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Showing posts from December, 2007

The Current Situation in Burma as Food for Thought

The article I read in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Desperate Burmese Labor in Thailand ” made me think a little more about consumer responsibility and the role of civil society in assisting citizens of countries under political turmoil. It is about Burmese workers who cross the Burma-Thailand border to get a job at a factory that will pay them enough to feed their families back home. The conflict situation in Burma primarily because of the junta, and the challenging economic state the Burmese find themselves has caused hordes of people in need, mainly women, to immigrate to neighboring Thailand for work under unwanted circumstances. There are cases where child labor has been documented in factories that work for big multinational corporations. To top of the already strained financial situation of the country, the US has announced new, harder sanctions against the Burmese state. If such sanctions are ordered the Burmese are the first who will be affected by the measures (and not th