I’m really happy that ridiculous Irrawaddy river dam project collapsed.
The Irrawaddy river flows throughout Burmese history.
She is life and soul of all Burmese, the rich or the poor.
We adore her as if our own mother.
Now, our mother is free of danger.
My eyes are in tears.
I love you mother Irrawaddy, I love you for giving me my life and my soul to learn how to be a good human. I love Burma.
Love live the Irrawaddy!
regards,
This is what we Americans call a “hot potato.” That is, a very controversial subject. I shall be VERY careful in my comments, but I have read that MAYBE you should NOT celebrate victory yet. I have read that a “certain country” (let’s NOT say the name) very much wants the dam. And some people say that when that “certain country” wants something, it will get it. I have read that there are many powerful people in your country who also want the dam for certain reasons (let’s NOT say the reasons).
Hot potato, or is it small potatoes?
I don’t even know what “the Irrawaddy river dam project” is. Hehe.
hot potato = controversial subject. A subject that you do not want to touch. It will burn you. In the United States, hot potatoes include gay marriage, abortion, racial matters, etc.
small potatoes = not very important, not very influential, etc.
big potatoes = very important, very prestigious, etc. In the 1930’s, being a mailman in the United States was big potatoes.
I know them all,
I guess my irony was lost on you then (I meant to say that the aforementioned project must be small potatoes because I know nothing about it, and I try to stay in touch with the latest happenings in the world).
But since you went to all this trouble on my account, thanks.
Dear Friends,
Thank you for your interest. Here some information for you.
( Burma’s president has suspended construction of a controversial Chinese-backed hydroelectric dam.
In a letter read out in parliament on Friday, Thein Sein said the $3.6bn (£2.3bn) Myitsone dam was contrary to the will of the people. ) (BBC )
regards.
We will choose to stay in the dark , rather than drown in the flood.
regards.
Dear Friends,
Here some more for your kind judgment.
( Spectrum of opposition
The Myitsone dam project was being developed jointly by Burma and China at the head of the Irrawaddy river in Burma’s northern Kachin state.
Kachin rebels, who have been fighting government troops in a stop-start insurgency for years, were leading the opposition to the dam.
Continue reading the main story
image of Rachel Harvey Rachel Harvey South East Asia correspondent, BBC News
The broad campaign against the dam presented a very real test for the relatively new civilian-led, military-backed, government. It had also become a lightning rod for growing anti-Chinese sentiment in Burma.
Beijing, exploiting the void created by international sanctions, has moved rapidly to exploit Burma’s rich natural resources. Most of the electricity generated by Myitsone’s envisaged power plant was due to go to China.
Thousands of villagers would have to be resettled and some have already been forced to move.
Myitsone was a huge construction project in an environmentally sensitive, earthquake prone area where armed ethnic minority Kachin fighters are battling the Burmese army, and which had become a unifying cause for the political opposition.
Enough reason, it seems, for the Burmese president to call a halt.
* Why the mega-dam was halted
This year has been one of the most violent in Kachin state in more than a decade.
The dam, which was due for completion in 2019, would be one of the world’s tallest at 152m (500ft) high.
The campaign against the project brought together conservationists, environmentalists, Kachin activists and the political opposition.
Their objections ranged from the lack of public consultation to the potential environmental impact of the project.
The dam would create a reservoir of some 766 sq km (300 sq miles) - about the size of Singapore - and displace thousands of ethnic Kachin villagers, our correspondent says.
“We have to respect the will of the people as our government is elected by the people,” Thein Sein said.
“We have a responsibility to solve the worries of the people so we will stop construction of the Myitsone Dam during our current government.”
The decision to suspend construction was unexpected.
Earlier this month, a report in the local Eleven journal said Electric Power Minister Zaw Min had declared that construction of the dam would proceed despite the objections.
with regards.
Dear Readers,
MAD DAM,
( The history of Burma (Myanmar) covers the period from the time of first-known human settlements 11,000 years ago to the present day. The earliest inhabitants of recorded history were the Pyu who entered the Irrawaddy valley from the north circa 1st century BCE. By the 4th century CE, the Pyu had founded several city states as far south as Prome (Pyay), and adopted Buddhism. Farther south, the Mon, who had entered from Haribhunjaya and Dvaravati kingdoms in the east, had established city states of their own along the Lower Burmese coastline by the early 9th century.
