Burma - Myanmar

by quang duc Mon Sep 24, 2007 15:52

For a world so burdened with violence & the consequences of warlike men's claims on religion or liberty - one would think the seventh day of the walking Buddhists would be front page news.

For what it is worth, the UK [historical colonial power] & Germany have called on the military junta to release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi immediately. But those letters don't go to the prison house of the only Nobel Laureate (for Peace or otherwise) who looks out at us across barbed wire. There is nothing new in the UK or Germany condemning the military junta of Myanmar. They use child soldiers, their state is a conduit for processed opium at its pre-heroin stage and of course lots and lots of amphetamine. They have no freedom of press, association, speech, they have proved to set an example to neighbouring military regimes such as Thailand - & even if the most buddhists & vegetarians per capita in the EU live in either the UK or Germany - we €uropeans for all the kistch & tak, really don't do those kind of marches

So Monday - 7th day -

[........"More than 30,000 Buddhist monks, nuns and laymen marched through the streets on Yangon Monday in a swelling display of barefoot rebellion against the country's military regime.
Up to 5,000 of the monks passed by the headquarters of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), which is headed by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. NLD officers cheered the monks as they passed.........he monks' movement has put Burma's regime in an awkward position. If the rulers do not crack down on the protests, the demonstrations are likely to spread, but if they attack the monks, they would enrage the people."............]

For the moment then we stand, far away, passive & appalled witnesses of non-violent political action. No flying kicks, kubatons, monks on wires, sweatshop emptying of blearied eyed children hooked on speed, no seven year olds changing a AK for a begging bowl. We can't relate to this. It's not how political change ought be. Barefoot monks and nuns that can't jump the barbed wire?

It's..............sissy.

_____________________________________

write your letter.

Aung San Suu Kyi
54 University Avenue,
Bahan
11201
Yangon, Myanmar
(Burma)

by iosaf Mon Sep 24, 2007 18:27

In the article and last comment I used the name "quang duc". The first newspaper headline grabbing suicide with petrol was on October 5th 1963 in Saigon, there a buddhist monk Quang Duc had had enough of the South Vietnamese government led by Ngo Dinh Diem.
In May 1966, 5 such suicides were recorded in just one week. a 17 year old girl followed a 19 year old girl who herself followed another monk.
The action of Quang Duc was to be copied more times than anyone cares to remember. It is highly significant that indeed no-one cares to remember how frequent incidents of Self-immolation became in both laypeople and monks. How the phenomena was reduced to one photo. How today no paralels are drawn.

We in the west tend to favour the cute & twee side of Buddhism. Together with scientology the religious system of far Asia holds a peculiar & non-demographic sway over the best & coolest of Hollywood. It's unsurprising to find Jim Carry the actor you may remember from such movies as "The Mask", "The Truman Show", "Dumb & Dumber" is the Youtube generation's voice of Burma - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NySuaJ2B20E

Again & again a religion which shows no resistance, which simply rolls over and puts trust in some future life has proved all too easy for the US & others to use a bargaining chip in their geopolitical power play in SE Asia......or has it?

Myanmar just like Nixon's China opened her doors to sweatshops. The military junta "minister of religion" Brigadier General Thura Myint Maung this afternoon met with high ranking officials of Burmese buddhism & warned them to immediately stop the protest, those on the street & of course the other "strike" by which monks are refusing to offer religious services to members of the security force.

"If the monks go against the rules and regulations in the authority of the Buddhist teachings, we will take action under the existing law," state television quoted him saying, AFP news agency reported. Nice "update" article from Guardian with lots of links at the bottom http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,217612....html

Brig. Gen. T. Myint Muang a few years back promised the civilised world he'd stop the flow of pink speed and smack. He didn't do a good job.

The most endemic workers' helper of the same rose shade as the robes the twee & pretty spiritual nuns wear somehow slips under the barbed wire & around the Myanmar's secret police the "Em-Eye" .

Now that general is threatening monks. I can for Irish readers happily report that there is at present no Irish nor for that matter Spanish company which operates in Burma. We're not taking their Gas & Oil. We're not using their slave labour.

We're not at the happy end of a production line which if it is paid at all - means 1,300 kyats ($1) a day & the a small bag of rice is at least 400 kyats.

The USA says it is watching the situation carefully. Naturally of the 459 companies who do business with Myanmar - the US is right up there. http://www.global-unions.org/burma/default3.asp

But it's not at the top.

Russia & China vetoed discussion of Myanmar at the UN security council in january. So we talk about the Iranians instead. They're are sort. No speed, little smack, drill their own oil & make their own weapons. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-01/13/content_7...2.htm

THere will be no UN blue helmets going in to take the Nobel prize winner out. There will be no agent smith morphing with the oracle -quite yet.

So......................... the Burmese generals have us westerners & foreigners by the real psychic pubes, our sanctions don't work if the Chinese & Indians can forever shore the regime up ignoring the abuses which are let's be honest not to bad for a sweatshop in the land of Hindu or Mao. Because if there's a lot of drugs in those hills, there's more Gas in the sea.

Accordingly the monsoon will come and the drizzle which now falls in Rangoon will turn to deluge. India the state of Ghandi will still sign her deal with Myanmar the earldom of Mountbatten http://www.shwe.org/docs/indias-ongc-in-deal-for-new-my...urces

Pacifism is both bad news & it would seem silly politics.

Brother Quang Duk's suicide was photographed & filmed & not only made TIME magazine front cover but became iconic. Yet immediate debate focussed more on the morality of recording a suicide or death in celuloid than any responsibility on behalf of the Buddhist brothers to alter their behaviour or at least make a statement, & explain their program of action & prosperity, oil exploration, value of a child, how to make meth.

as other people joined the religious fanatics burning themselves, the journalistic zeal of young reporters mostly in the USA finally suceeded in getting a statement from the buddhist brothers.

They asked people to stop being violent & wondered would the world show more of an interest. The American government got together a coalition of the willing and went in to sort it out.

Of course many younger readers will miss the obscure references to the Vietnam war.

_____________________________________

write your letter & be twee. " I will care if you die"

Aung San Suu Kyi
54 University Avenue,
Bahan
11201
Yangon, Myanmar
(Burma)

or get to the point & hit India & China for they are the main power brokers. SAy things like you'll boycott the Olympics & burn photos of Ghandi.

by Righteous Pragmatist Tue Sep 25, 2007 09:17

The Burmese military are clearly getting ready to crackdown.
In the next few days we may well witness the army opening fire thousands of protesters followed by mass arrests and executions.
This can be prevented if the Western powers are prepared to interevene militarily to topple the Burmese regime.

However the negative reaction to the US overthrow of Saddam which liberated the Iraqi people from tyranny and the "bodybag" syndrome which has played out in the US press is unlikely to encourage a repeat in Burma.

The Burmese military junta have some justification in their confidence that once again they can crush dissent because the Western governments fearful of Western liberals who oppose humanitarian intervention to overthrwo tyranny do not have the guts to stop them.

by iosaf Tue Sep 25, 2007 14:47

Thank you for that typical contribution "rightous pragmatist" but I would have preferred if you had just written a letter to Aung San Suu Kyi at 54 University Avenue, Bahan 11201 Yangon, Myanmar (Burma).

I had hoped in the last comment to make it clear that this one corner of the world the USA has virtually no option to act. But just in case readers in the US umbrella which is both Irish foreign policy & more importantly cultural world view don't get that, I'm going to explain some of the finesse diplaumatique in the hope it will help people not only in the future, but also explain how terribly wrong decisions & foreign policy of the past 4 years have been.

In my last comment I offered links to the file on the 459 foreign companies who despite sanctions still hold some type of relationship with the military regime of Myanmar. I also brought attention to the regional powerbrokers & explained the basis of their influence; India & China compete for oil, gas, construction contracts, India signed its last deal with the regime yesterday as the "minister for religion" threatened the monks. I also did my best to draw what I believe is an important allusion to the historic role Buddhism has played in both national & world politics by explaining the "author name" Quang Duc. There were of course 2 other allusions I could have drawn from - the exile of the Dalai Lama thus focussing my analysis of what we can do beyond sending Aung San Suu Kyi postcards on China which needless to say is the focus of most western European media - or I could have copperfastened such a "kneejerk" blame game & talked as Isabel Hilton in today's "Guardian" does of Tiananmen square. But instead I'm suggesting pushing the Indian pressure point.

European political scientists as reflected by analysis pieces which appeared last night in "Le Monde", "Liberation", "Speigel", "Reppublica" seem to agree on a number of important factors which would be key for any successful "revolution" to come out of this. & the news is bad.
1) China has serious concerns for the stability of her neighbour for many reasons, the border is as alledgedly porous for PRRS (Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome) coming from Myanmar as it is for that key word "PinkMeth" going in. In his former role which I alluded to in yesterday's comment, the current military minister of religion only managed to arrest one east Asian drug baron on that border in 3 years.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-09/24/content_6...2.htm
The Chinese for the moment prefer the military junta thus gave them one of the quite famous "low interest multiple strings attached" chinese loans worth 200million$ last year which went to five ministries in the Myanmar military regime. Religion wasn't one of those, but Border security was. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-06/11/content_6...6.htm There is very little credibility to be given to Ms Hilton's comparison to Tiananmen square. A popular & undoubtedly iconic as well as spontanous pro-democracy student event in the ethnic Han heartlands of PRC during or before the Olympics will not occur in reaction to a food and fuel price protest led by young Buddhist monks in Burma. So I won't waste time on it merely pausing to observe that such politicking belongs to the "FuManchu" school of clichés, & in the original works of that name which we have touched in re recent "China v. Mattel toy" threads, the opponent of Fu is Nayland Smith, the British commissioner to Burma.

So what are the British saying?

Well, they've learnt a lot since fictional Nayland Smith's "yellow peril" racism, or even Mountbatten's earldom & exit from the region. Yesterday as before the British diplomat to the region commented on the "restraint" being showed by the military. He thus avoided reminding everyone that it the equivalent of a mortal sin & ticket to hell to attack a monk in Buddhism but managed to hold a line of "reconciliation" & negotiated resolution to the conflict.

The French have since Sarko of course decided to bluster and talk big, making up perhaps for his rather diminuitve stature. Fresh from menacing the Iranians their foreign ministry warned Rangoon in "the most serious terms" yesterday. Whilst significantly their media which boasts the highest number of western journalists on the ground turned to 2 themes -
the absence of a true political agenda amongst the young monks http://www.lemonde.fr/web/panorama/0,11-0@2-3216,32-958988@51-947750,0.html
the status quo of the last 20 years which has seen the military junta enjoy a very close if not warm relationship with the senior ranks of the buddhists
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3216,36-959051@51-947750,0.html

The Americans have virtually no room to move at all. I touched yesterday on them with my "agent Smith" quip. If there is anything the USA can do in this theatre, I will spell it out now.....they could move Aung San Suu Kyi from her house-prison down the road to their embassy & give her asylum. The distance between the US compound and her house is minimal. That they have not done so at any stage during her incarceration belies two things - (a) They would not risk the diplomatic precedent (b) The Nobel Peace laureate doesn't want to leave her prison if it is to a yankee base.

Without being arrogant, I believe there is useful information & good data links in my last comment & would thus encourage people if interested in this story to read the whole text through again.
http://indymedia.ie/article/84350?comment_limit=0&conde...07804

Youtube US audience targetted appeal for Aung San Suu Kyi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NySuaJ2B20E
Her wikipedia biography -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aung_San_Suu_Kyi
wikipedia guide to politics in Burma/Myanmar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Myanmar
list of companies operating in Myanmar, but pressure is not to be best applied here, I repeat the best longterm diplomatic & social assembly option is to pressure & shame India into forcing - negotiation, reduced food & fuel prices and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.
http://www.global-unions.org/burma/default3.asp
For they are the state which has profitted from Burmese Gas & Oil speculation only yesterday
http://www.shwe.org/docs/indias-ongc-in-deal-for-new-my...urces

___________________________________

Democratic Voice of Burma based in Norway -
the campaign is for -

1) Better food and living conditions;

2) the release of all political prisoners*

3) national reconciliation.

http://english.dvb.no/index.php



*Aung San Suu Kyi
54 University Avenue,
Bahan
11201
Yangon (Rangoon),
Myanmar (Burma)

by iosaf Wed Sep 26, 2007 18:00

The monks & nuns are still on the street, & by now most people will know that the EU states have all made statements condemning the "State Peace & Development Council" which is the name of the junta of generals of the "tatmadaw" (Burmese army) who of course signed the contracts for loans, pipelines and gas exploration with India & China.
In their turn the junta responded to fresh sanctions from the USA as part of its condemnation with the news that Rangoon is now under their direct control for 60 days. This means several things and they are not all perfectly obvious, for what it is worth here's my analysis which I hope will be taken on board with the previous comments & this complete text.
I have not moved from my position that there is more to be gained by pressuring India than China. I have not moved from my position that the USA is powerless no matter how many may respond to Jim Carrey's campaign or profess Budhism. I have not moved from my thoughts that the democracy movement has no clear political agenda & the lack of such as well as the outstanding matter of a 200million$ loan I explained yesterday is why China continues to stress "the desirability of stability in its neighbour" without & this is significant offering any direct support to the junta.

There is a space to move the hopes of the Burmese or Myanmar people (it was the military who changed the name) forward. That is undoubted, & it is similar in many ways but certanily not identical to the space which has been occupied by some other peoples suffering repression worldwide in the last five years. But it wouldn't serve their interest now to highlight which or where......for the moment. The progress possible at the moment would not be statewide including all the union of Myanmar & frankly must be considered not in terms of sanctions by the West which have only compounded the use of slave labour & reduced wages & raised fuel and food prices (the crux which started these protests) but within reform inside the "Tatmadaw" & a national move to "reconciliation" with the interests who held over 75% of the last election results.

The curfew which began last night shall be one of the military junta's measures if not to break the protest, prevent the crowds growing. We already know from "reporters sans frontiers" that since day one the military in Rangoon and Mandalay answerable to only a colonel and in several different zones have complicated the work of international observers. We know curfew shall further that & combined with daylight controls of the roads in Burma as the Monsoon begins will quickly combined with human nature & the journalist nature provide us with an arrest story.
But let me stress a curfew in a tourist city under a colonel's order is not a curfew in Rangoon under a General's command.

Just as on our side there is a "paucity of options" - there is also a lack of choice for the military junta.

This is the BBC coverage of the affair so far, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7014570.stm the British response as I hinted earlier honestly belies a maturity and realism which is as far from the days of empire and raj as a curfew in Rangoon & Mandalay tonight is from a labour camp in the Hengduan Shan mountains. We are in truth entering the critical phase of these protests. Again I contend it is to India and the Indian sense of honour and justice and partnership in its foreign relations and commercial ambitions we must look for a solution which allows affordable food, fuel, reconciliation & the release of political prisoners.

meanwhile if you're not burning photos of Ghandi you can write to Aung San Sung Kyi & this week might consider using the Myanmar spelling.

54 University Avenue
Bahan 11201
Yangon,
Myanmar

by iosaf Wed Sep 26, 2007 20:18

The first deaths have been reported, and arrests of journalists. The Myanmar goverment says one civilian is dead, the Times of India claims 4 including 2 monks have been shot.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Four_killed_100_hurt...8.cms
The Guardian has broken the news for the English press http://www.guardian.co.uk/burma/story/0,,2177297,00.html
the Burmese Democracy Front (linked to above based in Norway) & the democratic government in exile put the death toll at 5. The French at 2 monks 1 civilian. Reuters at 3 dead - including monks.

