Finalist
Christian Holst
Reportage by Getty Images
"Half a Century Without Freedom - Life under the Military Regime of Burma"
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The Burmese people work hard, but for decades their living standards have deteriorated as a direct result of the faulted polices of the junta.
Here, a day laborer who earns 2-3 dollars a day porters charcoal on the bank of the Rangoon River.
The regime’s corrupt economic policies have resulted in double-digit inflation and devastated wages and salaries. An average Burmese lives on not much more than a few dollars per day. Minimum wage buys 8-10 times fewer basic commodities like rice, salt, sugar and cooking oil than it did 20 years ago, says a local economist.
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