The Golden Triangle
The Golden Triangle

Author: Ko-lin Chin

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2011-02-23

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 080145719X

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The Golden Triangle region that joins Burma, Thailand, and Laos is one of the global centers of opiate and methamphetamine production. Opportunistic Chinese businessmen and leaders of various armed groups are largely responsible for the manufacture of these drugs. The region is defined by the apparently conflicting parallel strands of criminality and efforts at state building, a tension embodied by a group of individuals who are simultaneously local political leaders, drug entrepreneurs, and members of heavily armed militias.Ko-lin Chin, a Chinese American criminologist who was born and raised in Burma, conducted five hundred face-to-face interviews with poppy growers, drug dealers, drug users, armed group leaders, law-enforcement authorities, and other key informants in Burma, Thailand, and China. The Golden Triangle provides a lively portrait of a region in constant transition, a place where political development is intimately linked to the vagaries of the global market in illicit drugs.Chin explains the nature of opium growing, heroin and methamphetamine production, drug sales, and drug use. He also shows how government officials who live in these areas view themselves not as drug kingpins, but as people who are carrying the responsibility for local economic development on their shoulders.

Cashing in Across the Golden Triangle
Cashing in Across the Golden Triangle

Author: Thein Swe

Publisher:

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9786169005346

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Historically, the Golden Triangle on the Mekong River has been a strategic yet largely impoverished crossroads between China, Laos, Thailand and Burma. This book considers the new transnational "economic corridors" connecting northern Thailand and south-western China via key border towns in Myanmar and Laos. Improved highways and ports have transformed towns and districts, bringing an influx of Chinese investment, tourism, and population movements.

The Hunt for Khun Sa
The Hunt for Khun Sa

Author: Ron Felber

Publisher: Trine Day

Published: 2011-05-01

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 1936296160

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For two decades, the Burmese warlord Khun Sa controlled nearly 70 percent of the world’s heroin supply, yet there has been little written about the legend the U.S. State Department branded the “most evil man in the world”—until now. Through exhaustive investigative journalism, this examination of one of the world’s major drug lords from the 1970s to the 1990s goes behind the scenes into the lives of the DEA specialists assigned the seemingly impossible task of capturing or killing him. Known as Group 41, these men would fight for years in order to stop a man who, in fact, had the CIA to thank for his rise to power. Featuring interviews with DEA, CIA, Mafia, and Asian gang members, this meticulously researched and well-documented investigation reaches far beyond the expected and delves into the thrilling and shocking world of the CIA-backed heroin trade.

The Ethno-Narcotic Politics of the Shan People
The Ethno-Narcotic Politics of the Shan People

Author: Thitiwut Boonyawongwiwat

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2017-11-15

Total Pages: 187

ISBN-13: 1498520170

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This book proposes the alternative explanation on the pattern of ethnic conflict, especially the on-going civil war in Myanmar. Previously, most scholars accepted that narcotics play the crucial role in conflict as the resource of revenues. However, this book dramatically changes what we have ever thought before. It investigated in both field and documentary research by examining the role of narcotics in the ideological formation process and ethnic identification process. Consequently, the so-called ethno-narcotic politics was found in the way that the role of narcotics was able to be used as the source of political mobilization in various ways. Furthermore, the borderland is the appropriated area where the process of anti-ethno-narcotics identification could be emerged and later used as the main identity for the ethnic groups who remain fighting against state’s power.

Merchants of Madness
Merchants of Madness

Author: Bertil Lintner

Publisher: Silkworm Books

Published: 2009-01-05

Total Pages: 142

ISBN-13: 1628402520

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For decades, Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle—where the borders of Thailand, Laos, and Burma intersect—has been infamous for its opium and heroin production. But then, in the 1990s, the drug gangs in the Golden Triangle began to produce methamphetamine, a synthetic drug that does not depend on any unreliable crop such as the opium poppy. In Thailand the drug has become known as yaba, “madness drug” or “madness medicine.” Unlike heroin, which is a “downer,” yaba—or speed—is an “upper” that makes those who take it hyperactive and often aggressive. It has led to murders, stabbings, and the kidnapping of innocent people. It breaks down the users mentally as well as physically. It is a real “madness drug.” But who are the merchants of this madness? This book provides the answer. It is based on extensive research, spanning several decades and including a collection of first-hand accounts of the drug trade from law enforcement officers and intelligence officials alike, as well as sources close to the drug traffickers themselves. This book will lead to a better understanding of the Golden Triangle drug trade, how it all began, and how it has grown to become a multi-billion dollar criminal enterprise.

The Thai Village Economy in the Past
The Thai Village Economy in the Past

Author: Chatthip Nartsupha

Publisher:

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 131

ISBN-13: 9789747551099

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The Thai Village Economy in the Past is one of the classics of modern Thai history. Few books have provoked so much interest or controversy. Though the theme of the book is deceptively simple--that the Thai rural economy was a subsistence economy and remained so much longer than is commonly thought--the message of the book has proved far from simple. Chatthip has written the history of the village from the viewpoint of the village, making it one of the key texts of the "community culture" movement and rural revival. Much of the book's appeal stems from its straightforward style and startling ideas. The village existed before capitalism and before the state. It has its own culture which owes little to urban influence. It took the Buddhism that came from outside and subordinated it to local beliefs. Constantly in print since its first publication in 1984, it is now available in English for the first time. Chatthip Nartsupha is professor of economic history at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok.

Hello, Shadowlands
Hello, Shadowlands

Author: Patrick Winn

Publisher: Icon Books

Published: 2018-06-07

Total Pages: 537

ISBN-13: 1785783483

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'Reads like a thriller you can't put down' - Megha Rajagopalan, China Bureau Chief, Buzzfeed News 'ensures you'll never think about Southeast Asia in the same way ever again.' - Geographical Magazine Essential to understanding Southeast Asia in the 21st century, Hello, Shadowlands reveals a booming underworld of organised crime across a region in flux— a $100 billion trade that deals in narcotics, animals and people —and the staggering human toll that is being steadily ignored by the West. From Myanmar's anarchic hills to the swamplands of Vietnam, jihadis are being pitted against brothel workers, pet thieves against vigilantes and meth barons against Christian vice squads. Hello, Shadowlands takes a deep plunge into crime rings both large and small. It also examines how China's rise and America's decline is creating new opportunities for transnational syndicates to thrive. Focusing on human stories on both sides of this crime wave, the acclaimed Bangkok-based broadcaster and journalist Patrick Winn intimately profiles the men and women of the region who are forced to make agonizing choices in the absence of law.

Sustainable Economic Development
Sustainable Economic Development

Author: Arsenio Balisacan

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2014-09-20

Total Pages: 532

ISBN-13: 0128004169

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Sustainable Economic Development: Resources, Environment, and Institutions presents 25 articles that lay the foundations of sustainable development in a way that facilitates effective policy design. The editors mix broad thematic papers with focused micro-papers, balancing theories with policy designs.The book begins with two sections on sustainable development principles and practice and on specific settings where sustainable development is practiced. Two more sections illuminate institutions, governance, and political economy. Additional sections cover sustainable development and agriculture, and risk and economic security, including disaster management. This rich source of information should appeal to any institution involved in development work, and to development practitioners grappling with an array of difficult on-the-ground developmental challenges. - Analyzes policies that move markets and resource use patterns towards achieving sustainability - Articles are kaleidoscopic in scope and creativity - Authors embody extraordinary diversity and qualifications