The way things are, and can be
Time and time again I have been drawn to ask the question of why some societies fail while others prosper. Many explanations have surfaced over the years. Some of the worst address supposed inherent differences in intelligence between ethnic groups. Apart from this being evil it is totally lacking in any logic or evidence. Throughout my time with so called “primitive peoples”, such as the Lahu and Karen of Mainland Southeast Asia, who only recently adopted intensive agriculture and a permanently settled life style, I have seen no evidence for this claim of a genetic difference in mental abilities. If anything, they are, on average, more intelligent when it comes to innovation and problem solving than people from more “civilized” societies.
In reality the best long term explanations for the marginalization and domination of some populations by others lay in the history of which group got agriculture and writing before the other and this in turn was determined by the geographical location of these groups. Did they live in areas with many species that are readily domesticate and good land for growing or did they live close to people who did? The Thai and Burmese people whose original home lands are the Yuanan region of China and the Tibetan plateau respectively, did. Some researchers claim that this area may contain the earliest sights of plant domestication. They lived in low lands and river valleys that were ideal for the kind of high intensity agriculture that is needed to support large populations, which in turn can support complex political power structures that can fund things like scribes that develop writing to keep records of who owes what to those in power as well as to promote the propaganda of those in power. Even more significantly, complex, centralized power structures can fund thing like armies that go out and build empires.
This is exactly what the Thai and Burmese peoples did as they expanded into what are now Thailand, Burma, and Laos. Before them, the destroyed the Khmer and Mon empires that once dominated the area. These states had become weak through environmental overexploitation and mismanagement. Also, the Thai and Burmese encountered smaller, and less advanced societies of semi nomadic or settled, hunters and agriculturalists who had adopted rice growing from their more advanced neighbors. These are now the Karen and Lahu groups among others. These groups lived and still live in mountainous terrain that is not conducive to the sort of large scale agriculture that can support a large population and so, for the most part, did not organize into anything beyond villages.
This made them easy prey to exploitation and domination by the low land populations with larger power bases. As a result these vibrant hill tribe cultures have been marginalized or subjected at the whim of their imperial over lords.
In many ways this exploitation still goes on today. However, its current form has been complicated by the events of WWII and the end of western influence in Southeast Asia.
This is especially the case for Burma. George Orwell, author of “Burmese Days” and “Animal Farm”, who served as a policeman in British Burma before becoming a renowned author, predicted that Burma was the most likely nation to prosper after independence from Great Britain. It has in fact become the most repressive, brutal, mismanaged, and one may say evil states in the region and even all the world.
During WWII, the discontented hill tribes sided with the alleys against the Burmese military and the Japanese. Their loyalty was not rewarded by the British, who turned control of independent Burma over to the military that had fought against them in the war. This military then lost no time in retaliating against the hill tribes for their bad choice of alleys during WWII. In the fallowing decades until today, this military regime has brutally tried to eradicate resistance from the hill minorities. This seems as if it would be an easy task for a military dictatorship that only exists to make itself stronger. However, because of mismanagement rivaling what chimpanzees would do if allowed to pilot a 747, all the advantages of higher food production and any other advantage that was previously possessed by the low land population has been more or less completely blown.
With access to modern weapons and control of enough well managed crop land and, probably most importantly, a population that is united and wishes for political freedom and, more immediately, to not have to worry about being picked up by a government convoy and used as a human mine sweeper, these tribal peoples that were once marginalized stand to become new power players in the region. This is especially the case for the Lahu, Karen, and Shan peoples.
There is however still much work to be done. These same tribal groups expand into Thailand and often use villages there as bases for training and education. The vision of many is to be a part of the new Burmese government that is coming after the current Junta is eliminated. There are many needs to be met in these communities.
Chief among these are the needs for better education about resource management, especially how to get access to clean water and how to manage sustainable, high yielding agriculture. Also, training in business management is in high demand. Language training in English is also most desired. Perhaps most of all there is a desire for a new start. For a new kind of freedom. For a new way of doing things. Redemption perhaps. Or a resurrection if you will.
Most certainly an empowerment by a new and more pervasive form of power than crop yields or modern weapons. While these do indeed contribute to the rise of civilizations, they do not always prevent their downfall. A major contributing factor to the downfall of civilizations has historically been and is to this day, the neglect of the poor and needy in those civilizations. Such was the case in France at the time of the French Revolution or Russia at the time of the Communist uprising where the poor, being discontented and united, rose up and overthrew the old power structures. Little good came of these revolutions in the long term though and such a road to predation can be avoided for the hill peoples of Thailand and Burma, especially because they have expressed a desire to avoid it.
A great man once said, “The first shall be last and the last shall be first”. This is poised to happen for the Lahu, Karen and Shan people of Thailand and Burma. When it comes to pass, why should it not remain so? Why should there not be a rule of grace and love where there has been brutality and cruelty for so long? The Buddhism of this area speaks of such an enlightened and wise rule by a Dharma Raja or a leader who is full of grace and mercy. Seldom has this been the case though. A new power that would make such a rule possible is what is needed most of all. It is the root from which all good things may come.
Now more than ever a change is needed. With China on the rise and possibly hoping to engage in imperial expansion into this region of the world, this place, its condition and its people are becoming internationally important. Indeed this is the place to look in the near future for instability and a clash of world powers. It is already a sight of massive drug and human trafficking and it is becoming a haven for Islamic extremism. A new way, a new rule a, new order is needed.
The opportunity has presented itself. All that is needed it to take that step of faith and seize the moment. Great things are possible. Who is willing to attempt them?
Tags: Burma, injustice, Karen, Shan, Southeast Asia, Thailand, tribal, Wayland