Myanmar Ready For Global Investments And Human Rights For Christmas

Myanmar Ready For Global Investments And Human Rights For Christmas

In just the last five years, the Myanmar military has grown considerably and even attempted nuclear capabilities. Myanmar is the one of the world's largest natural gas exporters, and has enormous oil reserves. It's pipelines are the lifelines to inland China and Thailand for direct delivery of oil and gas. It is also ranked as one of the poorest Asian countries.

According to Myanmar's Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, 31 foreign investment hotels have been permitted to open in six regions, including Bagan and Mandalay. Twenty hotels with a total of 3,047 rooms are allowed to open in Yangon (Rangoon), four hotels with 660 rooms in Mandalay and one with 127 rooms in Bagan. Two foreign investment hotels with 252 rooms will open in Kawthaung, three with 291 rooms in Tachileik and one with 41 rooms in Myeik.

There are 279 hotels with licenses in the Yangon Region, 329 in Mandalay and 200 in Shan State. And the number of hotels permitted to open in particular regions and states by the end of October 2014 was 1,076. In 2013, 2 million tourist visits earned US$926 million and the ministry estimates 3 million tourists will arrive this year. The Myanmar's Ministry of Hotels and Tourism says its policy is to allow social organizations to participate in the tourism sector and minimize any harm to Myanmar’s population.
http://www.myanmar-business.org/2014/12/31-foreign-hotels-get-permits.html

“Social Organizations” sounds like a club for human rights.

World Bank Foreign Aid Is Funding Luxury Hotels in Myanmar: As was published in Washington, Jun 1, 2014 - “New investments from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private-sector investment arm, may perpetuate economic inequality rather than alleviate poverty in Myanmar, critics here are warning.” The IFC has proposed five new investment projects for Myanmar (also known as Burma). But the U.S. Campaign for Burma, is calling on the multilateral funding mechanism of the World Bank to slow down these projects and analyse their potential social effects.

“The IFC has the responsibility to use its financial influence to promote transparency and reform in Burma’s corrupt business environment,” Rachel Wagley, the group’s policy director, said this week.

“Regrettably, the IFC’s recent investment proposals seem to mark a deviation from the IFC’s earlier objective to bolster the growth of microfinance in Burma and may instead exacerbate socioeconomic inequality in the country.”

In 2012, the U.S. Congress repealed sanctions prohibiting U.S. investment in Myanmar to signal its support for the country’s promised democratic reforms after decades under military dictatorship. It was in that same year, the Washington-based IFC opened its office in Myanmar and began to assess the country’s investment and business climate. Over 30 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, and IFC officials decided that the Myanmar office’s goal would be poverty alleviation, and eventually proposed five investment projects aimed at achieving this goal. Yet of those five, three involve the construction of upscale hotels.
http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/06/foreign-aid-funding-luxury-hotels-in-myanmar/

Burma Military Impunity And Ethnic Cleansing

After independence from Britain in 1948, there later followed in 1962, a military coup and the murder of Bogyoke (General) Aung San Song, the father of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and considered to be the Father of modern Burma. The 1962 military coup initiated a reign of terror and oppression that continues in present day Myanmar. In 1988, after tens of thousands of Burmese rallied for democracy, the military junta formed the SLORC (State Law and Order Restoration Council) to strengthen its domination of Burmese government. The SLORC was composed of several high-level generals, and ordered the killing of roughly 3,000 dissident Burmese demonstrators in 1988, during widespread unrest.

Burma Natural Resource Extraction, Ethnic States vs Myanmar Central Government

Until the late 1990s, large areas of southern and eastern Burma remained relatively free of military rule due to resistance of numerous indigenous ethnic groups such as the Mon, Karen and Karenni. However, with a massive infusion of new capital, largely from selling natural-gas concessions offshore, an "ethnic cleansing" operation was initiated by the junta in an attempt to consolidate its rule in rural areas of Burma.

Much of this capital came from large American energy corporations (notably Unocal and Texaco-Chevron) together with the French energy giant Total, and a Thai company, PTT. The hardwood forests of southern Burma were sold in concessions, with indigenous peoples relocation and subsequent loss of land. According to local observers, this "cleansing" involved "burning of villages, raping and torturing of villagers, forced labor, and forced relocation."
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/IPEIE/Burma.html

Continued protests and unrest forced the junta to call general elections, during which its opponents won 82 per cent of the seats in Parliament. The military then nullified these results, and refused to yield power. The SLORC generals consolidated their rule with forced labor, rape, torture, forced relocation, and intimidation (Teak is Torture, 1997).
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/IPEIE/Burma.html#TT97

“In September 2009, Earth Rights International published two reports with nearly 200 pages of new research, accumulated over seven years, linking Total and its Yadana pipeline partners, Chevron Corporation, the Petroleum Authority of Thailand Exploration and Production (PTTEP), and the state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), to widespread and systematic human rights abuses.
http://www.watchingworldenergy.com/2012/06/11/myanmar-forced-labor-under-ilo-spotlight/

In the ERI report it is shown that accounts of human rights abuses rose significantly in the area of natural gas projects in the Tennaserim region of Burma and the report documents years of testimonies from local victims of abuses in Total’s project area, committed by the Burma Army providing security for the companies and the pipeline.

“Corporate Social Irresponsibility and Misrepresentations Surrounding Total and Chevron’s Yadana Gas Pipeline in Military-Ruled Burma (Myanmar)”
September 10, 2009
http://www.bnionline.net/news/mizzima/7015-burmese-generals-siphon-off-about-usd-5-billion-from-sale-of-gas.html

That news was soon international, and ran in the press throughout Asia. “A consortium involving French oil giant Total and Chevron was linked to killings and forced labor in Burma. Total has continued to mislead policymakers, investors, and the general public about its impacts in the military-ruled country, according to the Washington DC-based nongovernmental organization Earth Rights International (ERI).”
http://www.laohamutuk.org/Oil/////Oilwatch/BurmaImpactOilGas.pdf

That was just 5 years ago.

