Myanmar’s troubled history: Coups, military rule, and ethnic conflict

~ Phạm Thu Hương ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

cfr – The 2021 coup returned Myanmar to military rule and shattered hopes for democratic progress in a Southeast Asian country beset by decades of conflict and repressive regimes.

A protester holds an image of Senior General Min Aung Hlaing during an anti-coup march in February 2021.
A protester holds an image of Senior General Min Aung Hlaing during an anti-coup march in February 2021. Getty Images

WRITTEN BY Lindsay Maizland

Last updated January 31, 2022 11:00 am

Summary

  • Myanmar, also known as Burma, has suffered decades of repressive military rule, widespread poverty, and civil war with ethnic minority groups.
  • The transition away from full military rule starting in 2011 spurred hopes of democratic reforms. But the military maintained control over much of the government and began a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya.
  • The military launched a coup in February 2021 and then cracked down on protests. The opposition formed a shadow government and fighting force, leading to a civil war and humanitarian crisis that could spill over Myanmar’s borders.

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Countries currently at war 2022

~ Phạm Thu Hương ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Click here to hover over a tile for details.

worldpopulationreview.com

The Oxford English Dictionary defines “war” as: (1) A state of armed conflict between different countries or different groups within a country; (2) a state of competition or hostility between different people or groups, or (3) a sustained campaign against an undesirable situation or activity. There are many possible reasons for war to begin between—or more often, within—nations. Among these are economic gain, territorial gain, religion, nationalism, civil war, and political revolution. Often, countries’ leaders become primary motivators of conflict by instigating a territorial dispute, trying to control another country’s natural resources, or exercising authoritarian power over people.

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Bao giờ mới đến võ đài chuyên nghiệp?

~ Phạm Thu Hương ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

HUY ĐĂNG 9/3/2022 11:00 GMT+7

TTCT – Những trận đánh triệu USD, dưới ánh đèn rực rỡ và khán đài cuồng nhiệt đầy ắp người… Giấc mơ về võ đài nhà nghề tưởng chừng không còn xa khi Nguyễn Thị Thu Nhi giành đai vô địch thế giới WBO hồi tháng 10 năm ngoái – cột mốc lịch sử của làng boxing chuyên nghiệp Việt Nam.

 Võ sĩ Thu Nhi (Ảnh: NVCC)

 Nhưng rồi chỉ vài tháng sau, “thiên thần đen” đứng trước nguy cơ giã từ võ đài nhà nghề, để trở về đấu võ… nghiệp dư.

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Bangladesh’s Identity Crisis: To be or Not to be secular

~ Phạm Thu Hương ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Fifty years after it gained its independence, Bangladesh’s commitment to secularism remains shaky.

thediplomat – By Shafi Md Mostofa – December 06, 2021

Bangladesh’s Identity Crisis: To Be or Not to Be Secular
Hundreds of Hindus protesting against attacks on temples and the killing of two Hindu devotees shout slogans in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, October 18, 2021.Credit: AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu

In a couple of weeks, Bangladesh will celebrate the golden jubilee of its victory in the liberation war against Pakistan. Fifty years have passed since it became independent, and secular nationalist forces gained the upper hand over religious ones in the war. However, Bangladesh has not been able to secure its secularism.

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A new culture of dissent is remaking Cuba’s politics

~ Phạm Thu Hương ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

worldpoliticsreview.com – William M. LeoGrande Tuesday, March 8, 2022

Anti-government protesters march in Havana, Cuba, July 11, 2021 (AP photo by Eliana Aponte).

In mid-February, a court in Holguin, Cuba, about 500 miles east of Havana, handed down sentences of up to 20 years in prison to 20 people convicted of sedition the previous month. Their crime, and that of the hundreds of others like them still awaiting verdicts elsewhere, was to have participated in widespread protests last summer, some peaceful but some violent, that took the Cuban government—and the world—by surprise.

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EU leaders seek escape route from Russian fossil fuels, weigh energy investment plan

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

EURACTIV.com with Reuters

 10 Mar 2022

Europe’s energy independence from Russia, including in its financial aspects, will be a key topic of discussion at a two-day summit in Versailles hosted by the French EU presidency. [France Diplomatie – MEAE]

Comments Print     

European Union leaders will tackle ways to wean themselves off Russian fossil fuels on Thursday (10 March) and debate how quickly to ditch their key supplier, with countries split over whether to sanction oil and gas imports as Moscow wages war in Ukraine.

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Ukraine sees risk of radiation leak at Chernobyl, IAEA sees ‘no critical impact’ on safety

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

EURACTIV.com with Reuters 

10 Mar 2022

A still image taken from a handout video made available by the Russian Defence Ministry press service shows a general view of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat, Ukraine, 7 March 2022. Russian President Putin on 24 February 2022 announced a “special military operation against Ukraine”. Martial law has been introduced in Ukraine, and explosions are heard in many cities including Kyiv. [Handout photo/EPA/EFE]

Comments Print     

Ukraine said on Wednesday (9 March) there was a danger of a radiation leak at the Chernobyl nuclear power station after electricity was cut off to the plant, but the UN nuclear watchdog saw “no critical impact on security”.

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The War in Ukraine Is Transforming the EU

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Dave Keating Thursday, March 10, 2022 worldpoliticsreview

The European Union’s 27 leaders are in Versailles today for a summit that could prove to be historic. They are expected to sign the “Versailles Declaration,” intended to formalize the far-reaching but ad hoc policy changes the EU has implemented in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is now entering its third week. The measures under discussion would strengthen the union’s existing military, economic and border control capabilities, while also giving the bloc new powers in those areas that will push it further down the path toward federalism.

