Radio War Nerd EP #411 — Myanmar's Uncut Gems
Guest: Paul H.
Recorded: November 27, 2023
We discuss Myanmar's massive gemstone industry and its critical role in the Tatmadaw's hold on power — and why the TNLA (Ta'ang National Liberation Army) attack on Mogok is so important.
*Maps & Photos
*The TNLA
*Mogok gem market
For more, check out these RWN episodes:
- Radio War Nerd EP #101 — Rohingya, Myanmar & The Empire
- Radio War Nerd #271 — Burma's Ethnic Militias
Total time: 1:05:07
Direct link to this episode's mp3 here
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Comments (15)
You guys always come up with very interesting topics. Another great guest.
one question I had tho, are all those gems just jewelry or are there industrial users? Like I know the chip industry and laser applications use a lot of gems but I was wondering if they need any of the Myanmar gems or can they get away with other sources or even synthetic?
praying for a guyana episode being in the hopper
You’re telling me JURASSIC PARK isn’t real??!
Apparently I'm a rock-nerd now too. No emeralds?
It was a surprise to hear mate D. from Yunnan, sorry, Paul H. 🙂 A great and very educational episode!
This episode would be great with a follow up. A great guest for RWN to consider would be Brian Berletic. He lives in the region and has written extensively on Myanmar for years now. He could illuminate more regarding the western backers in Myanmars opposition groups. https://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/search?q=Myanmar&updated-max=2018-05-12T02:05:00-07:00&max-results=20&start=69&by-date=true
I can't find the place to just comment/question so this doesn't have anything to do with the great episode. Can anyone recommend a good Connolly biography?
Try asking on the Radio War Nerd Facebook group.
This ignorant American just learned that there’s actually no “bay” near the real Mandalay.
Side note for your general updates next episode, the New York Times has finally published the story of how much Israel knew about the plans for October 7, apparently they had the exact plans for a year and had observed an exercise testing the plan, but dismissed them as out of Hamas’ capabilities: https://web.archive.org/web/20231201013831/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-attack-intelligence.html
Well either that, or somebody decided it would be the perfect pretext for what they’ve been doing since.
Great "coal face" ep, thanks
I wanted a piss on Kissinger's corpse addendum when I saw the record date, but I suppose pretty much every modern period RWN episode is at least conceptually that so I guess unnecessary.
FUCK YES. EVER SINCE I READ LAND OF JADE WHICH YOUR LAST MYANMAR GUEST RECCOMENDED I HAVE FOUND BURMA SOOOO INTERESTING LETS GOO