George Packer wrote an excellent piece for the September 17 New Yorker, "Planning for Defeat," http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/09/17/070917fa_fact_packer
Check it out. Solid piece of foreign correspondence.
9.26.2007
Annexation.
The U.K. wants to annex seafloor in the south Atlantic. more on the way.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/argentina/story/0,,2174616,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/argentina/story/0,,2174616,00.html
Mission to Burma cont'd
On this day 19 years ago, Aung San Suu Kyi founded the dissident National League for Democracy in Burma.As you may have heard, the Burmese junta has began firing on protesting monks. The monks and others' actions are the continuation of trends I described two weeks ago. Things are bloody and broken in Burma.
By 6:00 o'clock Burmese time, protesters had dispersed in Rangoon. Over 100,000 people took part in protests across the Southeast Asian nation, according to Mizzima News, a Web site specializing in Burma.
"Monks and civilians today began their protest at about 2 p.m. (local time) and burnt down four army vehicles and several motorcycles belonging to intelligence officials," referring to what happened near the Shwedagon Pagoda, the massive temple near Yangon.
""As the authorities refused to open the eastern gate of Shwedagon pagoda, the monks stood in front of the gate and recited Metta Sutta (Buddhist word for loving kindness). Then the soldiers charged the monks with batons and started beating and kicking the monks. We heard that an elderly monk died because of the beating. I saw one monk beaten severely. I guess that he is the same monk who is reported to have died. The monk must be over 80 years old."
Mizzima is doing an incredible job of covering the protest. It really demonstrates the power of the Internet as a liberator of the press, especially in developing nations. And, of course, the junta is threatening to limit or ban internet access.
http://mizzima.com/mizzimanews/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/burma/story/0,,2177868,00.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/26/AR2007092600185.html?hpid=topnews
more on the way.
9.13.2007
Mission to Burma, but much less indie rock.
Mission to Burma
By Drake Baer
Staff Writer
For weeks, civilian protest has come to the streets of Myanmar, also Burma. Demonstrations over the incredible increase in petroleum prices have been met with force, with more than 150 protesters jailed, according to multiple reports.
At question is a country with an identity problem, as the ruling military regime refers to it as Myanmar and dissidents as Burma. In a lovely bit of Orwellian state department name irony, the government is led by Chairman Than Shwe of the State Peace and Development Council.
The regime has employed a group of paramilitary thugs, again ironically called the the Union Solidarity and Development Association to police the nation. Several thousand goons armed with wooden batons attacked protesters in Yangon, the nation's main city.
Amnesty International reports that over 150 people have been detained since August 19. On that day Once-subsidized gas prices experienced an increase of up to 500 percent. Rapid increases in staples are all too regular in the state, in 2003 the price of rice doubled in less than a year. The country's poor are being squeezed by the military junta.
The junta produced a constitution guaranteeing continued power on September 2. The military has been in control since 1962. The constitution was drafted over a period of 14 years, with the latest convention excluding any members of the opposition party, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Needless to say, the process has been seen as less than classically democratic. Suu Kyi has been subject to state-mandated house arrest 11 of the past 17 years. Under the new guidelines, she would not be able to hold office, to her being the widow of a foreigner.
Constitutional provisions assuring human rights are less than steadfast, as the New York Times reports, “the document severely limits the rights of political parties and it hedges its provisions on human rights and political activity with limitations based on concerns of 'national security.'”
Burma is a nation that 50 years ago was primed to be a leader in the developing world. Ithas since earned the U.N. designation of “Least Developed Country,”
The regime's faux-constitution is another step in Burma's anti-development, as put by New Zealand political scientist Peter John Perry, “An opporunty has been at worst rejected and at best mishandled ... The reason for this is the position of the regime, its ideology, its inflexibility, its greed and its incompetence.”
The new constitution reserves a quarter of parliamentary seats for military appointees and the presidency for a military figure. The army will also set its own budget, retain the right to declare a state of emergency, and have the ability to seize power – should they deem it fit to do so. These are not the fundamental principals of a free state.
Amnesty International reports that “widespread and systematic violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, amounting to possible crimes against humanity,” have been committed by the regime.
Public demonstrations are rare in the Southeast Asian nation, as they often end in blood, as was the case in the 1988, when protests over 1000 Burmese citizens were killed. In the fallout of the 1988 uprising, the Junta moved universities from the cities and the capital to a more remote location, to diffuse protest by students and civil servants, the New York Times reports. The new capitol is Naypyidaw, which roughly translates as “abode of kings.”
