October 04, 2007

• If you are in LA, there will be a gathering of people supporting the Burmese people at the Kodak theater this Saturday at 4pm. Some letters and links to help the cause: Dear friends, Our emergency petition to stop the crackdown on peaceful protesters in Burma is exploding, with nearly 500,000 signers from every nation of the world. But the situation in Burma remains desperate, with reports of hundreds of monks being massacred and tortured. Burma's rulers have also killed and expelled international journalists, cutting off global media coverage of their cruelty. China is still the key - the country with the most power to halt the Burmese generals' reign of terror. We're delivering our message this week with a massive ad campaign in major newspapers, beginning Thursday with a full page ad in the Financial Times worldwide, and in the South China Morning Post. The strength of the ad comes from the number of petition signers listed – can we reach our goal of 1 million signatures this week? The link to sign the petition and view the ad is below, forward this email to all your friends and family! http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/u.php China continues to provide key economic and military support to Burma's dictatorship, but it has been openly critical of the crackdown. Now we need the government to match words with actions. Our ad paints a powerful moment of choice for China in its relationship with the world – will it be a responsible and respected member of the global community, or will it be associated with tyranny and oppression? People power, on the streets of Burma, and around the world, can triumph over tyranny. Our strength is in our numbers, spread the word! With hope and determination, Ricken, Paul, Ben, Graziela, Pascal, Galit and the whole Avaaz team. For the best local reporting on the situation in Burma, try these links: http://www.irrawaddy.org http://www.mizzima.com Letter from Chevron: Thank you for your enquiry. Chevron's position regarding its share in the Yadana gas pipeline in Myanmar is available on our website, www.chevron.com - ht tp://www.chevron.com/news/press/ Chevron Statement on Myanmar Chevron supports the calls for a peaceful resolution to the current situation in Myanmar in a way that respects the human rights of the people of Myanmar. Chevron's minority, non-operated interest in the Yadana project is a long term commitment that will help meet the critical energy needs of millions of people in the region. Our community development programs also help improve the lives of the people they touch and thereby communicate our values, including respect for human rights. Regards Chevron Media Team
• It's not easy (and possibly unhelpful) to try to make funny of the human abuses going on in the Nation Formerly Known As Burma, but I thought I could look back at a Classical American Icon to help make a point. PLEASE TELL CHEVRON AND CHINA TOO MASSACRING MONKS IS NOT GOOD TO DO BURMA-SAVE @WendellWit.com
• Blogged. (self link obv) C'mon monkeys! It might be nothing, but it might be something! Took me 30 seconds. And I'm an idiot.
• Me too - - though I rarely post anything on my "blog", this is worth taking a moment to log in, paste, copy, post...
• LOLZ - your blog is the same as mine. Let's make out.
• Thanks for posting this, smt. Being a day ahead here I often miss things like that because the publicity occurs on the day.
• I'm so on this. But I hate to be on the same side as Chevron. Makes me suspicious.
• Free Burma ...with purchase of two or more Burmas of equal or greater value.
• BlueHorse, don't worry. Chevron is definitely not on our side or that of the Burmese people. It's a bullshit response and denial of their involvement there. From my friend Dave who has been an activist for the Burmese people for over 10 years. "Chevron finally speaks, October 2nd, and manages to say nothing (here, anyway, but see their list of health stuff on the website)." Also from Dave "John McCain has called for Chevron to pull out of Burma. No one has reported it in the news, but it's on his press release on his senate web site. I want to get every Presidential candidate's position on this. "
• The www.avaaz.org link wants me to login to Facebook. Since I can't do this, I'll just show up at the NE corner of Hollywood and Orange and shout "MonkeyPoo!" Or, if I chicken out (I might not, so listen for me, y'all), I'll be the lady waving a bouquet of dead flowers and a cucumber. Name's Meg.
• Shit, missed it. And my domain is down, so it wouldn't have made much difference.
• Thank you, MonkeyLion. I knew in my gut it was bullshite. Get a Free Burma with every subscription to Amnesty International!
