The Hidden History of Burma: Race, Capitalism, and the Crisis of Democracy in the 21st Century

by Thant Myint-U

By early 2007, the Rangoon poor, mainly migrants from the countryside who had lost their land to army and crony capitalist confiscations, were desperate. Inflation was at an all-time high, shooting up nearly 50 percent over the course of twelve months. “Why is there severe malnutrition in this Garden of Eden? Because people are poor,”