Gambling epidemic snares Burma's poor

Kevin — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 10:33:19 +0000

As the clock ticks towards noon, the Sky Cafe in Rangoon’s shabby Daubon Township starts to fill up. Young women carrying babies, men from the bicycle repair shop across the road, and old ladies smoking cheroots take their places on the small plastic chairs. By 11.55am, the wooden shack is packed, and a waiter revs up the generator to power the big TV in the corner. In an atmosphere of anticipation, the crowd is waiting for the Bangkok stock exchange price at its lunchtime close.

These are not people who have ever owned shares in anything. They are day labourers, hawkers, and low-ranking civil servants with earnings of around $3 (£1.80) a day. Their interest is not in the performance of the stock market, but in the random, final two digits of the share price, on which most bet at least half of their daily wages.

India and China: ties bloom despite border differences

Kevin — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:29:46 +0000

Economic, social and cultural ties between the two Asian giants are blooming again, quietly overriding the contentious political and border issues as India and China seek out their rightful roles in a changing global order. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent official visit to Beijing — his first — turned the spotlight away from differences to areas of cooperation as the two nations that are home to one in three people in the world agreed to ink 11 agreements. The economic pacts would boost trade to $60 billion by 2008 from the current level of almost $40 billion.

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Gambling epidemic snares Burma's poor

India and China: ties bloom despite border differences