Burma - Facebook groups
More rough notes.
I received an invitation today to join a group to support the democracy effort in Burma. There are currently 118,461 members. 3 of them are my friends. Of course it’s really easy to join a group, but I think it is noteworthy nonetheless.
The Facebook group lead me to a petition for a boycott of China’s Olympics, should they not support sanctions. This is for UK citizens only, of course. Link. (Elsewhere discussion is surfacing of individual companies who do business in Burma)
Also a video from a Japanese News report showing video of journalist Kenji Nagai being shot. Also look here
And the comments are interesting. Some are wondering if the West should impose military force. The first comment I read was from someone declaring they were against the Iraq War, but considered this might be a good idea. This could so easily fall into a bloody revolution. But I don’t think any country really considers military support to be a good option. Putting aside the problem of spreading troops out too far, I think any arrogance that we can play superhero and make everything better with our super army was laid to rest in Iraq. War is a hard decision to make. It would be long-term and brutal. I honestly think everyone wants to avoid it if at all possible.
But can peaceful diplomatic efforts really help? If we try, we at least learn something.
Personally, I’m leaning towards a boycott of Chinese products and the Olympics if they don’t agree to help. Although that is easier said than done, of course. Their products are everywhere! I have slight doubts about whether this is the right thing to do, but we will see. It can no longer be acceptable to allow any country (including our own) to prop up evil regimes for economic gain. But we must also not be as naive to believe we can just ignore the economic issues or pretend they are unimportant.
A documentary film also surfaced in my look through the Facebook. Here is the trailer. It’s interesting what it takes for people around the world to take notice (including me). I’m aware of many horrible regimes around the world, and yet it takes a special news event to make it a big story and for me to pay particular attention. One reason is surely attention span. My financial concerns, are much more important to me than poverty the other side the of the world (if we are honest, that’s how most of us think, and it’s a pretty sensible way of thinking too). But another reason may be that we simply don’t know what to do when we learn of these issues. We don’t know how to solve them.
But at least we are paying attention and trying. That is significant progress, even if it may not seem that way.
Meanwhile my RSS lead me to read that there was actually an excuse for the Internet going down in Burma:
Internet cafés have been closed and the state ISP is claiming that a damaged cable has led to a total internet shutdown across the country.
Right then.
Finally, the Guardian has a good write-up on the current state of Burma and a little of its history. You can read that here.
I’ve read blog comments that describe the extent of the brutality as far worse than what has been confirmed. There is no way to know how accurate these reports are, so I’m a little unsure what to make of them.