International Relations Issues

Nice Lahu Girl

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Actually when I was younger I had the hugest crush on a Karen girl! I even learnt to speak a little Karen (red), but we talked in Thai (central) though. She’s married with kids now - still a friend. And last year a mutual friend of ours asked me to photograph his sister’s wedding. She is lahu-lisu. Arriving at the ceremony, I was shocked; she was marrying an Australian dude! ! ! ! ! How bizarre is that? I should have asked.

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| So who is this girl you’re marrying then? | Actually she’s a nice Lahu girl originally from Burma, who i met here through some friends? | oh. Well how can you be sure of her background? | yeah, I’m sure she’s clean… | … she was laundered through Thailand | ! |

Following Wealth

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And Oi! Hey you! Remember that Burma is ‘apparently’ having more democratic elections next year (2010). Only Aung San Suu Kyi, the wanted leader of NLD, has had her house arrest extended because some American dude swam the river to go see her. Strange thing to do, but the junta would have extended her sentence anyway.

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We Can Do It

| But isn’t Burma and Myanmar the same country? | yes, the military junta changed the name to Myanmar in 1989 to represent the junta’s ethnicity | So they’re trying to crowd out the other nationalities | Seems so | Where are the other nationalities going then? | Well, a lot of them go to Thailand | what are they going into Thailand for? | i don’t know, perhaps they’re following their wealth |

Sourcing Silver

Perhaps I shouldn’t use Tiffany as an example. I have used Tiffany to represent jewellers as a whole. I have no researched evidence to where Tiffany gets their minerals. And Tiffany does profess to believe in social and environmental responsibility on their page ‘Sources and Mining Practices’. And in fact, my sister and I also sell beautiful silver jewellery sourced from South East Asia. I also can’t always know where gemstones and silver is coming from. We’re only little.

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| So I’m getting it from Tiffany’s because they publicize that they refuse to source silver, rubies and anything else from Burma | Yeah, it’s totally worth paying an extra 6,000% to be guaranteed that it hasn’t been sourced from a country with a military junta | Totally! | So where do they get their minerals from then? | Thailand probably | i didn’t know Thailand had a large source of high quality minerals suitable for Tiffany’s? | They don’t… | … they get it from Myanmar |

Define International Relations (IR): the study of foreign affairs and global issues. It includes all players in the globalization arena such states, IGOs, NGOs, MNCs (also TNCs).  It is both academic and public policy and considered a branch of political science.
Why Burma? I guess it’s one of the places even the UN won’t bother IR dude.
Define Sociology: the study of human societies. A branch of social science, which primarily uses systematic methodology based research to build and refine the body of knowledge about the human social structures on micro and macro levels.
How do you reduce personal carbon emissions? Fart less!