Anthony Kuhn

Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi Walks Fine Line In Her New Role

Anthony Kuhn — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 17:12:00 +0000

To her many admirers in the international community, Aung San Suu Kyi remains one of the world's best known democracy icons.

But in Myanmar, also known as Burma, she is now very much a politician who is being criticized for trying to cooperate with the former military rulers who kept her under house arrest for nearly two decades.

If you want to see the old, iconic Aung San Suu Kyi, just head to the bustling headquarters of her party, the National League for Democracy, or NLD, in Yangon, the country's largest city and former capital.

Go past the tables selling Suu Kyi T-shirts, coffee mug

Battling Deforestation In Indonesia, One Firm At A Time

Anthony Kuhn — Fri, 31 May 2013 07:19:00 +0000

On the Indonesian island of Sumatra, a backhoe stacks freshly cut trees to be made into pulp and paper. Asia Pulp and Paper, or APP, is Indonesia's largest papermaker, and the company and its suppliers operate vast plantations of acacia trees here that have transformed the local landscape.

APP has sold billions of dollars' worth of paper products to Staples, Disney and other big U.S. corporations.

As Myanmar Reforms, Indonesnia Offers Some Lessons

Anthony Kuhn — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:38:00 +0000

As Myanmar's leaders push a series of political and economic changes, they are also having to deal with recent strife between the majority Buddhists and minority Muslims, or Rohingya.

Many countries making the transition from authoritarian rule to democracy have faced similar ethnic and sectarian conflicts, from Iraq to the former Yugoslavia.

But for Myanmar, perhaps the most compelling case study is also the closest.

Fifteen years ago this week, a deepen

Are Buddhist Monks Involved In Myanmar's Violence?

Anthony Kuhn — Fri, 17 May 2013 07:00:00 +0000

In the Western stereotype, Buddhists are meditating pacifists who strive to keep their distance from worldly passions. But last month, more than 40 people were killed in fighting between Buddhists and Muslims in the central Burmese town of Meiktila. Witnesses say some Buddhist monks joined in the violence, while others tried to stop it.

One prominent monk in particular has been blamed for being behind it.

U Wirathu, 45, is head of the Masoeyein monastery in Myanmar's second-largest city, Mandalay, just up the highway from Meiktila.

The Threat To Indonesia's Biodiversity, Foretold In The 1800s

Anthony Kuhn — Sun, 05 May 2013 21:33:00 +0000

British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace was not only a key figure in developing the theory of evolution in the mid-19th century but also had the foresight to call for saving endangered species.

Wallace, who died 100 years ago this year, did his most important research in the rich biodiversity of Indonesia, and his plea for preservation is even more compelling than when he wrote it.

From my base in Jakarta, I can just step outside my home to observe the spectacle of li