Word: thailand
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...protest movement by arresting dozens of pro-democracy activists. But clapping handcuffs on Buddhist monks is a far more difficult proposition in this deeply devout nation. "The monks are the only ones who really have the trust of the people," says Khin Omar, an exiled dissident now living in Thailand. "When they speak up, people listen...
Though the plot is the same 10 years later, a different actor is playing the lead. In 1997, Asian countries sent ripples through the global financial system, beginning with Thailand's devaluation of the baht after a collapse of the nation's real estate bubble. In 2007, it is the U.S. and its subprime mortgage borrowers causing the greatest disturbance in credit markets in a decade. At the root of the turmoil is aggressive lending to American home buyers who previously were unable to obtain credit. Financial engineers pooled these loans together and sold off pieces representing different presumed levels...
...prevent further unrest and capture any stray dissidents. Trucks full of hired thugs patrol major street corners in Rangoon. The U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, says he has received reports that some of the arrested activists are being tortured. Buses to Thailand, where many dissidents fled back in '88, are being searched for activists...
...China for its continued support of the regime. (Beijing's economic patronage has blunted the effect of international sanctions imposed on the junta, punitive measures that many Burmese support.) "We know the world is on our side now," says Aung Zaw, a former student activist who lives in northern Thailand and edits a Burma-focused publication called the Irrawaddy. "That moral support is very important for the people back in Burma, who are risking their lives to fight the regime...
...hardships are made more painful by a widening wealth gap. The country's military leaders are leading ever more ostentatious lives, their wallets fattened by gas-pipeline deals with neighbors China, Thailand and India. The ruling class cruises around in luxury cars and cloisters itself in compounds ablaze with lights, even as most Burmese face constant electricity rationing. A samizdat video circulating in Rangoon shows junta chief Than Shwe's daughter, decked out in jewels, getting married in a lavish ceremony - this in a country where the average annual per capita income is just $225. Even more galling, the junta...