tatmadaw but many/most of the victims liberated by the rebels were Chinese, and they want the Chinese gangs suppressed, which the Tatmadaw didn’t do (¿too profitable?).