Chevron's role in propping up the brutal regime in Burma is clear. According to Marco Simons, U.S. legal director at Earth Rights International: "Sanctions haven't worked because gas is the lifeline of the regime. Before Yadana went online, Burma's regime was facing severe shortages of currency. It's really the Yadana gas projects that kept the military regime afloat to buy arms and ammunition and pay its soldiers."

Once again, the U.S. government has had sanctions in place against Burma since 1997. A loophole exists, though, for companies grandfathered in. Unocal's exemption from the Burma sanctions has been passed on to its new owner, Chevron.

In 2012, “The updated evidence continued to show “human rights abuses are still a terrible reality of project security in Burma’s extractive industries, despite Total and Chevron’s claims otherwise. “Total Impact” included photographs and hundreds of interviews with local villagers in the pipeline area that reveal widespread and systematic forced labor, extrajudicial killings and torture, and violations of the rights to property and freedom of movement, all committed by Total and Chevron’s pipeline security battalions.”
http://d2zyt4oqqla0dw.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/publications/total-impact.pdf

The Schwe Oil And Gas Pipeline – same bad story.

From here on, most of this article is very current, almost to date of publication.

It is written as a followup to an article about Chevron's involvement in Burma, published in response to a December 2014 State Department news release. The U.S. Department of State Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs had announced the selection of nine finalists for the Secretary of State’s prestigious 2014 Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE). “Chevron in Burma assisted local communities in 1,500 villages through its sustainable health improvement and empowerment program by providing funding to villagers for improvements in business, transmittable disease prevention (TB/malaria), agricultural practices, and infrastructure.”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/08/1350387/-State-Department-selects-Chevron-as-finalist-for-corporate-excellence-award

Well, I wrote back.

And the world wrote back! "We organized a big letter with 30 NGOs signing on and a petition to oppose the award and fortunately Chevron lost," said Paul Paz y Miño of Amazon Watch.
http://amazonwatch.org/

CREDO Action became so upset with the State's Department's "honoring" of Chevron that they circulated an on line petition to stop the administration from honoring Chevron.

The petition stated: "Chevron's toxic and deadly legacy of human rights and environmental violations should disqualify the company from being honored by the State Department. Don't give Chevron the Secretary’s Award for Corporate Excellence.”

Relative to Chevron's joint ventures financing rogue regimes and military dictatorships around the world but especially in Burma, Nigeria, Cameroon, and it's toxic legacy in Ecuador: the following paragraph is from Dan Bacher's article, December 10, 2014
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/12/10/18765359.php

“Putting the welfare of human civilization at risk just to maximize profits is the opposite of corporate excellence – and it shouldn't be rewarded by the U.S. State Department. These egregious human rights and environmental violations take place in the context of the dramatically increasing power of Chevron, the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), and the oil industry in California and the U.S.”

Burma 2015

The Hope Of Open Free Elections In Myanmar In 2015,
Changes to the Constitution...

First; in honor of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Chairperson of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and Member of Parliament in Myanmar; who spent 15 years under house arrest since 1991 - the following are excerpts from her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech and lecture in Oslo, Norway, June 16, 2012.

“To be forgotten. The French say that to part is to die a little. To be forgotten too is to die a little. It is to lose some of the links that anchor us to the rest of humanity. When I met Burmese migrant workers and refugees during my recent visit to Thailand, many cried out: “Don’t forget us!” They meant: “don’t forget our plight, don’t forget to do what you can to help us, don’t forget we also belong to your world.” When the Nobel Committee awarded the Peace Prize to me they were recognizing that the oppressed and the isolated in Burma were also a part of the world, they were recognizing the oneness of humanity.”

“The Burmese concept of peace can be explained as the happiness arising from the cessation of factors that militate against the harmonious and the wholesome. The word nyein-chan translates literally as the beneficial coolness that comes when a fire is extinguished. Fires of suffering and strife are raging around the world. Everywhere there are negative forces eating away at the foundations of peace. Everywhere can be found thoughtless dissipation of material and human resources that are necessary for the conservation of harmony and happiness in our world.”

“I examined each of the six great sufferings, not in a religious context but in the context of our ordinary, everyday lives. I thought of prisoners and refugees, of migrant workers and victims of human trafficking, of that great mass of the uprooted of the earth who have been torn away from their homes, parted from families and friends, forced to live out their lives among strangers who are not always welcoming.”

“We are fortunate to be living in an age when social welfare and humanitarian assistance are recognized not only as desirable but necessary. I am fortunate to be living in an age when the fate of prisoners of conscience anywhere has become the concern of peoples everywhere, an age when democracy and human rights are widely, accepted as the birthright of all.”

“Of the sweets of adversity, and let me say that these are not numerous, I have found the sweetest, the most precious of all, is the lesson I learned on the value of kindness. Every kindness I received, small or big, convinced me that there could never be enough of it in our world.”

“Ultimately our aim should be to create a world free from the displaced, the homeless and the hopeless, a world of which each and every corner is a true sanctuary where the inhabitants will have the freedom and the capacity to live in peace. Every thought, every word, and every action that adds to the positive and the wholesome is a contribution to peace.”

Aung San Suu Kyi received the Nobel Peace Prize In Oslo, Norway and also received two standing ovations inside Oslo's city hall as she gave her long-delayed acceptance speech to the Norwegian Nobel Committee in front of Norway's King Harald, Queen Sonja and about 600 dignitaries.

"If I advocate cautious optimism, it is not because I do not have faith in the future, but because I do not want to encourage blind faith. Without faith in the future, without the conviction that democratic values and fundamental human rights are not only necessary but possible for our society, our movement could not have been sustained throughout the destroying years."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/16/myanmar-aung-san-suu-kyi-nobel-peace-prize_n_1602284.html

DASSK was referring to the past two decades since Myanmar's military leaders rejected her party's overwhelming triumph in 1990 elections, and after Suu Kyi's own imprisonment.

Six Movies Follow

1) Road to Democracy - Myanmar's Election Struggle - Journeyman Pictures
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YUKCwOYQhI
Published on Nov 4, 2013
Burma/Myanmar's transition from military rule to democracy. “After half a century of brutal military rule, Myanmar is undergoing an impressive transition to democracy. But with ongoing political arrests and ethnic tensions, the country is anxious not to veer off course.”

