Myanmar's Cycle of Debt | 101 East
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ส.ค. 2018
- With its gleaming new shopping malls and high-rise apartment blocks, Yangon has become the symbol of Myanmar's rapid economic growth. Yet in its poorest neighbourhoods, 85 percent of households are borrowing money from loan sharks, just to cover their basic living expenses.
While the loans may rescue them from an immediate financial emergency, the interest rates - which range from five percent daily to 60 percent monthly - trap borrowers in a perpetual cycle of debt. As families struggle to make their repayments, many send their children out to work.
Aung Thet Paing's mother decided to take him and his brother out of school and put them to work as rubbish collectors after her debts began spiralling out of control.
They now spend their days searching for plastic bottles and tin cans that they can trade in for cash. It's a relentless task, particularly in the summer months when temperatures can soar to 40 degrees Celsius [≈ usually fatal human fever].
"I want to go back to school," says Aung Thet Paing.
"When I see my friends, I feel sad. I cry because I can't go to school. Now, I have chosen to work, because there is no one to help mum."
Myanmar has one of the worst rates of underage employment in the world. The government estimates that there are 1.3 million child labourers, many of whom are working to help pay off their parents' debts.
101 East travels to the slums of Yangon to meet the families drowning in debt and those making money from their misery.
More from 101 East on:
TH-cam - aje.io/101eastYT
Facebook - / 101east
Twitter - / aj101east
Instagram - / aj101east
Website - aljazeera.com/101east
#AlJazeeraEnglish #Myanmar #101East - บันเทิง
![บุกร้านไอศกรีม VJ วุ้นเส้น !!!! [ดูคลิปเต็มหน้าช่อง] #Short | PANG ORNHIRA](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/g549nEhKZdc/mqdefault.jpg)
Hi! My grandfather is from Burma and grew up the same way. He watched this documentary and knew that my aunt was going to visit soon for the Thadingyut holiday. He gave her $200 and showed her the documentary and told her to give them the money. They are out of debt now!
That's wonderful!!!
God blessed your grand father. I was hoping the people making the documentary would help them.
Actually I hoped aljazeera would pay the debt... :/
My father watched this a few months ago and was able to send one of these families the money to pay off their debt when his sister went to Burma last week. He would have never known and been able to help if not for this reporting.
THIS IS GREAT.. I OFTEN THINK.. I HAVE ONE OF THOSE OR THIS OR THAT, THAT FAMILY COULD USE.. WOULDN'T IT BE GREAT TO HAVE A MEANS TO LINK THESE FAMILIES WITH THOSE IN THE WEST WILLING TO HELP D I R E C T L Y .. (JUST GOTTA FIGURE OUT HOW TO KEEP THE SCAMMERS AWAY)
This is Great!!!
Woah, What a father you have. Knowing this is really warm my heart. I wish all the best in the world for both you and your family.
Bless your dad and your whole family with happiness and wealth
This makes this documentary all worth it
Fun fact: Myanamar's government still keeps it's records on paper rather than a computer
This 2 young boy is very loving kid to their mum
I wish to have kid like them...
Poor kids are grateful to their parents because they have given them life. Rich kids blame their parents not celebrating their birthdays with them. In certain cultures, if a girl's parents celebrate her birthday by cooking her a bowl of noodles with an egg, it means the next day they will sell her away.
This video should have millions of views. sad world, I am from 1st world, spend a lot of time in 3rd world. Hope everyone can just do a little. it adds up. We taught the world these bad habits , we could at least share new ways and guidance , not all help has to be money. ... What awesome effort though for the groups creating independence their, the path would be to provide that one group growth with ongoing support.
Why is the husband only working 2 days a week when the poor wife is struggling like that to be the breadwinner? Go plumb or whatever he does 7 days a week to help her! And the reporter should have just helped this poor lady out and given the $200. You could see how stressed she was. HELP HER!!
how to sent help to those family those boys
I want to sponsor them to go to school
You could come to Myanmar and spent money for certified charities
The young mother's plight broke my heart. I wish I could help her. I wish Aljazeera would leave contacts or information on how someone could help.
Same here in the United States of America
"Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty"
In my opinion, it is the best book on such topic.
If the producers had actually given the young mother $1000 to help her pay back her debt and start a business, the most rational choice for her would be loan sharking the money out to others, as it's far more profitable than any other work.
To say that the situation is dire is an understatement
@@alvinaliathos6137 oh?
This is truly heartbreaking, 30% interest EVERY MONTH? I hate these loan sharks.
Thank you for your explain. The Burmese people look like my people. I’m from Cambodia. I like people in Myanmar.
