A Boom At The Border

April 18, Asia Times Online
A boom at the border – William Sparrow

The struggles Myanmar has weathered in recent decades have led to a sharp
rise in the number of women opting to work in the sex industry to escape
poverty. Once confined to a small domestic market, the sex trade is now
opening to an emerging tourist market. This trend is particularly
noticeable in towns straddling the sometimes rough-and-tumble border
region with Thailand. What follows is an account of an encounter with
prostitution in one such town.

While famously common in many parts of Asia, in Myanmar dens of
prostitution were comparatively rare just a decade ago. But extreme
poverty and lack of work has led more young women to the sex trade - in
karaoke bars, massage parlors, nightclubs and restaurants.

The military junta has mismanaged the country for decades. Coupled with
botched governance, crippling sanctions imposed on Myanmar by the
international community have hit hard. The regime's constant promises of
democratic reform never materialize and the salient lack of progress has
drawn anger and further sanctions from the United Nations and other world
bodies.

In 1996, the military ditched socialism for a market economy. With
socialism banished, entrepreneurship, opportunism and individualism
naturally took hold. In one of the world's poorest nations, prostitution
boomed.

In Myanmar civil servants, police officers and average workers make some
20,000 kyats (about US$17) per month. Many struggle to survive; and
against this backdrop it's understandable that impoverished women would
turn to the sex trade. As in many Asian countries, a young woman can make
the equivalent of a month's wage working as a prostitute on a single lucky
night - especially if the clients are foreigners.

"The basic [monthly] salary is similar to what I earned at a factory, but
here we get tips from customers," a working girl told Agence France Presse
(AFP) in a recent report. "Sometimes we earn 30,000 kyats in one night
..."

While prostitution is technically illegal in Myanmar, enforcement is often
lax. There is, of course, the bribe factor in play with police. This
reporter could find no one willing to expound on the dynamics of this
arrangement. Education and opportunities limit the lure of the sex
industry in other regional countries, but grinding poverty and poor
schooling assure that it remains an attractive option in Myanmar.

"The girls working in our shop include schoolgirls, nurses who are
available to work at night and university graduates," an unnamed source
said to AFP. "Many friends of mine work in [karaoke bars] or music pubs
while also taking university correspondence courses," she said.

Many women exist on the hope of a wealthy foreigner arriving to "rescue"
them. This is obviously rare, and one could conclude that these ladies are
looking for a future in all the wrong places. Still, the goal is to
escape; to leave Myanmar behind and go somewhere where a young woman can
make something of herself. Once there, they can help the family left
behind.

Within that dream lies the sadness of the situation.

A run for the border
Live in Thailand a while and you're bound to meet many foreigners -
Westerners of all stripes - who keep their immigration status legal by
doing "visa runs". In the most basic terms, this requires an "exit" stamp
and the purchase of a new visa at any international border checkpoint.
Leave, turn around and re-enter, essentially.

A common "run", especially for Bangkok expatriates, is to travel to the
border crossing from Ranong, Thailand, into Kawthoung, Myanmar. It's not
so far - about 568 kilometers south of Bangkok - and the total cost can be
less than 3,000 baht ($90).

But, for some, the trip can have value added. After listening to
innumerable expats who had made the journey, I learned that many like to
combine the visa run with a day of debauchery, dabbling in the bordellos
of Kawthoung.

In Kawthoung, the venues for sex-for-hire include karaoke bars - referred
to as KTVs - or tumbledown brothels doubling as restaurants and bars.
Although they do have the private rooms used for karaoke bars, in
Kawthoung few are actually equipping with the audiovisual equipment needed
to make music.

"The setup of a Burmese karaoke in Kawthoung is that they don't call them
karaoke bars, but just restaurants. Once you come in, a girl will bring
you to one of the small rooms inside. You have to pay for 'one table',
which includes a round of drinks, the table itself and the girl's company.
Then you have to pay for the girl separately for any 'services' beyond
just her company. Altogether, it still comes cheaper than most other
Southeast Asia sex spots," said a crusty "sexpat".

In Kawthoung, the sex industry is still extremely Third World. During a
recent stopover in Kawthoung, I had the opportunity for a brief Myanmar
experience. I had no plan to explore the sex industry here, but, as it so
often does in my travels, an unlikely opportunity presented itself.