Aung San Suu Kyi is still constitutionally barred from becoming president, Article 18 and more than 200 laws need to be rewritten. In the video, the President's spokesman openly admits the Myanmar government's shortcomings. Activist Ko Moe Thwa vigilance is paramount: "the country has changed but we need to watch carefully where this change is leading".

In 2012, as continued reports of human rights abuses along pipeline projects, and highlights of land losses shed a dark light on growing foreign investment, DASSK petitioned the global business community at the ILO. The following two films of her speech at the ILO are the same except for duration.

2) Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Speech at International Labor Organization
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWJoVGef-sA
7 minutes Published on Jun 14, 2012
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Chairperson of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and Member of Parliament in Myanmar, addresses the Conference's plenary.

DASSK Speech at International Labor Organization
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHPh4JE-1oo
17 minutes Published on Jun 14, 2012

3) Nobel Peace Prize Speech by Aung San Suu Kyi more than 20 years after having received the nomination. DASSK had been under house arrest when first awarded the honor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRYyEk-5zoI
29 minutes Published on Jun 16, 2012

The acceptance speech by Aung San Suu Kyi can be found in it's entirety here:
Nobel Lecture by Aung San Suu Kyi, Oslo, 16 June, 2012
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1991/kyi-lecture_en.html

4) Columbia University World Leaders Forum: A Discussion Featuring Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
Published on Sep 26, 2012
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9pKX-F08E4

This World Leaders Forum program features a discussion with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, chair of the National League for Democracy, Member of Parliament from Kawmhu Constituency, and recipient of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. Ann Curry, national and international anchor and correspondent for NBC News moderates. DASSK discusses the role of education and health on human development and Burma's political transition. The World Leaders Forum was held on September 22, 2012, and the World Leaders Forum website is here:
http://www.worldleaders.columbia.edu/

The year 2012 brought renewed hope to Burma. Barack Obama visited Burma on November 18, 2012, becoming the first sitting U.S. President to do so. Obama also visited Aung San Suu Kyi in her home.

5) President Obama's Trip to Burma (Myanmar): Aung San Suu Kyi, University of Yangon (2012)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um3gA0t9vaU
35 minutes
Published on Dec 26, 2012

The Obama administration had initially continued longstanding American reticence in dealing with Burma. Susan E. Rice, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, called the junta government's hold over Myanmar, "one of the most intractable challenges for the global community". Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton claimed the Obama administration was "looking at what steps we might take that might influence the current Burmese government.” At the urging of Aung San Suu Kyi and the US's East Asian partners, the US held the first formal meetings with the junta in late 2009.

“Aung San Suu Kyi MP AC (born June 19, 1945) is a Burmese opposition politician and chairperson of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Burma. In the 1990 general election, the NLD won 59% of the national votes and 81% (392 of 485) of the seats in Parliament. She had, however, already been detained under house arrest before the elections. She remained under house arrest in Burma for almost 15 of the 21 years from 20 July 1989 until her most recent release on November 13, 2010, becoming one of the world's most prominent political prisoners.”

“Suu Kyi received the Rafto Prize and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1990 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. In 1992 she was awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding by the government of India and the International Simón Bolívar Prize from the government of Venezuela. In 2007, the Government of Canada made her an honorary citizen of that country; at the time, she was one of only four people ever to receive the honour. In 2011, she was awarded the Wallenberg Medal. On 19 September 2012, Aung San Suu Kyi was also presented with the Congressional Gold Medal, which is, along with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.”

The New York Times reported on November 17, 2014, in an article “Return of the Myanmar Military” that progress on reform, has stalled on almost all major issues: power sharing with the opposition, peace talks with armed ethnic groups, Buddhist-Muslim relations, minority rights, media freedom. Progress has stalled because the military is tightening its grip once again.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/18/opinion/return-of-the-myanmar-military.html?_r=0

The NY Times article went on to state “the Tatmadaw, as the armed forces are called, have grown increasingly assertive in 2014, even as the country prepares for a historic general election next year, the first since the military junta’s formal dissolution in 2011. Not only is the Tatmadaw increasingly exercising the expansive prerogatives it gave itself in the 2008 Constitution; it is trying to extend its powers further.”

6) You are You I am Me – The Burma Story in 4 minutes of animation.
Burma is the 'El Dorado' between China & India in S-E Asia. This musical video is about the 'new' government of Thein Sein and the junta in Burma.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M2D-U-Xpbg

In modern Myanmar, the Peaceful Assembly And Prosecution Laws require permits for assembly. Burma’s Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Processions Law is a highly contested piece of legislation that has recently been denounced by several international human rights groups, who claim that the law is being used to target activists that oppose major development projects. Although President Thein Sein in July 2013, made a public commitment to release all political prisoners by the end of the year. Human rights groups claim that the legislation is actually heinously creating more prisoners of conscience.

Human Rights groups and political prisoners organizations have slammed the government’s policy of using the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Processions Law to arrest, detain and intimidate protestors across the country who have staged demonstrations to call attention to land grab abuses and the exploitation of natural resources. A larger number of activists and farmers have been detained and charged over the past year under the same legal clause with regard to demonstrations around the controversial Latpadaung copper mine.

Ten journalists are now languishing behind bars, and the international community and proponents of the country’s supposed democratic progress should wake up and take notice of the authoritarian reality that still governs the country. “The use of anti-state charges to jail journalists has restored the culture of fear and self-censorship that was pervasive under the previous ruling junta.”
http://www.dvb.no/news/unity-verdict-slammed-at-home-and-abroad-burma-myanmar/42232

In a December 20, 2014 article by Colin Hinshelwood, “Burma Listed In Top 10 For Jailing Journalists” Hinselwood wrote that the “Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has identified 220 journalists imprisoned around the world in 2014, a slight increase from the year before.”
https://www.dvb.no/news/burma-listed-in-top-10-for-jailing-journalists-myanmar/46744

“Major media reforms, such as the disbandment of Burma’s notorious pre-publication censorship board in August 2012, caused a wave of early optimism, but disputes over new regulations and an apparent targeting of reporters began to cast doubt on any commitment to establishing a free media.”

