This research focuses on the special considerations and reasons for Burmese migrants and refugees from Burma living in Mae Sot, Tak province, Northern Thailand to stay in Thailand or return to Burma/Myanmar. The researcher has more than three-years of experience of living and working in Northern Thailand. During the thesis process, the researcher lived and worked in Mae Sot. A multi-method approach was applied to compile the experiences, knowledge, opinions and feelings of migrants and refugees from Burma. The research presented in this thesis shows that, even though the push factors from leading a life in Thailand are increasing in terms of obtaining legal documents, the pull factors towards return or repatriation to Burma remain few for refugees and migrants. In terms of the labour situation, migrants can earn more money and get more value for their money in Thailand. In addition, access to affordable education and health care is much greater in Thailand than in Burma, mostly due to initiatives by international non-governmental actors. In Burma, poverty continues to be an endemic challenge: there are difficulties for families to sustain their livelihoods and obtain access to quality healthcare and education. The findings from the research explain that migrants from Burma, many of which represent a marginalized minority in terms of ethnicity and religion, do not consider a future in Burma for themselves or their families if not forced to leave Thailand.   In particular, the Myanmar Muslim subpopulation and those with lower education possess experiences or have perceived discrimination of a potential future in Burma, largely related to issues with identification documents and registration. In addition, lack of land ownership remains a large obstacle for migrant workers and refugees in the consideration of where to live and work in the future.

The forced displacement of over 100 ethnic minorities in Burma over the last few decades has negatively impacted the overall health of this population. The maternal mortality ratio along the Thailand-Burma border is one of the highest in the world and access to life saving reproductive health services and technologies is minimal. The purpose of this study is to understand the experiences of intra-uterine device (IUD) users living along the border while exploring the various influences that have shaped women’s reproductive experiences. Using qualitative methods, I found that differences in legal/minority status, culture, availability of services, health status, financial status, and education/awareness of family planning can determine women’s overall health in the region. The use of the IUD helped reduce the influence of these factors and provided women with reproductive autonomy; the contraceptive technology was greatly appreciated by users for its efficiency, its effectiveness, and its safety. The findings from this study suggest that the IUD can address significant reproductive health problems in the region and should be made more widely available along the Thailand-Burma border.

The 2010 elections in Myanmar installed the country’s first civilian-elected government in more than 50 years, and subsequent growth and change have been rapid. However, reproductive health indicators are generally poor and reflect significant regional and geographic disparities. Rural populations are increasingly migrating to urban centers, like Yangon, in search of better economic opportunities and in response to persistent conflict. Many are settling in peri-urban Yangon, a dynamic series of townships characterized by poor infrastructure, slums, and a highly mobile population. However, very little is known about the reproductive health needs of this population. This study was designed to identify the reproductive health needs of women in peri-urban Yangon, and to understand better current practices, available services, and potential avenues for improvement. My research focused on delivery care, contraception, abortion, and post-abortion care. Using a multi-methods approach, and standard qualitative analytic techniques, I identified significant unmet reproductive health needs in peri-urban Yangon. The findings suggest that reproductive health services are often available but inaccessible. Findings demonstrate considerable misinformation, common and unsafe practices surrounding abortion and delivery, and a dearth of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services for adolescent and unmarried populations.

