Mood:
sharpTopic: human rights
We received this forlorn email today from an environmental friend which is a message from the global version of Get Up called Avaaz.org:
Burma is ruled by one of the most brutal military dictatorships in the world. For decades the Burmese regime has fought off pressure--imprisoning elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and democracy activists, wiping out thousands of villages, imposing forced labour, creating refugees-
But last Tuesday Buddhist monks and nuns, revered in Burma, began marching and chanting prayers. The protests spread as hundreds of thousands of ordinary people and public figures joined in, finding the hope they’d lost. Now they’re facing crackdown – so please, show your solidarity to this movement towards reconciliation and democracy and sign the emergency petition supporting the Burmese people -- it'll be delivered to United Nations Security Council members and international media all week:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/tf.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK
In the past, Burma's military rulers have massacred the demonstrators and crushed democracy. The world must stand with the Burmese people at this time, to show the military rulers that the world will not tolerate repression and violence.
Right now, global leaders are gathering in New York for the annual United Nations summit. In speeches, press interviews but also in real actions, we need them to show Burma's military junta that the global community is willing to act in solidarity with the protesters.
Show your solidarity to this movement for peace and democracy and sign the emergency petition supporting the Burmese people. It'll be delivered to UN Security Council members and the UN press corps all week:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/tf.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK
Thank you for your help!
Our reply is a bit more lateral:
We need to target Singapore which provides cover for the illegal drug trade there in Burma by providing money laundering, while hanging their own odd drug trafficker and user, to sanitise organised crime at senior govt levels of Singapore. We should also target India as a big customer of Burma's Junta. China another big customer for raw materials is probably retreating from active influence in the lead up to Beijing Olympics to sanatise its own tragic record on human rights. Normally China props up several dictators e.g. North Korea and Burma as a buffer from western norms of transparency, just as it abuses its own internal diversity:Should the world boycott the Beijing Olympics for Chinese human rights abuse?
Mood:sad
Topic: human rightsMy impression the fate of the Burmese and North Koreans, is the fate of 70M Falung gong inside China's border. That is extreme fatal violence.Alot of the world's media are targetting the evil crazy Junta in Burma specifically, but the geopolitiks looks alot more sordid and corrupt than just the internal dictators of Burma. They are a prop as best I can tell. Just like Saddam was for the USA versus Iran, and the pathetic Saudi Wahabist royals vis a vis the rest of the Arabs.One reason I would guess Burma's people are stirring right now is because China is retreating from the Junta with the approach of the Olympics given pressure on human rights in China itself to be sanitised. So Burmese dictators have to make do on their own to manage geo political pressure for change. Without as much Chinese support we see more economic unravel like rising petrol prices. We see less effectively organised state power against democratic opposition. What hope the little folks in this evil power mongering in the shadow of the next Olympics?One hopes greater democracy for the Burmese might be a consolation prize to the world for giving Beijing the Olympics?