Another group, the Mranma (Burmans or Bamar) of the Nanzhao Kingdom, entered the upper Irrawaddy valley in the early 9th century. They went on to establish the Pagan Empire (1044–1287), the first ever unification of Irrawaddy valley and its periphery. ) Wiki
( The Irrawaddy River or Ayeyarwady River is a river that flows from north to south through Burma (Myanmar). It is the country’s largest river and most important commercial waterway. Originating from the confluence of the N’mai and Mali rivers, it flows relatively straight North-South before emptying through the Irrawaddy Delta into the Andaman Sea. Its drainage area of about 255,081 km² covers a large part of Burma. After Rudyard Kipling’s poem, it is sometimes referred to as ‘The Road to Mandalay’.
As early as the sixth century the river was used for trade and transport. Having developed an extensive network of irrigation canals, the river became important to the British Empire after it had colonized Burma. The river is still as vital today, as a considerable amount of (export) goods and traffic moves by river. Rice is produced in the Irrawaddy Delta, irrigated by water from the river.
In 2007, Burma’s military government signed an agreement for the construction of seven dams, yielding a total 13,360 kW, in the N’mai and Mali Rivers, including the 3,600 kW Myitsone Dam at the confluence of both rivers. Environmental organisations have raised concerns about the ecological impacts on the river’s biodiverse ecosystems. Animals potentially impacted include the threatened Irrawaddy Dolphin. ) Wiki.
#You can see how ,why and how much we love Irrawaddy throughout the history and civlization of Burma. Irrawaddy is hope of all national races, the rich or the poor.
The most ridiculous things about the dam project are they will completely wipe out all flora and fauna in Kachin State and turn it into the concrete jungle.
There will be no water, even to drink, for the people who live along Irrawaddy, all irrigation channels will be dried up and there will be no crops for Burma.
That means there will be no Burma in ten years times. Can It be allowed to happen?
The worst thing is NO NATIONAL RACES OF BURMA IS TO CONSUME THE ELECTRICITY FROM THAT MAD DAM PROJECT. THE DAM PROJECT IS TO PROVIDE ELECTRICITY TO CHINA.
oh dear god, please give your mercy of enlightenment to those greedy numskulls. Help them to repay their sins.
I hope my dear readers can understand how we, Burmese are concerned about this mad dam project. Burma was almost sold out for 3 billions. Oh help me god.
WITH REGARDS,
( Rice Bowl in Southeast Asia
Burma/Myanmar
The Irrawaddy Delta in Myanmar used to be one of the most important source of rice in the region until its production declined due to various reasons, including its unstable political situation. Wiki.)
Dear Readers,
Burma was once called Rice Bowl of Asia, and it will be so again in the near future. As long as the Irrawaddy river flows NATURALLY. Burma contributes its rice to most of countries in the region and the several developing countries throughout the world as well. Burma produces quality rice with relatively cheap price. What I’m saying is if the Irrawaddy doesn’t flow as it used to do , the people of Rice Bowl of Asia will eventually be starved to death. And there will be no regular and emergency rice supply from for Burma to the world which is now under the frequent threat of grave climate change. As Burmese are mostly simple and generous people , we never hesitate to donate or supply our Burmese Rice to those who are in urgent and vital need.
kind regards.
Dear Readers.,
For your kind judgment that how important the Irrawaddy river is for Burma and its cultural , social, natural, economical and ecological aspects and factors. And the South East Asia region as well. It would be a great misery that Burma and Burmese were faded away with the Irrawaddy river if the mad dam project was completed?
with kind regards.
( Prehistory of Burma
The earliest archaeological evidence suggests that cultures existed in Burma as early as 11,000 BCE. Most indications of early settlement have been found in the central dry zone, where scattered sites appear in close proximity to the Irrawaddy River.
The Anyathian, Burma’s Stone Age, existed at a time thought to parallel the lower and middle Paleolithic in Europe.
The Neolithic or New Stone Age, when plants and animals were first domesticated and polished stone tools appeared, is evidenced in Burma by three caves located near Taunggyi at the edge of the Shan plateau that are dated to 10000 to 6000 BC.
