Given the level of corruption and the human right violation that is ongoing in Burma today, no wonder that there are concerns about the backfire of the FDI. Lived experience of the population: In recently published article about the relocation of people who live in the areas designed for the new hydropower or agriculture projects the authors highlight how the local communities’ rights are being neglected. The dialogue with local farmers revealed the ugly truth about the relocation of villages from areas that have been designated as a Special Economic Zones. ‘Land confiscation is a telling metaphor for the development model of the Myanmar government’ (Maria, Bloomer 2014). Indeed, In the name of development, whole villages are being relocated to one room houses with little eviction notice and without an adequate compensation. Furthermore, the areas where the villagers are being moved to appear to have no exploitable land, no work, no access to clean water and no schools within reach (Maria, Bloomer 2014). Many farmers are also in danger of land seizure because they lack proper proof of ownership and documents that they could use to register their land with. Activist U Win Myo Thu of the Burma non-government organization EcoDev said that ‘without considering the land security of these farmers, [Burma can] forget about the people-centred development that the president is highlighting all the time’ (Kyaw 2012, p.2). Disregarding the fact that the environmental issues in Burma are closely linked to issues of human rights as the lives of many communities are still dependant on their own farming and fishing, the new laws are shifting the agricultural sector towards an export led, large scale agro industrial sector in which land use... ... middle of paper ... ...g for social development is still poor. Burma needs to ensure the transparency in the revenues from the energy export and address the military dominance in the economy (burmalibrary 2012, p.32). Civil society, activist groups and NGOs should share their information and continue the urge the government and investors to slow the large scale inward investment until the basic guarantees are in place and the main issues are tackled, to ensure that the ‘development’ in Burma is not happening on the expense of the poor, but is benefiting the whole population. The civilian government brought an opportunity for the creation of trade unions, farmer unions, women organisations and a more vocal approach to the policy change in general. NGOs such as MMN should continue to bring their expertise into the debates with politicians and inform wider population on the subject.
This bold sentence serves as an attention grabber as it challenges a common dogma once stated by John Dalberg, “ Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” By making this brief but, powerful statement, Aung Sang Suu Kyi surprises her audience by blaming them for the corruption of the government making her audience more keen to understand her point of view. Aung Sang Suu Kyi then directs her words towards her Burmese people as she alludes to specific words such as “ Chanda- gati”, “Dosa-gati”, “Bhaya-gati” and “ Chanda-gati” (Kyi, 1) to explain the corruption of her land in the words of her people. This builds ethos as she can connect to her people and clearly explain how “chanda-gati” or the corruption built by fear is the most dangerous form of corruption. She can then further explain how the only way to root out the corruption of the Burmese Army and gain freedom is to first eradicate the people's fear of the government and instill confidence in the basic human rights of the Burmese
...farmers and black farmers. ughs believes the dislocation of white farmers was an inevitable consequence of their environmental and cultural tunnel vision and decades of disconnect from both local and wider black society. Hugh claims that white ZImbabweannes did not have any entitlements through indigenieity. The land reforms “recast[ed] Zibabwean whites as European settlers - minus colonial power! (p. 109).”
The lack of nationalism also proved to be a conflict for the people of Burma or Myanmar. The militaristic government’s philosophy of ruling isolated left people to live in absolute poverty and is a major human rights concern.
Haiti was once an economic power when France held claim to the Eastern Part of Hispaniola, then named St. Domingue. It was a French colony flourishing with coffee and sugar. Eventually the ideals of the French Revolution - Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity - made its way to the colonies resulting in a revolution. Haiti was the first slave-led revolution and declared its independence as a republic on January 1, 1804. After their declaration of independence, things started to make a turn for the worst. In 1934 the U.S. forces occupied Haiti to establish stability. The U.S. appointed heads of state but the real power was present in the U.S. occupiers, whereas the heads of state are just figureheads. Haiti’s economy dwindled further down when France demanded reparations of 150 million francs, which wasn’t paid off until 1947. In 65 years, Haiti had 22 heads of state.” In 1957 Francois Duvalier is elected president. He later “creates a totalitarian dictatorship and in 1964 declares himself president-for-life.” This is where Haiti’s political instability really begins.
