Posted on 09/01/2007 2:59:27 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Charting the Mekong's Changes
The nets yield almost no fish today, the same as yesterday and the day before that. For generations, Bun Neang's family has depended on the bounty of Cambodia's Tonle Sap, a vast lake fed by one of the world's greatest rivers, the Mekong. Two decades ago, his father could rely on a daily catch totaling about 65 lbs. (30 kg). When the water gods were feeling particularly charitable, he would land a Mekong catfish, a massive bottom-feeder that can weigh as much as a tiger. But today, when Bun Neang dips his net into the caramel-hued waters near Chong Koh village, all the 30-year-old can hope for is a few kilos of sardine-sized fish. Overfishing is partly to blame. But Bun Neang knows of another reason Tonle Sap's big game have all but disappeared. "China," he says of the country that is now tiny Cambodia's biggest foreign investor and economic patron. "Instead of sharing the Mekong, they dam the river and keep it for themselves."
For millenniums, China hardly touched the mighty Mekong, content to let its raging headwaters flow unimpeded from the Tibetan plateau down through Laos, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. But over the past few years, the emergent superpower has begun turning the world's 12th-longest river into a highway for regional commerce and a source of hydroelectric power. For many Indochinese entrepreneurs, increased China trade and investment has allowed a backward region to participate in their upstream neighbor's remarkable economic expansion. Southeast Asian governments hope China will share the electricity it will harness after a series of massive dams on the upper Mekong are completed in the nation's western Yunnan province. Two have already been built. At least six more are planned.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Ping!
Charting the Mekong’s Changes (Chinese dams destroy life downstream)...
sounds like another project of the US army copr of engineers!
The story told is that all those U.S. soldiers died due to their disrepect.
The story continues that we tried to ship it back to the U.S. and the USAF plane crashed killing all on board.
I got in many heated discussions with Lao and Thai people about the fake caption on a real photo.
You can still go to households over there and even here in the U.S. where Lao and Thai have it displayed.
Hilarious!
But someone should tell those people a Naga is supposed to have the body of a snake and the head of a woman.
Can’t them iggernomuses keep their own superstitions straight?
No supernaturalist can keep their superstitions straight, why should they?
As a kid, I remember the National Geographic Mekong article of 1968. Among other things it discussed a vast, international project of dams up and down the Big Muddy. Getting all five countries to cooperate did sound a bit airy, fairy, war or no war.
I recall the Khmer word used for the ginormous catfish was “Pla-Buk.”
No mention of a native fresh-water dolphin, however.
My middle daughter (just turned 21, dual major in Mandarin and accounting) was through the area of the Chinese upper Mekong dams (Konming, Lijiang, Chengdu, etc.) three weeks ago. She enthuses over Naxi Baba!!!
This area is massively strategic, to say the least, and China is putting heavy investment in. Logistically this is the war road into India. Perhaps Myitkyina and the Salween will become a vital battle area again, hmm?
Likely area for use of nuclear weapons.
Oar Fish & Beer PING!
“This area is massively strategic, to say the least, and China is putting heavy investment in. Logistically this is the war road into India. Perhaps Myitkyina and the Salween will become a vital battle area again, hmm?”
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Doesn’t jibe with what we know of their strategy. With the exception of Taiwan, they don’t want to bother conquering people with whom they can more profitably do business.
The M.O. is to set up shop in dictatorships with raw materials that the more civilized countries are busy sanctioning. Venezuela, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Iran, etc.
Commercial colonialism is far more profitable than the old-fashioned variety.
Pla = noun - Fish
Beuk = Mekong giant catfish, Pangasianodon gigas
At first I was wondering what the reporter was smoking to even include a line like this. Then, of course, I realized that “socialism/communism is good”. I guess I’ve gone a stretch without my helping of propaganda. Of course they’ll share! Silly me.
Read your Sun Tsu.
Your view of the situation is without understanding.
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