• Global rallies to pressure Burma
• Internet activism as modern non-violence
• Facebook-organized Protests Fall Flat
• Behind the Conflict: a photo-essay.
• Secret cremations hide killings: Burmese see smoke rising continuously from crematorium chimneys as army burn undetermined number of bodies
• Legacies
• Boycott Chevron
• Burma shuts down last communication links
• Petition: Award Nobel Peace Prize to Burmese Monks
• Burma: 'I resist in my Mind only'

  Medical anthropologist Monique Skidmore has conducted field work in Burma for over a decade, carefully probing the ways the State manipulates the emotional life of the Burmese, and the psychological strategies they adopt to survive under a military regime. Fear threads through every conversation and gesture. Also, updates from a health worker in the longstanding refugee camps on the Thai-Burma border. The mental health challenges are immense.

• Excellent link, homunculus! Thank you for sharing that. That's quite a telling insight...
• Oil Giant Chevron Urged to Cut Ties with Burmese Military Junta Total Denial
• Only now, the full horror of Burmese junta's repression of monks emerges
• Myanmar: guns vs. Google
• Burma Fades from View
• Imagination, dead lost, dead imagination. Depression, dead depression. Core, dead core. Meditation on death. Buddha, dead Buddha.
• A war on words: Scratching poems on cell floors, or making ink from the brick powder of the walls, Burmese writers have managed to continue writing despite imprisonment and censorship
• The geopolitical stakes of 'Saffron Revolution'
• More on the Blue.
• Activists send female underwear to Burmese embassies
• US Court Calls Abuses Committed in Construction of Chevron's Pipeline "Military Terrorism"
• Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has reportedly left her home - where she is under house arrest - to hold talks with a government official.
• Chinese Embassies Targeted by “Free Burma” Demonstrations
• Unlikely resistance in Burma's Mandalay
• Resistance in the Burmese jungle
• Burma: Children Bought and Sold by Army Recruiters
• Monks return to streets of Burma
• Monk Who Led Marchers to Suu Kyi's House Escapes to Thailand
• Burma to expel UN's top diplomat
• Paranoid And Newly Rich, Nukes Are Burma's Dream
• Hong Kong jadeite traders say their clientele doesn't care where stones come from The export of jadeite from Burma to Hong Kong and China, which has been going on for decades with little media scrutiny, is worth about $433.2 million a year, official figures for 2006 show. That's 10% of the country's total exports, making jadeite sales vital to the Burmese government.
• UN envoy sees progress on Burma
• Conversations with Aung San Suu Kyi
• 'Rambo' is on a mission in Burma
• Few Political Prisoners among Thousands Released by Junta
• Burma rules out NLD reform role
• Burma: Crackdown Bloodier Than Government Admits
• A Journey from Rangoon to Mae Sot on the Thai-Burma Border
• Burma’s Largest IT Center Opens—But For How Long?
• The Key To Burma's Woes: Excessive Tea Consumption
• Remember when the world turned its attention to Burma and promised to no longer ignore the suffering of the people there? Truthdig contributor Sarah Stillman sat down with Burmese democracy organizer Maung Maung to check in on the Saffron Revolution and the brave men and women who continue to resist oppression, whether anyone is watching or not.
• Stillman: What do you think is the most constructive role that American advocates can play in the pro-democracy struggle? What forms of action or protest would be most helpful? Maung Maung: There has been a huge amount of moral support from American politicians, but the U.S. government hasn’t fully delivered. Sure, Congress has done a lot, and there is even support from Laura Bush, but we have huge problems with logistics and implementation. What it really comes down to is money: We need simple things like bicycles and satellite phones. People may laugh, but the movement really needs bicycles. In Burma, fuel is very expensive, so bicycles allow organizers to go around and speak with individuals in different areas. We also need money for video cameras, digital cameras and cell phones—these things are transforming our movement. It’s by bringing the eyes of the world back to the brutality of the regime that we can win out.
• Myanmar Arrests Blogger, Watchdog Says
• Burmese Monks Condemn Crackdown on Tibetan Monks
• Anti-government Campaigns Continue in Burma
• Than Shwe Promises Power Handover Is Than Shwe’s Pledge Just a Ploy?