__________________________________

the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's "special envoy" Ibrahim Gambari to Myanmar will brief as .
Reuters India reports a Security Council Emergency Meeting for 15h00EDT - 19h00 GMT today.
It hasn't started yet - it may just finish before curfew kicks in at 20h00EDT around midnight Irish time.
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-29732...70926

__________________________________

The state of India still has made no official comment at UN level on Burma. As it celebrates one of its sons ascension today being the 4th richest man on the planet by dint of oil exploration a career path owed to his own father's role in the British empire's Burma Shell - & as India agrees military exercises with the UK in Kashmir despite Pakistani protest, Mr Gordon "aspidistra aspiration" Brown could ask them to put their diplomacy where their Ghandi is.

in 1988 they didn't use mask or sticks. He's still not scared but now he's scary. Emerging..,

by iosaf Thu Sep 27, 2007 15:53

Facts

# the Tarder Hotel which is the favoured residence of the world's journalists, press people & cameramen in Rangoon was attacked by Burmese military last night in contrevance of article IV of the Geneva Convention 12/8/49 with direct reference to the additions and protocols of June 8th 1977.
# Kenje Nagai a 50 year old cameraman employed by AFP has been murdered during the course of his work as an accredited journalist at that Hotel after only two days work stay in Burma.
# the Myanmar junta who rule Burma, keep child soldiers, use slave labour camps & have systematically stolen the profits raised from exploitation of the Burmese peoples' resources have attempted & failed to prevent telecommunications of both terrestial & geostationary satelite type out of the state.
# BBC have a big page with lots of info - it's reliable too. oh yep. we've gone back to "burma" now. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7016608.stm
BBC filtration of reports from inside Burma http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7011884.stm

comment

In 1988 there were no mobile phones with cameras or for that matter there was no internet either..,
The junta is showing us how old-fashioned they really are. Their neighbours in Thailand who rather than stay in junta rule simply throw a coup d'etat yet leave the King on a regular basis managed to cut the telephone lines and internet connections the last time they brought tanks to the street.

Ah! I here you observe, the Burmese have no tanks on the street. "Quite" I'd retort what passes for that type of equipment is up the hills. By now this story is in all your newspapers & on your TV. I can really add no more to the global activist heap by telling you which pressure point to push. I suppose the general public will notch this up as another Fu manchu-esque example of the cruelty and barbarism of the far East. I dare say there are little old ladies with tidy fortunes in shares whose world view can accept Gordon Brown's inheritance of Blair of Thatcher having passed the unpalattebly morsel of modernisation down their gullets at that ghastly woman's ascension . Well, I know there are a few of those little old ladies left. In their 90's and centuries wishing Mountbatten was back and the Burma Shell had never gone & even, dare I say it the aspidistra still flew.

There are many useful links in the article and comments above. This crises is not over. The Burmese Junta are incapable of "putting it down" in the 60 days they'd hoped for, & to be frank - their gas & oil & 200 million dollar loans aren't really so big on the world stage. That we have reached this stage by this root so quickly means the junta can not win or secure power as the Thai generals did. They are anachronisms & now it matters not if they control the post, the TV, the buses, the prisons, the farms-------

We now know they don't control the youngest buddhist monks.
We now know they don't control the internet.

It is time for me to add one piece of analytic data & complete the text then. Because ye mostly know writing to Aung San Suu Kyi or burning photos of Ghandi or even lighting sticks of incense aren't going to do much now. So I'll tell you where this going. Nepal & the struggle of the Nepalese is the direct social comparison. All the ingredients are there though with superficially striking different flavours.

__________________________________________________

I invite people to read the whole text through again. & if you're wondering the land of Ghandi still haven't uttered a word http://www.un.int/india/
Here's a UN SC statement, print it out pin it on the wall, if we undervalue them, what have we got?
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2007/sgsm11186.doc.htm

of course young people don't know what an aspidistra looks like anymore

by Iosaf "burning Ghandi" crew Fri Sep 28, 2007 00:23

The first person on the diplomatic stage who used the word restraint was of course Mark Canning who has been the British ambassador to Burma for a few years. He used the word on the 6th day of the protest, when the majority of those mobilised were still buddhist monks, the nuns in pink hadn't arrived & civilians or lay people weren't shouting slogans. They were mostly "repressed & oppressed back then". Mr Canning used the word as a sort of diplomatic code by which you compliment the bastards when they don't break skulls.

That was ages ago, a whole aeon of Burmese history ago.

He's of course changed his lingo since & has been providing constant streams of info on just how many shots are being heard, skulls are being broken & blaa de blaa. So your Friday newspaper will be counting on quite a bit of info from Mr Canning. You might like to send him a letter when the postal service is operative again.

Now a word about students.

As we know you can't have a modern revolution without radicalised students popping up about the place & showing their "first aid" know-how & generally manning the barricades. Of course many people will whinge that previously "closed or isolated" states such as Burma & what I'm telling you is the model - Nepal : have more in the way of buddhist monks than proper students. A few days ago when "restraint" had been shown & before the deaths in double figures which provoke India & China to now equally call for "restraint" tthere were those in the west (as I remarked above) who only see the cute & twee side of Buddhists.

Buddhists aren't twee, cute, particularly anti-commie or a prop against FuManchu.

That type generally are the type (who in line with US foreign policy blame China for all that India must accept as responsibility) who think that the great number of young Buddhists you find in Burma is a sign of deep spirituality & all round holiness.

Is it bollox +

It means exactly the same thing as almost every second Irish family having a priest or nun on the missions in the mid-20th century...........Oh yep- I was talking about students. Well the university of Burma is located in the 11201 postal district. You all know that coz in line with instructions you've sent postcards there & they'll be a while arriving.....Shit happens.

At the north western point of a small triangle of which the eastern point is 54 university road - you recall that particular address & it is now too late to send postcards to the nice Nobel Peace lady is the university of Burma's Rangoon campus. The other point of that triangle on the south western side is the Myanmar telly station. Latest word from the university tells us on the grapevine that the army bored of attacking the media in the hotel (see last comment) have now isolated departments on the campus in an attempt to frustrate any real political action on photocopiers, inviting Ahmadinejad or David Irving to a debate or twiddling with the antennas on the roof. I'm sure I've told you all before that come the revolution the more traditional of you will seize RTE whilst we're twiddling with the antennas & sending mobile photos through the Northern Irish or Manx telecom service, & I'll be hoping to see tractors & will keep you updated with incisive comments. Anyway. Reliable word from the building in the centre of that triangle which I've just described to you & you could find on google earth if you're a "netsurfer" is that getting mobile signals out of Burma/Myanmar is a piece of piss. That building by the way is the US embassy.

Last word for the moment, concerns mobilisations in Ireland and globally to bring pressure on China alone to end this problem. Since I've been filling a page up telling you it's India you need to pressure & they have finally called for "restraint" I jolly well sincerely expect everyone of you (whether you prefer pictures of elder holy buddhists humming or young angry monks who would have preferred to be studying a degree or having a sexlife) to send those thoughts & anger at India. They are the tender option & their contracts are more amenable to our powers of examination.

= Burn Ghandi's poster.

for India to call for restrain in Burma whilst it has profited so much from her repression & has announced military exercises of upmost provocation in Kashmir is just not good enough.

The WORD is not RESTRAINT it is DIVESTMENT!

by ipsiphi - (iosaf for those who don't know that particular username) Fri Sep 28, 2007 18:25

By now everyone knows the Burmese internet is cut. http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2190183,00.asp
Even RTE has reported that in the last 3 hours :
http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0928/burma1.html

This is of course a reaction to what the junta saw as a threatening flow of data before http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39082 stuff like this blog which is relaying info -http://ko-htike.blogspot.com/

So I thought to explain to you & any Myanmar military who might be reading how data is now going to flow out of Burma & what "switching off the net" is really about just in case the FF/GP/PD regime (you didn't vote for) refuses to relinquish power when it too crumbles before term. (which it will) & decides to switch off your internet.

It's all quite simple really & works on several levels

- Since capitalist corporations & interests took advantage of favourable employment conditions in Myanmar - conditions such as forced labour, children who are addicted to pink speed & never sleep till they keel over dead in ther early adulthood & low taxes, the Myanmar junta has had to keep abreast of modern communication systems. & that meant introducing the www. Of course they knew that the www has been used & is used in many other places to foment dangerous ideologies. So they had to keep an eye on it. However, being generally old-fashioned generals they never gave their secret police the "Em-Eye" the sort of goodies we enjoy the West. Not for them the "do no evil" combination of software and hardward which is googleware & caches almost everything, not for them the infamous keyhole systems such as "trojan" system of the CIA, the "magic lantern" system of the FBI, the "frostburg" or "harvest" systems of the NSA which get past your anti-virus or spyware software. For simple reasons - they don't have enough electricity in their state to run the hardward you'd need.

Accordingly the junta's supervision of the internet is a very basic "switch it on or switch it off" approach when things get to complicated for the "EmEye" secret police to run or monitor the internet cafés of course yes we know from the "reporters sans frontiers 2007 annual report" http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=20773 that internet cafés take a screen shot every five minutes, but that accumulates to "too much data". Such techniques work when everyone is scared, but when tens of thousands of people are on the street such intimidation loses its teeth, because quite basically as has been long observed on the US NSA story - there are not enough people to analyse the data. [ or another example were the sporadic US telephone protests which see thousands of people use a Keyword like "cannabis" or "bomb" at exactly the same time which quite infamously toppled Echelon's surveillance capabilities.

Of course the Myanmar militia has also used the tried and tested methods of Mauritania, Zimbabwe & others & merely made internet access prohibitively expensive. In a land where the daily wage before this crises was 1,300 kyats ($1) a day & a small bag of rice was at least 400 kyats paying 800kyats a half hour to send emails is a bit steep. Those emails must be valuable. But as long as the Burmese internet is off, the 459 foreign companies are facing communication difficulties.., That makes them naturally more reliant on the telephone network.

Now if Burma can't monitor the internet like the British monitor theirs, or the US monitors theirs, or the Guardia Civil monitors theirs, (remembering the internet belongs to no one state) then likewise they can't monitor their telecom system. So you see the options to internet are really more reliable then Madame Blavatsky's telepathy.

Where there is a phone with a camera - there is an image. Where there is a phone adapted to use other than the usual software (& yes mobiles use software) it's message is harder to crack & there is data flow. What now we could ask the Burmese military is are they prepared to move their little regime change piece on the chessboard one more step to checkmate & switch off the telecom system? Or will they be super clever & whilst ignoring the diplomatic "clamour for restraint" ask the People's republic of China to do it for them? Well, that's what they have been doing before you know. Which is one reason "reporters sans frontiers" who as well being jolly good & important people do have a bit of an agenda gave them the "internet black hole status" http://www.rsf.org/int_blackholes_fr.php3?id_mot=72&ann...er=OK also check this -

oh well, imagine for a moment you're Chinese - you get tired of being played off against everyone else & demonised. Especially when you're putting in so much effort to the Pandawear & Olympics & have just dealt with Mattel Toy corp. You tend to say -

"you've bitten the hand that fed you & now you're on your own".

In fact the cutting of the internet today will only spurn on the protests, deepen the demands and make the flow of data ever more resourceful. Each step the junta take is towards the collapse of their regime. & let's be honest, for the erudition and enlightenment of the youngest amongst us who can't remember life before the internet, don't recognise history as legitimate unless it has a html page and have never even considered that anything other than CCTV could come in B&W - there have been quite succesful revolutions without internet - they don't need technology they need time.

.:. @ + we can still hear them.........will we blame the corporations?

by Haku Fri Sep 28, 2007 18:38

Travel is nearly impossible and texted reports are saying that the Malaysian Government and the
Thailand government have opened tracts of land at their borders for refugees, this is
unconfirmed data- also that the people attempting to travel between countries are having severe
difficulties with communications. If there are any updates will put them on here.

by .:. Fri Sep 28, 2007 19:10

Border situation & fishing waters -
......"Burmese people along the border have started stockpiling food and other goods out of fear it will be closed. More than a thousand of them crossed the frontier yesterday to buy basic necessities. The uprising in Rangoon has taken its toll on border trade in Tak and sparked concerns about the local economy. Ampol Chatchaiyaruek, president of Tak's chamber of commerce, said orders from Rangoon for goods have been suspended following the protests, with losses of about 30 million baht a day. Ranong province has warned Thai fishing trawlers not to encroach on Burmese waters as it might prompt the use of force and closure of the border. "The last thing we want is the border being closed which would affect the local economy," said Ranong governor Kanchanapa Kiman".....
http://bangkokpost.com/News/28Sep2007_news01.php

Air traffic -
..... "Bangkok Airways, which operates a daily flight to Rangoon using a 144-seat Airbus A319 jet, saw its outbound flight bookings begin to dwindle on Wednesday as tensions flared. Yesterday, it carried only 38 passengers to the former Burmese capital, a drop from 75 who had booked earlier. But it had 101 passengers departing from Rangoon, officials said. Only 29 people are flying out with Bangkok Airways today and 52 are flying into Thailand, according to an airline executive. Thai Airways International has rescheduled one of its three daily flights to Rangoon, using 260-seat Airbus 300- 600 jets, to avoid the 9 pm to 5 am curfew imposed in the city, effective from yesterday until tomorrow........"
http://bangkokpost.com/Business/28Sep2007_biz30.php

Family of Myanmar Miltary Junta Boss Gen Than Shwe were reported to leave Rangoon airport on board a flight to Vientiane, Laos last night.
Travelling on Burma's Air Bagan flight, which landed in Vientiane at 6 p.m. (local time) on Thursday, according to "Merinews". The chartered flight carried eight passengers. Than Shwe's close associate Tayza, a business tycoon in Burma, owns the airline. The passengers were said to be close relatives of Than Shwe including his wife Daw Kyaing Kyaing. The junta is likely to pass off the departure of the family to merely a visit to Laos.
http://www.einnews.com/laos/news.php?id=125750320
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/09/28/headlines/he...2.php

by iosaf Sat Sep 29, 2007 16:46

Military Split?
as reported in the last comment with verification family members of the leading general & one local business man left Rangoon airport for Laos on Thursday. It is now rumoured that other high ranking officers have been refused exit visas for either themselves or their family. But is confirmed that led by the USA foreign states are drawing up no-travel lists for members of the junta. & so when they finally leave it will be to Laos & then The Hague.
this is the english translation page of China's shortwave global service verifying that US action
http://english.cri.cn/2947/2007/09/29/272@279163.htm
By the way you might like to visit the website of the company who built the airport & wonder at the extent of their ambition, efficiency & so on. They're based in Singapur http://www.cna.com.sg/yangon.html


Thoughts on the Radio which may prove useful to you someday somewhere. So don't forget the wisdom of the ancients.:.

The hopes of exiled & refugee Burmese as much as the optimism of foreigners who despite their government & large business interests from Thailand to India, from France to Australia, from Norway to the UK & of course China - are now best put in a war of words on the airwaves of Burma. Starting over a day ago the state tv station began to describe both the BBC and VOA (voice of america) as "destructionists" hell bent on undoing all the good work of the junta or "State Peace & Development Council" as they call themselves. & now if you goto the BBC website today they'll show you a screen shot of the message as it is seen by those Burmese outside of Rangoon & Mandalay who know their telephone lines aren't working & know something is up.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7016238.stm
They must be bemused to see the message sent not only in Burmese with its circular letters & diacretics but in English the language which the vast majority of capitalist entities who have kept the junta in power use.

