Updates: Burma, Monks versus Junta

With talks of sanctions and meetings going on in Burma, New York Times' Choe Sang-Hun takes another look at the battle between the junta and monks. From the way he sees it, the junta prevailed this time by waving their guns around and patrolling the streets, ready for anything.

During captivity, the monks were "de-monked," questioned as regular people and then were re-blessed as monks. This was the junta's way of respecting religion, but they must be kidding themselves if they thought it was that simple. Parents are pulling their children out of monastaries, afraid of what will happen to them in the near future. The balance needs to be re-established between religion and the government and really, the only way to do this is to decrease the power of the junta. The people of Burma are unhappy already, and this needs to change.

Updates: Burma & Bronx Science

Burma:
- Roger Cohen discusses China's involvement and lackthereof with Burma in light of the Beijing Olympics in next year.
- Released monks recount their degrading captivity, including being told that they weren't monks anymore, made to eat barely-there food with their hands and, of course, beaten.
- Another known death, a pro-democracy activist in captivity as well.

Bronx Science:
- The ever-lovable New York Sun takes a look at Principal Valerie "Dr. Quack" Reidy, the changes she made at Science (more tests, enforcing the discovery method which entails learning in the classroom instead of reading materials ahead of time) and responses. The Sun includes positive reviews of Reidy too.

& More Burma News

First, here's a nice look at Burma's reluctant need for a military regime by Seth Mydans, and another look at Burmese protestors by Thomas Fuller.

While the streets are relatively calm during the day, apparently at night, the junta go on raids through monastaries and homes, searching for and arresting any dissenters, including monks. And still, officially, there are only ten people killed during the protest. This number is an obvious fiction.

Prompted by the UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari's visit, the junta now picked out an official to deal with talks with the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Syi. This is a big step as the junta previously refused to deal with Suu Syi. Whether the junta will listen is another question to be answered.

Ye Min Tun, the Burmese diplomat in London, resigned over regime's clampdown and violence, citing, "This revolution, this incident seemed to be the decisive factor that could persuade the government to go to the negotiation table. But actually the government ignored the reality," according to BBC.

While I agree with his horror and his decision to not associate himself with the military, I hope he plans on pushing for democracy in Burma. It's better to fight than to give up, that's what the monks are doing, and the Burmese civilians should follow their lead.

& here's a nice image from my fellow Rail designer, Graham.

A Reason to Not Help Burma

The New York Times' Thomas Fuller and Newsweek's Melinda Liu offer nice run-throughs as to why Burma's neighbors refuse to do anything about the junta. It all comes down to this:

"But the bottom line, Thai officials say, is that Thailand is competing for the world’s energy resources, and if it does not buy [Burma's] gas, someone else will."

And how can you argue against that logic? A government suppressing its people by means of violence versus plentiful oil and gas? Yeah, it's an easy choice.

Burma, A Week After

After the beatings and killings are over (that we know of and could see) in Burma, its streets are calm and back to what seems like normal. It's like nothing happened last week, the monks and civilians weren't protesting, the junta didn't attack the demonstrators, the monks weren't sealed in their temples, people weren't shot at or hacked at. None of that happened.

But of course, emotions still run high throughout the country. While the junta has a history of attacking its citizens, they never had the gall to attack the monks. That is where the Burmese's anger lies. The highly spiritual and Buddhist country, the monks, as I keep saying, are highly revered. Once the monks rejected the junta by refusing to accept their food dontations, the junta lost what little bit of good face they had in the country. Even by releasing 229 monks and nuns they detained, the junta will never have the same power over the country as it used to. They touched the untouchables and the Burmese won't forgive them for that.

By sending U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N. and the world tried to send a message to the Myanmar junta: We think what you're doing is wrong and we are trying to do something about it. But messages aren't enough.

The U.N. Security Council's attempts to intervene somehow fell through thanks to China's block, so it was all on Gambari to save the UN's face. But did it work? Highly doubtful--if the junta didn't succomb to international pressure years before, what makes this time any different?

And again, the junta cut off the internet. Don't they understand it's too late? The world knows and sees what's going on. Even Slyvestor Stallone saw what was happening. The Democratic Voice of Burma and the Irrawady update constantly, along with bloggers and other news sources. The junta's reputation isn't on the line anymore. But goddamnit, why aren't we doing something about it?

China and the ASEAN need to stand up against Burma. The Indonesian Foreign Minister, Hassan Wirajuda, suggested a shared government, junta with civilian, in order to ease into a democracy smoothly. Wirajuda also insisted on China's involvement. Forget about the oil in Burma--there are lives at stake, isn't that more important? They need to tell the junta to back down. They need to force the junta to stop and actually talk to the leaders and fix the country. Give the people what they want and get rid of the military regime in whatever way possible and let Myanmar become Burma again.

Burma Turning On Itself

As I said before, Burma is a Buddhist country. Therefore, monks are highly revered. When the monks joined the protests, the world probably believed they were untouchable. Sure, they were sealed inside temples and taken away to prisons and schools and buses that served imprisonment purposes, but to hurt and kill the monks? That's sacreligious. That's just goddamn wrong. Looking at Ho Htike's latest entry, monks are being murdered by their own soldiers and government that, according to satellite images, wiped out entire villages. There are also more personal accounts on BBC's website.