According to the CPJ report, 44 journalists languish behind bars in China, a jump from 32 the previous year. Almost half of those jailed are either Tibetan or Uighur.

The increased imprisonment of journalists in China “reflects the pressure that President Xi Jinping has exerted on media, lawyers, dissidents and academics to toe the government line,” said CPJ. “In addition to jailing journalists, Beijing has issued restrictive new rules about what can be covered and denied visas to international journalists.”

The Burmese government is currently ranked as the eighth most repressive regime for jailing reporters; with ten media workers listed behind bars, it is surpassed only by China, Iran, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Egypt and Syria.
http://www.dvb.no/news/five-gunshot-wounds-found-on-par-gyis-body-burma-myanmar/45695

Myanmar Military Mentality; A Constant State Of Siege

In Burma, The recent killing of the freelance journalist Par Gyi, a former bodyguard of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, is just one example of living under Myanmar's Military Mentality.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/28/us-myanmar-journalist-idUSKBN0IH1MD20141028

Mr. Par Gyi was shot while in army custody in early October. At first the army tried to hide his death, only to claim three weeks after it occurred that he was shot by soldiers while trying to escape. After the authorities exhumed Mr. Par Gyi, images of his mutilated body circulated on Facebook and outraged the general public, confirming suspicions that he had been tortured.

In a report authored by Burma Partnership and Equality Myanmar launched in September 2014 in Rangoon it is revealed that there is continuing ineffectiveness of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC) as well as the lack of independence from the government.
http://www.burmapartnership.org/2014/09/all-the-presidents-men/

The report was launched on the same day that a reshuffle of the members of MNHRC was announced by the government, which came as a complete surprise to civil society organizations due to the lack of consultation.
http://www.burmapartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/All-the-Presidents-Men1.pdf

Released at the Myanmar Journalists Network in Rangoon, Burma: “All the President’s Men” contributed to the annual Asian NGO Network on National Human Rights Institutions (ANNI) Report on the Performance and Establishment of National Human Rights Institutions in Asia (2014). The report analyzes the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission Law 2014 enacted in March this year (enabling law) that institutionalizes the mandate of the MNHRC.

That said, the use of sexual violence, and rape as a weapon of war, particularly in Kachin State and northern Shan State in the last few years, as has been well documented by various human rights groups, has been altogether avoided by the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission.
http://www.burmapartnership.org/?s=same+impunity

Compare the MNHRC flawed investigation into the massacre of 40 Rohingya at Duu Yar Char Tan in Arakan State, of which the UN has evidence, but the MNHRC found no evidence.

Transition, Reality, And Civil Society - October 21, 2014

Over 650 Myanmar/Burma Civil Society Actors Spoke Out on the Reality of the Transition
http://www.burmapartnership.org/2014/10/over-650-myanmarburma-civil-society-actors-speak-out-on-the-reality-of-the-transition/

The forum titled, “Civil Societies’ Review on Myanmar/Burma’s Transition Process: Prospects for 2015 and Beyond”, held October 15-17, 2014 in Rangoon, brought together over 650 representatives from 257 organizations and networks from across the country and border areas to discuss a wide range of key issues currently facing Burma in the context of the recent economic and political reforms since 2011.

“Despite the hailed transition to democracy, exalted particularly by the international community, civil society organizations (CSOs) spoke of the decades old challenges that remain unresolved, the stagnation of the reform process, and new emerging issues, in addition to the need for meaningful inclusion of the voices of civil society, democratic opposition forces, ethnic peoples, women and youth in the reform process.”

The forum addressed six core issues; (1) law reform, (2) peace and conflict, (3) media, hate speech and communal violence, (4) Parliament, Government and accountability, (5) economic reform and foreign direct investment, and (6) the international community’s role and involvement, which were discussed under six panel discussions and six workshops. The forum produced a statement that gave concrete recommendations from civil society groups to the Burma Government, United Nations, international governments and international non-governmental organizations (lNGOs).

Of the key issues raised, recurring discussions surrounded the need for the international community to take a closer look at the peace process in relation to businesses, investments and development projects that are producing negative social and environmental impacts, particularly in ethnic areas where many mega development projects are located.

“The increased economic activities and the lack of proper mechanisms as well as the weak legal framework leave villagers and communities vulnerable to exploitative land expropriation. While many people are illegally and often forcibly evicted from their land without consent, adequate compensation or consultation, those who benefit from the liberalization of the economy are crony businessmen connected with the Burma Government and/or Army.”

The International Community The Peace Process And Businesses Investments

The “Civil Societies’ Review on Myanmar/Burma’s Transition Process: Prospects for 2015 and Beyond” statement calls for “international governments engaging in Burma to adopt a ‘do no harm’ policy in all forms of engagement with the Government of Myanmar including collaboration between states, provision of aid and assistance, and business investments.”

Impunity And Related Human Rights Issues

“Justice for the Killing of Journalist by Burma Army Must be Found”
http://www.burmapartnership.org/2014/10/justice-for-the-killing-of-journalist-by-burma-army-must-be-found/

October 28, 2014 - Aung Kyaw Naing, also known as Ko Par Gyi, was a freelance journalist covering the recent clashes in eastern Burma between the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) and the Burma Army and its’ proxy Border Guard Force (BGF). After visiting Kyaikmayaw, Mon State, the scene of heavy clashes in September 2014, Ko Par Gyi went missing.

Ma Than Dar, who has a daughter with Ko Par Gyi, is determined in the pursuit of justice, “I don’t want any wives or daughters to suffer like we suffer. I will proceed with the charges against the army for torture and death.”