So I thought to explain to you what the radio is all about. Especially the younger readers who don't recall a world before internet or an Ireland which according to the international telecommunications union & the data it compiles for the UN sees Ireland boast over 100% mobile use. Why,indeed there are people with more than one mobile.., busy prosperous people who maybe never spare a thought for the African minerals or Asian sweat that went into their mobility.

If the West has mostly forgotten the role played by bilingual dictionaries and encyclopedias in the spread of enlightenment & freedom, it's also true to say they've forgotten the role played by radio in general & broadcasts on the shortwave bands in particular.

The same day the iconic mothers of the disappeared of Argentina celebrated their last march & assembly in the Plaza de Mayo - the largest short wave radio antenna array ever constructed in Europe was demolished. [ you can read a report & see a photo of that here - "the end of liberty" http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/03/336584.html ] Before that those interested in spreading their notions of liberty, socialism, anarchism or the bible (there was quite a range between radio moscow and radio liberty) had already begun to take to Satelite broadcasts, FM radio & of course the internet with its streams & podcasts. Yet even on our continent there was still a role to be played by shortwave radio & it would be impossible to treat properly on the recent history of elections & subsequent line-ups of protesters & the ever watchful eyes of the usual suspects in the Ukraine and Belarus without mentioning the broadcasts on Shortwave. Likewise many African situations have seen the SW band used & a quick check of even this site's archives will show you again & again the frequencies of SW band broadcasts were publicised for democrats in Zimbabwe.

I consider myself very lucky that my home location & bits & bobs of my background experiences have afforded me not only a mobile phone and a landline but a rake of antenas & 2 sat dishes & an appreciation of their worth & curiosity as to their exploitation. For in truth the distinctive shortwave aerial plonked on my roof is a leftover from a now forgotten age, & though not neccessary for reception of global signals it is piece of hardware I've had a few occassions to use.

The Burmese people may & I tell you are listening to radio in their language on these frequencies which are near impossible to jam - & the great thing is, that you too can with a bit of fine tuning get those signals. They are indeed more reliable & more pervasive than the VSAT (very small aperture satelite relay) system sold in bundles by Gilat the small Israeli company http://www.gilat.com/Content.aspx?Page=glossary to the Myanmar military & which are now being used by western Capitalist interests in Burma to stay in touch
I say more reliable, because though you get less data into a Shortwave, & you've no hope of stereo, you still get a signal when it's pissing rain. & it's pissing rain in Rangoon till next Tuesday. But maybe the phones will be back on by then, maybe the www will be back, maybe the monks will let out to play, maybe the borders with their essential flow of pink speed will be more open than ever as the Myanmar junta promised they would be as part of a free trade area agreement signed with Thailand to become operation next week..,

BBC Burma service
6.30 to 7 am in the morning
SW Shortwave frequencies - three are used:
( 25m) 11.850MHz
( 31m ) 9.815MHz
( 49m ) 6.065MHz

20.15 to 21.00 in the evening
SW Shortwave frequencies
( 25m) 11.945MHz
( 31m ) 9.540MHz
( 41m ) 7.135MHz

& now the sugary sweet syrup that helps the pink speed go down, EVery saturday & sunday for more years than any general has held a job on the junta, the women of Burma have looked to these broadcasts for health information Sunday frequencies(SW)
Sunday 16.00 to 16.30 (19m ) 15.545MHz - (25m ) 12.045MHz - (31m ) 9.760MHz
Saturday 21.00 to 21.15(SW) Thabyegon Ywa Shortwave frequencies
( 16m ) 17.870MHz - ( 31m ) 9.540MHz - ( 25m ) 12.010MHz

Radio Free Asia, played important roles not all of them good in the past. They do 2 hours a day in Burmese & on their site you'll find a guide to making your own anti-jamming antena! Though that's a misleading, you can't jam, you just broadcast shite over an incoming, so your antenna just helps you fine tune more. Ask a Cuban how they receive instructions from Gloria Estafan if you don't believe me.
http://www.rfa.org/english/burma/

Chinese

I found myself listening to Chinese global radio last night, those dulcet tones of Hong Kong english introducing a north African music program were a welcome change from a US based bible belt broadcast just next door. So if you can find Kentucky bible chat you can find CPR. They do 3 hours in Burmese. here's their frequency list - might do you good to listen to them.
http://english.cri.cn/4026/2006/12/31/44@179910.htm

There are also FM signals going in which are much easier to block & much easier to trace.
http://www.burmafm.com/

& yep as I alluded to above, the VSAT satelite dishes which you see plonked on expensive telly journalists' vans or on posh buildings are having a bad time of it in the Monsoon rains. Sometimes the old ways are best.

by ipsiphi Sun Sep 30, 2007 05:07

morning briefing - 30 ix 2007
3rd day of no internet.

There are continuing protests & gatherings of civilians in Rangoon.
according to arabic language sources these met with violence and many arrests.
(it may be speculated that the arabic source reported on multiple SW stations is a diplomat)
There have been small concentrations and quiet protests including buddhist monks in the southern provinces of burma,
following the initial pacifist pattern of the Rangoon mobilisations before the curfew and direct military intervention.
This means no slogans were shouted and orderly processions were seen.

According to the state Myanmar TV there has been a pro-government (pro junta) demonstration in the northern province (alluded to in a comment above as the mountain range where the labour camps are found and the military are strongest.) Myanmar state TV claims 19,000 people attended.

Mark Canning the UK ambassador has reported to the BBC worldservice that he has seen "on the way to work" that the military have encamped in the principle pagoda which was the focus of the 1988 pro-democracy protests which ended in at least 3000 deaths and uncounted detentions, they are settling in. He has spoken of automatic weapons and barbed wire and small artillery.

(it may be speculated that in Rangoon the monks are not now performing their usual religious duties as no report indicates the decision to shut the monastries has been reversed and thus the monks continue to be sectioned)

The UN envoy is currently in Burma, and it is felt by both BBC & VOI that China must be credited with pressure on the Myanmar junta to allow his entry visa. Chinese SW is calling for reconciliation.

Privately diplomats are off the record confirming that China is putting pressure on the junta.

The Chinese ambassador to Burma / Myanmar was at Rangoon airport to greet the UN special envoy whilst his counterpart at the UN building in NYC has spoken of an urgent need to return to normal life.

The same diplomatic words are being used ad nauseum.

I can't source this stuff for you on the internet, because it didn't come from the internet.
But It is my oath bound duty to report, disseminate, inform & repeat what I've heard on three SW global sources which all say they're neutral. Because I uphold that duty, & because I want Burma to be a household name which causes people to think of slave labour, of sweatshops, of the limits of their illusory prosperity, of the paucity of options their neo-imperialism has to help in military or other senses I tell you what appears to be "the news" this last night. Because perhaps as an anarchist & libertarian, I'm not a servant of either the UN or capitalism or beholden to any state, I am also obliged to say this :-

there are 3 ways to fuck up Myanmar & its military. None of them are pleasant but each state, each organisation of violence and rules which is no more than a small parcel of land which abuses ethnicity, or language, or history to cut apart men and women from their global brothers and sisters, to usurp their given liberty as humans, their given equality and their global fraternity has its weakpoints. Those weakpoints are not its weapons systems which malfunction in monsoons, those weakpoints are not the ugliness which sound deep harmonics under the spirituality which
tourists passing through a spanking new airport fail to hear, those are nothing really to do with the geopolitical game of spheres of influence and dirt cheap labour which needs stability be it in Ireland or Burma to keep global capitalist jobs - - - - whether they fly a US or UK or Indian or Chinese flag.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,nor even if it is the blasted olympics.

No. the 3 ways to fuck up Myanmar & its military are really nasty reality. the stuff only hooligans would dare dream of.

You want to fuck up Myanmar's military you kill the pretty Nobel peace democracy woman since obviously they are too terrified to harm her.
you want to fuck up Myanmar's military you close the factories of pink meth amphetamine in SE asia & watch the workers go psychotic.
You want to fuck up Myanmar's military you figure another way of brainwashing kids than giving them a gun & a general or a bowl and a pagoda.

of course no-one will do that. If you or they did that, you or they would not only fuck up Myanmar's military you'd fuck up the world. & we are the realists be it in Ireland where you mostly read this update or Barcelona where I monitor the SW radio.

How could our world ever recover and lead a normal stable life?

Iraq a simple word has come to mean a war for lies, greed, crime & wanton destruction.
Burma another simple word ought now mean the reality of lies, greed, crime & wanton exploitation.

You have your news. You don't have snuff pictures or journalist reports.
You have your comment. Light your candles. Burn your incense. Charge your mobile phone.

But learn what BURMA now means.........you don't have to find it on a map. It's really very simple.......a universal wrong.

Now put it together and see that this is not national flags - this is capitalism. this is the evil you say you oppose.....................so oppose it. Why are tourists still going? Why are there goods in homes in Ireland tainted not only by Burmese oppression but the whole Asian sweatshop drug fueled production line?

I will continue to update information by any source which may only be verified by being repeated by 3 competing states' or economies' SW radio. Coz RTE & the Irish times are out of the picture now.

by ipsiphi Sun Sep 30, 2007 10:44

The Bangkok post tells us that the "tatmadaw" (Burmese army) have reclaimed Rangoon to lay out a red carpet for the UN special envoy. I'll think you'll get the fun reportage & wordgames in that. They also managed to sneak in the whereabouts of the Naypyidaw, the generals' hideaway new capital city situated 350 kilometres north of Rangoon.

That's off your itinery if you're back-packing or noncing around SE Asia.

http://bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=122188

Now for some corrections coz you can't do proper information & disinformation without compiling erratta.

As always I beg clemency for the orthography & syntax which sees woeful spelling, & turns of phrase contaminated by other languages. The main things to correct though are not the "route" for "root" or listing the additional "the's" or tweaking verbs & plastering infinitives. No. I've to get the 459 companies thing straight.

# There are over 400 foreign business interests currently with employees inside Burma or operating pipelines. In 2001 there were 459 business entities with confirmed relations to the state. Of course the company who built the airport aren't there now, I gave you their website up the page where you can read what they did for the junta (& tourists) & how they really want to do more biz - but right now they are not in Burma.

# I got a bit carried away and passionate about the Geneva Convention articles having just considered the Jose Couso case, a Spanish cameraman who was murdered by US forces in the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad - a case which is still outstanding thanks to the reticence of the USA to surrender the soldiers responsible for firing tankshells into the journalist residence. Journalists are protected by those protocols during war time. We are not technically doing a war in Burma. Coz we're libertarians & anarchists & socialists & pacifists. There's only one war for us. It's the class war. gurgle.

# I got the direction of "blue ear pig disease" (yep it's blue ear - blue tongue is your worry) and pink meth wrong on the Chinese border & casual readers might have thought the Chinese were importing pink meth into Myanmar & getting dodgy pig disease back. Sorry. It was the other way round. Though to be quite fair to the Chinese it is not completely decided if they're responsible for blue ear pig disease [ PRRS (Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome) ] getting into Burma. It doesn't really matter anyway coz nobody is eating piggies @ the mo.

# I might have given you the impression that your average Burmese bloke or young lady were pocketing 1,300 kyats ($1) a day & indulding in the luxury of a bag of rice is at 400 kyats. That was utter bollox. They get 82cents of a dollar a day on average and a bag of rice cost 800kyat. You do the math.

# Now that we've cleared up those little doubts which would only lead to loss of credibility & put horrible ideas in peoples' heads; I want you all to consider the partition of Burma. The junta can take the north with the blue eared piggies & 2 airports whence they can visit any pariah state of their choice - Laos for example & the south could be turned into a sort of Hong Kong. People will work for the hope of a spot of gambling & not smoking a foil of meth in this life till they reincarnate as a blue eared pig. Of course in some cultures that's considered quite normal.


Now whilst your Western experts were avoiding my example model of revolution [Nepal] & pointing to Indonesia instead (coz it kept making money) no-one took me up on the references far above to the Thai military.

The Thai internet provider TOT has reported the sad loss of between 200 and 300 fibre optic cables which has placed the frontier province of Thailand with Burma in regretable internet silence.
Shit happens. as I said before. But "Arsa Sattayuth, Deputy Managing Director of TOT, has reassured customers that technical experts are already on the case and will fix the problem as soon as possible." aint that dandy. http://bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=122181

Over the years I've found that people prefer the oathbound-straight-talking-fuck-this-for-a-game of soldiers over the diplomatic restraint, technical experts & will fix the problem as soon as possible.

So now I'm asking for any speakers of the wider Tibetan&Burmese language family who are citizens of India & naturally anyone who speaks the language of Nuristan who live in Ireland & feel they missed their chance to be useful when the Nepalese started out on their long struggle to read the newspapers & tell us where refugees really should go.........with or without their blue eared piggies............I for one ne'er liked Thailand..............it's worse than sissy........it's noncey.

All due apologies to people who identify with the word sissy & have politicised it. This really isn't your article or thread all the same ;-)

by iosaf - / ipsiphi Sun Sep 30, 2007 23:46

UN secrecy covers brutality : Thai intelligence : where's Aung San? : a niggling doubt
author by ipsiphi - a piratepublication date Sun 30 Sep 2007 11:45:58 PM CDT

Reuters tells us the UN envoy has met Aung San Suu Kyi and several members of the military government. But they didn't meet at her house or in one place. The UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari met Aung San Suu Kyi in the presence of the Brig.Gen., current minister for religion Thura Myint Maung at a lakeside house in Rangoon belonging to the government. Of course 54 university road is also on the lakeside. There are a lot of properties there many belong to the diplomatic community, up the page I confused a US property with their embassy. The British ambassor has complained about some of their property (but not their legation) being touched by young soldiers with little in respect for an aspidistra.

It is tempting for many to say Thura Myint is #2 of the junta - the man who will replace the positively ancient Than Shwe, who has set up his new capital in Naypyidaw, 240 miles 345 km. You recall I told you he sent his family to Laos on Thursday, 3 days after Myint Maung (the man whom it appears is holding the Aung San Suu Kyi card, went & to threaten the senior buddhists). You'll remember I told you he was the minister in charge of eradicating opium and amphetamine & did a bad job before he got the religion portfolio & what would have seemed a crap boring job for a Myanmar military boy is suddenly global news.

Prior to that meeting the UN envoy had met acting Prime Minister Thein Sein, Culture Minister Khin Aung Nyunt and Information Minister Kyaw Hsan (all generals) up in Naypidaw the military capital where I told you SW radio reported a 19,000 pro-junta demonstration in the last 36 hours. But he hasn't met the grand old general himself..........perhaps he was in the other room.........maybe he's shy & trying to call his family in Laos...........perhaps he's not even important anymore.......

It is often true but not a binding truth that the best military coups or shake-ups come from the lower ranks. History is filled with lamentable and horrid examples. Generals hate retiring & like the old dogs they are simply curl around the edges hoping some chosen and loyal adjunt will take over, if not it is tought young buck or a transition to democracy. We might think what would admiral Carerro Blanco's fascist Spain have been like after Franco had he not been blown up that morning [to wide public relief & lack of grief] in 1973. It is in my opinion too early to identify "#2's" in the Burmese Military, & many would think it simply an indulgence born of ignorance.