The very soldiers led by the very government that should, ideally, be protecting them. But instead, this is happening.

And what is anyone doing? The UN envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, met with the junta with the detained pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, but of course nothing will come of it. Come on, the junta's been around for a while and no one did anything about it before. They know they don't have to listen to the UN. And all the while, the only thing China, Russia and India care about is their economical ties with Burma, so of course they won't impose sanctions against Burma, yet they are the countries with strong influences on the country.

And I call bullshit on reports that at least nine people died today. Bullshit. It is obvious that many, many more than that died already. Many more. But it's difficult getting the right facts as journalists are continuously being arrested, which, at a crucial time like this, is a sad, sad thing.

Burma Updates

I check up on Ko Ktike's blog every so often and I am more and more shocked by each new image. Gun shot wounds to the thighs, a dead protester with blood dripping from the sides of his mouth, the mass of brain in the drains outside.

While disturbing pictures, it proves that this is actually happening, that people are actually getting hurt, that people are actually being killed by their own government. I have to commend everyone who has the courage to both send these images despite the consequences and those who are spreading the actual news.

And what did they do to deserve such a harsh and cruel punishment from the very people who are supposed to protest them? They marched through Burma. Although the monks did take some government officials hostage, they were released within five hours. The violent responses didn't occur until several days after. Other than that, they simply walked, peacefully.

At first, they were against fuel price hikes, but their deeper drive was their discontent with government. No, sorry, it's not a government—it's a junta that took over the country, it's a military regime that forced itself onto the country. They even went so far as to rename the country to Myanmar. While the United Nations understandable acknowledges this name change, the U.S. and U.K don't. Seth Mydans wrote an excellent news analysis piece in the New York Times regarding the junta and how the world perceives it.

But really, it would be too easy to just simply to talk to the demonstrators, wouldn't it? Discussions never get anywhere, right? Compromise and all that? Eh, who needs it when you have pure force, right? Right. With force comes power and there isn't much you can do when someone is waving a gun in your face, especially when you're as passionate as the protesters. Many already have experienced that, sadly. They walked to show they were against the regime and everything they stood for, and the junta couldn't handle that. And so they did what they do best. They knew how to take over the country, they sure as hell know how to deal with pesky protesters who wouldn't stay still.

The protesters are admirable and brave because despite all of this, despite everything that could happen to the, civilians and monks still march on. They believe there is something better for themselves, for Burma. They really believe it.

While this is happening, the world denounces the junta, yet, nothing is being done, despite enforcing sanctions and making statements. It's as though Burma will have to deal with this by themselves, as they did before, yet, this feels wrong. There should be something done. And soon, before even more people are hurt, arrested and murdered. Though, it does bode well that the UN sent a special envoy to Burma, but I doubt anything will come of it.

Things are pretty much the same in Burma as of now: the streets are blocked, protesters are being arrested and people are still being killed. Where will this go next?

Responses to Ahmadinejad

Photos by Nashid Chaudhury.

First came the now infamous vicious introduction by Columbia University President Lee Bollinger where he called guest speaker Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "a petty and cruel dictator," talked about homosexual and underage persecution and called for complete release of Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh.

Ahmadinejad then took the stage, quoted passages from the Koran that weren't translated, commented on the show of disrespect from Bollinger and proceeded to speak about nuclear power, the absolute lack of homosexuals in Iran, the need to research to confirm facts about the Holocaust, terrorism and many other things.

The New York Sun, obviously, loved Bollinger's introduction, calling the invitation to Ahmadinejad a "blunder" and focusing on the Jewish reaction to that "tragedy" as they state in the editorial. They even ran portions of Bollinger's introduction in the Opinion section under the headline "Cease This Outrage." To their credit, they do feature another opinion piece and another article about Bollinger's disrespectful prologue.



Both the New York Times and the Washington Post took more reasonable stances.

Dana Milbank got it right when he said, "Without listening to Ahmadinejad, how can the world appreciate how truly nutty he is?" Maureen Dowd also put it perfectly when she wrote, "[regarding Bollinger] Once you’ve made the decision to invite a tyrannical leader, you can’t undo it by belittling him in public. Universities are supposed to be places where you can debate and hear dissenting voices; it would have been far better just to hand the mike to the students and let it rip."

By extending an invitation to someone, a foreign head of government nevertheless, calls for diplomacy and politeness. Common sense, no? By attacking him before Ahmadinejad even speaks is just plain wrong.

The Sun's editorial calledfor Bollinger to, essentially, pick a side: Israel or Palestine, and that it is duty as Columbia's president to do so, instead of being a "more neutral–we would say 'morally equivalent'—educator," as they write. That, I think, is ridiculous. As the president of Columbia, is duty is not to publicize and promote his views, but instead to bring the university together. And the Sun (I've recently become fascinated and more-than-slightly repulsed by this newspaper, hence my constant references to it, especially after reading several of these columns, but that's another story) has a little advice for Bollinger with dealing with his upset Middle East professors. Very subtle, Sun, very subtle.


Clever protest signs at Columbia.

A Closer Look Because of Ahmadinejad?

And this is just fucking ridiculous.