Burmese coup causes food prices to rise, income to fall

As clashes between the military who took over the country in a coup Feb 1 and protestors in cities and insurgents in the countryside rage on, prices on necessities like food spike and many are going hungry in Myanmar. People who could once afford healthy, balanced meals of pork and vegetables and rice are now scraping by simple cheap foods like dried fish, fish paste, stringy vegetables, or even just rice with salt for the poorest people. The combination of jobs being lost during continual uprisings and civil unrest, and the effects on imports and exports driving up the costs of basic goods has plunged the country into a humanitarian crisis. Banking systems have been frozen, internet spotty, all major economic driving forces stagnant since the military seized power and jailed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Even those lucky enough to have savings may spend all day in a queue waiting to withdraw any. Factories and businesses all over the country have shuttered in the wake of the ...