• Burmese Junta Supports China’s Crackdown in Tibet
• Reuters Wins Pulitzer for Rangoon Death Picture
• Orphan boy lives in garbage dump
• From South to South: Burma's Stateless Minority Under the Tip of Globalization's Spear
• Burma Activists Tap Celebrity Power for Suu Kyi
• A tropical cyclone has killed at least 351 people in Burma and damaged thousands of buildings, state TV reports.
• More than 10,000 people were killed by a devastating cyclone that hit Burma on Saturday, a minister says on state TV, and thousands more need shelter.
• Cyclone toll climbs and UN aid has yet to reach Burma while the military junta is putting its own survival before its people's.
• From the initial reports issued from the junta, saying something like 350 people were killed, I knew this was going to be very bad... *hugs and prayers to Burma*
• Burma Press Conference Turns into Discussion of Bush Daughter's Wedding Plans
• Monks Aid Survivors, Authorities Sell Rooftops
• Aung San Suu Kyi Honored
• Here's a list of relief organizations
• ‘We are being Prevented from Talking about Burma at UNSC’: French Ambassador
• Is Aid Reaching Burma?
• U.N. Resuming Aid to Myanmar After Dispute With Junta
• China shows little desire to exert pressure on Burma But that's hardly a surprise since the Junta Supports China’s Crackdown in Tibet. Birds of a feather.
• Burma votes amid cyclone aid row: A constitutional referendum is being held in Burma despite calls from the outside world for a postponement after last week's devastating cyclone.
• Massive Cheating Reported from Referendum Polling Stations
• Sporadic aid trickles into Burma: Deliveries of aid to Burma to help cyclone victims are arriving sporadically, as aid agencies continue to face obstacles set by the regime.
• Monks Help Cyclone Victims Despite Military Pressure
• UN says Another Cyclone Forming near Burma
• In Myanmar, a humanitarian crisis - so why can't the U.N. be more forceful?
• Myanmar pushing survivors out of monasteries, say monks
• Burma: monks vs. junta. Officials move refugees out of monasteries to stem monks' influence.
• Time to Invoke ‘Responsibility to Protect’: Burmese Activists
• It's almost as though the junta wants to cut the population, drastically, in the worst of wayx,
• I think this is more incompetence. They're just desperate to keep things on lockdown to preserve their rule, and have no idea that fucking things up on this scale in the face of such emergency will ultimately backfire. Going way out on a limb here, but I'm guessing the guys running the junta aren't well-read in history.
• Oh, really, MCT. Well, have you ever run a junta, Mr. Sarcastic Literary Man? Hmm, have you? NO. I thought not. Well, I have, and I can tell you, it's no picnic. First, like 80% of the guys mispronounce "junta". Come on! Who will take us seriously if we can't even enunciate what we are! Second, there's the whole personal hygiene issue. Have you ever raided a village with a few hundred crazed warriors who haven't brushed their teeth in like four or five days? It's hard to keep your lunch down. Don't get me started on the skid mark issue. It is easy for the armchair diplomat to cry "incompetence", but until you've walked a mile in my jackboots, well, you just don't know what you're talking about. So just fuck right off, Mr. Middle Class Knownothing.
• Save the Children Warns of Starvation in Burma
• Burma Continues to Recruit Child Soldiers
• Monks on secret aid mission
• At home with the General
• Aung San Suu Kyi: Release Deadline Imminent
• Military rulers silent on Suu Kyi's detention deadline as donors gather in Myanmar
• Myanmar extends Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest
• Burma grants all UN visa requests
• Monks Succeed in Cyclone Relief as Junta Falters
• U.N. must try Burmese leaders for genocide
• Suu Kyi Deserves to Be Flogged, Junta Says
• As Donors Disappear, Cyclone Survivors Fend for Themselves The Troops Have Arrived at Last, but Where’s the Aid?
