I don’t normally do this but here goes... This is the island of La Ngan in the remote outer reaches of the Myiek Archipelago, and is home to one of the last remaining communities of sea gypsies in Myanmar, known as Moken. Not so long ago they lived almost entirely at sea, only returning to land when the rains started. Filming there was both beautiful and tragic, as the Moken people told of how their ancestral fishing and cultural grounds, which have been a part of their way of life for centuries, are now being closed off to them by the Japanese pearl company @tasaki_intl. The Moken openly talk of being wiped out, as their whole community will have no way to live, if planned expansions of their pearl farms, already disrupting the Moken way of life, go ahead. So @tasaki_intl, and all your corporate partners, I’d invite you to go spend some time with these people, listen to them, learn from them and consider the weight of your short term profits and bank statements, measured against an ancient way of life and people who are being crushed by them.