The purpose of this thesis is to study the dynamics of two successive military coups in Burma and Peru. Both of these nations have had a military coup, which was subsequently, after a relatively short period of civilian rule, followed by another coup. All four of these coups have had some impact on the civil bureaucracy, yet in both cases the impact after the second coup was much more pervasive. The question that the thesis is concerned with answering is why did the impact on the bureaucracy change as it did the second time around. The answer lies in the military's dissatisfaction with the civil bureaucracy after the 2nd coups. This dissatisfaction resulted from the following three factors: (1) changes in the goals and purposes of the second coups; (2) changes in military personnel between the first and second coups; (3) experiences of military between coups. (a) Both of the first two coups were carried out for restricted goals and purposes. Consequently, the military had little opportunity or need to extensively concern itself with the civilian bureaucracy. For their less ambitious goals the bureaucracy was quite suitable. The second time around, both military coups occurred under quite different circumstances and for different goals and purposes. Contrary to the static orientation of the first coups, the second ones were carried out for the purpose of moving the nation to a more progressive condition and due to the inability of civilian groups to achieve this goal. The civil bureaucracy had serious weaknesses which did not allow it to meet the military's governing needs and the military carried out extensive actions to rectify this. (b) Younger and more radical officers tended to displace the older and more conservative officers in the second coup, whereas the latter dominated the first coup in both countries. These younger officers more rural and of different social origins from the older officers, tended to be much more hostile to the urban middle civil servants. (c) Some experiences between the coups exacerbated the officers' hostility toward the bureaucracy. That is, in one case betrayal by civil servants of military's programs initiated during the first coup, in the other case having to step into an administrative void in rural areas which the military attributed to a weak and inefficient civil service. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(文学) / 甲第19435号 / 文博第713号 / 新制||文||632(附属図書館) / 32471 / 京都大学大学院文学研究科行動文化学専攻 / (主査)教授 田窪 行則, 教授 吉田 豊, 准教授 千田 俊太郎 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Letters / Kyoto University / DGAM

Experimental drying studies were made on two types of solar lumber kilns, one an external collector type and the other a semi-greenhouse type. Two charges of green sugar maple lumber (5/4 inches  thick) were tested in an external collector solar kiln at the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory, Madison (43°5'N, 89°23'W), Wisconsin, during the summer of 1982. In the first run detailed drying data were obtained and the energy balance was calculated for each day during the entire drying period. Based on these results, the following empirical model for the overall efficiency of the kiln was obtained: EFF = - .0413 + .0102^*(IMC) - .0000562^*(IMC)² where, EFF = overall efficiency of the kiln IMC = average initial moisture content of the lumber in percent Using  this model, the average daily moisture content loss in percent (MCL) can be calculated as follows: MCL = (100*EFF*SI*ACV)/[R*(62.4*V*SG)*{0.53*(212-Ti)+972}] where, EFF = the value obtained from the first equation ACV = area of the collector in ft² SI = average daily solar insolation in Btu/ft² R = ratio of total solar energy incident on the collector cover to total energy available to the system V = green volume of lumber in ft³ SG = green specific gravity of lumber Ti = average initial temperature inside the kiln in °F A comparison of the actual drying time observed in the second run showed good agreement with the predicted drying time obtained from the above equations. A single charge of 9/8 inches green yellow poplar was dried in a semi-greenhouse kiln at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg (35°09'N, 81°30'W), Virginia, during the fall of 1982. Following the same procedure as for the external collector kiln, an empirical model for the overall efficiency (EFF) of the kiln was obtained as a function of initial moisture content (IMC), EFF = - .0767 + .00988*IMC / M.S.

This paper is a study of the journalistic practices currently involved in reporting on Myanmar since the 2021 military coup. Research was undertaken to get an understanding of what methods and to what extent journalists continue to publish quality, balanced reports in a context where independent press faces severe repression by authorities. Through a series of in-depth interviews with individuals working in the Myanmar media field, a collection of experiences and voices were gathered to understand the current journalistic playing field. A textual analysis was performed on themes reported on by a select group of media outlets which are currently operating in exile. Research findings were applied to a loose theoretical framework that comes under the ‘communication for development’ umbrella. Specifically, theories on particular features of globalisation, media for development and humanitarian journalism were examined and applied to as great an extent as possible. This paper finds that journalists reporting on Myanmar offer valuable experience, strategies and lessons learned in reporting remotely, as well as insights into current and impending challenges they are required to surmount in order to continue to produce quality news in a highly polarised context.