Thai military intelligence were first reported as a source for the transfer of Aung San Suu Kyi this weekend. I have already reported that an accident in Bangkok has meant the loss of 200 - 300 fibre optic cables which regrettably has put much of Thailand in internet silence as well. The border with Burma is thus not facilitating much more information flow about the conditions in Rangoon, the fate of Aung San Suu Kyi, the movement of troops. Of course Thailand is a state which is also ruled by its military caste, who simply by unswerving loyalty to their King may change the government whenever they choose. They seem quite happy with the "free trade" aspirations of the states in the SE Asia region, & without being too lengthy for one comment I'll bring you now to my niggling doubt.

I've linked to the company in Singapur who built the Airport in Rangoon twice already on this page. I've spent hours now going through foreign state & business or corporate relations with Burma, & something odd needs a mention. I'm linking to the website again so you can see The Yangon Airport terminal expansion represents CNA's most ambitious airport project to date.
http://www.cna.com.sg/yangon.html

It's the best illustration I can find, because it has photos and lists equipment and passenger volume potential. Whilst looking for evidence or reports of refugee or border flow into Thailand, I mentioned that there is one daily flight from Bangkok to Rangoon using a 144-seat Airbus A319 jet.

Without taking up too much of your time, let me tell you - that airport is not what you build if you plan on maintaining isolation for another twenty years. Again & again I've found evidence of projects in Burma which belie that someone is planning & has planned a future which is neither a satelite of China or a sweatshop bargain basement jamboree.

We know the junta sit on a regime of oppression, forced labour, child soldiers & play off their neighbours on all sides to their best financial advantage. But do we know what they spend the money on if it is not reducing food and fuel costs? Before you run to the AIB and find the exchange rate of a Euro to a Kyat - I'll tell you there is not a line of Burmese generals stashing cash in either Andorra or Switzerland, if they are doing so - then Singapur would more likely. But even that for us now is speculation. Suffice to thank you for your attention, I tell you there is a "future" planned & suggest you read the whole text & use the links. I apoligise if the momentary differences of style as emotions rise - put you off learning why BURMA ought be a household name for exploitation & case study for those who wish understand the future of globalisation.

IT really is a much more interesting story & case than at first it appears.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSB58859920070930
http://bangkokpost.com/News/01Oct2007_news01.php
http://www.bbc.co.uk/burmese/

by iosaf / ipsiphi Mon Oct 01, 2007 19:05

ordinary civilians.

Whilst the media focusses on speculation as to the success of the UN envoy's mission, the lack of photographs and reports [*] has meant what I term "snuff reportage" has dwindled to mere "chinese whispers". & even those rumours were for the most part sourced to the northern province of Thailand which is still experiencing "difficulties" with its telecommunications.

But I feel confident in relaying news of a round-up of civilians in Rangoon in the last 36 hours. They weren't not taken off the streets but from their homes. If nobody can tell me or Reuters where Aung San or even UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari are at the moment, don't be perplexed they can't tell you where up to a 1,000 civilian protesters are.

& that's why the streets are empty. You'll find when your friends' homes are emptied in the dead of night - your ardour for going to the street is dampened. I don't think I'm wrong in saying this constitutes a massive breach of human rights. It is a crime.

Since Reuters is the main source for most information which goes into newspapers or on TV it's seems fair to link to them - They hint that the grand old general is about to make an appearance up the hills to the UN envoy alone. It takes on the theatre of a James Bond movie set........""He looks forward to meeting Senior General Than Shwe and other relevant interlocutors before the conclusion of his mission," the U.N. said in a statement. One diplomatic source said Gambari was being made to wait until Tuesday to meet junta supremo Than Shwe, and with the streets of Yangon quiet on Monday, had gone on a trip to Lashio, in the hills of Shan state, near the Chinese border. No reasons for the destination were offered, although one Bangkok-based diplomat said a small group of traveling European academics was in the capital, Naypyidaw, 240 miles north of Yangon, and due in Lashio on Tuesday. U.N. officials with Gambari were outside mobile phone coverage and no other diplomats in the former capital could shed any light on his whereabouts......."
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSB58859920071001

You'll agree that very small information is padded. We know that since last week there has been no mobile coverage. We know the adverse weather conditions hamper satelite dishes. (I told you in the comment on SW radio above http://indymedia.ie/article/84350?&condense_comments=fa...08250)

Which brings me to the SW global radio news last night. Attention has shifted somewhat to the badness of the Taliban, the destructive power of Typhoons, the bomb in Bangkok yesterday which has turned every Thai's attention from Burma & their internet woes to their Islamist rebels in the south who of course insist on bringing the military into their government despite the best & most ridiculous efforts. ( an example of such efforts was the dropping of origami peace symbols on the jungle reported in a 2004 article "the Art of Peace" http://indymedia.ie/article/67792 )

Oh yep - soldier types tell of heavier artillery now appearing in Rangoon, but nothing is making a show which justifies expenditure a purse which till now everyone presumed the Generals have.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/burmese/news/story/2004/12/041201_...shtml

As I've said Thai attention on Burma is about nil now, a Bomb in Bangkok yesterday has been followed by multiple bombs in the south where those origami models dropped before
http://bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=122226 So no surprise that Burmese are being rounded up on the border & sent back as seen in the illustration.

______________________Facts over - now more on my niggling doubt_________________

This time I've not needed to spell out the niggling doubt. If you want to find its hints - just read the last 3 comments alone. Come to this story not with presumptions. Forget for the moment that I've linked to the evidence that the Indians with their largest foreign investment & contracts signed last week have a key role to play. Forget the clichéd blame of China which is rooted in the ancient prejudice & paranoia of the Raj & anti-communism & justified by what the Chinese say - "they worry for the stability on the borders of the Hunan / Yunnan province" Let's remind you, the airport is too sophisticated, the hotel which the army attacked in which the journalists are housed is not posh enough, & journalists like their comforts, demand CNN on satdish as well as lashings of booze.
Expenditure in Rangoon & Mandalay do not reflect vanity in any way which would be obvious to a modern day Irish person. & the military's toys do not indicate an expenditure equal to the benefits of building pipelines & exploring oil & gas fields. & there is no immediately obvious trail of money going out to those dirty bank accounts...........So where is it?

I want you to look 2 ways to find those now are becoming more obvious players to profit by any instability which is solved by international outcry & the UN.

One is south to Thailand.

& one is a curious valley of jungle in the north, not too far from the tertiary global route of Opium which since the UN, NATO & ISAF went into Afghanistan is ever more important, & not too far from the Chinese province of Yunnan in which the people worry about emerging porcine viruses whether they speak a dialect of Burmese-Tibetan such as Bai, Yi, Tibetan, Hani, Jingpo, Lisu, Lahu, Naxi; or Thai languages or dialects like Zhuang, Bouyei, Dong, Shui, Tai Lü and Tai Nüa or northern Laos dialect or even Hmong-Mien languages.
http://www.eng.yn.gov.cn/yunnanEnglish/1441151880758558....html

It is a never ceasing wonder of South Eastern Asia for linguists how such radically different tongues have continued to exist from one valley to the next, making any comparison the 400yuan a year to the Bhat earned in Thailand or the Kyat earned in Burma quite a difficult chat for people. Which is odd considering their cross border free trade area was supposed to loosen their trade of Tobacco & stuff from Yunnan to Bangkok. c/f Feb 2006
http://english.people.com.cn/200602/13/eng20060213_2423....html

Oh yes. it's all been planned so well...........who lives in the radio silence in the jungle?

Thailand returns refugees to Burma

No news, No refugees, no Nobel Laureate, No UN envoy, someone is faking it.

by iosaf Tue Oct 02, 2007 13:29

By now people have seen the image (a video still) which was globally distributed by Associated Press & carried the caption of "buddhist monk or someone wearing monks clothes with a shaved head, in a river or a ditch or an open sewer, lying face down & quite presumedly dead - leading one to the speculation that he has had been murdered not by other monks as result of a feud, vendetta or moment of drunken passion but by soldiers answerable to the superstitious old man we call general who lives in the jungle".

Haven't we?

It's not quite snuff, is it?

The monk is not quite in Quang Duc's class is he? the man who burnt himself to protest the South Vietnamese government's corruption in the early 1960's?

_______________________

The UN are maintaining their silence over the success or otherwise of the envoy's mission. The round-up has taken countless people off the streets & out of their homes & would to a child suggest the envoy's mission has failed. The Thai are now focussed on dastardly rebel attacks on their military but at least their internet is almost repaired. The media has nothing to report & has now recycled what little it can be sure of. & now I remind you of a piece I wrote a little while ago on the power the Media has to acquit, condemn, forgive & pardon, to judge itself.., to create or avert a miscarriage of Justice - to investigate a miscarriage of Justice
http://indymedia.ie/article/84128

That article was of course written in reaction to the different roles played by English language & continental European commercial media on the Mc Cann story. It was meant to illustrate how newspapers fill a "news gap" of verifiable facts with conjecture and spin and leaks........to sell their papers & keep their consumers satisfied. To work & remain powerful exerting and concentrating the interest & outrage of a global sophisticated and civilised readership. RTE has prepared a special a little over 24 hours ago for its internet types. The most startling factoid was the superstition & belief in astrology of the top General. (which I suppose might explain the illustration above to some) But now Burma slips off the front pages & the telly news. The good folk of Dublin went to the street in their handfuls, maybe did a vigil, maybe blamed the Chinese or as I suggested the Indians. But now in the absence of watertight fact - no news.

I needn't hammer the point home.

Above I've mentioned both the emerging free trade area of SE Asia & the role played by Singapur's business & even offered unsourced speculation on a possible direction profits accrued by a corrupt government would take - Singapur's banks. Thus it might be paltry, & it certainly won't maintain your interest........surely? But here's news from Singapur's Foreign Minister George Yeo.

...."Singapore now holds the Asean's chairmanship, Miniser Yeo said in a newspaper interview that Asean - which consists of Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam - had "no choice" but to deliver a tough position on the violent repression of the demonstrations.

Its statement issued Asean last week expressed revulsion over the beatings and killings of monks and anti-regime protesters and called for a stop to the violence.

Yeo told Singapore's Straits Times yesterday that the statement was delivered "with a heavy heart," but if Asean hadn't, "We would feel ashamed when we looked ourselves in the mirror."..........

Perhaps the media could look at itself in the mirror & keep this story front page. You know. Pad. Embelish. Repeat. Explain the region. DIY.

You could start with the free trade, why 30million Baht daily trade and open seas are important enough to the Thai military to turn back refugees on the border. You could do a feature on SE Asian tourism - who goes? & why?
You could interview :- Moe Aye, news editor for the Oslo-based opposition radio station Democratic Voice of Burma who says the broadcaster has received reports of protests in Manaung and Kyaukphyq in Arakan, the coastal state on the Bay of Bengal, and sources had informed it that the army continued to raid Buddhist monasteries in Rangoon.

Yep - we've heard it all before. But it never stopped the Media before...........did it?

by iosaf / ipsiphi Tue Oct 02, 2007 18:41

Isn't it curious that none of the newspapers told you that the Myanmar junta almost always restricted journalist visas to less than a week?

Isn't it curious that all the attention (oh so much careful & systematic stuff!) on who put money into Myanmar never even touched what Myanmar puts money into?

Isn't it curious that as today the UN display one of their family photos western media talk of a second UN envoy meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi & the military completing a four-day trip that followed the brutal suppression of mass popular demonstrations.

Mr Raffles began the Singapur thing, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raffles & it is after him that the hotel & much much else is named. In less than two generations it had assumed a reputation as one of the vilest hangouts in the world. Like really vile. We're not talking a nasty imaginary merrovingian & penelope club from the matrix movie here. It was w-i-c-k-e-d in Singapur. They changed the name, I in my ancient ways won't do that. They became the first sovreign state in the world to ban chewing gum & long hair on boys. The evil moved into tower blocks where I assure you it is usually found. Those floors where no elevators stop. Today the World Bank that evil institution which has only ever seen one full official gig cancelled back in the first year of this century (in Barcelona) since when it has only cancelled one minor side gig (in Dublin) published its "doing business 2008" report. I'm sure you'll read soon enough [without the dinero gratis Basta!] slogans in the newspaper of your choice.

The easiest state in the world to do biz is Singapur. Then the USA & then NZ as we call New Zealand. Up this page I've told you of the importance of shortwave radio, of pink meth amphetamine, of adaption of mobile phones. Maybe you'll take that on board when someday you meet people on your holliers who could need that advice. Like don't keep it yourself. & remember the first thing you do as Mr Nice used to say is open a bank account. If you ever go to Singapur or the dazzling stable Myanmar in a decades time, open a shell company too - will only take three minutes out of your time.

So - have we learnt anything by all of this?
Do we trust the UN now to sort out Darfur?
Will we pass quickly over the Asia news sections in our papers remembering the conflicting reports of massacre, closed borders, 4,000 arrested monks, torture, at least 30 deaths, cut internet in two states, lost phones, & all in less than one week whilst the UN held our hopes?!?!?

___________________________________

Today the internet made one more step forward from the shadow of anglo-saxon domination & domains with the final acceptance of the letter "ñ" [enya] as used by writers of the second most spoken language on earth to represent the sound "ny" and just to be fair the diacretic "·" which is used in Catalan the 88th most spoken language on earth to distinguish a double "L" which is pronounced seperately. What great progress we are making on the w.w.w. perhaps we will be taken seriously someday. I wonder will the next generation of Burmese brave enough to raise their fists and voices and heads enjoy a family photo with such a clear line of over-exposure in the middle?

Mr Raffles. hmmmmmmm. right up there with Mr Rhodes. Quite so. Let's talk about Zimbabwe now. We're on a roll & they've no bread.

this is a United Nations photo of Ibrahim Gambari & Aung San Suu Kyi in the same image.

by iosaf Tue Oct 02, 2007 20:49

No further details are available but the second photo issued sees a corrected tone. Diplomats have a habit of grimacing which I've always put down to the casino royale type buzz. But now we have 2 views, one of the lake & one of the interior of the house in Rangoon where Aung San Suu Kyi is currently held
& so for the benefit of us who don't bug the UN offices, we can work out where she was.

every photo tells a story mister Raffles.
Burma ought be in the news again tomorrow. one would think.

better image - the envoy doesn't smirk or grimace in this one.

by iosaf / ipsiphi Tue Oct 02, 2007 21:48

This is my 4th update today. Everything in it builds on what this text has pointed to or has been touched on in comments to the other Burma threads on the (((i))) indymedia ireland site at the moment. You can find those threads clicking this link to the search engine - http://indymedia.ie/openwire?search_text=burma&x=0&y=0

the Myanmar general Nyan Win has spoken at the United Nations of the regime's restraint & opportunists in foreign countries who he did not name. He wore civilian clothes. Some people think a suit is less sinister than a uniform.

India has at long last through her foreign ministry on what we ought note is the anniversary of Gandhi called for political reform & " to consider launching an investigation into the use of force on pro-democracy campaigners." maybe that could stretch to the obvious defiling of the dead.

