Clipmarks | Burma Clips

heroin afghanistan bbc

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 19:03:55 GMT

clipped by: alidah

Afghanistan retook its place as the world's leading producer of heroin last year, after US-led forces overthrew the Taleban which had banned cultivation of opium poppies.

Low-grade heroin is refined in Afghanistan from opium, which is manufactured from the extract of poppies.

Afghanistan overtook Burma - whose production fell for the sixth straight year, to 630 tonnes - as the leading opium producer.

Luis Moreno Ocampo, International Criminal Court's (ICC) chief prosecutor

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 08:45:48 GMT

clipped by: benza
clipper's remarks: Atlast the World has a courages man.
A man who wouldn't bend to whims and pressures of power brokers.
al-Bashir should be made a public example so others may be deterred.
How about that Asian Hitler in Burma or Mayanmar?

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The International Criminal Court's (ICC) chief prosecutor has told the BBC he will continue to push for Sudan's leader to be charged with war crimes.

Luis Moreno Ocampo said there was strong evidence that President Omar al-Bashir was behind attacks on civilians in Darfur province.

A number of countries want the UN to block the attempt to indict Mr Bashir.

"We found evidence that al-Bashir himself was controlling the attacks on these people who normally live in Darfur," Mr Ocampo told the BBC's Arabic Service.

He said local people had been raped and killed by both the Sudanese army and Janjaweed pro-government militias.

Up to 300,000 people have been killed and more than two million have been forced from their homes in Darfur since a rebellion began in 2003.

U.S. Corporations are Ugly Americans

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 23:41:59 GMT

clipped by: spirithiker
clipper's remarks: American corporations pay foreign countries for rights to extract oil, gas, and minerals from within their borders. Those governments have done nothing to regulate oil company practices that pollute the environment and otherwise endanger the lives of local residents.

The Bush administration, in their typically arrogant, misguided, neocon, "corporations-can-do-no-wrong" attitude, have turned a blind eye to how U.S. corporations (as representatives of our country) have done little to provide for the locals needs and security.

The security for these U.S. corporations are local military who use villagers as forced laborers and freely rape local women and children. U.S. corporations, stalwarts of democracy and human rights that they are, also turn a blind eye as long as they can keep their bottom line healthy.

Clip Source: us.oneworld.net

It's time to shed light on the way U.S. companies in charge of oil, gas, and mining operations in developing countries are spending their money, according to testimony at two Capitol Hill hearings Wednesday.

Many countries with vast oil and mineral wealth experience a "resource curse," because "competition for control of these resources has more often fuelled corruption and inequality than growth and development," said Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, speaking at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Africa Subcommittee.

In Burma, Nigeria, and Angola, for example, local communities remain impoverished while governments accumulate profits from contracts with U.S. corporations such as Chevron, which has oil production arrangements with all three governments.

local military hired as "security" for oil operations routinely violate the human rights of local villagers, who also suffer the consequences of environmental destruction resulting from oil production

Tags: u.s. corporations, human rights

The Red Panda (just 'cos I like them)

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:49:52 GMT

clipped by: cakebelly

Clip Source: mysterytopia.com

The Red Panda, Firefox

The Red Panda, Firefox, Fire Cat, or Lesser Panda , "or Ailurus fulgens ("shining cat"), is a mostly herbivorous mammal, specialized as a bamboo feeder. It is slightly larger than a domestic cat (40 - 60 cm long, 3 - 6 kg weight). The Red Panda is endemic to the Himalayas in Bhutan, southern China, India, Laos, Nepal, and Burma. Red Panda is the state animal in the Indian state of Sikkim. It is also the mascot of the Darjeeling international festivals. There is an estimated population of fewer than 2,500 mature individuals. Their population continues to decline due to habitat fragmentation.

Hitler of Asia is Ruling Burma today

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:49:45 GMT

clipped by: benza
clipper's remarks: Military Junta refused to allow anything foreign to help its own starving, homeless citizens after a hurricane hit the nation.
The Gods have to strike the Junta to set free the people of this once peaceful nation.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

One of Burma's most prominent political detainees, Win Tin, has been freed after 19 years in detention.

"I will keep fighting until the emergence of democracy in this country," he said after his release.

Now 79 years old, Win Tin was among the founders of the National League for Democracy led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

The NLD party won elections in 1989, but was prevented from taking power by Burma's generals.

A poet, editor and close aide to Ms Suu Kyi, he was originally arrested in July 1989.

Aung San Suu Kyi is still under house arrest in Rangoon

Once in jail, he received additional sentences for agitating against the military junta and distributing propaganda.

"I do not accept this constitution," he said, referring to a military-backed charter passed earlier this year and criticised heavily by the NLD.

The most prominent is Aung San Suu Kyi herself, who has been in jail or under house arrest for most of the last 19 years.