L’objectif de cette étude est de présenter une lecture critique et raisonnée de l’œuvre de Léo Malet. Une part importante est consacrée à sa production écrite, constituée de plus de cinq mille pages, allant des poèmes surréalistes aux romans populaires et policiers. Mais l’apport de l’écrivain à d’autres champs de la création n’en est pas exclu pour autant. A cet important corpus, il a fallu trouver un fil directeur, permettant d’aborder à la fois la personnalité et l’œuvre de l’auteur. C’est la quête d’une unité derrière une apparente hétérogénéité qui a semblé l’axe le plus à même de guider l’analyse : elle constitue la problématique de fond de ce travail. Le développement suit une progression en sept temps : Le premier est consacré à la présentation de la vie de l’auteur, soulignant la dimension éminemment autobiographique de son œuvre. L’étude de son évolution idéologique en est le prolongement naturel. La période surréaliste est abordée, du fait de son importance et de son apparente singularité dans le parcours de Malet. La quatrième partie analyse le choix de Malet de s’orienter vers la littérature populaire. On voit alors comment il se trouve à l’origine de la triple rupture épistémologique du roman policier français au cours du XXe siècle. La spécificité de son regard et de son écriture est ensuite évoquée, à travers une approche plus stylistique. Pour finir est évoquée la durable influence qu’a eue Léo Malet sur les diverses formes de la culture populaire française. / This study’s purpose is to survey and analyse Leo Malet’s work. It is mainly devoted to his written productions [more than 5.000 pages…], from Surrealist poems to popular and detective novels. Nevertheless, other artistic fields are not left apart. Because of his taking part in them, or because of his contribution, some films, TV productions or comics are also mentioned. Given the size of this corpus, a guiding thread had to be found, which could deal with the author’s personality as well as his work. The search for unity behind apparent heterogeneity seemed to be the best way to guide the analysis: it thus constitutes the central line of this study. The structure of this work decomposes into seven parts: The first one is devoted to the presentation of the author’s life; it allows to show how autobiographic his work is. The study of his ideological evolution follows, in a second part. The Surrealist period is evoked, because of its importance and of its apparent peculiarity within Malet’s work. Fourth part deals with Malet’s choice to turn towards popular literature. Then it is explained how he provoked a major evolution of the 20th century French detective novel. A survey of his personal style brings to light the specificity of his vision and of his way of writing. The last part eventually analyses Leo Malet’s long-lasting influence in French popular culture.

Thesis (D.Phil.)--University of Oxford, 2009. / Supervisor: Professor Andrew Hurrell. Bibliography: p. 339-396.

This study aims to analyse how the stateless Muslim minority Rohingya from Myanmar are represented in Burmese media. Progress towards democracy has been made in Myanmar since the end of the dictatorship, making it possible for private newspapers to publish in Myanmar and increased the access to rights. However, this positive development has not affected all habitants in Myanmar. The UN still considers Rohingya to be one of the most persecuted people in the world. In this study, the material consists of articles from The Myanmar Times, Mizzima Business Weekly and The New Light of Myanmar. After assessing Hannah Arendt’s theory about the dependency on citizenship for human rights, and Steve Luke’s theory of power, this study uses the method systematic qualitative text analysis to sort the material. In addition, a critical text analysis inspired by critical discourse analysis is carried out. As a complement, photos are studied using visual text analysis. The main focus is on how Rohingya are represented in the material, and what can be said about Rohingya’s exclusion based on the findings in the material. The study shows that the name Rohingya is avoided in The Global New Light of Myanmar, who uses “Muslim Minority” as well as in The Myanmar Times, where group is often called “Bengali”. However, in Mizzima Business Weekly “Rohingya” is the most common name when describing the group. A key finding is that suppression, i.e. to silence issues concerning Rohingya, to deny their identity and ties to Myanmar, and to not acknowledge that Rohingya are affected by an event in the news, appears to various extents in all three newspapers, which shows how Rohingya are excluded and are often portrayed as “the others”. The study shows that the media is affected by “the power of the thought” and that the inherent paradox of the human rights can be applied in this case, and that in a society a stateless person is rightless and becomes completely excluded from the society. This is manifested to some extent in Mizzima Business Weekly and consistently in The Myanmar Times and The Global New Light of Myanmar.