(LinkAsia: June 15, 2012)
Kara Tsuboi:
To encourage new business ventures in the country, Myanmar is building up its infrastructure and paving the way for foreign investments, literally. It's planning a deep-sea port that would be Southeast Asia's largest industrial complex, and an eight-lane super-highway that would stretch from the west coast all the way to Vietnam. But there are some roadbumps. NHK tells us ethnic violence and budget constraints are threatening to derail those plans.

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NHK World NEWSLINE
Airdate: June 11, 2012

Reporter:
Dawei is a port town on the Indian Ocean in southeastern Myanmar. Development is underway to transform the city into the country's first special economic zone. Dawei is set to become the western starting point for a major road running across the Indochina Peninsula. Expectations are high for the distribution route that will directly connect the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean. The Myanmar government plans to improve roads and port facilities and build a power station and iron mills in the area. Its ultimate goal is to make Dawei the largest industrial area in Southeast Asia.

U Tin Maung Swe, Chairman, Dawei Special Economic Zone:
This land is valuable because it is in between the Pacific and Indian Ocean.

Reporter:
But development is not proceeding as smoothly as the government wishes. Two years ago, the previous military regime granted development rights to a general contractor in neighboring Thailand. But the current government is having trouble securing the budget, which is set to exceed 50 billion dollars. Another issue is ethnic tensions involving minority groups. Last year, an armed group of the Karen people exchanged fire with government troops in an area of Dawei and the development. Karen groups have been fighting with government forces for decades. The current national union reached a cease-fire agreement with the government this January. But their distrust of the government is so deeply rooted that they say they would not approve the development of Dawei unless it helps improve their livelihoods.

Saw Thu Yeh, KNU District Leader:
We will support the development only if benefits will be distributed to all ethnic minority groups. But if the development is likely to ruin our lives and deprive us of freedom, we cannot support it.

Reporter:
Myanmar is drawing a lot of attention as Asia's last frontier. The key to its economic development lies in whether it can overcome challenges, such as ethnic tensions, and transform itself into a true democracy.

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Kara Tsuboi:
There's more bad news for the Dawei project. A Burmese exile newspaper reports that a Burmese investor with close ties to the government is apparently taking his money out of the project.

Two contrasting reports from Afghanistan on attempts to create local police and military forces capable of controlling the troubled country when the US and NATO leaves.

 

Afghan Special Ops Units May Be Key to US Exit

(Associated Press: 0851 PT, May 10, 2011) US personnel have been training and fighting alongside Afghan special operations forces. The development of such commandos may be key if Americans are to reduce their presence in the country.

 

 

Politics Dominate Afghan Police Force

(Al Jazeera English: 0238 PT, May 10, 2011) The Afghan Local Police (ALP) has been expanding fast across the country over the past year. Community-based units, they are seen as a pet project of NATO commander General David Petraeus, who has described the ALP as having a significant impact. But the police force has also faced allegations of theft, abduction and intimidation. Al Jazeera's James Bays reports from Maidan Wardak province.

 

 

(Democracy Now! 0900 PST, February 5, 2011) In a special broadcast, Democracy Now! airs a two-hour program on the revolt against the U.S.-backed Mubarak regime.

 

 

Highlights include:

 

• Live Reports from Cairo with Democracy Now! senior producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Democracy Now! correspondent Anjali Kamat.
• Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif on how life in Tahrir Square "is truly democracy in action."
• Columbia professor Rashid Khalidi on the impact of the Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings on the Middle East.
• Mohamed Abdel Dayem of the Committee to Protect Journalists on the continued attacks on journalists by supporters of the Mubarak regime.
• Khaled Fahmy, professor at the American University in Cairo, on reports that Hosni Mubarak has resigned as head of the ruling NDP party.
• University of California-Santa Barbara professor Paul Amar on the military’s role in a post-Mubarak Egypt.
• Stanford Professor Joel Beinin on the Egyptian labor movement and the historical roots of the January 25 uprising.
• Egyptian-American activist Mostafa Omar on the role of Egyptian youth in the protests.
• And we play the "video that started the revolution," Asmaa Mahfouz's January 18 message calling for protests in Tahrir Square on January 25.

 

Click here for important background information on the unrest in Egypt.

 

Right on the heels of the release of his latest documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story, Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore stirs up controversy again on Link TV, taking on Obama, the media, and America's very financial underpinnings. Link's special features Michael Moore's standing-room only talk at the Commonwealth Club of California, as he gives insight into his new film while getting in his trademark jabs at the rich.

What makes his latest movie a love story, a "romantic documentary", as Moore calls it? "It is a love story. It's about the wealthy, who love their money. Except the movie has a twist - they not only love their money, but they love our money too. And they want all of it."

The critics have weighed in with fairly positive reviews of Capitalism: A Love Story, though Manohla Dargis in the New York Times takes Moore to task for his lack of "any real answers... which tends to be true of most socially minded directors in the commercial mainstream." And while some of Moore's cinematic decisions left Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi, blogging on the website True/Slant, a bit perplexed, he was nevertheless impressed that the film addressed "a taboo subject for every other major media outlet in the country": a society undergoing a "rapid peasant-ization."

Need Moore? Check out this interview with Blanche Shaheen (who has appeared recently as a host on Link TV), where the filmmaker reveals his premonition that the economic "house of cards was about to come down" even before the global economy officially tanked. And he pulls no punches for the capitalists, who he depicts as continually concocting new schemes to part working folk from their cash: "In capitalism, for the wealthy, there's no such thing as the word "enough". "Enough" is the dirtiest word in capitalism."

 

What do you think? Does Moore speak the truth, and does he have the answers? What do you think the repercussions will be after Moore's exposé of Wall Street and the capitalist system? Be sure to watch Link's special and let us know!

It's been a busy week for The Yes Men - an arrest on Tuesday hot on the heels of their enviro New York Post hoax on Monday. Ten months after their fake satirical New York Times issue, the faux-Post concerns itself with the current environmental crisis, and the tabloid-style headline is perhaps more accurate than usual for the notorious Post - "WE'RE SCREWED." The issue details, in fluent Murdoch-speak, the tragic and scary events scientists say are about to unfold thanks to our failure to move on climate change and other unchecked environmental damage, and was released to coincide with the U.N. meeting on climate change. Check out the complete issue, available online here. The group says nearly a million copies were distributed.

 

You can also watch this video of The Yes Men discussing the hoax:

 

 

Just the next day, Yes Men co-founder Andy Bichlbaum was arrested in New York while demonstrating their SurvivaBall which, according to their promotional materials, is "a self-contained living system—truly, a gated community for one. If you have a SurvivaBall, even if everyone else is dying, at least you can weather all storms."

 

Unfamiliar with The Yes Men? Here's the group's mission: "Impersonating big-time criminals in order to publicly humiliate them. Targets are leaders and big corporations who put profits ahead of everything else." The Yes Men have released two films of their hijinks, and the first The Yes Men will be airing on Link TV, along with clips from the latest film The Yes Men Fix the World which will be released in theaters on October 7. We'll also be interviewing the recently arrested Andy Bichlbaum. Click here for airdates.

 

Also, check out these videos of other classic Yes Men moments:

 

Dow Spokesman Hoax

 

 

 

Trailer for The Yes Men Fix the World