In 1990, the junta held a parliamentary election. To their dismay, the National League for Democracy won in a landslide, taking home 80 percent of the vote. Obviously, the junta had no other choice than to annul the results.
The Burmese junta is second only to the Mugabe (mis)Administration of Zimbabwe when it comes to completely and unequivocally squandering an opportunity for growth. The funds coming from natural resources, including a world-famous lumber industry, have been concentrated in few hands.
Burma is a place where a corrupt military has literally entrenched itself in power in its newly built capitol. The country is closed off to the world; very few journalists or academic are allowed within its borders. As such, we do not hear much from the state. It seems that the only way Burma might change is by pressure by nearby trading partners, most notably China. Burma is unstable, authoritarian state; even if it holds itself to be the opposite.
By Drake Baer
Staff Writer
For weeks, civilian protest has come to the streets of Myanmar, also Burma. Demonstrations over the incredible increase in petroleum prices have been met with force, with more than 150 protesters jailed, according to multiple reports.
At question is a country with an identity problem, as the ruling military regime refers to it as Myanmar and dissidents as Burma. In a lovely bit of Orwellian state department name irony, the government is led by Chairman Than Shwe of the State Peace and Development Council.
The regime has employed a group of paramilitary thugs, again ironically called the the Union Solidarity and Development Association to police the nation. Several thousand goons armed with wooden batons attacked protesters in Yangon, the nation's main city.
Amnesty International reports that over 150 people have been detained since August 19. On that day Once-subsidized gas prices experienced an increase of up to 500 percent. Rapid increases in staples are all too regular in the state, in 2003 the price of rice doubled in less than a year. The country's poor are being squeezed by the military junta.
The junta produced a constitution guaranteeing continued power on September 2. The military has been in control since 1962. The constitution was drafted over a period of 14 years, with the latest convention excluding any members of the opposition party, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Needless to say, the process has been seen as less than classically democratic. Suu Kyi has been subject to state-mandated house arrest 11 of the past 17 years. Under the new guidelines, she would not be able to hold office, to her being the widow of a foreigner.
Constitutional provisions assuring human rights are less than steadfast, as the New York Times reports, “the document severely limits the rights of political parties and it hedges its provisions on human rights and political activity with limitations based on concerns of 'national security.'”
Burma is a nation that 50 years ago was primed to be a leader in the developing world. Ithas since earned the U.N. designation of “Least Developed Country,”
The regime's faux-constitution is another step in Burma's anti-development, as put by New Zealand political scientist Peter John Perry, “An opporunty has been at worst rejected and at best mishandled ... The reason for this is the position of the regime, its ideology, its inflexibility, its greed and its incompetence.”
The new constitution reserves a quarter of parliamentary seats for military appointees and the presidency for a military figure. The army will also set its own budget, retain the right to declare a state of emergency, and have the ability to seize power – should they deem it fit to do so. These are not the fundamental principals of a free state.
Amnesty International reports that “widespread and systematic violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, amounting to possible crimes against humanity,” have been committed by the regime.
Public demonstrations are rare in the Southeast Asian nation, as they often end in blood, as was the case in the 1988, when protests over 1000 Burmese citizens were killed. In the fallout of the 1988 uprising, the Junta moved universities from the cities and the capital to a more remote location, to diffuse protest by students and civil servants, the New York Times reports. The new capitol is Naypyidaw, which roughly translates as “abode of kings.”
In 1990, the junta held a parliamentary election. To their dismay, the National League for Democracy won in a landslide, taking home 80 percent of the vote. Obviously, the junta had no other choice than to annul the results.
The Burmese junta is second only to the Mugabe (mis)Administration of Zimbabwe when it comes to completely and unequivocally squandering an opportunity for growth. The funds coming from natural resources, including a world-famous lumber industry, have been concentrated in few hands.
Burma is a place where a corrupt military has literally entrenched itself in power in its newly built capitol. The country is closed off to the world; very few journalists or academic are allowed within its borders. As such, we do not hear much from the state. It seems that the only way Burma might change is by pressure by nearby trading partners, most notably China. Burma is unstable, authoritarian state; even if it holds itself to be the opposite.
9.06.2007
China institutes rebirth control
I often cringe at the word “Orwellian” when it is bandied about. However, China's latest move goes beyond anything Eric Blair described in 1984, for last Saturday, September 1, the Chinese government instituted a series of rules aimed at controlling Tibet – including reincarnation.
