Clipmarks | abailart's 'burma' clips

Aung San Suu Kyi

Wed, 28 May 2008 17:31:35 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: mirrors

On October 14, 1991, Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent struggle on behalf of democracy and human rights. Being under house arrest, she was unable to accept the award in person. Her sons accepted it on their mother’s behalf.

As a child, Suu Kyi conquered a fear of the dark by standing alone at night in her family’s rambling lakeside home. Now 58, she has spent the best part of fifteen years confined to it. She battles her isolation with the same single-mindedness, sustained by her faith—she is a devout Buddhist

At any time since her house arrest she could have taken the easy way out and left Burma to live in England. Instead she has made a painful personal sacrifice, placing her belief in freedom and her love of her country first.

Buddhism, she argues, places the highest value on the human being

But under despotic rule, humanity is valued least, as a “faceless, mindless—and helpless—mass to be manipulated at will.

Tags: aung san suu kyi

Monastery's

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 07:52:28 GMT

clipped by: RobbieV
clipper's remarks: These are so beautiful

Clip Source: www.oddee.com

Montserrat Monastery (Spain)

Ngaphechaung Monastery (Burma)

Gradac Monastery (Serbia)

Metéora Monastery (Greece)

Gregoriou Monastery (Greece)

Yumbulagang Monastery (Tibet)

Madonna del Sasso Monastery (Switzerland)

Tiger's Nest Monastery (Bhutan)

How Burma is Reported in Burma

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 10:19:46 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: See the impressive list of guests below. Report courtesy of 'New Light of Mynamar.

Clip Source: www.myanmar.com

Senior General Than Shwe, wife Daw Kyaing Kyaing host
dinner to mark 60th Anniversary Independence Day

At the reception and before and during the dinner, those present at the dinner were entertained with songs entertained by vocalists to the accompaniment of the Myanma Athan modern music band.

Tags: burma

Laura Bush Condemns Burmese Government

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 10:15:54 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.voanews.com

U.S. First Lady Laura Bush has issued strong criticism of Burma's military leadership, on the country's 60th anniversary of independence from British colonial rule.

In a statement Friday, Mrs. Bush said "instead of celebrating their freedom, the Burmese people live in fear, poverty and oppression under General Than Shwe and his military regime."

Tags: burma, laura bush

Hunger and Fear in Rangoon

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 22:29:14 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: english.aljazeera.net

In a narrow street in central Yangon, people push their way through a frenzied crowd to get a free plate food.

Many stuff their pockets with rice and vegetables to save for later. Barefoot children throw lollipops and soft drinks into plastic bags, to be shared out later with others whose only home is the street.

On the surface normality has returned
to the busy streets of Yangon

It's hard to believe that just 50 years ago Myanmar was one of the richest countries in the region, supplying most of Asia with rice.

Nowadays, despite the country's abundant natural resources, it can barely feed it's own people.

These days a bowl of noodles costs the equivalent of 80 cents - an enormous amount for a people who, on average, live off just one dollar a day.

While spirits are low, people in Yangon say they still have hope, if not for democracy then at least for a government that does not starve them to death.

Tags: burma

UN Calls for Burma Reconciliation

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 07:41:03 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has urged Burma's leaders and opposition to redouble their efforts to achieve national reconciliation.

Mr Ban said a return to the status quo before September's anti-government protests was not sustainable.

A UN envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, has just returned to the US from talks with Burma's generals and is due to brief the Security Council soon.

UN human rights rapporteur Paulo Sergio Pinheiro is also currently in Burma.

He is investigating how many people were killed in the military's brutal crackdown on the monk-led demonstrations.

At the end of Mr Gambari's visit last week, detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said - via a statement read by the UN envoy - that she was ready to work with military leaders

They then agreed to let her meet members of her party for the first time in over three years. A government-appointed liaison officer also met with Ms Suu Kyi.