About 1500 BCE, people in the region were turning copper into bronze, growing rice, and domesticating chickens and pigs; they were among the first people in the world to do so. By 500 BCE, iron-working settlements emerged in an area south of present-day Mandalay. Bronze-decorated coffins and burial sites filled with earthenware remains have been excavated.
Archaeological evidence at Samon Valley south of Mandalay suggests rice growing settlements that traded with China between 500 BC and 200 CE. Wiki. )
Dear Rearders,
For your kind information,
With kind regards.
Top Ten Rice Producers by Country
Together, China and India accounted for over half of the world’s rice supply in 2006.
China … 182 million tons (28.8% of global rice harvest)
India … 136.5 million tons (21.6%)
Indonesia … 54.4 million tons (8.6%)
Bangladesh … 43.7 million tons (6.9%)
Vietnam … 35.8 million tons (5.7%)
Thailand … 29.3 million tons (4.6%)
BURMA … 25.2 million tons (4%) ( THANKS TO THE IRRAWADDY RIVER )
Philippines … 15.3 million tons (2.4%)
Brazil … 11.5 million tons (1.8%)
Japan … 10.7 million tons (1.7%).
Dear Readers,
I wrote this topic as a Burmese who loves nature.
I’m not a politician nor a member of any political party. I’m no subject to anybody.
I’m a just an ordinary Burmese who loves his country and its nature. ( And you? )
Please observe some more? Thank you very much.
with kind regards.
( WikiLeaks cables: Americans funded groups that stalled Burma dam project
Newly leaked document reveals support for opponents of proposed Myitsone dam, widely seen as a Chinese project. )
The US embassy in Rangoon funded some of the civil society groups in the Burmese region that forced the government to suspend a controversial Chinese dam on the Irrawaddy river, according to a US diplomatic cable.
The January 2010 cable on the $3.6bn (£2.3bn) Myitsone dam project noted that local groups had “voiced strong opposition to the project on economic, environmental and cultural grounds and have organised grassroots campaigns to rally others to their cause”.
The cable, signed by then US charge d’affaires, Larry Dinger, went on to say: “An unusual aspect of this case is the role grassroots organisations have played in opposing the dam, which speaks to the growing strength of civil society groups in Kachin state, including recipients of embassy small grants.”
Dinger said that although Burma had launched a number of hydropower projects to address its acute electricity shortages, the Myitsone dam was widely seen as a Chinese project, with China the principal beneficiary.
“Given past evidence from foreign investments in Burma’s energy sector, it is very likely, as many locals believe, that both construction of the dam and the energy it produces will primarily benefit Chinese companies and consumers, rather than Burmese,” he said.
Presciently, he added: “Dam-related social unrest is a possibility in light of the already-tense political situation in Kachin state and the dislocations the project is expected to cause.” )
P.S ***** Personally, I disgust so called American and EU’s involvements and concerns in our country. And their subjects in Burma and throughout the world alike. Because they were never honest to us. They have never been honest to us. And they are never honest to us. I wish if they could mind their poor domestic affairs first. Rather than shedding croc’s tears. Their involvements will only lead to a civil war. In a civil war, we were all be destroyed and they would benefit our oil,gas, women,forest,gems, water, and everything. Oh dear my queen.
( Burma is not for sale. Not all Burmese are as dumb as you think. )
Dear Readers.
( Burma dam disruption concerns China
By Kathrin Hille in Beijing
The Irrawaddy River
Beijing has called on Burma to protect the rights of Chinese companies after construction was halted on the $3.6bn Myitsone dam, in a rare example of public disagreement between the two neighbours and close allies.
“[China] demands its companies to strictly follow the law of the countries they operate in but also calls on the respective governments to protect Chinese companies’ legal rights and interests,” said Hong Lei, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry.
More
On this story
* Reformists begin to make mark in Burma
* Burma suspends $3.6bn China dam project
* Suu Kyi meets Burmese leader
* Suu Kyi defies regime with ‘political’ trip
* Peter Aspden Aung San Suu Kyi to give BBC lectures
“[The] China-Burma joint investment project … has undergone scientific evaluation and strict examination by both sides,” Mr Hong added. “Issues during its implementation should be handled properly through friendly negotiations.”