Just as food insecurity and social agricultural movements are no longer limited to the Global South, so to have such movements extended beyond the borders of rural landscapes into urban settings across the globe (Dubbeling, & Merzthal, 2006, pp. 20, 21; De Zeeuw, Van VeenHuizen, & Dubbeling, 2011, pp.
Nierenberg, Danielle. "Factory farming in the developing world: In some critical respects, this is not progress at all." World Watch 1 May 2003: n. pag. eLibrary. Web. 3 Dec. 2013. .
Handbook of Development and Relief where it stresses that every human being has the right
First is the language communication problem. Thai is the official language of Thailand, all Thai laws and regulations are written in Thai, and this brings difficulties to foreign investors. And in local culture, people generally emphasis on the status and relationships, so it will increase the foreign investment in intangible costs.
The process, however, brings tension for people who are threatened with dispossession. The compulsory acquisition of land for development purpose may ultimately bring benefits to society but it is disruptive to people whose property is acquired. In countries
Before the industrial revolution, villagers practiced communal farming, in which residents worked together to farm on a large lot of land. Part of the land was divided up into three different crop fields. One for wheat or rye, one for oats or beans, and one for fallow. The fourth section of land was left to give livestock a place to graze, plant wild plants, and store firewood for the winter. The Enclosure Movement helped propel the shift from agriculture to industry. With this movement, agriculture was used for commercial practices and not so much as a way to feed single families. Before the start the Enclosure Movement, villages practiced communal farming in which the land and what was grown and raised on it was shared between the residents. However, this way of farming changed as effects of the Enclosure Movement made their way into the villages. Communal farms were divided up into single-family farms, with each family receiving and equal share of land. The owners of the land were rich families. These owners lease the land to farmers. During the enclosure movement, the land owners wrote new leases to individual families. These leases usually lasted 19 years and every family that lived in the village had the right to get a lease. People who got very small farms could not survive on their own without the right to use the common land, of which there was little to no land because it had been divided up. Therefo...
Though Burma became independent in 1948, a military junta took over in 1962. This military junta was initially a single-party socialist system. General Ne Win was the dictator at this time. He didn’t
Today agriculture is the livelihood of most poor underdeveloped nations. This communal life blood provides a majority of the population with a source of employment, nourishment and income. It is considered to be an invaluable skill, that is taught down from generation to generation along with a sense of respect for the environment. However as a nation begins to undergo development, so do their food production systems. The country's newfound development causes significant restructuring of their agricultural production practices. This restructuring leads to poor environmental practices, and adverse agriculture methods. Increased economic development/production negatively affects a country's environmental and agricultural health.
On the one hand, participatory approach to land use planning can provide openings for the decentralized administration of land management and enhance legal protection of local land rights through contributing to formal recognition of existing land tenure systems. According to Chigbu et al, (2015) four functions of land use planning that directly links to tenure security. (1) Its capacity to identify or determine land areas, parcels and uses and users. (2) Its propensity to enable documentation of land areas, parcels, rights, restrictions and responsibilities. (3) The opportunities it provides for stakeholder involvement, compensation of claims and community participation. (4) Its impact on land value, land markets and credit opportunities. On the other hand, land use planning, promoting sustainable natural resource use and environmental management are generally part of the mandate of local governments. And these prerogatives often tend to be weakly developed, both legally and with respect to capacity building and methodology (Hilhorst 2010). Unclear property rights and tenure insecurity are the major constraints to the potential of successful land use planning. According to UN-Habitat (2008, p. 17), poor land use planning associated with insecurity of tenure and incompletely specified land rights leads to problems of air and water-borne pollution from agricultural and industrial land use. Though there is a
Krishnaraj, Maithreyi. 2006. “Food Security, Agrarian Crisis and Rural Livelihoods.” Economic and Political Weekly 41 (52): 5376-5388.