Tags: burma

Suu Kyi Meets Burmese Military Official

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 08:53:34 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Detained Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has held talks with a military official, before meeting members of her political party.

She was driven from her heavily guarded home to a guesthouse for the talks.

When Ms Suu Kyi meets other National League for Democracy leaders later on Friday, it will be the first time she has seen them in three years.

The talks come a day after Ms Suu Kyi said she would work with the military junta to achieve constructive dialogue.

"In the interest of the nation, I stand ready to co-operate with the government in order to make this process of dialogue a success," she said.

But she called for preliminary consultations to conclude soon, to make way for a "meaningful and time-bound dialogue" with Burma's leaders.

State television announced yesterday that Ms Suu Kyi would be allowed to hold the two meetings today. She has not met members of her own party since May 2004

Tags: suu kyi, burma, burmese military

Free Aung San Suu Kyi

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 20:54:36 GMT

clipped by: Eladora
clipper's remarks: If you have time, please send a letter. This is a terrible injustice to the people of Burma

Clip Source: www.amnesty.org.uk

Burma: Free Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi should be serving the people of Burma as their national leader. Instead she is effectively serving a prison sentence imposed by the country’s repressive military junta.

Please send an appeal letter to the Burmese authorities calling for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi – and demand human rights for Burma

Tags: action, justice

Burma, Remember?

Sat, 03 Nov 2007 09:26:25 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: news.independent.co.uk

A Foreign Office minister is encouraging people to support peaceful demonstrations in Britain against the violent suppression of monks in Burma.

It is highly unusual for a government minister to call for protests, but Meg Munn, Foreign Office minister with responsibility for the region, said it was important to keep the plight of the Burmese high on the agenda.

"We want to make sure this doesn't fall out of the news and people's consciousness," said Ms Munn. "Having got to this stage, we don't want to let this go away.

"It is nearly 20 years since the last big demonstrations and this is an opportunity for things to change in Burma. We have got to seize that opportunity. That is what the government strategy is. We think the people of the UK have a really big role to play."

Tags: burma

Ten Year Olds Beaten into Burmese Army

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 17:31:16 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

More than 100 monks have marched in central Burma, the first time they have returned to the streets since last month's bloody crackdown on protests.

The monks chanted and prayed as they marched through Pakokku, the site of an incident last month that triggered pro-democracy protests nationwide.

The government said 10 people died during the crackdown, but diplomats believe the toll was much higher.

Thousands more - many of them monks - were thought to have been detained.

Separately, the Human Rights Watch organisation has accused the Burmese army of forcibly recruiting children to cover gaps left by a lack of adult recruits.

in a move that will add further pressure to the ruling junta, the campaign group Human Rights Watch has released a report saying children as young as 10 are beaten or threatened with arrest to make them enlist in the military.

Tags: child soldiers, burma, burmese monks

Better Sorry than Safe: Torture and Global Warming

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 07:40:25 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: It seems that there is a wild inconsistency here that betrays the priorities of the Bush administration. Bush justifies the use of what ammounts to torture when it comes to "The War On Terror" because he argues even if we are making a mistake, it's better to be safe than sorry.

On the other hand, when it comes to "Global Warming" Bush and his ilk have stubornly resisted doing anything, even the meekest of protective measures, until a perpetually shifting level of scrutiny and evidence is met.

Their logic is this: we still don't have enough evidence, so it is better to be cautious (no matter how much evidence is presented). They argue that acting without evidence might open the door to limits on our liberties that would lead down a slippery slope to state-ism. It is more important to maintain the ironclad protections of the "Free Market" then to combat the hypothetical risks of global warming.

Why the disconnect?

Clip Source: www.iht.com

As temperatures rise, a greening of Greenland

But now that the climate is warming, it is not just old trees that are growing. A Greenlandic supermarket is stocking locally grown cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage this year for the first time. Eight sheep farmers are growing potatoes commercially. Five more are experimenting with vegetables. And Kenneth Hoeg, the region's chief agriculture adviser, says he does not see why southern Greenland cannot eventually be full of vegetable farms and viable forests.

