Facts about Burma

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1. Burma’s name change
Burma also identified as Myanmar. The country’s name was changed from Burma to Myanmar in the year 1989. Burma is the largest nation of mainland Southeast Asia. However, this name changed to an unelected, oppressive military regime, became illegitimate for that reason.

2. Repression in Burma
Burma has been under a repressive military government since the year 1962. This regime had sanctions set against it for the past ten years. As it stands, many blame the poverty in Burma on the political unrest in the region. In the years 1988 and 2007 pushes for democracy have been under a brutal repression. According to Transparency International, Burma is position 157 out of 177 countries in terms of perceived corruption.

3. Burma Statistics
The country’s literacy rate is at 83 percent and the median age is 27.9 years. The average life expectancy is 57 years. Burma has a total area of 261,970 square miles and an estimated population of 55 million people though no official census has been undertaken since 1983.

4. Burma internally displaced people
According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Burma experienced an increase in the number of internally displaced by almost 21,000 between January and December 2013. This increase added to a total of 450,000 from 429,000. Many of the displaced persons are from conflict-affected areas in Kachin State and the communal violence in Rakhine State where there are raging conflicts between Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists.

5. Burma’s poor health
Local comprehension of sanitation and hygiene remains low, as does access to clean water and important sanitation provisions such as latrines. This lack of sanitation and hygiene naturally leads to high levels of associated diseases such cholera and diarrhea, among others diseases. Malnutrition measures amid children are over 15 percent. At any given time, malaria infection rate is over 12 percent. Sickness including malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS are some of the diseases thought of as epidemics. While the larger part of Burma’s population lives in rural areas, most health services continue to be concentrated in larger towns and cities

6. Burma’s poor education
The most up-to-date information from United Nations Children’s Fund reported that only around fifty percent of children achieve a secondary education in Burma. Access to education compromised by the absence of accessible schools, poverty, war, displacement, and low wages for teachers. Education is supposed to be given free of charge, but teachers’ salaries are so low that they are imposed to charge school fees, or look for work elsewhere.

7. Poverty in Burma
Power imbalances and repression have put Burma in poverty. Poverty can be measured using various indicators, but a widely respected tool is the multi-dimensional poverty index. This tool ranks Burma as 14th from the bottom out of 109 countries.

8. Stereotype in Burma

There are deep-rooted gender stereotypes held about women in Burma that have silenced women and forbidden them from taking part in the political arena for a very long time. In Burma, human rights, especially for women, are grossly violated. Burmese women are frequently raped by the military, a crime that often goes unpunished.

9. A Powerful Military
Burma’s military has so much power to an extent that most resources in the country are spent on the military as opposed to other more important matters like health. Burma’s government spent 3.9% of the country’s total budget on health care in the year 2013. In contrast, it spent over 20 percent on the military. In 1988, there were approximately 200,000 men serving in the Tatmadaw (government military), in 2013 estimates are nearing 500,000 troops.

10. Largest country in Southeast Asia
In mainland Southeast Asia, Burma is the largest country with a total area of 261,970 square miles. This country is ranked the 40th-largest in the world. Today 89 percent of the population of Burma is Buddhist.

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