Total oil singled out by Sarkozy for criticism have called for reform after the Belgian supreme court upheld a petition of the Belgian defense ministry to resume a 2005 case against the Oil corporation for human rights abuses pertaining to its operations in Burma.

meanwhile the envoy contemplates Raffles' Singapur. a time date stamp on the photos issued by the UN in the 2 comments above is 2/10/2007 16h19

by iosaf / ipsiphi Wed Oct 03, 2007 12:24

one of the monks released told Reuters they had suffered only verbal intimidation
an estimated 1,700 by this Italian source were transferred to a gulal. http://www.unita.it/view.asp?idContent=69342

Swedish radio news and Oslo daily Aftenposten published the interview with Major Win and his son who arrived in Bangkok Tuesday after five days on the run from Burma. "If he had refused to obey orders, he would have been killed," the major's 17-year-old son said. Father and son said they hoped to seek asylum in Norway or Sweden.

I know you don't read Norwegian but since the Burmese democracy movement is headquartered there & I asked you to lobby a norwegian telecom company last friday it seems appropriate to leave the link http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/article2026649.ece which itself will show you all the norse coverage.

Lastly from Singapur, their prime minister is "encouraged" (diplomatic) but wants Myanmar to stay at UN (very bad hint):- "PRIME Minister Lee Hsien Loong is encouraged by the access and cooperation given by the Myanmar government to the UN Secretary General's Special Advisor Ibrahim Gambari during his recent visit there. The visiting UN envoy paid a courtesy call on Mr Lee on Wednesday morning. Singapore currently holds the position of Asean Chair. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said in a statement that Mr Lee exchanged views with Mr Gambari on his visit to Myanmar, where he had met the Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council Senior General Than Shwe and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Mr Lee told Mr Gambari that Asean is fully behind his mission to help all parties involved in Myanmar work towards a political solution for national reconciliation and a peaceful transition to democracy.
Singapore had called on Myanmar to continue keeping its channels open to the UN".
http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/STI....html

I don't have time for more.
I reckon reading norwegian press is best for ye today [Dr Coilin if about can do coverage]

by iosaf / ipsiphi - pirates Wed Oct 03, 2007 21:28

At least eight truckloads of prisoners were hauled out of central Yangon, the former Burma's biggest city and focus of last week's monk-led protests against decades of military rule and deepening economic hardship, witnesses said. In one house near the Shwedagon Pagoda, the holiest shrine in the Buddhist nation and starting point for the rallies, only a 13-year-old girl remained. Her parents were taken, she said. "They warned us not to run away as they might be back," she said after people from rows of shophouses were ordered into the street in the middle of the night. Many were detained. A staff member of the U.N. Development Fund and her husband and brother-in-law were arrested early on Wednesday during a sweep by Myanmar authorities, U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said in New York. The United Nations is appealing to Myanmar's U.N. mission to secure her release.

____________________________

My last comment today linked to the coverage in the Norwegian press where anyone interested in Burmese affairs ought know the democratic coalition in exile are based, & anyone who has bothered to read my comments over the last week knows the providor of internet technology is also based.

The norse coverage of the crises is extensive & I thought for a moment to remind you that the Irish Independent & its ilk attempted to pour water on the strategy & hopes of a "military split" whilst countering my assertion above that a colonel had overseen the "leniancy" on protests in the early phase & happily reporting the dismissal of a general for the same "offence". The officer who now has granted an interview as you know coz I linked to the newspaper which carried it. & of course he is still awaiting the good news for him & his son as to which Scandinavian state might offer him asylum. (He of course has after undergoing a complex debriefing quite naturally for one would expect him to hold not only data like signals, logistics, a photo-album, mp3 collection, videotape, names of Scandinavian paedophile ring members detained today in Thailand...blaa-blaa...... all worth a raffle or two if you only knew or had an inkling what the world was about or how it is ruled). His rank of major reflects the british model adopted on independence by the Burmese military which became the Myanmar ruling caste & as such is one level down from "general" of which there are two types varyingly assigned ministries of government & regions of supervision. It is because of what might have come with him in his trunk rather than head (for in my experience officers of such rank are as appalingly dim as the beta class who enjoy higher management roles in the business, political or academic world) that he is for the moment assigned the status defector & not simply deserter or for that matter we treat upon him as a refugee. For as you know, or perhaps you ignored my words up the page - many higher ranks of the Burmese military were refused exit visas & thus the means of escaping is not attracting too much comment or attention at the moment. Those means being : (sincerely pro-democratic or indignant at the orders he was expected to carry out or - as may never be forgotten the more sinister purpose of a mission of disinformation nature)

_______________________________

China as you know has brought the South Korean government over the demilitarised zone to great applause this week thus almsot finishing their avowed mission to take nukes off of Kim, stop his refugees, and let Mr Garland slip forever out of our mind along with the supernote story. Bush will naturally have to send experts to make sure what he was always incapable of doing is done.

_______________________________

Thailand's people have now endured one year of overt inteference by their military caste in their public affairs & governance & to be quite frank would almost prefer if the Western journalists who submit shite copy to their newspapers & TV on Burma would actually explain Thailand & the whole emerging free trade area of South Asia.

_______________________________

Singapur will only be qualified to hope for democratic values when it is itself a democratic society. Even considered on the "emergent democratic scale" which compares human development, social organisation and participation, literacy, corruption perception, child labour, black market size , food poverty, income disparity & many other indicators which never seem to matter to the World Bank - Singapur is still amongst the worst states on the planet pretending to be democratic. Right down there at the bottom with the USA, Russia, UK, Italy, Eire state & need I go on?

I would prefer mr Myanmar major to completely forthcoming in a public & non-profit forum & to be housed for the interim period in a neutral or non-aligned state. Thus ; Sweden or Switzerland rather than NATO Norway, maybe Ireland could amuse itself using his novelty factor or even India or Venezuela could push the non-aligned movement by putting him & his son (who will probably go far) up.

_____________________________

Both RTE and the BBC paid small regard to the superstition of the main General in Burma / Myanmar without appearing to push that envelope to its proper exploitation for our movements and hopes. Yet likewise respect for the defilement of the dead monks has seen the image of the monk in the ditch mostly stay out of newspapers & on European news sites come with a "disturbing" tag. I shall thus later on explain to you how superstition is in fact a weapon of quite awesome power when used properly. For each situation finds it proper weapons. The BBC rues that street demonstrations or internet mobilisations of solidarity are sometimes not enough to change regimes, true - but they play vital parts in the process. I quote Virgil non tali auxilio nec defensoribus istis tempus eget = such weapons are not appropriate to this time. Superstition & the play of global conspiracy will serve the goal of enlightenment & liberty, not only of the Burmese but all the oppressed peoples of SE Asia.

tis evening's links -
english
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSGOR2284362...71003
http://www.bbc.co.uk/burmese/news/story/2004/12/041201_...shtml
norse [ if anyone can get Dr C. O H to pass an eye over the Norwegian press or Danish press which language he is fully proficient with & write one his excellent news pieces which he ocassionally submits, I and no doubt you would be delighted rather than taking my word alone for it. ]

Htaly Win with his 17 year old son. A former major of the Myanmar military he as completed his defection. Peace & Compassion on him.·.

by iosaf Thu Oct 04, 2007 14:47

all from reuters :

Mynt Ngwe Mon, 38, who works with the U.N. Development Program, was picked up from her house in the middle of Wednesday night along with her husband, Than Tun and brother-in-law Aung Kyaw Sint, & her driver a U.N. official had reported said & now they're released.

Monks lead protests in western India at the site of the final resting place of the Buddha.

The corpse of the Japanese photographer hsa returned to Tokyo.

there are 4 classes of prisoners in the swoop - passers-by, those who watched, those who clapped and those who joined in.

those who led face 20 years (probably a death sentance given the conditions)
those who clapped face 2 years.
___________________________________

The BBC burmese service and VOI have skitted around alluding to a rebel force which played a part in the defection of the major pictured above - Their skitishness due I suggest to several factors - the principle for the moment being how bad Thailand is one the one side & the undesirability of playing any covert cards which attract the attention or emulation of larger powers (than the Thai)in the region which as you might have noticed is undergoing extra-ordinarily significant changes. Until we explain to people how bad Thailand is, there won't be UCD emergency debates with YGF clamouring to be seen clapping nor will the excellent proposals to explain "blood rubies" go far & remove them from our homes - (coz we don't have any). Meanwhile, the psi warfare tactic begun on Saturday last which sees promotion in Asia and Japan of "silly conspiracy" will pay off, I assure you within six months. It is not over at all. Anger at the swoop compounds anger at the treatment of the monks. 16 pagodas are empty in Rangoon according to VOI. Burma will not be the same again. But as I wrote above this takes "time", & many pieces must fit before the Burmese are free.

Accordingly we wait for the UN meeting tomorrow at NYC.
We await Belgium's case against Total Elf oil which should reopen by Monday.
We ask our governments to ensure EU sanctions are comprehensive and tough.
We foster the western flank (which I alluded to above) and encourage activism in the monks & buddhists of Nuristan. We ignore the Australians & we Learn about Singapur & Thailand.
It's time to stop people going on holidays there.

by 1 of the many Thu Oct 04, 2007 15:28

Pesently 581,645 are supporting the Burmese in the AVAZZ online petition, they are aiming for 1,000,000 (1 million)

"To Chinese President Hu Jintao and the UN Security Council:

We stand alongside the citizens of Burma in their peaceful protests. We urge you to oppose a violent crackdown on the demonstrators, and to support genuine reconciliation and democracy in Burma. We pledge to hold you accountable for any further bloodshed. "

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/c.php?cl=19988569

Saturday Oct 6: A Day of International Action for a Free Burma
http://www.indymedia.org/en/2007/09/893128.shtml

listed countries so far taking part...

AUSTRALIA

AUSTRIA

BELGIUM

CANADA

FRANCE

GERMANY

INDIA

Ireland

JAPAN

MALAYSIA

New Zealand

NORWAY

PHILIPPINES

SOUTH KOREA

SPAIN

SWEDEN

SWITZERLAND

Taiwan

THAILAND

UNITED STATES

United Kingdom

What will China stand for? The choice is now. On the streets of Rangoon + Sat 6th Oct: global day of action

by iosaf Thu Oct 04, 2007 23:45

Most of this text explains to the reader that only numbskulls would continue to believe what occured in Burma before, during & after the UN visit China brokered is the fault of China. I applaud each & every effort to show solidarity, but I'd have preferred if "one of the many" had left the last comment on another thread.

I'm not exonerating China for a moment, merely pointing out to you that India has more financial interest. Singapur has greater economic clout & Thailand is the closest comparative regime which colluded in the barbarism.


You would serve the longterm interests of ordinary people world-wide if you pressured the EU & the corporations who speak your English language who use Burma / Myanmar.

by iosaf Sat Oct 06, 2007 09:00

We're at a weekend with little substance of either filler news or analysis on Burma / Myanmar. But one thing attracts attention, the special mention made in the preliminary press statements from the UN on tobacco -
they are cobbling together a declaration of their ethics (human rights, unacceptable force on pacifist protesters - release prisoners - meet Aung San & condemnation of what happened) which as we know really has no bite, unless the region plays its part - & unless the corporations are identified properly and subject to equal sanction or restriction across the globalised capitalist spheres. For example Mr Bush may sanction the largest supermarket in the world with all his corps from using Burma/ Myanmar, but that won't stop Walmart Australia continuing with biz as normal. It's the weekend, oh yes - non-banking days with too much talk of rubies, odd so much attention is paid to rubies and not Singapur. I suppose rubies are exotic coz most people don't have any but think they would recognise one if they found it in their gruel & it broke their teeth. -

Now if you go up the text above, you'll see I mentioned tobacco. You might be surprised disruption of tobacco routes got in to the diplomacy. Lots would surprise you if you only half paid attention.... I wonder does Aung San really want to meet the superstitious old general? Idoubt it. But rest assured he doesn't really want to meet her either. I told you so up the page. He's scared shit of her. Let's leave it till Monday with this attention to detail because I've written a lot on this page, & it gets boring when I keep referring to "i told you so" bits. So I'll make it simple. I mentioned "tobacco and stuff". In this link to the french language UN statement (coz french is officially the language of diplomacy, believe it or not) you will see the reference to tobacco but not stuff. That is not because french lacks a word for stuff, rather you don't mention stuff when you're being diplomatic. diplomacy is all about omission.
I expect on Monday there will be stuff worthy of comment. Coz I know boycotting rubies isn't really practical for most people. But check your gruel all the same.

http://www.un.org/News/fr-press/docs/2007/dbf071005.doc.htm

by iosaf Sat Oct 06, 2007 09:29

My last comment of this morning omitted what many would consider news, unfortuanately not too few would also clap themselves on the back & see this as evidence of what a good job they've done..,

......."Aung San Suu Kyi appeared on Burmese television for the first time in years yesterday when the state-run broadcaster aired footage of the opposition leader meeting UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari. The report was broadcast as the UN security council discussed the crisis in Burma, and it referred to her as "Daw Aung San Suu Kyi" - a respectful form of address not used in the past. The head of Burma's junta, General Than Shwe, said he would meet Ms Suu Kyi on condition she gives up her call for international sanctions against Burma. The offer was later rejected by the opposition, which describing it as a tactic to force their leader to abandon the campaign for democracy"......

that's The Guardian on it. http://www.guardian.co.uk/burma/story/0,,2185105,00.html

_____________________________

........"Myanmar's junta is hunting four monks it accused of leading the biggest anti-government protests in nearly 20 years in the main city Yangon, state television said. MRTV said more than 400 monks and 188 men and women had been freed since they were detained in raids by troops and police on 18 Buddhist monasteries in and around Yangon last week. "Four activist monks escaped arrest when their monasteries were raided and officials requested senior monks to help expose and find them for the interests of the religion," MRTV said late on Friday. Another 109 monks and nine men were still being questioned. It did not give details from other towns and cities where protests were crushed."........

that's reuters http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSSP82690

__________________________

& this is Xinhua chinese news :-

The Myanmar authorities have released 404 monks out of 513, who were taken away by the security forces for questioning during recent raids on 18 monasteries in the country's biggest city of Yangon, according to state-run press media Saturday. The release up to Friday also included one novice, 158 men and 30 women during the raids, the New Light of Myanmar said, adding that 109 other monks and 9 men are still held for interrogation. The 18 monasteries, on which the security forces carried out search, were in 8 townships in the city, it also said, adding that the operation uncovered some anti-government materials. The report accused the head monks of these 18 monasteries of leading, generating, participating and supporting the demonstrations. The report also charged with presence of some bogus monks in these monasteries. Meanwhile, the Myanmar authorities said earlier that it has freed so far 692 other people out of 2,093 arrested for their involvement in the protest despite curfew and a ban of demonstration. The situation in Yangon has been calm since last weekend following the imposition on Sept. 25 of a 60-day curfew order and a ban of demonstration in the city. A compiled statistics based on official figures show that 10 protestors have been killed and 16 other civilians injured by shots fired by the security forces, while 45 government security forces members wounded during clashes amid the ban."..........
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-10/06/content_68...4.htm

____________________________

So that's your news bits for the non-banking days. I still stand by my last comment. General Than Shwe is superstitious as we all know, & scared shit of Aung San whether or not she's on telly. & I'd advise you not to get bogged down in release figures without any arrest figures. I'd remind you you're not finding rubies in your gruel. It takes time. There's more "stuff" than tobacco on the routes. That word "partition" has not gone away, & well nobody watched Myanmar telly before - did they? Now let's pretend we're the eye of Sauron & look in another direction. & also see how many people do the global solidarity thing today & realise corporations do not belong to states, Thailand & Singapur are tactically more important than either China or India &............. you've only seen pink meth mentioned here..........you'd swear it didn't exist the way it gets omitted. shameful stuff.

by iosaf / o as if Sat Oct 06, 2007 12:26

This weekend's "news bits" are in the last comment. Basically it was about UN & TV & a reminder of the two people who do the current crises which everyone boycotting rubies down the Walmart. It's really simple. There's no need to be afraid, nor do you have to read all my text again or for the first time.

