The Golden Triangle: Inside Southeast Asia's Drug Trade

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments Many people have contributed to this research project and I very much appreciate their assistance and support. First and foremost, I would like to thank Larry Chung, executive director of the International Foundation for the Peaceful Elimination of Opium Crops. Without Larry’s relentless efforts in helping me overcome a variety of obstacles along the way, this project would never have been initiated or completed. A courageous woman in northern Thailand and an equally stalwart man in southwest China assisted me on the occasions when I was trying to clandestinely cross the border into the Wa area of Burma. They also aided me in locating key informants to be interviewed in the border areas. They took great risks in helping me, and I can never thank them enough for their assistance. I can only thank them anonymously because their identities should not be revealed. I would also like to thank all the people who played a key role in helping me collect data in the Wa area. I am most grateful to members of my research team: Wei Xiang, Chen Wei, Chen Lifan, Ai Ying, Wei Xiaolan, Zhao Liqing (Yixi), Xiao Qinghong, Li Xiuqiong, and Ting Xiao. I was fortunate to have recruited an exceptional group of interviewers and research assistants who were not only completely dedicated to the project but were pleasant companions and fun to work with. Two weeks after x Acknowledgments I had completed data collection and left the Wa State, I was shocked and deeply saddened to learn that Wei Xiang, the lead interviewer, had been hit by a car while riding her motorcycle in Bangkang. She was taken to a local hospital, but died a few hours later. She was only twenty-two. This book is partly dedicated to her. I also wish to thank the Wa leaders, in particular Bao Youxiang, Xiao Mingliang, Zhou Dafu, Wang Keqiang, Chen Longsheng, and Yan Shengbing , for helping me in many ways; their support was critical to the successful completion of this research project. During my stay in the Wa area, the leaders kept their promise not to interfere in my activities in any way. Moreover, they gave me complete freedom in the recruitment of research assistants and interviewers, the selection of research subjects and sites, and the development of interview questionnaires. All my requests for assistance were responded to promptly and efficiently by the Wa leaders. Their level of cooperation far exceeded my expectations. I am also extremely grateful to three anonymous reviewers for their careful reading of early versions of this manuscript and their detailed suggestions as to how it could be improved. Huan Gao of California State University, Stanislaus, and Galma Jahic of Istanbul Bilgi University were my research assistants for this project in the United States when they were PhD students at Rutgers University. They were instrumental in helping me manage and analyze the data set. They were meticulous and efficient, and invaluable colleagues in this undertaking. This manuscript was carefully edited by Judy Mellecker, and I thank her very much for spending so many painstaking hours figuring out what I was trying to say and helping me say it correctly and clearly. In addition to editing the manuscript, Judy provided me many good suggestions on how to improve the structure of the manuscript. I also thank John Raymond for his excellent work in copyediting the manuscript and suggesting ways to improve it. I wish to thank Peter Wissoker, my editor at Cornell University Press, for his patience and understanding in working with me. Peter played a key role in helping me transform a lengthy manuscript into one that I believe is more concise and better focused. Susan Specter, the manuscript editor, was extremely helpful in the process of transforming a daunting amount of material into a book. I also thank Rutgers Cartography for preparing the maps included in the text. It is hardly necessary to absolve others from responsibility for the views set forth, but I do so anyway, to resolve any doubt that those acknowl- Acknowledgments xi edged necessarily share my assessments of the problems. Support for this research was provided by Grant SES-0095929 from the National Science Foundation. The opinions in this book are mine and do not necessarily reflect the policies or views of the National Science Foundation. This page intentionally left blank. [3.17.28.48] Project MUSE (2024-04-24 01...