• UN Appeals for Funding to Keep Burma Aid Helicopters Flying
• A New Generation of Activists Arises in Burma
• Peace Walk for Burma [pdf]
• Burmese activist gets Human Rights award
• Aung San Suu Kyi halts food rations boycott
• There was an interesting article on Burma in September's Atlantic. If you can make it past the first six paragraphs, it gets much better.
• On the anniversary of last year's uprising by monks, Imogen Wall finds a Burma cowed by its rulers and shattered by nature
• Burmese democracy activist: 'I don't know how I kept my sanity.' After two decades behind bars, Win Tin tells of life in one of the world's toughest jails
• The lonely death of Cycle Maung Maung
• Burma: “Poverty and hunger, climate change and politics”
• A Burmese blogger has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for posting a cartoon of the military leader Than Shwe.
• Burma Eats Its Young
• Burma's Junta Doesn't See Humor in Zargana's Comedy
• Burmese Days: The junta is content to rule over ruin.
• Casting Light on Plight of Burmese Dissidents
• Secret UN deals may entice Myanmar
• Come Hell or High Water, the Burmese Junta Endures. Aung San Suu Kyi is the world's most effectively sidelined leader.
• Burma VJ
• Sneaking In Where Thugs Rule
• Can Hillary Help Liberate Burma?
• Backpack doctors risk Burma's wrath
• Ready for this? Nukes in Burma report
• Oddly enough, today a friend sent me a link to a older article in "Outside". The Ghost Road. During a 2008 interview, Mark Jenkin made this statement: I think it’s bizarre that we’re in Iraq trying to force democracy down the throats of people who don’t want it, when we could go some place like Burma where the population is dying for democracy and we’ve got a few hundred generals and a few soldiers. And we could turn it over in a matter of a few seconds. So I think that’s very sad. We have our priorities in completely the wrong place.
• ..we could turn it over in a matter of a few seconds. Sounds much like Bush 'n' Rummy's "Shock and Awe" scenario. While I respect Mr. Jenkins's obviously sincere concern for the people of Burma, I don't think that sort of unilateral jingoism is the solution, particularly considering China's interests in the region. As distasteful as China's policies are, they've got more than a few hundred generals and a few soldiers. The new prez's emphasis on diplomacy and his appreciation of reality are encouraging departures from such ingenuous views. Still no guarantee that he'll be able to overcome human cussedness though.
• Islander, you're quite right in that unilateral jingoism is not a solution. I just wish there were something that would help. Of course, there's a bit of we had our dirty hands in the mess originally... Cussedness is not the word I'd use for despotic megalomaniac leaders who encourage and condone massacres. Perhaps Obama can bring clear-sighted, rational, compassionate solutions about. Somehow, I doubt it, given what and who he has to work with here.
• Suu Kyi Sentenced to 18 Months House Arrest
• Burma claims it will release Aung San Suu Kyi
• Burma’s Opposition Boycotts
• The euphemistic title of Amy Tan's book on Burma, Saving Fish from Drowning, might work here. Save the junta from totalitarianism. Even if they must keep a ruling majority by law in this pseudo-democratic covenant, at least they will have have beached themselves upon the shore somehow. One can hope.
• Burma's hip-hop resistance spreads message of freedom: Thxa Soe's music gives country's youth a focus for dissatisfaction with the junta despite strict censorship
• Feds Investigate Transocean's Possible Ties to Burmese Drug Clan
• U.S. push for Burmese war crimes probe hits Chinese wall
• Happy World: Burma, the Dictatorship of the Absurd.
• Land of Shadows: As it emerges from isolation, the nation of Myanmar is caught between repression and reform, dark and light.
• The Lady: Michelle Yeoh and Luc Besson Get Nonviolent
• Burma rejoices on a long-delayed day for democracy: Aung San Suu Kyi has won a landmark election, now she faces the challenge of persuading the army to withdraw from politics
• Burma Save!
• She's not there yet. The military have spent their years in power setting up a system that works against popular power. Any sign of discontent and they'll bring the hammer back down.
• I meant it more as a command than a statement. Hard to explain on one roadside sign.
• Train wrecks few Reason clear Comments true Aung San Suu Kyi A Nobel Prize for Burma Save
• Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's Revolutionary Leader