Clip Source: www.iht.com

On torture, 2 messages and a high political cost

At a House hearing on the crackdown on dissent in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, where protest leaders have reportedly endured waterboarding, Jeremy Woodrum, a director of the United States Campaign for Burma, said American conduct was thrown back at him, testifying: "People say, 'Why are you guys talking to us about this when you have the mess in your own backyard?' "

Tags: global warming, torture, politics, bush

Burma: Politics of Hypocrisy

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 07:30:18 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

The news is no more from Burma. The young monks are quiet in their cells, or they are dead. But words have escaped: the defiant, beautiful poetry of Aung Than and Zeya Aung; and we know of the unbroken will of the journalist U Win Tin, who makes ink out of brick powder on the walls of his prison cell and writes with a pen made from a bamboo mat - at the age of 77. These are the bravest of the brave. What shame they bring to those in the west whose hypocrisy and silence helps to feed the monster that rules Burma.

When did Brown or Blair ever use their platforms at the CBI and in the City of London to name and shame those British companies that make money on the back of the Burmese people? When did a British prime minister call for the EU to plug the loopholes of arms supply to Burma.

And when did a British prime minister call on its ally and client, Israel, to end its long and sinister relationship with the Burmese junta?

John Pilger

Tags: burma, arms dealing, israel, uk

Military Back on Streets of Rangoon

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 08:06:58 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Burmese troops have returned to the streets of Rangoon, a month on from one of the bloodiest days of a military crackdown on anti-government protests.

Armed soldiers surrounded the Shwedagon and Sule pagodas, both focal points for the demonstrations in September.

The troop presence, coinciding with the end of Buddhist Lent, is thought to be aimed at preventing new protests.

Soldiers had coils of barbed wire ready to seal off the streets, Reuters news agency reported, but there were no signs of fresh protests despite the presence of large numbers of pilgrims, other reports said

On the streets, news of Aung San Suu Kyi's meeting with the authorities was welcomed.

"We were all really thrilled to hear this news," one teashop owner told Reuters. "I hope it is the beginning of a turning point."

But previous attempts to build dialogue between the military and Ms Suu Kyi have come to nothing.

Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has spent 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest.

Tags: burma

Some Burmese Voices from Land of Fear

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 07:35:37 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

It has been a month since rare anti-government protests in Burma were suppressed by the military government there.

Life is back to normal now, 'normal' being a total decline in every area. Poverty, fear, lack of human rights, that's what's normal here.

Many families can only afford one meal a day and people have started to drink rice juice when they can't afford to buy food.

There are two groups of people - a small group determined to fight until they reach their goal and a huge number of people who wait in the dark and hope for salvation from outside.

Fear is everywhere and it's stronger than before.

With fear comes anger. This anger will never go away until this regime is destroyed forever.

The soldiers act like gods treating people like slaves.

We won't stop fighting for democracy. We want them to leave the throne and free Aung San Suu Kyi.

People are outraged but they are also scared.

Many believe that this is just the beginning, not the end

You can smell the fear in the air.

Tags: burma

Curfew Lifted in Burma

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 07:19:56 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Burma's military regime has lifted a curfew in the two main cities, imposed last month amid pro-democracy protests led by the country's monks.

Authorities have released a number of prominent detainees - but diplomats say thousands remain locked up.

The whereabouts of thousands of monks who took part in the protests in September are unknown.

the White House said the lifting of the curfew was a "bad sign" that the government now felt confident it had succeeded in repressing dissent.

Press secretary Dana Perino urged Burma's ruling junta to enter talks with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The junta has offered to meet Aung San Suu Kyi, but only if she renounces her support for economic sanctions on Burma.

International pressure on Burma to institute democratic reforms has mounted since the protests, with the US announcing a further tightening of sanctions on Friday.

Tags: burma