Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Weak radio piece on remittances by Burmese migrant labor --

on one of overseas radio stations, in Burmese.

I listened to it on 9-3 -- "12 hours" I think, about 48 minutes into the broadcast.

It's not a very strong piece, (the broadcaster) made some mistakes and it's obvious she translated it from a general piece about remittances. The conclusion is also weak to stupid -- as if she's asking junta to teach maids who go overseas to use knives and forks at table, instead of examining whole reason why they go at all.

Who for instance teaches them not to get raped by their Gulf State etc. employer? It happens all the time.

At beginning of piece she says "remittances FROM Philippines (to Burma?) benefit(the Philippines?)"

That is wrong. Or maybe just poor sentence structure, due to poor understanding of the issue.

Kyi May Kaung