Finalist
Christian Holst
Reportage by Getty Images
"Half a Century Without Freedom - Life under the Military Regime of Burma"
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Buyers inspect jade boulders at a gem trade fair in Rangoon.
The world’s best jade and rubies come from mines in central and northern Burma. At a gem trade fair in Rangoon in Spring 2010, more than five hundred million dollars worth of gems and jade were sold to Chinese, Taiwanese and Hong Kong traders in less than two weeks. At a more recent, smaller, trade fair in Rangoon, one 33-carat ruby fetched one million US dollars. Four hundred thousand US dollars went straight to the regime, which demands 40% of the proceeds from the most lucrative mines.
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