“The international community must also show solidarity with Ma Than Dar and pressure Burma to put an end to the impunity that the Burma Army enjoys. This is not an isolated case. Documented cases of extrajudicial killings, torture, rape and sexual assault perpetrated by the Burma Army are common in conflict areas throughout the country as outlined by the recent AAPP-B submission to the UN General Assembly.”
http://www.burmapartnership.org/2014/10/aapp-b-submission-to-the-un-general-assembly/

Impunity For Military And No Development Benefits For The People Of Burma

“In November 2014, the International Human Rights Clinic (the Clinic) at Harvard Law School published a Legal Memorandum which establishes that certain Burma Army commanders are guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes under international criminal law.” View the full report in the Harvard Human Rights Legal Memorandum: War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in Eastern Myanmar
http://hrp.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/2014.11.05-IHRC-Legal-Memorandum.pdf

Impunity For Military Abuses Has To End: “It is vital that the Burma Army is brought under civilian control and supervision as a matter of urgency, and that criminal commanders are not part of the current government.”
http://www.burmapartnership.org/2014/11/impunity-for-military-abuses-has-to-end/

There have been some notable political and democratic reforms, (widely criticized by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as having stalled since early 2013), but there has been no progress whatsoever as regards gross human rights abuses committed by the Burma Army. “Not only is impunity for military crimes institutionally enshrined by the flawed and undemocratic 2008 Constitution, the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission is prohibited from investigating military abuses.”
http://www.irrawaddy.org/burma/us-optimistic-burma-reform-suu-kyi.html


Profits vs People 2015 and beyond:
The World Bank And Transnationals - Investments Developing Stolen Land

Myanmar, also known as Burma, is currently in the process of formulating an investment law and a land use policy that when combined, will lay the foundations of development for the country. As it stands, these proposed instruments will have an adverse impact on human rights, and in particular land rights. The legal texts being shaped by international financial institutions and foreign governments. The obvious concern is that these instruments will privilege the “rights” of the powerful over the rights of those affected by these investments.

Protecting Profits Over People
By Kevin Woods And Daniel Aguirre Published November 30, 2014
https://www.dvb.no/analysis/protecting-profits-over-people-burma-myanmar/46229

“The draft investment law would replace the Foreign Investment Law (2012) and the Myanmar Citizen Investment Law (2013), and would provide the basis for investment in the country. There was no civil society input into the draft law developed by the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC). The draft law advances both foreign and domestic investors’ interests, protecting them as rights, but without any protective measures for the people of Myanmar.”

The draft investment law would give investors the right to challenge new policies or laws in domestic courts and possibly in international arbitration. Investors’ interests would become legally protected, while the people of Myanmar would continue to rely on an underdeveloped national legal system that does not provide adequate access to justice.

“There are a growing number of international examples where new laws and regulations passed by democratically elected governments to protect economic, social and cultural rights, such as for public health, have been challenged by foreign investors because they would decrease their profits. Myanmar lacks the legal and financial capacity to defend repeated challenges by deep-pocketed investors and may become unwilling or unable to pass stringent regulation to protect the human rights, including land rights, of the people of Myanmar.”

“Another new major development-related proposal is the draft National Land Use Policy (NLUP). The drafting process began as a follow-up to the 2012 land-related laws, the Farmland Law and the Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Lands Management Law, which were roundly criticized for denying land and resource rights to large segments of the population while allowing investors to legally acquire large land holdings from farmers.” The 'NLUP' contains no reference to Human Rights or the terms - Social Justice, Redistribution, Restitution or Accountability; whereas the word “investment” appears a dozen times.

Notification of the draft for review was limited to just two weeks, with last-minute changes that have made it difficult for civil society to prepare for engagement. “With the consultations under way, it remains unclear to what extent civil society can actually influence the content of the policy, particularly its core investment-friendly principles.”

“This is important because land rights disputes are one of the fundamental issues Myanmar faces. Nearly half of all submissions to the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission in 2014 deal with land disputes. None of these have been resolved adequately. People whose rights are violated lack access to effective legal remedy. Instead of promoting social justice, these draft laws and policies focus on providing remedies for investors.”

2014 A Year Of Protests In Burma

Residents in Irrawaddy Division’s Henzada marched through the delta town in February, demanding citizen rights, constitutional reforms and the abolishment of Article 18 of the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law.
http://www.dvb.no/dvb-video/henzada-says-no-to-article-18-burma-myanmar/37163

Any change to the Myanmar Constitution requires approval from more than 75 percent of parliament. The military, which hold 25 percent of seats in parliament, have the power to veto any bill that’s presented. “Since the military controls 25 percent of the seats in the parliament they can hinder any effort to amend the charter,” said protest organizer, Sein Thaung. “Therefore we cannot do anything without their approval.”

HEADLINES: Activists Charged For Staging Unauthorized Protests
December 22, 2014
http://www.dvb.no/news/activists-charged-for-staging-unauthorised-protest-burma-myanmar/46788

Shan State Citizens Rally For Peace And Ethnic Rights
December 25, 2014
http://www.dvb.no/news/shan-state-citizens-rally-peace-ethnic-rights/46916
Hundreds of people in the Pa-O and Danu self-administrated zones in Shan State held demonstrations on Wednesday, calling for peace in Burma. Around 400 Danu people marched through the town of Pindaya in western Shan State, carrying placards with demands for peace and for the recognition of all ethnic groups, said Chit Sein, chairman of the Danu Literature and Culture Association.

“Demands include calls for the government to take charge of the peace process; the country’s development; ethnic affairs in Shan State; to include ethnic representatives in amending the Constitution; and objections to the proposed sexpartite dialogue.” The march was also joined by the Pa-O Women’s Organisation and several other civil society groups.

On the same day, around 2,000 Pa-O people from Hsihseng and Hopong towns of the Pa-O Self-Administrated Zone marched in the Shan State capital Taunggyi with a similar list of demands.

“We have five demands:
1) the government must accomplish implementation of the internal peace process;
2) undertake swift development and reforms;
3) include the demands and rights of ethnic nationalities in the law;
4) to facilitate ethnic nationalities to extensively take part in the effort to amend the Constitution;
5) and to immediately implement these points,” said Khun Maung Baw, deputy-public relations coordinator of the Pa-O National Organization, which organized the event.