On Friday Thein Sein, Burma’s president, ordered a halt to work on the project. The Burmese government had previously insisted that construction would proceed despite protests.
The Myitsone project’s main contractors are China Power Investment Corporation, one of the country’s big power producers, and Asia World Company, a Burmese group.
Sinohydro, a China Power subsidiary and one of the world’s largest dam contractors, and another Chinese state-owned dam construction company, Gezhouba, are the primary subcontractors.
The dam, the largest of seven planned along the Irrawaddy river, is located in Kachin state, an area which was long under the control of guerillas fighting for independence in the region. The planned relocation of thousands of people and controversy over the environmental impact assessment commissioned by China Power have sparked frequent protests.
The disruption could add momentum to a re-examination of Chinese state-owned groups’ push into infrastructure and power projects in often high-risk developing countries.
About $8,000bn in infrastructure investments are expected to be committed between 2011 and 2020, according to the Asian Development Bank and consultancy group McKinsey. China has made prioritised foreign infrastructure participation in its 12th five-year plan, allocating about $15bn for infrastructure projects in Burma and other member countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
As it becomes more difficult to obtain export finance from Japan and South Korea, construction and power companies are asking Chinese firms to join their invesment consortiums in order to qualify for financing from Chinese state banks, which typically apply less scrutiny than other lenders. But Beijing has started taking a closer look at potential political risk following wars in Sudan and Libya – two countries in which Chinese companies had been very active.
“When Chinese undertake a large project domestically, the developers, contractors, manufacturers, suppliers, lenders and off-takers are often state-owned and are pursuing a project that has been identified as part of a wider domestic priority,” said Christopher Stephens, a partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, the law firm.
“They have to deal with unfamiliar labour, environmental, tax, and other laws, local subcontractors and suppliers, and less friendly courts and regulators. It’s quite a different set of risk analyses.”)
Kind regards.
Dear Readers.
In terms of all its history , culture, tradition, human races, natural resources and its natural contributions to the world, some billion dollars are only peanuts? How ridiculous are these neocolonialists. Help me god.
I hate any country which wants to wrong my country. And its citizens. If China goes on this mad dam project, all Chinese will be my enemies, including my own brother in law and my nieces.
kind regards.
If there was a civil war in Burma, all these would be burnt.
Foreign investment in Burma’s oil and natural gas sector is especially significant. Sales of natural gas account for the single largest source of revenue to the military government. Gas exports accounted for fully half of the country’s exports in 2006. Burma’s gas business brought in revenue of US$2.16 billion in 2006 from sales to its main buyer, Thailand. These funds flow directly to the government and provide the junta with a major source of financing that is completely independent of its citizens.
Current investors in Burma’s oil and gas industry include companies from Australia, the British Virgin Islands, China, France, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Russia, and the United States.
Details of the Deals
At present the SPDC receives the bulk of its gas money from the onshore “Yadana” and “Yetagun” gas fields. The Yadana consortium is led by Total of France and includes UNOCAL (now Chevron) of the United States and Thailand’s state-controlled PTT Exploration and Production Co Ltd (PTTEP). The Yetagun consortium, led by Malaysia’s state-owned Petronas, includes Japan’s Nippon Oil as well as PTTEP. PTTEP, a subsidiary of the largely state-owned PTT Public Co Ltd (PTT) of Thailand, buys the gas for export to Thailand.
Major offshore natural gas projects are under development. A consortium of South Korean and Indian firms, in partnership with the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, has made a large gas find off the coast of Arakan State in western Burma. Known as the “Shwe” gas project, it is expected to produce massive revenues once it is in production. Estimates of the gas yield of the Shwe deposits range between US$37 to US$52 billion, and could lead to a total gain in revenues to the junta or future Burmese governments of US$12 to US$17 billion over 20 years.
The Shwe gas consortium is composed of the South Korean company Daewoo International, state-owned companies from India and South Korea, and the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise. Some of the foreign partners also have separate deals with the Burmese government entity for other concessions.
On September 24, for example, India’s state-controlled Oil and Natural Gas Co (ONGC), whose subsidiary ONGC Videsh is a partner in the Shwe consortium, signed a deal with Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise to explore for gas in three more offshore blocks. Under the deal, Oil and Natural Gas Co pledged to invest US$150 million through ONGC Videsh.