In case you missed last week's “odds and ends” news, the Chinese government has passed legislation banning the reincarnation of Tibetan monks without official sanction. As the Times of London reports, the newly enacted rules make it so that the living Buddha, the Dalai Lama, cannot reincarnate without government approval.
"It is an important move to institutionalize management on reincarnation of living Buddhas," the Chinese State Administration for Religious Affairs said in a statement. A temple that wishes to house the living Buddha must be legally registered for “Tibetan Buddhism activities and capable of fostering and offering proper means of support for the living Buddha,” according to the state religious agency.
The move is as political and as it is absurd. China hopes to open up Lhasa as a tourist venue, with the newly completed railroad. Beyond disrupting Tibetan Buddhism, the legislation is an effort to promote Chinese nationalism, as well. When religion is the center of a culture, and a figure is central to a religion, the best way to control the religion, and by proxy, the culture, is to legislate control – and selection – of the central figure.
The Chinese government has already selected the official Panchen Lama, the Dalai Lama's number two, without the Dalai Lama's blessing. Unsurprisingly, the state Panchen Lama has told the Chinese state press of the “ample religious freedom” the Tibetan people enjoy.
"I've been to many places in the past decade and witnessed the ample freedom enjoyed by individuals and religious organizations alike,” he said to Xinhua News Agency in 2005. “Living Buddhas like myself are able to perform religious rituals under the wing of the Chinese Constitution and other laws," he said.
Ever since the People's Liberation Army crushed the Tibetan resistance in 1949-1950, China has had a difficult time quashing the restive Tibetan faith, a faith that is a fundamental part of Tibetan culture. Institutionalizing reincarnation is one way for Beijing to control the influence of the Dalai Lama, who was up to his exile the primary political figure in the region as well.
According to that administrative bureau, the government only steps into religious affairs of public and political interest. But when that religious affair is the selection of the most important public figure in a occupied territory, that affair is of incredible political worth.
The new regulation also precludes any Buddhist monk from reincarnating outside of China, according to India's Daily News and Analysis.
“These stringent new measures strike at the heart of Tibetan religious identity,” said Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari, a special envoy of the Dalai Lama, to the Indian news service. “They will only create further resentment among the Tibetan people and cannot override the Party’s lack of legitimacy in the sphere of religion.”
The United States' press coverage of the issue is less than stellar, as it has appeared only in sections such as Emil Steiner's column for the Washington Post, OFF/beat.
For a paper with an extensive foreign desk, a little more thorough coverage of the issue would be nice, considering how China is a growing economic power, one that is inviting the world to its capitol a year from now. The Los Angeles Times hasn't followed the story, while the New York Times has it on their premium “TimesSelect” program.
The tension between the land of snow and its easterly neighbor has persisted from as far back as 821, when the first peace treaty between Tibet and China was signed. In 1913, Tibet declared a national independence. In the following years, the recently founded Chinese Republic refused to fully acknowledge the autonomy of the nation.
Tibet, as well as the rest of the East, experienced a tremendous shift in stature in October of 1949 when Chairman Mao Tse-tung proclaimed the People's Republic of China. One year later, 80,000 troops of the People's Liberation Army marched into Tibet. Another year later, the Seventeen-point Agreement integrated Tibet into the larger country, with a promise of autonomy.
That autonomy has been the subject of a bloody history of protest and government control. In March 1959 an uprising was brutally smothered in Lhasa. At that point, the Dalai Lama fled to India. Since that point, further demonstrations have often been met further gunfire.
In the past month, during the Tibetan festival season, images and posters of the exiled Dalai Lama have been dealt with “swiftly,” according to the New York Times. Chinese officials and security forces have had an active role in the festivals. Any attempts by Chinese officials to rouse the crowd were met with a muted response, reported Howard W. French for the Times. Although there has not been gunfire, the government nonetheless has attempted to further control of the Tibetan minority.
Perhaps the best way to understand the fallout of the situation is to go straight to His Holiness, as per his well-maintained Web site, “If the present situation regarding Tibet remains the same, I will be born outside Tibet away from the control of the Chinese authorities,” he said. “Thus, if the Tibetan situation still remains unsolved, it is logical (that) I will be born in exile to continue my unfinished work.”