Reform, Transition, Impunity, Civil War And Democracy In Burma

“First, unless Article 59(f) is amended, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will not be able to lead her NLD party and run for President in the 2015 elections. Although many have long feared the worst, thus far hope has persisted, especially in light of the NLD’s highly successful campaign in favor of constitutional amendment, which attracted five million signatories.”
http://www.burmapartnership.org/2014/11/constitutional-stalemate-sinks-hopes-of-genuine-democracy-and-national-reconciliation/

“Second, without a significant overhaul of the 2008 Constitution to ensure that the rights, autonomy and self-determination of ethnic minority nationalities are respected and enshrined in law, the peace process does not stand a chance. Fighting rages on in Kachin State and in northern Shan and Karen State, with no sign of abating. Recently, 23 Kachin and other ethnic nationality soldiers were killed and as many as 15 wounded when Burma Army troops fired on a military training base in Laiza, the strategic headquarters of the Kachin Independence Army.”

“Finally, without amendment of Article 436; which requires a vote of 75% of both houses of Parliament in order to authorize constitutional amendment, and upon which all other possible constitutional amendments hinge the military will retain its effective veto on constitutional amendment given its prescribed 25% seat allocation. This means that the essence of politics in Burma has not changed since the so-called reforms began in 2011: the military is still able to run the country, albeit dolled up in the trappings and cosmetics of democracy. It also means that military impunity for human rights abuses, war crimes, and crimes against humanity will continue to be constitutionally enshrined.”

Charades And Parades - Published in the Burma Partnership - November 18, 2014

“US President Barack Obama’s much anticipated second trip to Burma last week during the 25th ASEAN Summit, was amid growing awareness that the reforms which he so eagerly celebrated during his 2012 trip are quickly unraveling, and being exposed for the stage-managed charade that they are.”

“In 2012, it was all too easy to trust the reform process. National elections had been scheduled for 2015, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had been freed from house arrest and elected to Parliament, political prisoners had been released, a nationwide ceasefire process was underway with the majority of armed ethnic groups, and restrictions on media and civil society had been drastically loosened.”

But the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) on November 6, 2014, wrote an open letter drawing President Obama’s attention to human rights violations resulting from the ongoing government military presence throughout south-eastern Burma:
http://www.burmapartnership.org/2014/11/open-letter-from-karen-human-rights-group-to-president-obama/

“Reports from our researchers have demonstrated that, despite the ceasefire signed between the Myanmar Government and the Karen National Union in January 2012, the Tatmadaw maintains a substantial and growing presence in KHRG’s operations areas. This presence leads to violations of the human rights of rural villagers, and weakens the prospects for a durable and sustainable peace. The recent killing of the journalist Par Gyi by Government forces is only the latest example.”

“Tatmadaw and government Border Guard Forces continue to abuse villagers with impunity in Southeast Myanmar. Soldiers have assaulted, killed and sexually assaulted civilians in recent months. Other forms of abuse rely on the power dynamics that remain after years of assaults on civilians to conscript civilians into labor or impose arbitrary taxes or demands on them. KHRG has also received multiple credible reports of involvement in the drug trade by BGF soldiers, including reports of drug-related murders perpetrated by these government affiliated troops.”

KHRG researchers have interviewed numerous villagers from throughout Southeast Myanmar who doubt the peace process because of the ongoing movement of military material, building of military camps and other assertions of presence by government military actors. We urge you to demand that the Myanmar Government:
1) Refrain from building new camps or reinforcing existing camps in civilian areas
2) Remove its troops from civilian areas, beginning immediately
3) Investigate and, where appropriate, prosecute soldiers accused of human rights abuses against civilians”

The letter is signed;
Sincerely, Saw Way Lay
Advocacy Coordinator
Karen Human Rights Group

The Joint Strategy Team of civil society organizations (CSOs) also issued a statement highlighting the grave humanitarian situation in Kachin and northern Shan States.

Shan CSOs requested that President Obama ask the Burma Government “Why it is launching a large-scale offensive in central Shan State during the peace process?”

And 28 Kachin CSOs sent an open letter to President Obama urging him to take positive action regarding the conflict and resulting humanitarian crisis in Kachin State.
http://www.burmapartnership.org/2014/11/letter-to-president-obama-2/

Another open letter in the name of Young People from Burma paints the current situation as most dire. “Current reform in Burma is fake. Changes that have happened are cosmetic to please the international community to attract investments to get the old regime out of economic isolation.”
http://www.burmapartnership.org/2014/11/open-letter-to-mr-barack-obama-president-of-united-states-of-america/

At a joint press conference with President Thein Sein, President Obama declared: “in part because of President Thein Sein’s leadership, the democratization process in Burma is real.” But Bo Kyi, Joint Secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, responded: “What President Obama said is wrong. Burma today is not even in transition yet.”
http://www.irrawaddy.org/commentary/obamas-second-burma-visit-falls-flat.html

“It was a totalitarian state, and today, it is a constitutional totalitarian state.”

Prominent activists and ethnic leaders criticized President Obama for neglecting the complexities of national reconciliation and peace in Burma.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/burma/activists-ethnic-leaders-cry-neglect-obama-visit.html

State Of The State(s) Burma/Myanmar

In any month, since President Obama's 2012 visit to Myanmar, the news remains the same, no matter the State or ethnic regional concern. New reports continue to underscore the facade of transition and reform in military ruled Burma.

Shan and Kachin Ethnic Cleansing by Rev. Dr. Sai Htwe Maung
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL22yJEexJM
Published on Jun 22, 2014
Shan and Kachin Ethnic Cleansing by Rev. Dr. Sai Htwe Maung

Afraid to Go Home: Recent Violent Conflict and Human Rights Abuses in Karen State
http://www.burmapartnership.org/2014/11/afraid-to-go-home-recent-violent-conflict-and-human-rights-abuses-in-karen-state/

This report was prepared by Karen Rivers Watch (KRW), a coalition of six Karen organizations focused on the environment, women, youth, human rights and development issues as a response to Obama's nearsighted diplomacy on his November 2014 visit to Burma.

“Human rights and democracy, rather than international investment or geopolitical considerations, must be the priorities for President Obama’s engagement with Burma, and it is high time that he began listening to the voices of the Burma people, including those of civil society and his (President Obama) friend, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.”