On one side is General Than Shwe, he represents Myanmar.
On the other side is Daw Aung San Suu Kyi she represents Burma.
Monks don't come into it. Ok? It's got nothing to do with religion & it's got nothing to do with tobacco that was code for "C-h-i-n-a is fucked off with Myanmar".

if you don't believe me what I wrote above on Monday was this :- it is a never ceasing wonder of South Eastern Asia for linguists how such radically different tongues have continued to exist from one valley to the next, making any comparison the 400yuan a year to the Bhat earned in Thailand or the Kyat earned in Burma quite a difficult chat for people. Which is odd considering their cross border free trade area was supposed to loosen their trade of Tobacco & stuff from Yunnan to Bangkok. c/f Feb 2006 http://english.people.com.cn/200602/13/eng20060213_2423....html (that being a Chinese web site) & I finished with the open sort of statement & question) Oh yes. it's all been planned so well...........who lives in the radio silence in the jungle?[ quick back link to text above Thttp://indymedia.ie/article/84350?&condense_comments=fa...08417 ]
Then the picture of Thailand returning refugees to Burma whilst the UN was in the gaff & then yer man the fakir & the crystal ball looking all off his head with eyes rolling.

So.......
who lives in the jungle?

For the record & no more today the UN statements (they all get to write a bit. it's cool. Diplomatic language on this level means each member of the security council sort of plays scrabble. abhorrent got in & not one use of restraint which appeared 12 times in the text above & was the most succesful diplomatic word of the whole affair. In fact the only person who didn't use the word "restraint" was Aung San Suu Kyi.
She by now is a household name & you know she represents Burma. What's their problem with "restraint"?

The UN didn't mention food. They must think rubies are edible.

http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2007/sgsm11208.doc.htm
they've just done this one, still don't mention munchies but they do include "r-e-c-o-n-c-i-l-i-a-t-i-o-n". You can expect the lady who represents Burma to get arrested now.
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2007/sc9136.doc.htm

by iosaf Mon Oct 08, 2007 12:19

Myanmar regime released 523 more protesters on Friday and Saturday, bringing the total freed so far to 1,215 out of 2,093 according to them.

398 monks are freed out of 533.

ASEAN (south asia free trade group) opposes sanctions proposed by USA, UK & France, though Singapur has stressed it supports the UN envoy, Ibrahim Gambari.

Soldiers are mostly not visible on the streets of Rangoon but are still holding positions at usual gathering or flashpoints as they call them.

REports of military activity in the provinces.

"Malaysia says the crisis in Burma is affecting the credibility of the regional grouping", ASEAN, which has opposed Western calls for sanctions. The Malaysian foreign minister, Syed Hamid Albar, told the BBC that ASEAN had to encourage Burma's military government to stop setting conditions for talks with Aung Sang"

- that's not really relevant coz Malaysia doesn't really come into this. People who went to take part in weekend mobilisations could continue to be useful & remember now that barbed wire is not on the streets, and the monsoons will soon stop, the Tourists will return. Most tourism to Burma is handled by UK agencies.

Myanmar TV reports ammunition & weapons were found in some monastries. Quite probable. Lost of soldiers went into them.

Myanmar military has given 8,000$ and food parcels to 50 monastries north of Rangoon according to the state news agency.

Myanmar says 18 died.
Burma "in exile" 300.
The airport I kept going on about http://www.cna.com.sg/yangon.html
is designed to carry 2.7 million passengers a year. They won't all be free traders from Thailand or Tobacco salesmen from Yunnan province in China. A great deal of them will be Europeans. What is really sick is, that not a few of them will consider going on holidays for no better reason than "p-a-g-o-d-a" & "d-i-r-t c-h-e-a-p" have succesfully been implanted into their little heads.

Sanctions might sound like the way to go, but only if they are global. Alas, Sanctions are trade group affairs or big states. Corporations do not fly national flags.

by iosaf Mon Oct 08, 2007 22:52

Thailand's Prime Minister at the moment is General Surayud Chulanont. He was chosen to lead the Thai army in 1999 & signalled in an interview given to "Janes Weekly" (which I always feel I have to explain to people isn't a weekly porn mag but is in fact the industry rag for soldiers & spies) that under his command the Thai army would move from worring about its neighbour Cambodia & Vietnam & instead concentrate on its border stability with Myanmar / Burma.
that interview was archived on burmalibrary org - nov 7 -1999

That was 8 years ago & since then you might have noticed Surayud Chulanont and the army took over Thailand in a coup d'etat last year. Anyway the bloke has one of those reputations as being "incorruptible". That's sounds dandy to many people. They think less of how little fun you get out of hanging out with incorruptibles, (just imagine the long list of such people who get high political office) and more of how nasty the corruptible generals who eat rubies are for foreign trade & investment & illustrating western impotence, global hypocrisy & the latent imperialist interventionism of even your most dedicated herbal tea drinker.

Anyway - Bankok Press tells us :- --------"Speaking at the prime minister's Meet the Press session at Government House, Gen. Surayud said he had sent a letter last week to Senior General Than Shwe, chairman of Burma's State Peace and Development Council, calling on the junta leader to halt violent actions against his country's Buddhist monks. "As a Buddhist-majority country, Thailand cannot accept the use of violence against the Buddhist monks in a neighbouring country," the premier said, adding that what further action could be taken would depend on consultations among the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Thailand is a founding member. "We want to see a dialogue between Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar's junta as the ASEAN had clearly stated earlier,"..............

I hope you get the diplomatic use of "predominantly" bit there. The tiny majority of course are islamist rebels.

As if by magic!

...................Junta chief Than Shwe has named the deputy labour minister, Aung Kyi, as the "manager for relations" with the Nobel Peace Prize winner, just four days after the military supremo made a heavily conditioned offer to meet with her, state television said.................

I warn you that you don't get prizes for guessing the deputy labour minister Aung Kyi is a general.

But you will get right up to the top of the class if you notice the man has almost the exact name as Miss Burma herself. Well your pronunciation is coming on grand, soon enough you'll be seeing the corporate logos instead of just thinking like it was still the 20th century. The only thing which is 20th century about our world is Fox tv.

see the fnords & stop being scared.

links -
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/071008/w100865A.html
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.p...22447

by iosaf Tue Oct 09, 2007 14:56

Aung San is reported as rejecting proposed restrictions for go-between talks with the junta. Fair enough. She didn't start the protests so she can hardly be expected to guarantee there won't be anymore. It's also quite likely that she as pissed off as many in the West are that the Junta found as interlocutor someone whose qualifications seem to be no better than having a similar name.
But maybe people in the west are used to seeing politicians and important figures with ridiculously apt names. As soon as some migrant parents render their surname "taoiseach", their kiddie will be.., Of course such "apophenia" or seeing patterns or coincidences where there are none, or even where there are only some - is one of the prinicple symptoms of alienation approaching mass-schizophrenia in Western society today.

The internet was switched on again last night. Some Bloggers and cybernauts who survived the clamp-down and confiscation of material (which continues) returned to send information and comments in a window (as in time) of 2 and half hours last night.

I reckon that was hasty Sure I know as well as the next chap or chapette that it's hard to look at the screen of death & stay away from it even if you know you should. But when they switch off the net you should go to your sat phone (if you have one) or your SW radio (which you all should know how to make) or you just "stay out of trouble". A while later they'll switch it back on. Most of the people eager enough to use the damn thing & enthusiastic enough to notice it's back on won't be people checking their hotmail inbox for spam. Take a tip from the "art of war" - never reclaim lost territory after retreat in any other way than cautious advance. You're not "returning", you're not "surprising". You're expected when you go back.

every step of the way.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/burma/story/0,,2186982,00.html
__________________________

China has rejected sanctions at the UN ..............most will say that's bad...........but they wouldn't have worked as proposed by USA, UK & France anyway.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/burmese/news/story/2007/10/070927_...shtml

another resignation in disgust within the Myanmar civil service
Ye Min Tun, a foreign ministry official for 10 years - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7035049.stm

by iosaf Wed Oct 10, 2007 11:39

The internet is still intermittent & unreliable

"US ambassador to UN, Zalmy Kalilzad, said it was time to prepare for a government transition in Burma". :- http://www.bbc.co.uk/burmese/news/story/2004/12/041201_...shtml

Christophe de Margerie who is CEO of Total Elf Oil, the French hydrocarbon giant gave an interview to "Le Monde" the base of which is his insistence that company will neither reduce its involvement or consider leaving. Links to "le Monde" don't work here because they annoyingly put the "@at" symbol in the article id numbers, so I'll refer you to articles about the interview from french language press which discuss Total in the light of the Belgian courts renewing their cases for human rights abuses in Burma against the company. http://www.enviro2b.com/environnement-actualite-develop....html
http://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/total-restera-en-b...18242

Singapore's senior statesman Lee Kuan Yew [ the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore from 1959 to 1990 c/f http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Kuan_Yew ] believes the ruling generals of Burma are "rather dumb" when it comes to managing the country's economy and will not be able to survive indefinitely, a published interview said Wednesday according to the Bangkok post & I'll get a link to that interview up or copied soon. I reckon he's right they are dumb. They are dim too. Dumb is the American for dim by the way. For readers who are interested in philosophy the difference between dumbness and dimness is pretty much the priority one places on being bright or talking loudly. He seems to be the first regional character (though not with an official position) to be offering quite specific thoughts. (a) he's being frank & local in his appraisal of the generals' paucity of options : as I wrote far above, they don't really have many options - they can't do this all the time & it's likely they realised they couldn't do it how they wanted to this time. (b) he points out that dissolving the myanmar military means ripping out the institutional structure of the state, thus there has to be a role for the military. That's "stability stuff". Makes perfect sense too, & the dedicated herbal tea drinkers could wonder do they have a government and civil and public service in waiting? nope they don't. So we return to the problematic "do the monks have a political agenda?" question.

http://bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=122504

______________________________

the Burmese democractic people, have decided to accept "former general" and current deputy labour minister, U Aung Kyi now as the interlocuter. You'll notice the "name problem" is being overcome by the addition of a "U". very clever that.

by iosaf Thu Oct 11, 2007 13:42

Fans of diplomatic language are on the edge of their seats today as the good folk of the 15 member UN security council move towards a statement.
The BBC burmese service have extended their shortwave broadcasting service & are offering people in that state a whole range of programming to reflect the importance of the day -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/burmese/news/story/2007/09/070927_...shtml

Way up this text which not only offers the reader information on a daily basis to the Burma / Myanmar story but also offers asides which might be interesting, I mentioned the fact that most people don't include druggies in their modeling of geopolitical strategy. I've gone hoarse over the years attempting to correct people who tell me the war on Iraq was just about Oil. It wasn't. You could just as easily say it was about Smack. But for some reason whenever I mention the most valuable black market commodity markets on the planet, even the most reasonable lefty or human rights type comes over all Greenspan-esque & quotes reams of peak supply statistics at me. & so, I stay in the shadows...

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crim have today published some figures on Opium production in Burma / Myanmar......"opium cultivation rose this year to 27,700 hectares with production estimated at 460 metric tons, up 46 per cent compared with 2006 figures" In total the experts at the UN estimate a a 29% jump in opium poppy cultivation in Burma for 2007. If you're bad at maths, I'll put it simply for you - the dip in opium production caused by the Taliban has now ended. Thanks to the concerted efforts of people who know better than you & don't have front doors - the world's smack supply is safe, bouyant & diversifying. As you might know, we can survive on anything from 2 to 4 years with disrupted crops or delivery, so this is really something you plan for more than those other essentials of the market - pork bellies, orange concentrate, arabica coffee beans.

We don't have a figure on pink meth yet. I'll let you know though. Nasty stuff. As the UN puts it, it's difficult to know who controls opium production in Thailand, which is currently the regional leader. It's not the buddhist army & it's not the islamist rebels. It's not the King & it's not I the music & english teacher. It's not you & it's not interpol. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Oh go on, why keep it a secret - the price by kilogram of pink meth speed has gone up in the last two weeks. You could run a 24 hour FAS centre for young lawyers on a kilo for five months. Of course they'll have no teeth & have gone psychotic by the second month.

Will update tonight with the UN statement! will be great for the diplomatic illustration.

I link to the full reports on Opium production from the UN. They're not the only people who do reports on this. You can find links to the past annual reports in the archives by using our search engine. "seek & you shall find - knock on the door & it will open".

press release
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/press_release_2007_10_10_7.html
factsheet
http://www.unodc.org/pdf/research/icmp/south_east_asia_...b.pdf
Golden Triangle overview........& you thought they just did tobacco.
http://www.unodc.org/pdf/research/icmp/south_east_asia_...b.pdf
full report

by iosaf .:. ipsiphi Thu Oct 11, 2007 23:16

Now no matter our reading level we can all learn something from today's statement, so I'm going to "cut & paste" it in its entirety, in its English language version which was read by the current President of the UNSC his excellency Leslie Kojo Christian, who is a black man from Ghana which is a little country in Africa which was granted its independence by the UK in 1957. It chose as its flag the colours of reggae music with the black star of Marcus Garvey in the centre. This is a symbolic tribute to the role the region played in the Slave route. The flag of the UN is a pretty accurate representation of the flat earth as seen from above.

:-

“The Security Council welcomes the recent mission by the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser to Myanmar Mr. Ibrahim Gambari, reaffirms its strong and unwavering support for the Secretary-General’s good offices mission as mandated by General Assembly resolution 61/232, and expresses its appreciation for the personal engagement of the Secretary-General.

“The Security Council strongly deplores the use of violence against peaceful demonstrations in Myanmar and welcomes Human Rights Council resolution S-5/1 of 2 October 2007. The Security Council emphasizes the importance of the early release of all political prisoners and remaining detainees. It also calls on the Government of Myanmar and all other parties concerned to work together towards a de-escalation of the situation and a peaceful solution.

“The Security Council stresses the need for the Government of Myanmar to create the necessary conditions for a genuine dialogue with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all concerned parties and ethnic groups, in order to achieve an inclusive national reconciliation with the direct support of the United Nations. The Security Council encourages the Government of Myanmar to consider seriously Mr. Gambari’s recommendations and proposals. The Security Council also calls on the Government of Myanmar to take all necessary measures to address the political, economic, humanitarian, and human rights issues that are the concern of its people and emphasizes that the future of Myanmar lies in the hands of all of its people.

“The Security Council welcomes the Government of Myanmar’s public commitment to work with the United Nations and the appointment of a liaison officer with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The Security Council stresses the importance that such commitments are followed by action. It acknowledges that the Government of Myanmar had invited Mr. Gambari to Myanmar. It underscores its support for his return as early as possible, in order to facilitate concrete actions and tangible results. The Security Council urges the Government of Myanmar and all parties concerned to cooperate fully with Mr. Gambari.