23:50: It's only a $200 debt. Why didn't the Al Jazeera journalist just give the young mother the money?
Romesh Senewiratne-Alagaratnam Arya Chakravarti yes like wtf is wrong with humans. They see someone miserable and only take their story
Romesh Senewiratne-Alagaratnam Arya Chakravarti Yeah, at least the reporter could have given her 20 dollars. Much less than the airfare or the hotel rates the reporter may have paid to get to Myanmar.
True.
Thinking the same thing 🙏, god bless
exactly my thoughts..
Very similar to credit cards.
I would say the interest rates are the same... except our interest rates are maybe 20% PER YEAR, not per month. But we do have loan sharks that charge insanely high interest rates here.
Exactly, just as bad but wrapped nicely in shiny plastic.
Or should I say it looks like of the written in the Bible about to 666 if you don't have it you don't even sell or buy too scary when the Bible prophecy was going to happened 😰...
You don't use your credit card to buy potatoes because your family is hungry. You buy branded goods and go on holidays.
ktkska 888 I use credit cards for everything. Food, Bills and travel. You are blinded by emotions. If you can pay interest, you can also save. Or choose convenience- immediate gratification(potatoes). There would not be a lender if the unfortunate hungry people couldn’t pay. You’re comparing bananas to oranges. There are people in extreme poverty that could not get a loan because they would not be able to pay. No ones goes into business- weather legitimate or illegal to loose money. I hope that you just don’t speak compassion. There are many good, reliable, trustworthy organizations that would put your $ compassion to action. Be a doer.
poor people without options are exploited everywhere in the world. In the US we have "pay day lenders" that charge high interest to poor people who get caught in a spiral of debt
they arent without options fully. because they could avoid having children.
I always feel so bad when the reporters do not offer any help to these people suffering with young kids, yet they are more than happy to make money off the poor peoples backs. Also, I am surprised people have not gotten rid of the loan sharks, there are way more people in debt than there are those people collecting the repulsive intrests.
I feel equally bad when youtube commenters do not personally fly to Myanmar and help the suffering people when they are more than happy to make themselves look good and kindhearted off the poor people backs. I'm also NOT surprised that the loan sharks are still there. They are only there because people keep borrowing from them, in other words, those people brought it on themselves.
This reminds me of a college student being in debt.
20-30% Interest is a theft! It should be illegal. These people are trapped, in perpetual circle of paying back interest
Tatiana Alekseevna believe it or not, in USA bank charges up to 29% on some credit cards. In fine print, it’s originally 12%, but once u default that month, it goes up to 29%. I’ve seen this on many credit cards. So basically these legal banks in America are doing same thing.
it doesn't have continuation of her story?
so sorry for that
I feel for this people..., for it reminds me of some areas here in the philippines, I guess south east asia has this trend on poverty and third worldism
Get on with the times guys. The term 'third world' is obsolete. It's 'developing countries' or 'emerging economies'
Yes it's true. The loan of interest is very very high in Myanmar even you loan the money from Bank of personal the interest is too high
Nais
Heartbreaking
Nice reporter I love you 👀😍👉madam
I'd really like to see what happens if someone refuses to pay.
Violence, sell organs overseas or send children or women to prostitution or beggars. Its done a lot but even children and babies are frozen in boxes and sold to black market for organ transplants.
The same system exists in the Caribbean and in West Africa. It's called susu in the Caribbean and esusu or tontine West Africa. It is eliminating debt in these countries. Many other ethnic groups have done the same and have financed themselves into business and some billionaires got their starts through this very system. It's called Revolving Savings and Credit of Accumulated Savings and Credit.
Money lender is to help the poor people! And the Bank is helping the rich people!
03:53
Despite being Agnostic, I like how in Judaism and Islam, charging interest on loans is forbidden (even if it for their religion like fellows) but at least there are a lot of ethical practises that encourages sympathy within the same community and bonding, there were not very materialistic as we are now. We should back to those ancient scriptures and learn some good lessons about how those communities used to live..
It was supposed to biblically profane to charge interest on loans.
Hope 101East took care that $150 medical bill.
Grameen Bank also charges exorbitant interest. The founder won the peace prize.
ေအာ္..ငါတို႔ျမန္မာ လူမ်ိဳးေတြ ကမာၻ႔ေပၚမွာ သနားစရာ အေကာင္းဆုံးထင္တယ္..ျမန္မာျပည္က ေခါင္းေဆာင္ေတြ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ေတြ အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္သူေတြ အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္သူေတြ
Is there any one I can reach out who can help me with info of a trusted local ngo or organization, which can give more info how I can help an few families to get of the cycle of debts.