“President Obama is currently dealing only in platitudes, misplaced optimism and delusion, hearing what he wants to hear. He is only serving to endorse the current military regime, and has passed up the opportunity to use the US’s significant political and economic leverage to apply real pressure for real change.
http://www.burmapartnership.org/2014/11/are-you-listening-president-obama/

Platitudes, Latitudes, And Military Land Grabs

“Since the beginning of the reform process in 2011, land grabbing, the practice that the previous military regime engaged in regularly, has hit new heights” as a foreign investors seek opportunities in previously untapped markets in the Burma Government liberalized economy.

The Dawei Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Project, a joint Thailand–Burma Government initiative is seeking private investment to create one of the largest industrial zones in Asia; 20-36 villages will be negatively affected. Concerns iterated by the local communities show that they have “lost farmlands and natural resources that are vital to their livelihoods, without prior information.” Furthermore “there was no meaningful consultation, and a deeply flawed compensation process.”

In Central Burma And Delta Areas, Land Grabbing Is Common Place

Land grabbing is often done with protection from the military, or by the military itself, for factories, infrastructure projects, mono-crop plantations, or military bases, and as with the Dawei SEZ case, usually without adequate or indeed, any compensation.

It is a nationwide problem, as documented by the Human Rights Foundation of Monland and Karen Human Rights Group. 70% of the population of Burma is engaged in agriculture, and it is agricultural lands that are most often confiscated.

“The Vacant, Fallow, and Virgin Land Law allows lands that have been deemed vacant, fallow or virgin to be allocated by a government body to the government, investors or individuals. A major flaw in the law is the lack of recognition of traditional or customary use of land, such as rotational agriculture, as productive use.”

In an analysis of the draft policy, the think-tank, Transnational Institute, highlights how it is investors, not farmers, that stand to benefit if this policy is rolled out, stating that it will “create a legal environment that is greatly beneficial for a small group of large national and international companies, but which has the potential to be hugely disadvantageous for millions of small-scale farmers.”
http://www.burmapartnership.org/2014/10/pro-business-or-pro-poor/

“Burma Partnership envisions a free and democratic Burma that upholds the principles of human rights, equality and justice. We believe in collaboration and a participatory approach to advocacy as a key element in bringing about democratic change in Burma. Burma Partnership is a network of organizations throughout the Asia-Pacific region, advocating for and mobilizing a movement for democracy and human rights in Burma.”

Billions Of Dollars Out Of reach

Myanmar has seen huge benefits since the opening of its energy sector to foreign investors in recent years. Data from the Myanmar Investment Commission put oil and gas foreign investments at USD$14.372 billion last year, accounting for 33.46 per cent and ranking second in the country's foreign investment after electric power.

Myanmar has recently awarded offshore petroleum exploration blocks tenders to international energy companies, including major players like ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, and Total SA. Foreign companies have also won tenders for oil and gas exploration for onshore blocks, with companies hailing from Britain, Brunei, Canada, India, Italy, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Pakistan, Russia and Thailand.
http://www.myanmar.com/jobs/entry/oil-gas-myanmar-2014-caters-to-flourishing-energy-sector-in-myanmar-1.html

Burma, Thailand and Cambodia are also talking about offering more than 70 blocks between them, but “compounding these issues is the fact that all three are seen as something of an investment risk, either because of political or legal uncertainties.” Thailand, after a protracted period of social and political unrest which led to a military coup in May 2014, announced in October it is offering 29 blocks. Soon after Bangkok’s energy ministry announcement, the government of Cambodia said it too intended to open up the country for oil and gas exploration with an initial 24 blocks.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/business/neighborhood-rivalry-puts-burmas-oil-gas-sector-risk.html

Myanmar has It has 7.8 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves, worth about $75 billion, accounting for 1.9% of known deposits in Asia. It also boasts of four main rivers that could potentially provide 100 gigawatts in hydropower, only 10% of which is being tapped. Myanmar holds the 34th position in the global energy reserves ranking and is one of the five major energy exporters in Southeast Asia, but most households in the country still rely on timber as a primary source of energy, which also disturbs bio-diversity.

The country faces a number of challenges, such as the need for an independent judiciary and property rights, corruption, lack of human capital and lack of required electricity supply. Dependable supply of electricity is listed by domestic and foreign businesses as the greatest stumbling block - Electricity is currently only available to 26% of the country's population.

Be sure to watch the Documentary Film:
“Guns, Briefcases and Inequality: The Neglected War in Kachin State”

While President Thein Sein is being applauded internationally for his efforts to build peace in Burma/Myanmar, this new documentary film by Burma Partnership questions whether the government’s current process will really lead to sustainable peace and national reconciliation.

“Guns, Briefcases and Inequality: The Neglected War in Kachin State” highlights how development projects and natural resource management are exacerbating armed conflict and human rights violations in ethnic areas, without adequate means to justice for the people. The film demonstrates the need for the government of Burma to engage in meaningful political dialogue with all ethnic nationalities on equal terms to address the underlying causes of armed conflict: self-determination, the lack of ethnic rights, and inequality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlcrGmFvE8U

Published on Sep 20, 2013, “Guns, Briefcases and Inequality: The Neglected War in Kachin State” is a Burma Partnership Production, written and directed by Daniel Quinlan.

In the November 2014 NY Times piece “Return of the Myanmar Military” author Min Zin writes that Senior General Than Shwe, was Myanmar’s military leader from 1992 to 2011, and evidence points to his continued involvement behind the scenes. “Lately, the military leadership has called for expanding the role of the National Defense and Security Council, a military dominated 11-member body that holds wide-ranging powers, including the right to take over from the civilian government in a state of emergency. During the parliamentary debates last week, military representatives argued that the N.D.S.C. should be able to dissolve Parliament if one-third of the seats become vacant.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/18/opinion/return-of-the-myanmar-military.html?_r=0

In my own opinion, the soul of the Burma Independence Army, lives within the hearts of the Kachin Independence Army, and those fighting in Karen State and Shan State. It is not a civil war, the centralized Myanmar ruling party and it's military, with oil and gas profits, and future foreign investment are no different than any occupying army.

Back In The USA

Have you ever wondered where the gargantuan Big Oil quarterly profits come from? It's not from a hike in gas prices at the pump! How subjective is that?

