Another entry in the not quite award-winning series, Observed the Other Day. Today, a modest timelapse around Yangon, Myanmar, including the iconic Shwedagon Pagoda, only partially obscured by scaffolding.
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Burma
As senior ministers in Southeast Asia met for a high-level summit in Cambodia in July, some observers were looking ahead to 2014. That’s when Burma, known as Myanmar, will be taking its place as chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
It will be an important year for Burma itself--but also for ASEAN, which has its credibility at stake should Burma's unprecedented reforms stumble. ASEAN is eager for the international community to completely remove sanctions on Burma. But some nations' reluctance to axe sanctions altogether is a point of frustration for the regional bloc.
“ASEAN wants the sanctions against Burma removed, because it discriminates against one of its members," one observer says.
But economic sanctions may be harder to remove than they were to impose in the first place.
The Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar is one of the most repressive countries in the world. But lately the military government has been angling for international acceptance.
On Tuesday, the Burmese government announced a mass amnesty, though it didn't explicitly mention political prisoners. And many Burmese dissidents question the government's commitment to reform.
A breaking news feature.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, is pushing to develop its energy sector. But new hydropower dams and mining projects are exacerbating tensions between the military and armed ethnic militias, leaving civilians trapped in between. A radio feature.