Problem is that even if they had paid the debt the family will only borrow it again and next month they will be in the same spot they are in now.
Is there a good charity where the money donated would go directly to these people? I would love to financially help some of these people, but I need to make sure the money goes to them.
They are Burmese born Indians, but no problem with Burmese people since they love to stay and fit with Burmese cultures and tradition. Then, we always welcome any Muslim too who is also willing to stay with us and with our culture and tradition.
Is that mean Indians are being mistreated?
How can u say that...?
I'm cry😔😔
💔😔
Should establish Grameen micro finance .
Btw I speake Burmese some of the translations are really wrong
You guys should translate true full
Should do better job next time is awful
The lady say different price and you guys put it lower price
They say average dollar to myanmar currency conversion
fully agree. the one bad spot in 101east programs has been their translations for years this has been a problem, they only translate the basic meaning. "they slapped me in the face and were mean to me" gets translated to "they don't like me" but that's at the best of times. People have brought this up several times but no one seems to care
yes they always translate it wrong not just this story other stories on myanmar
Ms. Yu, I am Chinese and I speak both Mandarin and Cantonese dialects. I know exactly what you mean. I come across the same experience when Chinese is translated in many movies or documentaries.
1 us dollar equal to 1400 Myanmar kyet. The translation is correct.
Good report. Since this was published, I hope police are putting a stop to this nonsense.
Yangon now has shopping malls and high rises???!...now that's something.. I thought yangon is still on stilt houses,rise paddies and irrawaddy river
I get it...journalists cannot help everyone but I hope they give some money for the ones whom do interviews for them...😞
Its Illegal to charge more than 3.5 percent interest. In the Philippines you can wave that interest and penalties at ease. Here the Justice is favor in Borrower and they give alot of time for the Borrower to pay the debt and waved all the interests and penalties. But in Borrower side they are recorded and they have a hardtime in making other loans.
She had more than $2 usd! I could plainly see a 20, a 10, 5 and a few 1 dollar bills.
I am a middle class Burmese and even my family always has debts about $5000 almost every time.
I know this sounds completely crazy but what if they stopped having so many kids? Would that help their situation any?
Oh gosh my country is still the best..im lending money w/out any enterest to my friend..
It seems that all country's even the US are leaving the people that have less behind as the rich get richer.
It also seems like all country, even the US are getting dragged down and burdening the productive people as the poor gets poorer.
i don’t know 🤷🏻♀️why there are so many messes in south east asia,i wish u better myanmar 🇲🇲 from china 🇨🇳
Why is everyone applying mask on there face 🙄
Why you can't leave the country 😂
Predatory lending is everywhere.
So no one is going to point out that no men there seem to have jobs or only work 2 days a week.Those 2 boys were collecting cans couldn't they do that much.Come on really.The women need to wake up just don't marry and have kids unless he's got a job and owns land at least.
This's why over 2m burmese youths evacuated to thailand and started working at the age of 15
Stop it lady you scaring me 😥
ohk... qatar sould send some money then
Jinu al jazeera is a Qatari government owned network they never show any wrong doings of there owners, though whatever wrongdoings of others is definitely appreciable but it should be unbiased by its owner.
No
anybody knows the name of the young mother of two child?
WTF!!!! 20% interest per month!!!!
😢😢😢 very sad
Ong Sung Suchi should use her Nobel Peace prize award to take care of her own people...
Kuchi, the people featured in the report are working and have income. The borrowings seem to have been due to emergencies (medical). 20-60% monthly interest is not something that a person with choice will select. No leader should let its citizens choose between living or economic slavery. What can she do? Start by banking reform, get rid of load sharks!
at least spell her name correctly. HAHAHHAHA
No, but she can provide credit facilities to the needy that don't require paying back an arm and a leg. 50% monthly interest payment on a loan is SLAVERY. Do we at least see eye to eye that slavery is not consistent with human dignity and no leader, specially one who allegedly deserves a humanitarian award, should not allow it to happen on her watch?
Aung San Suu Kyi 😬
See only good things about Myanmar....and appreciate about those hard working people to make their ends meet...thx.
I OFTEN THINK.. I HAVE ONE OF THOSE OR THIS OR THAT, THAT FAMILY COULD USE.. WOULDN'T IT BE GREAT TO HAVE A MEANS TO LINK THESE FAMILIES WITH THOSE IN THE WEST WILLING TO HELP D I R E C T L Y .. (JUST GOTTA FIGURE OUT HOW TO KEEP THE SCAMMERS AWAY)
101east please I’m interested to help young mother on this video please send me her information.
