The Burmese Way

This is an exert from the April Newsletter which can be viewed in full: Ethical Asia Newsletter.

In the books section of the Ethical Asia website is a publication that very few people in the West will have seen, and would seem to be the least ethical book on the planet. How to Cook and Entertain the Burmese Way is a Burmese recipe book sold at a state-run book shop in Rangoon, the largest city in one of the most repressive countries on the planet – Burma.


But by channelling this obscure publication to new markets and in donating money from its resale to one of the ethnic groups persecuted the most by the Burmese junta – the Karen – we’re trying to rewire the market for products like this in unusual ways that benefit some of the most disadvantaged people in the region, and among the least understood.

In buying this book, 10 percent of the unit profit made will go directly to the Karen Hilltribes Trust in Thailand which aims to look after the needs of the huge refugee populations that have fled east across the border from Karen and Mon states in Burma due to attacks by the military, an internal conflict that has been fought for half a century. This is a problem that is not going away and requires steady streams of funding.

The book itself is a fascinating read given its lengthy explanations on how and what Burmese eat, although some may be dismayed by its treatise on equal rights in Burma...........click the link below to read more:

Burmese Culture