In case you missed last week's “odds and ends” news, the Chinese government has passed legislation banning the reincarnation of Tibetan monks without official sanction. As the Times of London reports, the newly enacted rules make it so that the living Buddha, the Dalai Lama, cannot reincarnate without government approval.
"It is an important move to institutionalize management on reincarnation of living Buddhas," the Chinese State Administration for Religious Affairs said in a statement. A temple that wishes to house the living Buddha must be legally registered for “Tibetan Buddhism activities and capable of fostering and offering proper means of support for the living Buddha,” according to the state religious agency.
The move is as political and as it is absurd. China hopes to open up Lhasa as a tourist venue, with the newly completed railroad. Beyond disrupting Tibetan Buddhism, the legislation is an effort to promote Chinese nationalism, as well. When religion is the center of a culture, and a figure is central to a religion, the best way to control the religion, and by proxy, the culture, is to legislate control – and selection – of the central figure.
The Chinese government has already selected the official Panchen Lama, the Dalai Lama's number two, without the Dalai Lama's blessing. Unsurprisingly, the state Panchen Lama has told the Chinese state press of the “ample religious freedom” the Tibetan people enjoy.
"I've been to many places in the past decade and witnessed the ample freedom enjoyed by individuals and religious organizations alike,” he said to Xinhua News Agency in 2005. “Living Buddhas like myself are able to perform religious rituals under the wing of the Chinese Constitution and other laws," he said.
Ever since the People's Liberation Army crushed the Tibetan resistance in 1949-1950, China has had a difficult time quashing the restive Tibetan faith, a faith that is a fundamental part of Tibetan culture. Institutionalizing reincarnation is one way for Beijing to control the influence of the Dalai Lama, who was up to his exile the primary political figure in the region as well.
According to that administrative bureau, the government only steps into religious affairs of public and political interest. But when that religious affair is the selection of the most important public figure in a occupied territory, that affair is of incredible political worth.
The new regulation also precludes any Buddhist monk from reincarnating outside of China, according to India's Daily News and Analysis.
“These stringent new measures strike at the heart of Tibetan religious identity,” said Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari, a special envoy of the Dalai Lama, to the Indian news service. “They will only create further resentment among the Tibetan people and cannot override the Party’s lack of legitimacy in the sphere of religion.”
The United States' press coverage of the issue is less than stellar, as it has appeared only in sections such as Emil Steiner's column for the Washington Post, OFF/beat.
For a paper with an extensive foreign desk, a little more thorough coverage of the issue would be nice, considering how China is a growing economic power, one that is inviting the world to its capitol a year from now. The Los Angeles Times hasn't followed the story, while the New York Times has it on their premium “TimesSelect” program.
The tension between the land of snow and its easterly neighbor has persisted from as far back as 821, when the first peace treaty between Tibet and China was signed. In 1913, Tibet declared a national independence. In the following years, the recently founded Chinese Republic refused to fully acknowledge the autonomy of the nation.
Tibet, as well as the rest of the East, experienced a tremendous shift in stature in October of 1949 when Chairman Mao Tse-tung proclaimed the People's Republic of China. One year later, 80,000 troops of the People's Liberation Army marched into Tibet. Another year later, the Seventeen-point Agreement integrated Tibet into the larger country, with a promise of autonomy.
That autonomy has been the subject of a bloody history of protest and government control. In March 1959 an uprising was brutally smothered in Lhasa. At that point, the Dalai Lama fled to India. Since that point, further demonstrations have often been met further gunfire.
In the past month, during the Tibetan festival season, images and posters of the exiled Dalai Lama have been dealt with “swiftly,” according to the New York Times. Chinese officials and security forces have had an active role in the festivals. Any attempts by Chinese officials to rouse the crowd were met with a muted response, reported Howard W. French for the Times. Although there has not been gunfire, the government nonetheless has attempted to further control of the Tibetan minority.
Perhaps the best way to understand the fallout of the situation is to go straight to His Holiness, as per his well-maintained Web site, “If the present situation regarding Tibet remains the same, I will be born outside Tibet away from the control of the Chinese authorities,” he said. “Thus, if the Tibetan situation still remains unsolved, it is logical (that) I will be born in exile to continue my unfinished work.”
A new direction
This decrepit blog, which was the invention of tedious hours in a real-estate office, will now head into a new, far more interesting, direction. This will be the place for the columns I'll be writing an independent study at the University of Illinois. I hope you, the reader, will enjoy it.
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