Hi! My grandfather is from Burma and grew up the same way. He watched this documentary and knew that my aunt was going to visit soon for the Thadingyut holiday. He gave her $200 and showed her the documentary and told her to give them the money. The young mother is out of debt now!
Money ...
The government needs to really illegalize these type of interest rates and inforce the law, and then make lending available for people in emergencies such as natural disasters etc. Then this problem will decrease.
It should go
"on this episode of 101 east, we meet those who trapped in cycle of modern slavery, and the people who profit from their despair"
Since aljazira always come with negative things
I don’t understand Why didn’t the people who did the interview or the production company profiting from this story didn’t help the Girl pay back her loan I mean seriously it’s like 200 dollars I’m sure someone could have helped her pay it back What’s the point of highlighting such subjects and telling the world about it if not even the people who were there spending time with her and getting to know her for this segment weren’t willing to help I mean that’s a Disgrace
👏👏👏👏👏🙏🙏🙏
I searched for this comment....I thought the exact same..all the profit these documentary channels and news channels make...with a tiny bit of their money they can live a bit better...you dont have to rebuilt their houses..atleast support them a bit.....I recently watched a documentary about indigenous tribes and thought the same as the women of that tribe where asking the crew to buy their handmade products but they refused
Greedy world....humanity isnt here anymore...well it wasnt there anyways
WE don't know that..people being interviewed for a documentary often gets paid..please check the facts and I think Al jazeera is not different from other TV producers.
Indeed!!!!!!
Parang nasa mercado ako
Shame that they don't do more with their country.
While the rest of the world has music videos, youtube, iphones, cars; these kids and their family have nothing. We don't deserve to complain about what's best for them when they're trying to optimize their income.
I don't understand if why the world was so unfair because there's a lot of bad people but they have good life like the corrupt politicians and the good people is always poor 😢...
You can find the answer in buddha's teaching. The kamma sutta.
Every time there is a story like this, i always want to take out money from the bank and give the people being interviewed 1,000 dollars.
How did it go...
5/6
20% interest rate, that's robbery!
Even Australia had 17 to 19% mortgage interest in 1991 and credit card interest around 26%...
With all due respect to this documentary but how is it any different when the bank foreclose on a house and throw their family in the street with interest payment knowing that they cannot pay back? at least in Myanmar they just shame them and they will not be able to borrow anymore. you even said violence is very rare in other words there are more Humane then many Western Banks.
I'm not an advocate of children working but you should not judge them like common criminals that find work for their kids as their family are literally out of option.
It's so easy for you to judge the people that loan money and find job for their kids it is horrific but there's far worse. Just go to Cambodia as Farmers sell their own children because they think that they will have a better life than being with them. they end up as prostitute or slave labor.
Frankly as horrible as you think this is. there's far worse go to Vietnam/Philippines/India/Sri Lanka/Indonesia compare it to this they are in Paradise in comparison.
It is good to inform but you have to be objective and you wasn't in this documentary.
This documentary is one sided. Without loan sharks, poor families like this cannot afford their basic necesities. Its a way of life in this kind of communities, some families take advantage of it to open bus. To put food on the table. If you really want to help, you could have paid the young mothers debt and give her an extra for her to start a small business. People criticize others way of life but they themselves never did anything to help.
Lijoy Thistle It is not one-sided. The ultimate point it is making is making is the governmen's failure.
Just because other countries are worse (which isn't true btw) doesn't mean Myanmar shouldn't amend its current problem of loan sharks.
Rolando Ariaga, my thoughts exactly. Western bank interest rates are not 20-30%. That was the whole point of the documentary.
@SpeedWolf Why should the bank pay for a person's housing? They are a business, not a charity. Being humane is not a business, and it should never be. If you're looking to blame inhumane practices, look to yourself who preaches humanity but yet do not shelter these poor people in your own home.
Well, being in debt is still better than being Rohingya. Myanmarians should count their blessings.
in the jungle .. we do not use money .. just hunt games and harvest veggie for the families .. it is the best way to go :) God bless my people
But in jungle live spiders 😥I got bitten by poisonus spider when I was a baby 👶Now im afraid 😭
Sir pliz cover northeast India
Yashwant waykole . Sir not about that pliz cover fake in counter. How northeast India is struggling from mainland India . Cover AFSPA more than thousand were killed fake in counter and rape our sister. So many problem lies within northeast India.
Yesh 🙌🏻
That "Young Mother of Two" can probably save some addition money if she could stop chewing those betel nuts. That's like chewing tobacco in Burma, so many people chew them but gives no benefits and black teeth.
