23.07.2006
.
Beauty and the Beasts
Our country has her tranquil natural beauty. From evergreen rain forests along brimming rivers to picturesque larch green hills and snowy mountain-ranges to wonderful sandy beaches, our country has all kinds of natural beauty one can imagine.
Many a travel guide book described our country as an unspoilt beauty.
Our country was famous for her rare and precious orchids especially found in Chin State.
Our country was famous for the Inlay lake_ a vast picturesque lake surrounded by green hills in Shan State where Inthars residents live in houses built above the water and go about in boats which they row with their legs.
Our country was famous for her Teak and other top quality wood from her forests.
Our forests were once inhabited by many rare species of animal and wild-life which were unique to our country.
We even had a very regular rainy season, with seldom storms and floods or draughts.
Air was clean and water was pure and life was good.
But every good thing came to an end in 1988 when a group of very corrupt and greedy generals formed a military government in our country.
They sold off our forests to Chinese logging companies who have never known the word “environmental conservation” let alone respecting it. All the trees in our forests were cut down and the wood shipped off to China leaving bald hills in our country.
And they sold off mining rights to Chinese miners who used crude methods to purify metal ores in the mines and hugely polluted our soil and water with lethal poisonous chemicals.
And they build their notorious dams. Since the later part of 1990s the generals started to give away large areas of farm land to their crony businessmen. And they need to irrigate their farms, so came the dams. But building many big dams costs very heavily, and because of their own mismanagement of economy, military government is almost bankrupt.
So how they pay for construction of dams? They print limitless amount of paper money to buy building materials. And to reduce labour expenses, they use people from the villages in the vicinity of construction project as forced labourers. And if they need land for their construction, they just kick out and evict people from their homes without giving any compensation. And if, during and after construction, the dams cause floods in the local area, people just have to suffer.
And, as dams cause disturbance to natural system of rivers, many areas of forests along rivers are frequently flooded and wild-lives in the forests are destroyed.
But when dams produce electricity from hydro-electric power generators, it is sold to neighbouring countries like India and Thailand to get more foreign currency income for military coffers, although there is a very serious shortage of electricity supply for people inside Burma.
Environmental destructions are occurring not only on land but also off shore. Off shore gas explorations and laying of gas pipe-lines under water cause massive disturbances to sea life which has already been endangered by excessive fishing by Thai fishing boats.
As many pro-democracy and ethnic resistance groups operate along Thai-Burma border to fight against Burmese military regime, Burmese generals are very eager to keep a friendly relationship with Thai authorities so that Thais will not give much assistance to Burmese pro-democracy groups. And as a consequence Thai fishing boats are usually given free reign on Burmese waters to make fish and other life-forms almost extinct along Burmese coast line.
So now our forests are finished, hills are bald, river deltas are flooded, wild-lives become extinct, our seas become barren and our soil and water are polluted by chemicals.
The natural beauty of our country has been savaged by military beasts.
Dr. Tayza
......................................................
Comments
Angle Naw said _
What a poetic editorial!
Feraya said _
Dear Tayza, thank you for summarizing so eloquently the extremely sad state of our once very beautiful natural resources and environment, all wasted and ruined due to the regime’s blindness, greed, stupidity and ignorance. They have no respect for anything that’s important to life.
May Ng said _
Beauty and the Beasts is just the name for Burma at present. This title speaks loudly and clearly for Burma.
JTA said _
It is really Green Issue caused by Military Regime, or in your term, military beasts.
Your Comments here_
Request: If you can kindly volunteer to translate BURMA DIGEST English articles into Burmese, please let us know BDeditors@tayzathuria.org.uk .
Please download from http://www.tayzathuria.org.uk/BD.pdf a simple, portable and printable version of BURMA DIGEST and send it to all your Burmese friends.
.
Click here for This week’s articles
Last week’s English articles
Assassinations in Burmese Political Culture
Interview with Colonel Khun Okkar
An International Liability: Is There a Win-Win Solution?
A Visit to Moscow Museum in Mae Sot