India’s Office of the President holds nearly 75 percent of the shares in Oil and Natural Gas Co. India’s minister for oil, Murli Deora, traveled to the Burmese capital last week to sign the agreement as thousands of protesters in Burma took to the streets to call for political freedom, an end to the SPDC’s abuses, and economic improvements.
India, like China and Russia – which are also major investors in Burma’s natural gas sector – has provided political and military support to the SPDC. India and China are in competition to buy the Shwe gas. In August, a top Burmese energy official publicly confirmed that China was strongly favored to buy the gas, but indicated that a sales agreement was not yet final.
Chinese firms are also actively seeking to build oil and gas pipelines in Burma. One proposed pipeline would transport gas from the offshore Shwe project to China. A second pipeline would carry Middle Eastern oil across Burma into China, bypassing the busy shipping lanes of the Straits of Malacca. These proposals to build overland pipelines across Burma have raised serious human rights concerns, in light of past experience. Major controversies arose in the 1990s over construction of pipelines and associated infrastructure to transport Yadana-Yetagun gas. UNOCAL and Total were sued in the US and France, respectively, by Burmese villagers who accused them of complicity in atrocities by the Burmese army during operations to remove villagers from areas slated for development and to facilitate pipeline construction. The companies ultimately settled the lawsuits.
Two Chinese companies that have shown strong interest in the proposed new Burma-China pipeline projects are Sinopec and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). Both are Chinese state-owned oil companies and are involved in gas exploration in Burma as well. They also are official “partners” (major sponsors) of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and are under increased scrutiny for the human-rights impact of their investments in Sudan and Burma.
India and China have been reluctant to criticize the recent crackdown. Russia joined China in blocking UN Security Council action on Burma.
In addition to foreign investors (both state-owned and private), the companies doing business with Burma include banks that arrange financial transactions and companies that import products from Burma. For example, timber exports to China have been substantial. The SPDC also draws significant revenue from sales of gems, notably rubies and jade. These gems are polished in third countries and then find their way to retail stores in Europe and the US, where sanctions permit imports of Burmese-origin goods that are processed in third countries.
regards.
Dear Readers,
Here how Ancient city of Burma was destroyed by Chinese in history. Now they are plotting again with their false friendship? They want Burma and Burmese women again?
kind regards.
( Fall of Pagan 1287
Narathihapate had been just assassinated by his son Thihathu when Kublai decided to send his troops again in late 1286. The prince Esen-temur led his 7,000 men down the Irrawaddy. When he reached Pagan, the king had already fled to the hills nearby.@@@@ The Yuan troops stripped Pagan’s monasteries of their gold and silver@@@@. Esen-temur divided Burma into the Yuan’s political divisions and installed the puppet ruler of the Mongols. However, the Pagan Kingdom fell into anarchy.WIKI.)
Maybe China want to waste some millions of it own Chinese ( who they cannot feed anymore ) in a war with Burma in future. All Burmese will die , all of us. But. we will fight to the very last man, until Irrawaddy only flows blood. Nobody will get Burma without shedding their own blood.
Burma is only for the Burmese.
regards.
@@@@@@ Do Burmese come from China? @@@@@@
( Eighth century Chinese records identify 18 Pyu states throughout the Irrawadddy valley, and describe the Pyu as a humane and peaceful people to whom war was virtually unknown and who wore silk cotton instead of actually silk so that they would not have to kill silk worms. The Chinese records also report that the Pyu knew how to make astronomical calculations, and that many Pyu boys entered the monastic life at seven to the age of 20.[4]
It was a long-lasting civilization that lasted nearly a millennium to early 9th century until a new group of “swift horsemen” from the north, the Mranma, (Burmans) entered the upper Irrawaddy valley. In the early 9th century, the Pyu city states of Upper Burma came under constant attacks by the Nanzhao Kingdom in present-day Yunnan. ) wiki.
Some of the facts of history reflects that Burmese descended from China.
I just can’t understand what those Chinese are doing to us now. While we are supplying everything they need- girls, geckos, eels,crabs, rice,snakes, shark fins, sting rays, jelly fish, peanuts, sesame,oil and gas. They are the things Uncle Sam and the EU are eying with green eyes as well.
So I must chant … Long live China?
regards.