20% Per month? U even can't earn that much profit doing a bussiness.
How do we know that they didnt help her financially, after they take their stories.. ?
Hi! My grandfather is from Burma and grew up the same way. He watched this documentary and knew that my aunt was going to visit soon for the Thadingyut holiday. He gave her $200 and showed her the documentary and told her to give them the money. They are out of debt now!
The fact that they still had the debt to pay shows that the journalists did not give them the money they needed.
Collective saving of neighbors to allow the member-borrower to buy land or a house or open a store is nothing new. This scheme has been going on for thousands of years in Asia. Collective saving is a way helping each other to achieve their goal that otherwise it couldn't. What's more, collective saving is going today in many Chinese neighborhoods in New York City Chinatown.
This This place This place needs grameen's micro loans but the government will not allow it.
Husbands are too lazy
how can be that country be in the top as the most generous country (money and time) of the world? winning to USA and most of European countries
I get it to have 1 or 2 children but to have many is really confusing . Like what are you trying to prove? That you can pump much more seeds then the other guys when you can barely feed your family? I don't think anyone can criticize me for this because I am correct .
A larger family has a higher chance of finding success among it's plentiful children. The dynamics of a small family (i.e. 1 or 2) will dictate that the children growing up in that family will be raised in a highly idealised setting and find trouble understanding how the world can be so cruel, empathetic, remorseless (i.e. how the world really works). While those from larger families tend to have a more realistic outlook on how life really works. Also children raised from smaller families tend to be more pampered because they carry the same expectations that the attention they received from their parents translates to the real world.
I guess they are too poor and uneducated. They don't know how to prevent pregnancy
How do we support ours young?
All burmese
$66 that amount of money is basically nothing i have more than that as spare change one of the crew filming could have just given that to help them from the sharks people in countries like this could be killed for that or be hurt in other ways, its just $66... for filming them thats a small price to pay
I have to say normally This channel so bias it is horrible to watch. However this is a very good documentary + reporting.. I really like this .
When China is investing, then it's a debt trap. Look at Vietnam . Infrastructure promotes economical growth.
You dont need to blame china, even without china the problem of those country already there , its nothing to do with china , remember this : china has been very poor 40 years ago , china van struggle in to this huge position with so much pressured from many countries , why others country in SE Asia Cant ? Because their government are STUPID thats all, dont blame china this china that,
China could be left behind too if they didnt make big reformation in many fields,
China sucks . I'd rather starve .
Out of curiosity, what is with the white thing on their faces?
Ms Tergelsar thanaka i think
It is Burmese make up. It is consider good for skin. You get it from plant.
Thanks for the explanations. I was wondering that too.
Ms Tergelsar maybe dry skin
cocaine, A LOT
This is why Islam bans debt interest
ercan kilic I'm not talking about who does it and who doesn't, but it's banned. And besides banks local people can't lend money like this in most muslim countries
usher javed fyi those shown first are rohingya muslim just because koran says doesnt mean people follow everything...they interprets what suits them
and what about Syria And Iraq where your islam is on its full peak. where there is islam , there is poverty and terrorism.
Woman collecting money speaks a language a bit like Mainpuri of Manipur from northeast India, i Can't Speak Mainpuri but can understand a bit cause I'm from Manipur neighbour state Nagaland
Why do they have two translation on the screen,the better one was covered by the trying hard translator.
Why are these people having children? You grew up poor and you don't figure out how to get out of better your situation, you go and have children and make them suffer. Why!!!!?!! The same situation everywhere.
This is actually more humane than American banks. US has a worse system by far, including debtors prison for men who can’t pay child support. Next will be debtors prison for student and credit card loans. Only a matter of time. I’d take my chances in Myanmar instead.
Did aljazeera pay for any of these interviews? Interview the poor, we just want the story to tell the world of your grove cause you don't deserve to live like this, so we should have to pay your debts. Interview a celebrity, how much will it take to have you on our annual special episode.
Money lenders doing the devils work.👹
👏👿👿
So much of this wrong to me. The loan sharks and parents not/ or barely working seem to have kids as slaves. People shouldn't be so greedy and lazy
2 kid make me sad
a loan for loan-loan
... With a family of six to feed... Says it all..
havent you seen the two child-mothers? one isnt even 18 and has already 2 children.
people should learn to keep their genitalia covered by their own pants
... "with 3 extended family members" learn to listen, Miles, she didn't make her 3 extended family members, she gave shelter to them and is trying her best to support her family members in need. You didn't even listen to the video properly but managed to make a ridiculous argument out of it.