I wandered around Kawthoung, taking in the sights and fighting off touts
offering pornography VCDs, Viagra, prostitutes, gay prostitutes and
illicit drugs. They finally grew bored and left me on my own. Soon, I
happened on one of the "karaoke-restaurant" bars I had heard about. A half
dozen ladies sat outside, smiling and calling out greetings.

I went to a "mom and pop" store for cigarettes. A very young woman was
handling the transaction; thin, long hair, long legs, pretty face with no
makeup. I wondered if she was 18.

As she turned and descended into the dark shop, an elderly women,
presumably a relative, emerged from the shadows. She lunged from her seat,
sensing opportunity. "You want she?" the woman asked, meaning "her" - the
young woman.

I was shocked and caught off-guard and couldn't respond. In the silence,
the elder woman continued "You want daughter? You take," she said,
pointing. "Have hotel. Fifteen dollar."

I stood stunned. The shop girl had returned and now stood next to her
mother. Her body language said it all: shoulders slumped, downcast eyes.
She knew exactly what sort of negotiations were taking place. And by all
appearances she didn't enjoy the prospect of being sold to a man for sex.

"No," I said firmly. With that, the old woman scowled and slunk back to
her seat.

The shop girl never met my eyes as she handed over the cigarettes. Still,
I perceived a small smile.

A sex slave working as a shop girl; a young woman being sold by her own
mother. It was a sad situation that I won't soon forget. Sadly, scenes
like this will likely continue until the Myanmar government can improve
the lives of its 55 million people. I was overcome by this realization as
I settled the bill in that tiny shop on the Myanmar-Thai border.

As I turned to leave, I heard the shop girl whisper "thank you".

William Sparrow has been an occasional contributor to Asia Times Online
and now joins Asia Times Online with a weekly column. Sparrow is editor in
chief of Asian Sex Gazette and has reported on sex in Asia for over five
years. To contact him send question or comments to Letters@atimes.com.

BackPack Medic Video

Orphan boy lives in Garabage dum

April 11, CNN
Orphan boy lives in garbage dump – Dan Rivers

He doesn't know how old he is, but he thinks he's 7. His name is Khin Zaw
Lin. He's lived in a garbage dump virtually his entire life.

I find Lin walking in a festering landscape of rotting food, plastic bags
and junk at the Mae Sot garbage dump in Thailand near the Thai-Myanmar
border. His parents are long gone. His home is a makeshift shelter made
from salvaged bags, cloth and wood.

Lin is one of about 300 refugees in the dump who survive on other people's
trash. Many are children. Some are women with babies.

Their daily routine follows the same pattern: They mill about the dump,
waiting for the next truck to arrive, hoping for enough discarded food to
get them through the day.

Lin pokes through the rubbish with a machete. He says he collects bottles
and plastic for three cents a sack. He shows me his feet, which were
filthy and ribbed with cuts.

He tells me through an interpreter that he can't afford shoes. He walks
barefoot through the treacherous landscape.

My assistant told me about Lin's home while he was researching another
story on the border area in Myanmar, the country once known as Burma. I
found it hard to believe at first, but I was curious. I persuaded my
camera crew to make the six-hour drive from Bangkok.

When we arrive at the dump, people are afraid of us. We'd been told there
are orphans living at the dump, but people are wary. They think we are
there to take away the orphans or ask for bribes.

I tell them I want to help, and I am eventually directed to Lin. He greets
me with a soft, hoarse voice. But he's all energy and purpose when he
resumes plucking bottles from the mountain of trash.

A recycling firm offers the closest thing to steady employment for Lin and
his family. It buys what bottles and plastics Lin and others salvage.

Lin gives the money to his adopted mother, Tabblo. She tells me that Lin's
biological mother gave him to her in Myanmar when he was a baby because
she couldn't cope with the responsibility.

Life under the military junta in Myanmar can be brutal. The country's
economy is collapsing, and torture and rape under the country's military
regime is commonplace. Lin's new mother decided to flee to Thailand in
search of a better life. She found a garbage dump instead.

Still, Tabblo says scavenging for food in the dump is actually an
improvement on her previous life.

As I listen to Lin's story, a question keeps going through my mind: How
can a 7-year-old spend his entire childhood in this squalor?