The symbolism of the decision to sign the declaration at the Palace of Versailles—where the Versailles Treaty, another pivotal document that proved central to the remaking of Europe after World War I, was signed in 1919—is not lost on anyone. In 1919, Europe’s leaders got it very wrong. Will they get it right this time? It’s very hard to say, since nobody knows what the world that emerges after the war in Ukraine will look like.

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Nghị định số 12/2012/NĐ-CP của Chính phủ: Về đăng ký và quản lý hoạt động của các tổ chức phi chính phủ nước ngoài tại Việt Nam

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

CHÍNH PHỦ
________Số: 12/2012/NĐ-CP		CỘNG HOÀ XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAMĐộc lập – Tự do – Hạnh phúc______________________________Hà Nội, ngày 01 tháng 3 năm 2012

NGHỊ ĐỊNH

Về đăng ký và quản lý hoạt động của

các tổ chức phi chính phủ nước ngoài tại Việt Nam

__________

CHÍNH PHỦ

Căn cứ Luật Tổ chức Chính phủ ngày 25 tháng 12 năm 2001;

Căn cứ Luật ban hành văn bản quy phạm pháp luật ngày 03 tháng 6 năm 2008;

Căn cứ Nghị định số 15/2008/NĐ-CP ngày 04 tháng 02 năm 2008 quy định chức năng, nhiệm vụ, quyền hạn và cơ cấu tổ chức của Bộ Ngoại giao;

Xét đề nghị của Bộ trưởng Bộ Ngoại giao,

NGHỊ ĐỊNH:

Chương I

QUY ĐỊNH CHUNG

Điều 1. Phạm vi điều chỉnh và đối tượng áp dụng

1. Nghị định này quy định về đăng ký và quản lý hoạt động hỗ trợ phát triển, viện trợ nhân đạo, không vì mục đích lợi nhuận hoặc các mục đích khác, của các tổ chức phi chính phủ nước ngoài tại Việt Nam.

2. Nghị định này áp dụng đối với các tổ chức phi chính phủ, tổ chức phi lợi nhuận, các quỹ xã hội, quỹ tư nhân, hoặc các hình thức tổ chức xã hội, phi lợi nhuận khác, được thành lập theo luật pháp nước ngoài, có hoạt động hỗ trợ phát triển, viện trợ nhân đạo, không vì mục đích lợi nhuận hoặc các mục đích khác tại Việt Nam.

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No Man’s Land

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

10/03/2022: Transparency International newsletter

This week, we took to the streets to mark International Women’s Day. This year, we are thinking of Ukrainian and Russian women in particular.

 
© Transparency International, illustrations courtesy of Andrea Fonseca

International Women’s Day is also a stark reminder that there’s still a very long road ahead to fulfilling the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 5: “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”, a cornerstone for making progress on the rest of the SDGs, including the goal to end poverty in all its forms, everywhere. Taking action to advance gender equality is therefore crucial.

Women are most affected by inequality, not least because they represent the largest proportion of people living in poverty. And corruption worsens these existing inequalities. Tiếp tục đọc “No Man’s Land” →

The Kafala system and Vietnam’s domestic workers: Corruption and a Silenced Press

~ Phạm Thu Hương ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

newmandala – ANGIE NGOC TRAN – 15 FEB, 2022

While worker grievances about abuses and exploitation since 2015 have fallen on deaf ears with the renewal of a bilateral Vietnam-Saudi Arabia labour pact (2019-2024), a recent announcement from the official state media seems to appease recent bad publicity about labor export. It reveals an entrenched network of financial interests between recruitment companies and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Security Agency has prosecuted some officials at the Consular Department level for accepting bribes to permit recruitment companies to organise commercial flights to bring overseas workers, who pay upwards of USD $3000 for the one-way flight and quarantine costs, to return to Vietnam. It’s not a coincidence that the corruption exposé happened after waves of social media and the UN special rapporteurs’ letter about human trafficking. Still, numerous worker complaints about Department of Overseas Labour (DOLAB) officials operating in the Vietnamese Embassy in Riyadh continue to fall on deaf ears.

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A Peace That Couldn’t Last – Negotiating the Paris Accords on Vietnam

~ Phạm Thu Hương ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

ADST – Signed on January 27, 1973, the Paris Peace Accords were intended to finally end the Vietnam War, which had cost the lives of thousands of American soldiers, not to mention the millions of Vietnamese civilians who were killed, injured, or displaced. Initially, the Accords were negotiated in secret by National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, the lead North Vietnamese negotiator. These secret negotiations took place over the course of five years in Paris, from 1968 to 1973, but it was only in the early 70’s that any real progress was made.

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These are the most international universities in the world in 2022

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

weforum.org

Knowledge diplomacy among interconnected international universities can solve many of the world's challenges

Better by degrees … a 2022 survey ranks the world’s most international universitie

  • Times Higher Education’s (THE) survey of over 10,000 academics features internationally oriented universities leading global academic collaboration efforts through knowledge diplomacy.
  • Knowledge diplomacy values scientific exchange and diverse, international student bodies and research teams
  • Universities in politically insular countries are increasingly working with research partners from around the world.

While the diplomatic world faces many challenges on the political front, knowledge diplomacy, led by many top international universities, “may be our last and best tool for rebuilding a broken world”.

This was the stirring message of Safwan Masri, Executive Vice-President for global development at Columbia University at a keynote speech at Times Higher Education’s MENA Universities Summit in 2021.

Masri lamented that much of the world is grappling with misunderstanding, division, polarization and cynicism. He adds that “We are living in profoundly undiplomatic times. The inability to understand and comprehend one another is turning neighbor against neighbor. Everything seems broken.”

Have you read?

For Masri and other delegates at the THE summit, global research universities are a shining light in difficult times, with Masri stating that: “Universities exist to increase our comprehension of the world and to enhance mutual understanding”.

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