It's from toxic plumes and contaminates left behind in a forgotten dump, somewhere on the global landscape. It's profit stained with the blood of unknown names of family members and whole villages, those in forced labor, children, and nameless faces in human trafficking. It's profit realized from prescribed violence, alcohol and drugs and random violence, toxic trespass and public health and environmental crises, human rights abuses, and the decay of functioning ecosystems and food forests.

Each year, in the US, transnationals spend hundreds of millions of dollars to buy city governments, politicians, news outlets, false front groups, para-military operations, courts, litigants, judges, and legislation. The price is somewhat higher for entire nation-states. And there are other regional bidders.

California, December 2014:
Astroturf Campaign By MLPA Initiative Chair And Oil Industry Lobbyist Exposed

“In addition to spending massive millions on lobbying and political campaigns and serving on state and federal regulatory panels, Big Oil's lobbying organization, the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), has funded and set up a network of "Astroturf" groups to oppose California's environmental laws.”

The network was revealed in a leaked powerpoint presentation from a November 11, 2014 presentation to the Washington Research Council, given by WSPA CEO Catherine Reheis-Boyd, who oversaw the creation of Marine Protected Areas (MPA) on the South Coast.

The research site Stop Fooling California said, "The Powerpoint deck details plans to throttle AB 32 (also known as the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006) and depicts efforts to thwart low carbon fuel standards (known as LCFS) in California, Oregon, and Washington State. Northwest Public Radio appears to have been the first to confirm the authenticity of the deck, which Bloomberg Businessweek did as well, with WSPA spokesman Tupper Hull." (http://www.stopfoolingca.org/2014/12/leaked-the-oil-lobbys-conspiracy-to-kill-off-californias-climate-law/)

"Specifically, the Powerpoint deck. from a presentation by WSPA CEO and President Catherine Reheis-Boyd lays out the construction of what environmentalists contend is an elaborate 'astroturf campaign.' Groups with names such as Oregon Climate Change Campaign, Washington Consumers for Sound Fuel Policy, and AB 32 Implementation Group are made to look and sound like grassroots citizen-activists while promoting oil industry priorities and actually working against the implementation of AB 32."

“People need to understand that the millions Chevron and other oil companies have spent on lobbying, campaign contributions and setting up Astroturf groups promoting the oil industry agenda are small change to Big Oil. The five big oil companies - BP, Chevron, Conoco-Phillips, Exxon Mobil and Shell - made a combined total of $93 billion in profits last year. Big Oil's estimated profits in 2014 to date are over $87 billion.”
http://www.stopfoolingca.org/

The Global Economy vs Localization

The 1970s were years in which power in the world oil industry began to shift away from the Western led majors, which then controlled more than 90 percent of the oil trade, toward the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), as well as a proliferation of new private and state companies joining in the search for reserves. By 1985, the majors, reduced in number from seven to five, were producing less than 20 percent of the world total.

A whole new group of oil and gas companies have become today's Titans. The "New Seven Sisters" selected recently by the Financial Times (FT) highlights how largely state-owned companies from the emerging world have become key global players in oil and gas. The FT ranked the New Seven Sisters on the basis of resource base, level of output, company's ambition, scale of their domestic market, and influence in the industry.

The New Seven Sisters control about one-third of the world's oil and gas production and reserves. In contrast, remaining descendants of the Western Seven Sisters, ExxonMobil and Chevron of the U.S. and Europe's BP and Royal Dutch Shell, produce only about 10% of the world's oil and gas and hold just 3% of its reserves. And if anything, the New Seven Sisters are set to grow even more powerful. The International Energy Agency (IEA) calculates that over the next 40 years, 90% of new supplies will come from developing countries.

Big Oil and the GLOP, The Global Monetary Political Newsreel

“US’s gold standard ended in the early 70s, when former US president Richard Nixon basically took the US off the gold standard (as) the Vietnam War forced us to do that because of the deaths we incurred. We were unable even to pay the people back, like the French and they said ‘we are not taking the dollars anymore,’ so we’re forced off the gold standard.”

Since 1972 “we’ve been on this petrodollar standard,” but a huge natural gas deal in May of 2014, between Russia and China “broke the back of the petrodollar,” the analyst noted.

“The (US, bankers) are trying to punish the Russians, and the BRICS, and Iran, and all the oil producing countries that they are outside the PGCC (Persian Gulf Cooperation Council), outside of their puppet monarchies who run the GCC,” Who are the GCC?
http://www.gcc-sg.org/eng/indexc64c.html?action=GCC

On December 2, 2014 Dean Henderson, American author of Big Oil And Their Bankers produced a 5 minute audio segment:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/12/02/388403/us-targets-iran-russia-with-opec-oil/

Try this 'international news filter' on for viewing purposes:
“The American Dollar And Its Role As The Global Reserve Currency”

Myanmar, Iran, North Korea

The Demise of the Petrodollar Published in January 2012
Tehran Pushes to Ditch the US Dollar
http://www.caseyresearch.com/cdd/demise-petrodollar

“The official line from the United States and the European Union is that Tehran must be punished for continuing its efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. The punishment: sanctions on Iran's oil exports, which are meant to isolate Iran and depress the value of its currency to such a point that the country crumbles. But sanctions will not achieve their goals. Iran is far from isolated and its friends, like India, and China, will stand by the oil-producing nation until the US either backs down or acknowledges the real matter at hand. That matter is the American dollar and its role as the global reserve currency.”

“40 years of history: Big Oil & Their Bankers: The Four Horsemen”
http://patrickmacmanus.wordpress.com/2011/05/19/big-oil-their-bankers-the-four-horsemen/

And now global transnationals and corrupt military regimes and state-owned companies are operating on US and Canadian soil, from Alberta, down through the Midwest, and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Are you feeling a little like the third world is going on all around you?

No brag, just fact.

By invoking the 'Copyright Disclaimer' Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."

§ 107. Limitations on exclusive rights- Fair use: Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

If you or anyone wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

STEAM INJECTION IS LITERALLY GLOBAL WARMING
constant comments, and informative research links;
http://banslickwaterfracking.blogspot.com/

Tomas DiFiore