“The Security Council welcomes the important role played by the ASEAN countries in urging restraint, calling for a peaceful transition to democracy, and supporting the good offices mission. It notes that the good offices mission is a process, and encourages the sustained support and engagement of the international community in helping Myanmar.

“The Security Council remains seized of the matter.”

___________________________________

Just in case you felt yourself getting bogged down in all that, or like most people of your reading level didn't actually read it all, merely skipped from Marcus Garvey or the Flat Earth to the last line "the Security council remains seized of the matter", the good folk at the UNSC english department have offered you a "what this means" highlight, which I shall also "cut & paste" in its entirety :-

Strongly deploring the use of violence against peaceful demonstrators in Myanmar, the Security Council this afternoon welcomed the recent mission by Ibrahim Gambari, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser, to Myanmar.

In a statement read by its President Leslie Kojo Christian ( Ghana), the Council emphasized the importance of the early release of all political prisoners and remaining detainees. It called on the Government and all parties concerned to work together towards a de-escalation of the situation and a peaceful solution.

The Council stressed the need for the Government of Myanmar to create the necessary conditions, for a “genuine” dialogue with all concerned parties and ethnic groups. It welcomed the Government’s public commitment to work with the United Nations and the appointment of a liaison officer with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, but stressed the importance of follow-up by action. In that regard, the Council underscored its support for Mr. Gambari’s return as early as possible in order to facilitate concrete actions and tangible results.

The Council reaffirmed its “strong and unwavering” support for the Secretary-General’s good offices mission. It welcomed Human Rights Council resolution S-5/1 of 2 October, as well as the important role played by the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries in urging restraint, calling for a peaceful transition to democracy and supporting the good offices mission.

The meeting, which started at 1:35 p.m., was adjourned at 1:41 p.m.

_______________________________

You'll notice that the "explanation" show you what words are to be "stressed" & thoughtfully informs you that the 5757th meeting of the UNSC took all of 6 minutes.


I hope you all feel better now - these people work for you. There is no particular occult significance to the number 5757, but you can if you want concatenate 7 to 107 plus 6 & get 5757 if that's what
you're into. You'll probably find a website just for people like you too. Already newspapers are hopping off the stands worldwide with the best bits of this formal statement which many people will treat as a resolution & no doubt Ghana is as proud of Leslie Kojo Christian as Nigeria is of Prof. Ibrahim Gambari. For today's 6 minute meeting reflects the pinacle of Ghana's stint as security council president which they'll be retiring from at Christmas. It is as ever vital that we realise the body which is the UNSC means nations may discuss openly and publically the concerns of ordinary people wordwide & be effective in legitimising diplomatic arbitration across this great disk of ours. If you get the impression little countries get told what to do or that everything is decided before hand in a backroom - you've a long way to go in diplomacy.

H.E. Leslie Kojo Christian, the UN's Security Council president.

by iosaf Sat Oct 13, 2007 05:58

The Myanmar junta were the first to get reactions in which matter & this is what they've said :-

......""deeply regrets" a U.N. Security Council statement deploring the regime's brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters last month. I don't need to explain that statement to you, if you want to take all this seriously, you scroll up the page & read the UNSC statement & briefing in its entirety.

.

"We deeply regret that the chairman of the U.N. Security Council has issued a statement on Myanmar although Myanmar's situation does not affect regional and international peace and security",.....that came from State-owned MRT, which is not diplomacy but will do for the moment. The TV station went on to say the junta would follow its own seven-step "roadmap to democracy".

sources :-

Reuters India http://in.reuters.com/article/southAsiaNews/idINIndia-2...71012
BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7042731.stm
Yet again I can't stress enough that India has got away scot free on this.

For your information, Foreign Ministry Spokesperon Liu Jianchao of the People's republic of China made yet another statement which was critical of Myanmar on their 11th of October (counting the time zones) in his regular press conference talked about North Korea, Chavez in Columbia, the Eurozone & Taiwan - http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/xwfw/s2510/2511/t371681.htm

& more importantly for now has issued a Chinese Government statement on the UNSC statement on Myanmar. Which I reproduce in full, for I feel though many people are happy to see their special athletes bring back medals from Shangai they still wouldn't go to a Chinese website.

__________________________________

Q: On October 11, New York time, the UN Security Council adopted the chairman's statement on the Myanmar issue. What's China's comment?

A: The chairman's statement adopted by the UN Security Council is to support the mediation efforts of the UN Secretary-General and his Special Envoy Gambari, and help constructively relevant parties in Myanmar realize national reconciliation, democracy and development through dialogue. The Myanmar issue will have to be properly settled through consultation by the Myanmar people and its government in the end. China is willing to proactively promote the proper resolution of the Myanmar issue by joining hands with the international community.

http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/xwfw/s2510/2535/t371707.htm

________________________________

Just in case the anti-Chinese sentiment in Europe is not just aimed at PRC but Taiwan as well & even Singapore...... here's the Tapei Times report of PRC's reaction to the UNSC statement they made possible after the UN envoy meeting they brokered -
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2007/10/...82912

Meanwhile India did nothing but sign a multi-squillion gas contract & not one soul in Ireland said boo to them. Maybe if India was hosting the olympics it would be different..,

by iosaf Mon Oct 15, 2007 21:06

Mr Gambari (the UN special envoy) is getting really angry. The reason being the high-profile political arrests in Burma this last weekend.

saying :-"The reports of arrests of the remaining student leaders, interrogation and acts of intimidation are extremely disturbing and run counter to the spirit of mutual engagement between the UN and Myanmar,"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/burmese/news/story/2004/12/041201_...shtml

Meanwhile Thailand whose intelligence service played such a crucial role in the whole crises have now suggested multi-state talks. The spin on the idea is a repeat of the North Korean thing.

Thus far they suggest China, India & themselves should sit down & work it all out.

Wait you say! what about Korean who supply the dinky chinese looking armoured vehicles?

& stop your propaganda this moment & stop reminding us that India made a profit!

When will you realise we are happy with the status quo and know human rights and democracy in China will only come if we continue with the well tried and trusted 19th century formula of accusing them of throwing babies in rivers, being generally satan & having a language thousands of years older than ours we're too dim to be able to learn. After all such an approach has worked since the Opium wars & quite probably is the reason they went commie in the first place.

Anyway -

The brightest amongst you will remember the Korea talks were a neat way of bringing 6 large powers together to stop yer man the short nutter in platform heels building nukes & forging dollars. It worked too. Great results. Myanmar don't want to build nukes they just want an atomic reactor in the jungle & the Russians want to sell it to them.

has the Thai regime suggested bringing in Russia?
Does Putin have fine pectoral muscles?
Has the Thai suggested bringing in the USA or UK?
Is the pope a latin speaker?

Thailand's military intelligence have worked wonders. Half the world has mobilised & effectively brought them into power brokership whilst ensuring China goes no futher down the road to democracy.

Splendid stuff.
nothing to do with the Olympics.
very little to do with Burma either

http://bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=122653

DO INDIA.
now-. quick & sharp. please. pretty please.

by iosaf Wed Oct 17, 2007 12:08

Myanmar's official organ in english is the "light of Myanmar" newspaper with site here http://www.myanmar.com/newspaper/nlm/index.html where you can read their propaganda. Such as ......."Families of Tatmadaw (Army, Navy and Air ) and wellwishers donated rice and cash to Paukmyaing Pariyatti Sarthintaik, Myo U Thanlan Pariyatti Sarthintaik, Yadanapon Pariyatti Sarthintaik, Thayettaw Pariyatti Sarthintaik and Ponnami Nunnery at Paukmyaing Pariyatti Sarthintaik in Lewe, Nay Pyi Taw Pyimana District"(sunday last).........."Wellwishers and families of Tatmadaw (Army, Navy and Air) donated cash and kind to 29 monasteries and eight nunneries in Thingangyun township, Yangon East District, this afternoon."(yesterday)...................

need I go on? it seems relatives of the Tatmadaw are busy diving about the place in dinky little Korean cars donating rice (which is fairly normal Buddhist practise) and cash (which is fairly normal catholic practise) to the monks.

Meanwhile the real reason we go to that newspaper is these figures :-
468 held of 2,927 total arrests
They also claim a peak of 100,000 people mobilised, thus argue their "restraint" on arrest figures & of course they're now blaming it all on 3 leaders of the "88 movement" (which though at first glance looks like fairly typical euro-neo-nazi code is in fact the crap denomination given to the people who rose to prominence in the last major democracy crises in Burma). Those 3 were arrested over the weekend btw.

Just over the border in emergent ASEAN player Thailand, the King is well ill. The military caste who effectively run that state from top to bottom (in the name of stability) justify everyone of their coups by pledging loyalty to the King (& there have been more than you could count on your hands without going above knuckles [there is an ancient hindu mathematical exercise which sees one count to 999,999 using only 2 hands but all features - use your nails!]) Anyway - that King might soon discover his symptoms permenantly disabling. Based on reports it appears he's heading for a stroke on the right side of the body, which means left side of brain - which means language centre.
Thus I again as I've done several times in this long report into the current Burma/Myanmar crises since 23rd Sept 2007 - ask people to see beyond Rangoon & Mandalay and use this crises as a means of introducing all the threads of South Asian exploitation & slave labour & its route to militry caste dominanted free markets. Yep - you've got to learn about Thailand & its military. They've just bought 12 Gripen multi-role fighters from Sweden - which represents a change in hardware from their focus on helicopters and troop logistics & focus on the Burmese frontier. It appears they're happy with operations there & now want to look east & south......... (again & more aggresively)
really very interesting & long term stuff & not much of it is that human right-ish

Human right-ish of course brings me to the beacon of institutional reincarnation, theocracy & government in exile - The Dalai Lama who as we know has met George Bush & his wife to explain religious tolerance to the bible belt who might just think he's a Hari Krishna & more importantly to get up the Chinese nose. Anyone who smile that much can't get up your nose. I saw him in Catalonia for september 11 this year, - the merchandising is gift. Still not as good as bottle of holy water or a child of prague, but you've got to give it to these new religions - they've got it all sewn up & taken very seriously.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/burmese/news/story/2004/12/041201_...shtml

Oh yep - India. if you go to the list of billionaires on the planet & ignore the richest Indian & just look at the others - you've find the names of individuals with interests in Burma. If you go to India you'll find all the human rights abuses you want too. But it's a democracy & that's what counts & they used our colours on their flag. They're laughing.

by JohnHM Wed Oct 17, 2007 22:51

In Oslo yesterday, the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was not awarded to the Burmese monks whose defiance against, and brutalization at the hands of, the country's military junta in recent weeks captured the attention of the Free World.

The prize was also not awarded to Morgan Tsvangirai, Arthur Mutambara and other Zimbabwe opposition leaders who were arrested and in some cases beaten by police earlier this year while protesting peacefully against dictator Robert Mugabe.

Or to Father Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest in Vietnam arrested this year and sentenced to eight years in prison for helping the pro-democracy group Block 8406.

Or to Wajeha al-Huwaider and Fawzia al-Uyyouni, co-founders of the League of Demanders of Women's Right to Drive Cars in Saudi Arabia, who are waging a modest struggle with grand ambitions to secure basic rights for women in that Muslim country.

... Or to Garry Kasparov and the several hundred Russians who were arrested in April, and are continually harassed, for resisting President Vladimir Putin's slide toward authoritarian rule.

Or to the people of Iraq, who bravely work to rebuild and reunite their country amid constant threats to themselves and their families from terrorists who deliberately target civilians.

... Or to thousands of Chinese bloggers who run the risk of arrest by trying to bring uncensored information to their countrymen.

Or to scholar and activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim, jailed presidential candidate Ayman Nour and other democracy campaigners in Egypt.

Or, posthumously, to lawmakers Walid Eido, Pierre Gemayel, Antoine Ghanem, Rafik Hariri, George Hawi and Gibran Tueni; journalist Samir Kassir; and other Lebanese citizens who've been assassinated since 2005 for their efforts to free their country from Syrian control.

Or to the Reverend Phillip Buck; Pastor Chun Ki Won and his organization, Durihana; Tim Peters and his Helping Hands Korea; and Liberty in North Korea, who help North Korean refugees escape to safety in free nations.

These men and women put their own lives and livelihoods at risk by working to rid the world of violence and oppression. Let us hope they survive the coming year so that the Nobel Prize Committee might consider them for the 2008 award.

Instead tree hugging Al Gore got a prize

by iosaf Wed Oct 24, 2007 13:14

first off it's nice to see John wasn't stooping to recommend any of his personal friends or cronies for a Nobel prize in the last comment. hee hee hee.

Australia has decided to apply sanctions-. My immediate thoughts are for Wallmart who have always sidestepped US feelings by running their Burma show from Oz. Aside from the economic restrictions at the moment only thing worth commenting on is the extensive list of Myanmar officials who will not now be allowed to visit Australia or her dependencies or (ahem) East Timor. In total 418 people are on the list. This compares with less than 20 on the "no visit to the USA" list and only a dozen on the "no visit to the EU" list. But as we know the Ozzies don't really care for foreign visitors anyway - they've no room.

UN envoy Mr Gambari has been in New Delhi and India these last days & whereas there was popular expression of support with the Burmese people most notably by local Buddhists (& we ought note the Dalai Lama lives in exile from Tibet in India) the Indian state (fine democracy that it is) has not really budged an inch or rethought a ruppee of its business deals with Myanmar.

& this is where the whole sanctions game falls down.

Gambari is now looking forward to a second visit to Burma / Myanmar which should happen in November & possibly see "talks".

Myanmar authorities have released 2 journalists who were arrested during the demonstrations: Nay Linn Aung & Win Ko Ko Latt who worked for Burmese local titles. Of the local press in Burma most were immediately silenced & one indeed just shut up shop rather than taint itself with the oppression. Myint Thein the imprisoned spokesperson of the NLD is said to be worsening in health by his family who alledge the Myanmar authorities are refusing medicial visits.

The Tibetan government in exile reported clashes between buddhists in Tibet and Chinese authorities as Tibetans attempted to celebrate the awarding of a the US congress gold medal to the Dalai Lama in the special olympics.

by iosaf Thu Oct 25, 2007 15:10

The Guardian reports Aung San may meet the Junta today which is a surprise since all hopes for talks seemed to be for later in the year (next November)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/burma/story/0,,2198729,00.html
& BBC Burma agrees that Daw Aung San has left her residence
http://www.bbc.co.uk/burmese/news/story/2007/09/070927_...shtml

Meanwhile the UN special envoy has praised India & seems to suggest they're brokering his visit to Burma /Myanmar in that first week of November -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7058057.stm

The Burmese christian minority are said to be fleeing to India (through Nuristan which I mentioned far up the page) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7058007.stm

by iosaf Fri Oct 26, 2007 12:32

....."Daw Aung San Suu Kyi met with a newly appointed Burmese Minister of Relation U Aung Kyi Thursday as part of a U.N.-brokered attempt toward reconciliation............The meeting took place at the Sein Le Kantha guest house........
If you find the names confusing there's little point in you trying to read this whole thread since 23/Sept.
But for those who did are might - the UN special envoy is now in Tokyo, where Japanese popular feelings at the shooting of their journalist were much hotter than any felt by their considerable business interests.

