Word: burma
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...worst news items of 2007 were: #1 Continuation of world poverty. #2 No cure for AIDS or cancer. #3 Human-rights violations and beating of monks in Burma. #4 Inflation around the world. #5 Political instability in India and Pakistan. #6 I could not become a movie star. I had planned a career move, since the pay is better in cinema than in professional management. But I failed. Raju Aneja, DUBAI
Over the years, that's meant Rabinowitz has occasionally had to negotiate with less than savory characters - no more so than in his most recent and crowning accomplishment, the establishment of a 8,452 sq. mi. (13,602 sq. km) tiger reserve in the northern jungles of Burma. The military junta that has ruled the nation since 1962 is among the most oppressive governments in the world, one regularly accused of human rights violations, and Washington maintains harsh economic sanctions against the regime. But for more than a decade Rabinowitz has traveled back and forth from Burma - which the junta...
...about the Hukawng Valley reserve, and the changing nature of wildlife conservation, on the new video Greencast.) First there was the forbidding Hukawng Valley itself, a remote chunk of mountainous jungle on the border with India, dubbed the "Valley of Death" by British refugees fleeing the Japanese advance into Burma during World War II. When Rabinowitz hiked deep into the Hukawng in 1999 - braving carnivorous leeches, among other trials - he was the first scientist to visit the area since the early 20th century. Tigers were once numerous in the valley, but poaching and human population growth had reduced their numbers...
...stand in the way of some economic development in the valley, realizing that sustained poverty would only exacerbate the threat to the tigers. It's a delicate balance always in risk of being overturned, but while the reserve remains in harmony, the benefits to an uneasy land like Burma are enormous. "Animals and conservation can do more to bring together disparate cultures, ideologies, and social classes than any political oratory, pounding of fists or aggressive actions by individuals or between nations," Rabinowitz writes. Today the reserve is virtually complete, and he hopes that over time tiger numbers will strengthen...
None of this would have happened, Rabinowitz says, without the determined support of the generals he spent years courting. Because of his willingness to work with the junta, Rabinowitz has emerged as a prime target for the free Burma community, which believes that any engagement with the generals only legitimizes a cruel military regime. While the charge especially stings in the wake of last fall's brutal military crackdown of Burmese protesters, Rabinowitz is unapologetic about his work with the junta, knowing their cooperation was the only way to ensure the reserve would be protected. And he's right...