AlterNet
17 May 2008
San Francisco -- A few years ago in Bangkok, a local journalist shared with me this observation about Southeast Asia: "The misfortunes of poor countries are automatic fortunes of their rich neighbors. It's the law of the jungle."
Primary examples that regularly fall into the unfortunate country category would be Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and, of course, Myanmar.
Countries like China, India, Singapore, Thailand, on the other hand, are sitting pretty: "These countries pay the strongmen of poorer countries so they can come in and cut down their forests, access their mines, siphon off natural resources, tap their rivers, and invest," said the journalist. "Not to mention the benefit of having near slave wages."
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