Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Switchboard >

Burma Protests

Page: 1(2)

11:42 / 03.10.07

"The Junta's Accomplices": George Monbiot on Burma
I'm rushing off to work right this second, sorry I can't say more at the moment!

15:35 / 03.10.07

A list of companies doing business with Burma, from burmacampaign.org.uk.

Closed for Business Time

23:58 / 03.10.07

An update on the colonel that defected. Norwegian paper Aftenposten reports that the man, whose nam is reported to be Htaly Win is a major who has made contact with the Norwegian embassy in Bangkok and arranged for a meeting to take place with their representatives. The Norwegian Dept of Foreign Affairs say they do not know what he wants.

The whole story in English here.

My Mom Thinks I'm Cool

13:06 / 04.10.07

I've been debating with my friends about what we could do to influence China via Olympic boycott.

Last night in my English class, the article I picked out to read over and discuss was one on Burma and how China has more power to influence what's going on than the US does. I'm doubtful of the effects, but you know, it's about twenty Chinese people with relatives back home. Felt better than nothing.

And it's surprising how many people have no idea what's going on or have even heard of Burma. My co-teacher thought it was maybe in Africa. Maybe just spreading the news isn't that small of a thing.

18:10 / 04.10.07

My co-teacher thought it was maybe in Africa.

Crawling back in my hole now.

18:41 / 11.10.07

Crawling out to share two bits of news.

Item 1:
"There were about 400 of us in one room. No toilets, no buckets, no water for washing. No beds, no blankets, no soap. Nothing," said a 24-year-old monk who was held for 10 days at the Government Technical Institute, a leafy college in northern Rangoon which is now a prison camp for suspected dissidents. The young man, too frightened to be named, was one of 185 monks taken in a raid on a monastery in the Yankin district of Rangoon on 28 September, two days after government soldiers began attacking street protesters.

"The room was too small for everyone to lie down at once. We took it in turns to sleep. Every night at 8 o'clock we were given a small bowl of rice and a cup of water. But after a few days many of us just couldn't eat. The smell was so bad.

"Some of the novice monks were under 10 years old, the youngest was just seven.

And, in case that's not cheerful enough, item 2:

China on Monday spearheaded a move in the UN Security Council to soften a Western-sponsored statement on the military crackdown in Myanmar amid broad agreement on the need for ending the violence and freeing political prisoners.

...

But he noted that China, backed by several other delegations, insisted on replacing the word "condemn" by "strongly deplore" and dropping a reference to consideration of "further steps," suggesting instead that the council continues to monitor the situation.

The Chinese also objected to a detailed formulation in the draft of the steps the Myanmar regime must take to defuse the crisis, the diplomat said.

"China has a key role to play (in the crisis) and needs to maintain communications with the regime. The same applies to Gambari," said Yankey, who noted that members were keen "not to jeopardize" the twin mediation.

So, worse than you might have thought, and China's not being especially helpful.

20:07 / 11.10.07

Holy f**k. That is breaking my heart, Grant.
Fucking Chinese government.

I wish I could cloth, feed and protect the thousands that need it, but for now I will sign the petition to support the protesters in Burma. You can sign a petition here at Avaaz.org.

And I will pray, for what it is worth.

My Mom Thinks I'm Cool

11:05 / 24.10.07

world-wide rallies today, midday, at chinese embassies.

Lagrange's Nightmare

10:54 / 31.10.07

BBC reports Monks have completed another protest march.

Only a small protest, but it may be enough to cause a government reaction.

15:43 / 31.10.07

Did you follow the link to the story on Burma's child soldiers?

My Mom Thinks I'm Cool

00:37 / 13.05.08

so...huge cyclone in burma, bbc says maybe 32,000 dead or missing, maybe worse. burma's government isn't doing much to help aid get into the country.

today in my english class the reaction to this news was not quite what I expected. at first many people were condemning burma's lack of response, saying the government was "crazy". but later I started hearing a lot of anti-US sentiment rising up.

several of my students (almost all native Chinese) claimed that

1) only the US was being denied access to Burma - other places, especially China, were being allowed in to bring aid.

2) the US was being denied access because they brought warships into Burmese waters, which looked like an attempt to invade.

3) "everyone" knows that the US would love to invade Burma because it's close to China, which we would also like to invade. so, clearly, our attempt to bring aid to Burma was a poorly-disguised invasion force so we could take over.

...this doesn't match up with anything I'm seeing on the BBC website, and quite frankly the third point sounds pretty ridiculous to me, not that I trust our government not to invade other countries. has anyone else got anything about this? is this just a bit of Chinese bias mixed with America's well-deserved bad reputation overseas?

the conversation quickly degenerated into similar statements about how America is trying to invade Tibet and that's why we, and no one else, support the Dalai Lama...which I also believe is maybe not quite accurate...

perhaps more important than any of this...do people have suggestions for effective ways to help Burma (or for that matter Sichuan or Oklahoma)?

19:23 / 13.05.08

Wellll, it's not like the US isn't known to use international aid in some pretty sneaky ways... but in general, there's ideological similarities between Myanmar and China that are the opposite of what America ideologizes, so mutual distrust is to be expected.

I can't think of a way around this, especially since part of the ideological difference has to do with strong, centralized government control in a way that makes Buddhist monks unhappy.

03:04 / 16.05.08

has anyone else got anything about this? is this just a bit of Chinese bias mixed with America's well-deserved bad reputation overseas?

Why not check out statements by the UN?

If the U.S. used warships, it was probably because they were the closest means of transport available. Isn't that what happened in Indonesia after the tsunami?

I disagree with the "well-deserved" comment, of course.

Page: 1(2)