The Population of China’s Provinces Compared

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:55:13 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: # Zhejiang (47 million) South Africa
# Yunnan (44 million) Colombia
# Jiangxi (43 million) Tanzania
# Liaoning (42 million) Argentina
# Guizhou (39 million) Sudan
# Heilongjiang (38 million) Poland
# Shaanxi (37 million) Kenya
# Fujian (35 million) Algeria
# Shanxi (33 million) Canada
# Chongqing (31 million) Morocco
# Jilin (27 million) Afghanistan
# Gansu (26 million) Saudi Arabia
# Inner Mongolia (24 million) North Korea
# Taiwan (23 million) Yemen
# Xinjiang (20 million) Madagascar
# Shanghai (18 million) Cameroon
# Beijing (16 million) Angola
# Tianjin (12 million) Cuba
# Hainan (8 million) Austria
# Hong Kong (7 million) El Salvador
# Ningxia (6 million) Sierra Leone
# Qinghai (5 million) Slovakia
# Tibet (3 million) Jamaica
# Macau (0,5 million) Cape Verde

Clip Source: strangemaps.wordpress.com

China is the world’s most populous nation (1). That much anybody knows. But even if we know a bit more (that the number of Chinese is around 1.32 billion, which is just under 20% of all humans alive today), that figure is still too big to mean much beyond that China is ‘number one’ (2). This map compares the population of China’s provinces (plus the ‘renegade province’ of Taiwan), autonomous regions and municipalities with those of whole countries, and thus helps shed some light on that issue.

Here, for easy reference, is a list in descending order of magnitude of those Chinese territories (their population in brackets) followed by the foreign country they compare to.

Guangdong (113 million) Germany plus Uganda (3)

Henan (99 million) Mexico

Shandong (92 million) Philippines

Sichuan (87 million) Vietnam

Jiangsu (75 million) Egypt

Hebei (68 million) Iran

Hunan (67 million) France

Anhui (65 million) Thailand

Hubei (60 million) U.K.

Guangxi (49 million) Burma/Myanmar

ISI sponsors terrorism

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 09:32:05 GMT

clipped by: abhijit17
clipper's remarks: major investment is from narcotics trade

Clip Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

More than 25 per cent of the money spent on terrorist activities in India by the ISI comes from the narcotics drug trade

Besides providing weapons, he said the Pakistani agency pays a fixed monthly salary to militants in J and K. This is to the tune of Rs 30 crore a month

cultivation of poppy and cannabis in J and K, especially in south Kashmir districts of Pulwama and Anantnag, Sharma said though licenses have been issued to cultivators in the areas, they "misuse" it.

ninety per cent of the world's illicit opium comes from the Golden Triangle (Laos, Burma and Thailand) and Golden Crescent (Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran).

A Swarm of Lobbyists Would Run McCain's White House

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:33:01 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Except that it was a crock. Here's the hilarious part: the announcement was made by the top campaign staffer, Rick Davis. Guess what he is. A lobbyist! His clients range from such telecom giants as Verizon to undies-maker Fruit of the Loom, and most have had business before McCain's Senate committees.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

The political media establishment is enraptured by John McCain. Mainline media sparklies, as well as the blatherers on the Fox channel, routinely buff up his image as a straight-talking, maverick foe of Washington's special interests. "The press loves McCain. We're his base," gushes MSNBC's Chris Matthews. But if the senator really is the feared reformer of business-as-usual government, why does his presidential campaign look like the back alley of K Street?

McCain has already assembled his clique of advisors, and they don't have our best interests in mind.

There was a hilarious dustup in May when two of the campaign's key operatives were publicly fingered as lobbyists for the totalitarian military thugs who rule Burma. Bad image. To patch over this embarrassing exposure, the campaign dumped the duo and loudly proclaimed a new internal ethics rule barring lobbyists from paid positions on the "Straight Talk Express." Bold! Decisive! Laudable!

Sole Survivor Policy

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 17:01:51 GMT

clipped by: mentalpez
clipper's remarks: The complete Wikipedia article (it's a short article) on the Pentagon's policy regarding servicemen and draftees who have already lost an immediate family member in combat.

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

The Sole Survivor Policy describes a set of regulations in the US military that are designed to protect members of a family from the draft or combat duty if they have already lost family members in military service. This does not protect children without siblings—only those who have already had an immediate family member killed in the line of duty. It furthermore does not apply strictly to the sole surviving son, but to all surviving sons. The need for regulations first caught public attention after the Sullivan brothers were all killed when the USS Juneau (CL-52) was sunk during World War II. Since then, each branch of the military has made its own policies with regard to separating immediate family members. A notable instance of the Sole Survivor Policy is the case of the Niland Brothers, where it was believed that all but one of them was killed in action. It was later discovered that the eldest brother, Edward Niland, an Air Force Lieutenant, had been held in a POW camp in Burma.

