The document discusses several topics related to the Indian Ocean region: 1) NGOs have played a large role in helping Bangladesh develop and providing services where the central government has failed. Some questions have been raised about their operations but they have significantly improved living standards. 2) China has increased its influence in Sri Lanka through large investments and aid, seeing its location as strategically important. This is in contrast to decreasing US involvement in the country. 3) Indonesia is an important country due to its energy resources and location near the Strait of Malacca, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, making it geopolitically significant.

1. Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power Nicole Gomez – Monsoon Part II

2. Bangladesh - NGOs Non-governmental Organizations take credit for helping Bangladesh cope well under harsh circumstances. Thanks to NGOs, such as Save the Children and Doctors Without Borders, Bangladesh was able to rise from a state of famine less than half a century ago to a nation that feeds itself. A large number of local NGOs function as the middle man between a poorly functioning central government and village committees for the bettering of their lifestyles. Ethical questions have been raised about Bangladeshi NGOs since they are nonprofit enterprises with for-profit elements. However, the transformations the country has undergone as a result of such NGOs outshine the impurities. Local NGOs are supported by international donors and, as a result, have learned international norms, linking them to the global community. The success of the NGO’s influence in Bangladeshi villages is in part given credit to the presence of a moderate form of Islam

3. Chinese in Ceylon Ceylon, in Sri Lanka, is located at the hinge between the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea – the core of Indian Ocean trade routes. The Chinese occupied Ceylon for thirty years in the fifteenth century, before European occupations by the Portuguese, Dutch, and British. China is involved in building a development zone in Hambantota that features a deep-water harbor, fuel-bunkering facility, oil refinery, and some other infrastructure. China has supplied Sri Lanka with weapons such as fighter aircrafts, personnel carriers, guns, air surveillance radar, missiles, and rocket-propelled grenades. Recently, China’s aid to Sri Lanka has increased from a few million dollars in 2005 to $1 billion in 2008. This beats U.S. by far, given the U.S. only gave $7.4 million and suspended military aid in 2007. The Chinese see the advantage of Sri Lanka as their key to sea routes around the Asian rimland and are constructing ports along the Indian Ocean while the United States is distracted in Afghanistan.

4. Indonesia and the Strait of Malacca Indonesia is one of the world’s major oil producer and will remain the primary supplier of natural gas for decades for East Asia. Because of its energy resources, ethnic diversity, predominant Muslim religion, institutional weaknesses, and strategic location, Indonesia is a center for world politics. The island of Sumatra of Indonesia and peninsular Malaysia form the heart of maritime Asia. The Strait of Malacca, which is more than five hundred miles in length, lies between these two regions and is the area where much activity takes place. It is where most shipping lanes between the Red Sea and the Sea of Japan converge, where the spheres of naval influence of India and China meet, and where the Indian Ocean joins the western Pacific. The Strait of Malacca is a busy waterway that serves as the pathway to provide the twelve of the fourteen nations of East and Southeast Asia with Middle Eastern oil.

5. Indian Ocean Pirates Pirates of the Indian ocean were murderous thugs, just like pirates of the seventeenth-century Caribbean and preyed on all manner of ships, including small dhows, cruise liners, and natural gas carriers. Most of the time, the victims were Asian fishing boats. Americans patrolled the lawless Somali coast in international waters from the twelve-mile territorial limit to five hundred miles out. The waters bordering Somalia were the most dangerous waters in the world as the anarchy on land made its way out to the waters. In one case, pirates had beaten, bullied, and semi-starved an Indian crew for six days and threw a live monkey overboard that was being transported Dubai. The destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill were able to get the pirates to surrender and transferred the crew to the USS Nassau. According to American Lieutenant Berke, pirates wore tank tops, light jackets, flip-flops, and 1980s shorts and were malnourished, dehydrated and need dental work. They seemed to be between the ages of fifteen and thirty and didn’t have families. In their own eyes, they were doing nothing wrong.

6. Photo Sources http://www.ngofoundation.org.bd/randomImage_details.php?rid=8oqXtjPOJjmeeting01_S.jpg&trctype=1 http://www.srilankaembassy.fr/test/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=52%3Asl-at-a-glance&layout=blog&Itemid=170&lang=en http://jdouglasresource.blogspot.com/p/photography.html http://asldubai.blogspot.com/2010/11/eu-anti-piracy-efforts-in-indian-ocean.html