Monks Marching

Whooey — the intertubes really have changed things.

This week Jon Swift is a guest blogger at mike’s round-up at Crooks & Liars and I’m already impressed with yesterday and today’s posts.

Swift says:

Something seems to be happening in Burma or Myanmar or whatever, but it must not be very important because hardly anyone is blogging about it.

Never let it be said that DocuDharma shall let this challenge go unanswered!

Jon links to comments from left field which in turn links to the front paged New York Times story on what’s going on in Burma:

Myanmar’s military government has sealed off the country to foreign journalists but information about the protests has been increasingly flowing out through news reports, exile groups in Thailand with contacts inside Myanmar, and through the photographs, videos and audio files, carried rapidly by technologies, including the Internet, that the government has failed to squelch.

Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of an assassinated independence hero, Aung San, came to prominence when she became a leader in the pro-democracy demonstrations of 1988.

Her political party, the National League for Democracy, won a landslide victory in Parliamentary elections in 1990, although the junta, fearing her charismatic appeal, had already placed her under house arrest.

The military government annulled the result of the 1990 elections and held on to power. But it miscalculated the public mood again in 2002 when it released her from house arrest and allowed her to tour the country, visiting party offices.

She drew increasingly large and enthusiastic crowds until a band of government-backed thugs attacked a convoy in which she was traveling, killing several people. The government seized her again and placed under even stricter house arrest, cutting off her telephone and deepening her isolation.

The latest protests began Aug. 19 in response to sharp, unannounced fuel price increases of up to 500 percent, immediately raising the prices of goods and transportation.

They were led at first by former student protesters and other activists, but most of these leaders had been arrested or were in hiding when the monks began their protests last Tuesday.

The monks were apparently motivated at first by an attack on a small demonstration at which security officers fired shots into the air and beat a number of monks.

Since then, the monks’ protests have spread from city to city and have become more overtly political.

Please click the link in Jon’s quote to see an amazing video from Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi on non-violent protest.  It is quite astonishing — and so is she.

Of course the NYT story also blurbs that Bush and Rice, et al. are very “concerned” about what’s going on there – and there have been economic sanctions on Burma for some time – which does not, of course, help the people there nor stop the tyranny.

As Comments from Left Field responds:

As is par for the course with Bush, when he wants to ignore obvious human rights abusing but oil friendly, authoritarian governments, he’ll have some in his government throw out chastisements followed by no action. With Burma, Bush has used both Condi and Laura as PR distractions for his complete failure to do any thing of substantce to aid the pro-Democracy movement or to end the unjust confinement of Suu Kyi.

What I find amazing about this story is that due to the internet, we can find out what’s going on in a country in severe lock-down – and have it end up on the front page of the New York Times.

I ask anyone who has more in-depth knowledge of Burma to add their thoughts in the comments.

Until then, here are a couple of videos.  The first is short but stunning, showing the monks marching in Rangoon:

And here’s a poignant song to the monks:

The internet can be a strong agent for revolution and reformation.  This story shows that very well.

I wish for peace for Burma, and for justice.

23 comments

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  1. This is what we need to work on … global solidarity.  The new progressive mantra!

  2. for writing about this.  Here’s name change etymology (Burma, Myanmar) from the wiki

    In 1989, the military junta officially changed the English version of the country’s name from Burma to Myanmar, along with changes to the English versions of many place names in the country, such as its former capital city from Rangoon to Yangon.

    -snip-

    The renaming proved to be politically controversial.  Burmese opposition groups continue to use the name “Burma” since they do not recognise the legitimacy of the ruling military government nor its authority to rename the country. Some western governments, namely those of the United States, Australia, Ireland, and Britain, continue to use “Burma”, while the European Union uses “Burma/Myanmar” as an alternative. The United Nations uses “Myanmar”.

    • npanxx on September 25, 2007 at 03:16

    “From the Land of Green Ghosts” a memoir by Pascal Khoo Thwe, who was born in rural Burma in 1967.  He tells a story of coming of age from a rural tribul farming village to a university life amidst the tumult and revolution of the pro-democracy movement. It’s lyrically written, and powerfully moving.

  3. video than the entire Republican Party has in 150 years.

    Thank you for this essay and the videos, Nightprowlkitty.

    • fatdave on September 25, 2007 at 03:50

    http://en.wikipedia….

    “The military government released Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest in July 1995 but made it clear that if she left the country to visit her family in the United Kingdom, it would not allow her return. When her husband, Michael Aris, a British citizen, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997, the Burmese government denied him an entry visa. Aung San Suu Kyi remained in Burma, and never again saw her husband, who died in March 1999. She remains separated from her children, who live in the United Kingdom.”

    I remember thinking at the time what an underwhelming display of compassion the Burmese govt. had made. I believe the couple came to an understanding about this – but how tragic.

  4. to import some Buddhist monks to the US!

    Go Monks!

  5. I’ve heard that Bush is going to speak out in support of these monks’ protest.

  6. via information, the antidote, somehow, someday. I’m rooting for the monks of the globe from Tibet to here and back again, we should all be monks, were all really prisoners of the same forces which keep this brave woman captive. 

  7. “The Freedom of Political Parties to operate in accordance with the Law”.

    • oculus on September 25, 2007 at 08:33

    The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma, by Thant Myint-U, who is U Thant’s grandson.  Lots of information in easily readable style. 

    • Zwoof on September 25, 2007 at 10:48

    A novel by Amy Tan.

    A vacation in Myanmar goes bad for a group of American tourists.

    A good read for anyone interested in Myanmar, its history and its spirituality.

    Told by the ghost of the narrator that can “see” inside the thoughts of all of the characters as she tells the story.

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