Tags: world war ii

Drowning in Burma- Saving Fish From Drowning

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 04:00:33 GMT

clipped by: klippety
clipper's remarks: British Colonialism was the precursor to this military regime. Amy Tan wrote the book:
Saving Fish From Drowning.

Clip Source: www.newyorker.com

Drowning

Can the Burmese people rescue themselves?

Soldiers about to close off access to Rangoon’s Sule Pagoda, during the protests of September, 2007. Increasingly, dissidents are questioning the utility of direct confrontation with the government. Photograph by Christian Holst.

Over the decades, the Burmese government has subjected its citizens to epic misrule, systematically destroying every institution of society except the Army, whose leaders have made staying in power their overriding goal. The streets of Rangoon and Mandalay are monitored by the secret police and by a group of armed thugs known as Swan Arr Shin—the Masters of Force. Dissidents are routinely tortured. The generals’ irrational economic policies have reduced one of Asia’s richest countries

“Neither a British nor an American young man living in the twenty-first century can understand a Dickens as well as I can! I am living in a Dickensian atmosphere.

East vs West

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:50:43 GMT

clipped by: pascual
clipper's remarks: globalist

Clip Source: www.theglobalist.com

Between 1598 and 1894, there were only three brief wars that involved China — the 1659-60 and the 1767-71 wars with Burma, and the 1788-89 war with Vietnam, as well as two wars that did not involve China — the Siamese-Burmese wars of 1607-18 and of 1660-62.

Indeed, insofar as China is concerned, we should speak of a 500 years’ peace since, in the 200 years preceding the 1592 Japanese invasion of Korea, China was at war with other East Asian states only during the invasion of Vietnam in 1406-28 to restore the Tran dynasty.

Tags: history

RAMBO

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 06:58:41 GMT

clipped by: blkdoggiestyle99

Clip Source: moviefather.com

Rambo (2008)

In Thailand, John Rambo joins a group of mercenaries to venture into war-torn Burma, and rescue a group of Christian aid workers who were kidnapped by the ruthless local infantry unit.

Watch online

You remember Al Qaeda, right?

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 08:07:40 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: The Anchoress, who came to kick ass and chew bubblegum.

And she was fresh out of bubblegum.

Yeah, that guy! The guy who does more than just talk about freedom and progress. The guy who has brought real hope and change to people all over the world, and yes, here in America. But you don’t want to hear it. It’s the wrong and inconvenient narrative, the embargoed one.

Clip Source: theanchoressonline.com

You remember AlQaeda, right? Ten years ago this week, they bombed US Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. Not that we did much about it at the time. But it is worth noting, they haven’t done that to us again, nor any of these other things, since 9/11. I blame Bush.

You remember Bush, right? The guy who goes to Asia and tells China to free her people, while the press jeers, the guy who, while in Asia also meets with Democracy Activists in Burma and gets ignored for it, the guy who drew enormous and supportive crowds in Korea, while the American press yawned?

Sure, you remember Bush! He’s the guy whose life was threatened along with Barack Obama’s but only the threat to Obama was newsworthy for a very long time at CNN. Bush? You mean the creepy moron who will be charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity as soon as congress can figure out how to do that without exposing itself or having to put some of its own members under oath?

Tags: al-qaeda, us tanzanian and kenyan embassies bombed, president bush, chinese dissidents, burmese activists

Shaking hands in Beijing

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:20:45 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: I dig the Dalai Lama.

Clip Source: mail.google.com

The Dalai Lama's Olympic handshake is circling the world, headed for Beijing. Click below to see more and join the call for dialogue!

CLICK HERE TO SHAKE HANDS

As the Beijing Olympics begin, the world looks on with mixed emotions. It's a moment which should bring us closer together, and Chinese citizens deserve their excitement -- but the Chinese government still hasn't opened meaningful dialogue with the Dalai Lama, or changed its stance on Burma, Darfur and other pressing issues.

Even worse, extremists in China are promoting the view that Olympic activism like ours is anti-Chinese. We can't stay silent, but we also can't let our efforts be abused to divide people. So what can we do? The answer comes from the Dalai Lama himself, in an unambiguous gesture of Olympic spirit and friendship: a handshake.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/handshake

Bush chides China on human rights

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:44:20 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Hypocrite.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Just hours before flying to Beijing for the Olympic Games, US President George W Bush has used some of his bluntest language yet in publicly pressing China to improve its human rights record.

"We speak out for a free press, freedom of assembly, and labour rights not to antagonise China's leaders, but because trusting its people with greater freedom is the only way for China to develop its full potential."

Later, Mr Bush will have lunch with dissidents and former political prisoners, and give an interview to local media that is expected to be broadcast into Burma.