There are reports today of lots of troops being visible in Rangoon, perhaps this time people could finalise whether they drive about in Chinese or South Korean vehicles..,

..."The Irish government is appalled by the Burmese military junta's violent suppression of recent protests, Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said Thursday. Mr. Ahern was speaking after he met Dr.Sein Win, the Prime Minister of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) and Dr.Thaung Htun, also from the NCGUB."

& all that can be checked on the BBC Burmese service with additional details from the Bankok Post
http://www.bbc.co.uk/burmese/news/story/2004/12/041201_...shtml
http://bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=122982

Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma meets U Aung Kyi (Myanmar) yesterday

by iosaf Tue Oct 30, 2007 12:22

"One of Asia's most notorious warlords, Khun Sa, has died in the Burmese city of Rangoon" (now he wasn't the infamous un-named one who i mentioned up the page a few times and lives in the jungle but of the same ilk). Khun Sa [Chang Shi-fu or Zhang Qifu] was one of the world's foremost opium & heroin war lords who sought legitamacy by fighting an "independence war" in the "Shan" province.

report of his death -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7068868.stm
his wiki biog
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khun_Sa

Today's "Guardian" adds to comprehensive material of the last week on child exploitation in South Asia with a story on child prostitution which operates in Burma with the assistance of military officials
http://www.guardian.co.uk/burma/story/0,,2201622,00.html That story of course adding to the horrific news last weekend that high street clothing chain "Gap" had been found to be using slave child labour in India the global leader in such things.

by iosaf Wed Oct 31, 2007 14:41

....."Reports from Burma say around one hundred Buddhist monks have rallied in public.........The peaceful march took place in the central town Pakokku, where a violent incident in September sparked off nationwide demonstrations.............."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/burmese/news/story/2007/10/070927_...shtml

.....""We walked around the town and chanted ... We are continuing our protest from last month as we have not yet achieved any of the demands we asked for," one monk told the Democratic Voice of Burma, a Norway-based radio station......."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/burma/story/0,,2202239,00.html

.......Pakokku, a centre for Buddhist learning with more than 80 monasteries, is about 630km north-west of the commercial centre of Rangoon. It was the site of the first march by monks last month as they joined, and then spearheaded protests against raised fuel prices, which turned into the biggest anti-government protests in nearly two decades. The protests originally started on August 19, when citizens took to the streets to vent anger after the government hiked fuel prices as much as 500%.............

This thread began on the 23rd of August. & so now the UN envoy Gambari will return to Burma / Myanmar on Saturday. The hulabalu & kurfuffle & petitions have died down. Hardly any conscienctious citizen of the West went further in their geopolitical understanding of the emergent Free Trade area made up of highly conservative states such as Taiwan & Singapur & military caste regimes such as Thailand, Myanmar and Laos. The best that could have been hoped was not that the westerner learn to blame China or boycott rubies - but rather that he or she begin to see SE Asian economics & our reliance on it for what it is :- pure exploitation.

In the last weeks facts & serious professional reporting have shone a light on what has long been maintained by aid & human rights groups; India is the cradle of child labour, Myanmar is the creche of child soldiers, (c/f today's HRW report http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/10/31/burma17178.htm ) & the whole region is awash with child prostitution just as the international heroin supply has become ever more reliant on SE Asian fields & the blind eye of local military.

last link : "Facing a military staffing crisis, the Burmese government is forcibly recruiting many children, some as young as age 10, into its armed forces, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today."

Not scared nor scary? the creche of child soldiering & those guns aren't chinese

by iosaf Fri Nov 02, 2007 12:38

...........46 people who were arrested during the crises have been released including Human Right "defender" U Myint Aye. (whose family were very worried about him as mentioned up the page........
he is one of the 88 group)

International Red Cross is appealing for access to those still detained which I reckon at approximately 422 now of the original 2,927 total arrests.

48 hours ago as of this afternoon the Myanmar telecom company cut the internet again. This time they're not blaming the lack of internet on a damaged undersea cable. They're being quite upfront about it. It's a security issue for them. This time the policeman in charge of Rangoon (a colonel) has been very chatty & put up his barriers around the pagodas immediately unlike the last chap who no-one has ever heard of again. "early retirement" is the phrase.

the Shwedagon and the Sule areas are seeing troop movements but the streets of Pakokku are reported as being quite quiet.

by iosaf Fri Nov 02, 2007 23:21

In a move which has stunned the world's diplomatic community the military junta of Myanmar / Burma have announced in a letter that they are expelling The UN's coordinator & head of the UN development
program from the state just one day before the UN special envoy arrives for talks. "......The diplomat, Charles Petrie, was handed a letter ordering his expulsion at the end of a meeting with government officials on Friday in Naypyidaw, the capital......"

......."The following statement was issued today by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: The Secretary-General is disappointed by the message from the Government of Myanmar stating that it would not want the Resident Coordinator, Charles Petrie, to continue to serve in Myanmar. The Secretary-General has full confidence in the United Nations country team and its leadership and appreciates their contribution to the improvement of the socio-economic and humanitarian conditions for the people of Myanmar. The Secretary-General has instructed the Special Adviser, Ibrahim Gambari, to convey his views directly to the authorities when he visits the country beginning tomorrow, 3 November........"
c/f http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/sgsm11253.doc.htm
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24517&Cr=m...&Cr1=

_______________
Petrie comes from the same Irish line of baronets & aristocratic types who apparantly liked Franco & did well for themselves in Australia. He himself has been a career diplomat all his life & has seen work in Rwanda 1994, eastern Congo with the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Kinshasa organized a plane to cross rebel lines and pick up national high school exams in towns and helping as a career diplomat & administrator deal with Ebola outbreaks & the Lakes region of Africa (made infamous by the documentary movie "darwin's nightmare"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin's_Nightmare ) & skillfully avoided the very serious accusations of corruption that plagued the UNDP. He has overseen an effective AIDS program in Burma and was very outspoken on October 24th at the 500% food & fuel price increases which had of course brought the monks & protesters on to the streets.

In that statement he spoke of a “deteriorating humanitarian situation.” which was exactly the phrase he had used when accepting the Myanmar / Burmese post in 2003 his description of UNDP's goal and role in Myanmar: "to stop things from deteriorating."this comment was interpreted then to mean, "to preserve the status quo."
{Often in repressive regimes like Zimbabwe, Uzbekistan, Myanmar and North Korea, this means supporting brutal regimes. Which then brings one to consider the question what currency did the UNDP use & uses in Myanmar, so it does. UNDP had developed North Korea in US dollars which they gave the North Korean state which seems a bit silly considering the North Korean state till this year was the main forger of US 100 dollar bills......maybe they needed small change?

I'm not upset about Mr Petrie losing his job, he'll get another one.
But just as a few dozen monks doing a quiet walkabout this week might convince your local tabloid that the saffron revolution is "on again", maybe booting out the UN / UNDP bod will excite interest..,

So without boring ye - my analysis is - this is spin & froth The UNDP has not been kicked out. & i reckon even the military government of Naypyidaw can do with free condoms

But I do want to know what Liu Jianchao (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Jianchao) has to say about it in his next briefing, for only yesterday he said "that China hopes that all related parties in Burma will exercise restraint, seek resolution of existing issues between all factions through dialogue and negotiation, achieve ethnic reconciliation, and advance towards democracy, progress, and development." I like how Liu does diplo-speak, I qouted him already up the page. Go on Liu : impress me ;-)

_______________

bbc report http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7075294.stm
new york times report http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/03/world/asia/03myanmar....c=rss

by iosaf Wed Nov 07, 2007 12:36

For a very great part of the late 20th century the foreign policy (both overt & covert) of the USA & her allies was focussed on preventing what Henry Kissenger called a "domino effect". Thus, as well explained by Noam Chomsky, on more than one occasion an exagerrated response to perceived threats to US or Western interests saw the mighty hammer & mace brought to crush a sesame seed. Those decades saw 2 continental swathes of humanity (south Asia & South America) subject to constant inteference or bombardment in both cases to subvert the democratic wishes of the majority of natives who it appeared preferred wandering into the Soviet or centralised state socialist sphere. As is well known most of South America suffered right wing dictatorships approved by the free world - but then the age of democracy arrived i n the form of no more than 21 months of the 21st century.

History & particularly geopolitical history is filled with the ironic twists which to the classical mind were proof certain of the constant petulant supervision of humanity by lesser gods & goddesses whose purpose it was to remind the puny earthling of the consequences of its ambition.

Today is day 5 of the special UN envoy Gambari's visit to Burma / Myanmar. As you will know if you've followed the comments, the last touch of spin was the refusal by Myanmar to renew the visa of the UN & UNDP representative in that state Mr Petrie. & just as you'd expect everyone to pay attention to the progress of the "safron revolution" led by its quaint buddhists monks - Pakistan went pop.

You are now expected to pay attention to the progress of the "barristers revolution" led by its quaint solicitors & notaries in Pakistan whilst the domino effect continues to present such painfully forewarned consequences for the long term interests (both foreign trade & internal social balance) of the Western states.

Last night the state of Pakistan which was created out of the same conglomerate as Burma (the British Raj) decided the UN was intefering in its affairs by pointing out that that state which began its existence as a constitutional republic on the 11th of September 1947 and has passed through various dictatorships the last of which though condemned by the UN was accepted by Bush's USA on account of a latter day 11of September is now going the way of a rogue regime again.

Yet now no-one can find a hammer big enough to smash the sesame seeds anymore or even the right words to frame their hypocrisy. It is too much to expect them to admit they've lost the war they should never have had the gall to pretend they'd declared.

It might seem very odd to mention the illegal war on Iraq which undermined both the credibility and function of the UN as the agreed international tool of arbitration & also delegitimised the work of her inspectorates in a comment to a thread on a Burma / Myanmar. It would seem even odder to some to mention such in a comment to my current thread on Pakistan http://indymedia.ie/article/84912 & its background http://indymedia.ie/article/83379

But how the dominos started to fall was indeed so odd that I in awe of the praeter-natural powers who have forever shepherded the ambition of foolish men must mention with respect the names of Nemesis, Luck, Fortune, Cholera & Eris.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/burmese/news/story/2004/12/041201_...shtml

by iosaf Wed Nov 14, 2007 11:51

There will be a Burma info evening at Seomra Spraoi
Wednesday 21 of November at 7.30pm c/f http://indymedia.ie/article/85044

____________

.........."Reporting to the UN security council on his recent visit to the country, Mr Gambari said it had not produced all the results he was hoping for, but he believed the Burmese government could be responsive to international pressure. He added that the best way to show its commitment to dialogue would be to release the detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi........"
"........Although it had not been possible to meet with Senior General Than Shwe during his visit, Mr. Gambari said, he had met with the new Prime Minister, General Thein Sein, and all the relevant members of Government, including the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Information, Culture and Labour. He had also met with civil society groups and opposition parties, as well as the United Nations country team and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Besides having released many detainees and having withdrawn the visible military presence in the cities, the Government had, since his last visit, also set up meetings with Aung San Suu Kyi and appointed a constitutional drafting committee. It had agreed to receive the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in the country, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, after four years of his being denied access, as well as a delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)............."

http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/sc9168.doc.htm

Which brings us to Mr Paulo Sergio Pinheiro who this week visited a notorious prison thus allowing the authorities to grant families and ICRC access with food, medicines and blankets a fe days before. This is very normal. If you've got a filthy prison in your state - you know it & somehow feel just a wee bit ashamed about it, so whenever you concede a VIP visit you tend to "window dress" just before hand.
Mr Pinheiro is still in Burma whilst A prominent monk leader Ashin Gambira has been detained. You'll notice the similarity of names again. Mr UN GAmbari goes Monk Gambira is detained. Mr U Sang meets Mrs Aung San.
________________________

Go along to the seomra spraoi for 21 of November & remember Burma is not just one state or problem - it is representative of the whole region & the exploitation & hypocrisy western led (but not exclusively western) globalisation has allowed to continue & flourish despite our most lofty beliefs that we are somehow different from our forebears who lived close to the top of the Raj heap.

by iosaf Sat Feb 09, 2008 20:43

the Myanmar junta have been busy haven't they?
the worst sort of hopes to get up are the false ones.
the last time the Burmese / Myanmarese were invited to vote or "not vote" was 1990.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7236648.stm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/burmese/news/story/2004/12/041201_...shtml

by quang duc Sun Feb 10, 2008 01:14

"A 'Wonderland' where monks call for foreign air strikes" is the very thought provoking title of an article in this weekend's "Japan Times" In an exclusive report, read how many monks have "disappeared since 2007's Saffron Revolution in Myanmar, how joking about the regime lands you in prison and how Tokyo's protests about the gunning down of a Japanese journalist have been spurned.


......."In this "Wonderland," the SPDC is constructing a new capital, Naypyitaw (meaning "Seat of Kings"), and an IT city with its gleaming shrines to warped priorities. And why not buy a $250-million Russian nuclear reactor to produce, we are assured, medical isotopes in a nation where annual health spending is less than $1 per capita? When I mentioned my "Alice in Wonderland" feeling to an elderly Burmese he laughed and told me that a new translation of this Lewis Carroll classic into Burmese has recently been nominated for a prestigious literary prize. Timing is everything, and what could be more apt for a nation collectively experiencing the unnerving feeling of falling down the Rabbit Hole where the Mad Hatters in green are in charge and monks are shot, arrested and tortured at the Queen of Hearts' behest? The newspapers, meanwhile, lay the blame for the nation's mounting problems and unrest on unpatriotic saboteurs orchestrated by evil powers who seek to control Burma for their own nefarious ends. The Buddhist monks who were killed, we read, were not real monks, merely hooligans masquerading as pious devotees..............

But the truth is most first world Asians are ignoring the exciting triumphant democratic door ajar newsflash. (that Burma / Myanmar is to have a referendum & elections in 2010) & instead focussing on a fire in Camden market London where all the trendy young people went (or knew someone who went) or the English archbishop of Canterbury's suggestion to allow Sharia law in England. At least that's the headlines in Singapur http://sphreg.asiaone.com/RegAuth2/stpLogin.html?goto=h...3A53Z (a citystate which deserved mention in the above thread) If you can't afford their paper, you're probably not turned on by them leading an international campaign to clean up Sumo wrestling. Oh, there have been some dodgey deaths in Sumo recently, which face it, as well as being a pretty extreme sport is one of the final cultural options open to British or Irish ministries of health to divert the obesity cult. We have seen proved useless the "ignore it" approach of the formerly very great & respected Irish liberal party the PD's whose rump presence of one seat is now held by Mary Harney TD. Likewise the educational; kitchen-gloves-without-goggles, nutritious scones,not potentially explosive crystal methamphetamine deals, you're cooking now dear child of England approach of our neighbours the UK, shall most probably prove useless in combatting the dangerous cult of obesity. We are about combatting the dangerous cult of obesity everyone one of us, portly or emaciated, fond of a steroid or full fat candy - make no mistake.

It shall be wonderful to think that in these final years of Mary Harney's public life she will add "might have been credited with fomenting Sumo wrestling on a county to county basis" to her list of missed opportunities whilst exercising the power to invest in, divest from & commercially direct our professional health service.

Croker is only a century away for the Sumo.

a Referendum with ballot boxes, question, counting, logistics, census, public information or campaigning, observers, legitimacy, voters, non-voters & no particular order is only 3 months away in Burma. We all may reflect & meditate on how our lessened interest in & attention to the place might possibly have contributed to this.


don't worry about it... it was never the chinese.