Perhaps it's because Lin is invisible -- he doesn't have a passport or
papers. He is part of special group of refugees from Myanmar that don't
officially exist.

The United Nations established refugee camps in Thailand for those who
flee Myanmar, but the camps are reserved only for victims of political
persecution. Refugees like Tabblo fear if they enter a refugee camp,
they'll be classified as migrant workers and deported.

As a result, these refugees are trapped in the garbage dump -- not enough
money to go elsewhere and no prospects back home.

I thought I had become accustomed to the grinding poverty I had
encountered in parts of Asia. I've met my fair share of children who are
denied the luxury of hope. But Lin's story angers me. I feel close to
losing all objectivity.

Near the end of my meeting with Lin, I ask his adopted mother if she, and
Lin, would ever escape the rubbish dump.

Her answer is as hard as the world she and Lin inhabit.

Tradegey In Thailand

Link to an awful story about Burma refugee's in search of a better life in Thailand.



Story

8-8-08 Don't Watch

Stand for Freedom, don't watch the Olympics!

88 Students' letter campaign highlights abuses

April 8, Democratic Voice of Burma
88 Students’ letter campaign highlights abuses – Aye Nai

Letters written to the 88 Generation Students’ Open Heart campaign last year reflect the wide-ranging abuses by Burmese authorities and illustrate the need for urgent action, the group said in a report.

The campaign was run by the group last year and encouraged people from all over the country to document abuses of power and human rights violations in order to hold the government to account and expose the situation in Burma to the wider world.

The group originally intended to send all the letters to the ruling State Peace and Development Council, but decided instead to compile a summary report on its findings to protect contributors from retaliation by the authorities.

The report includes 254 sample case studies covering a range of issues including forced labour, land seizures, unlawful detention and religiousand racial discrimination.

88 Generation Student leader Ko Soe Htun said the report was based on 2,649 letters in total, 54 percent of which related to health, education,economic and social issues while around another 20 percent were about politics.

"In the letters, we learn about people's desperate wish for a true dialogue which they believe can bring an answer to the social and political woes our country is suffering and also their true will for the release of political prisoners and national reconciliation," he said.

"Thirteen percent of the letters complained about human right abuses andeight percent were about corruption charges. There were about 95 letters in total complaining about forced labour abuses and 67 other letters onforced seizure of lands."

Soe Htun said the campaign aimed to document abuses by the government in order to educate and inform the authorities and the outside world.

"The main intention of this Open Heart letter campaign is to prevent brutal treatment and human right abuses by the authorities in the futureby documenting these individual cases and finding a way to stop this," SoeHtun said.

"It also aims to educate the authorities, who do not recognise their legal or moral responsibility for the abuses done to people, so that we can setthem on the right path," he said.

"Also this is to raise awareness in the world of the human rights abuses and political, social and economic woes Burma is facing."

Soe Htun also praised the bravery of those who had contributed to the campaign.

"We are also releasing this report to show our respect for the people of Burma who had the courage to speak out about these abuses of power and human rights violations by the authorities and also about their political, social and economic struggles."

copyright. http://www.dvb.no/

New Olympic Logo

This is from the great folks over at the US Campaign for Burma. This is right on the money. China is a cruel evil regime, no more no less.

Cartoon from The Irrawaddy

Karenni rebels clash with government troops

April 3, Democratic Voice of Burma
Karenni rebels clash with government troops

Karenni National Progressive Party troops have clashed with State Peaceand Development Council forces, causing two deaths and one injury on thegovernment side, a KNPP representative said.

On 25 March, the government’s Light Infantry Battalion 336 clashed withthe Karenni commando battalion 3 near the border between Karenni and Shanstates at Tamusoe mountain.

One injury from the SPDC side was reported, according to a KNPPrepresentative.

On the same day, a skirmish between LIB-427 troops and Karenni rebels tookplace in Phrusoe township in Karenni state.

In a third clash on the same day, two SPDC soldiers were reportedly killedin the Phrusoe township area between Par Htaw village and Htaleh village.

The KNPP representative said about ten clashes take place every monthbecause of the government’s increasing offensives in the area and humanrights violations against locals.

UN Speaks Out Against Junta

The UN is drafting a statement voicing concerns with the Junta's new constitution according to the AP.
Link to Article
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=112355

Children: A Reason For Hope