A Land that Time Forgot
No matter how advanced we as a superpower become and how connected we are to every other technology in the world, barbarism and other base human conditions will never cease to spring up wherever apathy is allowed to exist. The country most Westerners know as Burma (which doesn't even have that name anymore) has not been a player in world events in almost two centuries and barely qualifies as a nation. It has the largest geographical area of any state in Southeast Asia and the most minimal government, a small club of Chinese generals called a "junta", the Hindi word for "commoner" which is not currently used by any other world power, who feel little if any responsibility toward their native population. At the time of the events in the book Anna and the King of Siam, Burma was a source of refugees and mercenaries pouring into Thailand and after 150 years this role is exactly the same, including tribes fleeing from ethnic banishment and the recruitment of child soldiers.*
This same area is home to some of the wildest tropical zones left in the world and tribal cultures that have lived there for thousands of years, and is naturally prone to cyclones and typhoons. The combination of these two forces, politics and nature, into a humanitarian crisis was inevitable and yet the world waited. The seizing of the UN's first relief shipment last week by their military which would have fed some 95,000 people shocked the world, even though this government has never been any different.
According to the New York Times, Myanmar's government has responded to this catastrophe with a national PR campaign urging citizens to "vote" for a referendum that would strengthen military rule. "It appeared that some resources for cyclone victims was diverted to the vote campaign. In some cases, generals' names were scribbled onto boxes of foreign aid before being distributed… A resident of Yangon said refugees seeking shelter in schools were evicted so the buildings could be used as polling places…"** Political parties in Myanmar are one-man endorsements of a single general. Their government's estimate of the casualties is also a fraction of that of independent sources.**
This kind of response is nothing new, as last year's anti-government protests known as the Saffron Revolution were dealt with by loading fire engines with insecticide, persecution of journalists, and mandatory recruitment of civilians for staged government rallies to fool UN inspectors and the world.*** The practice of dictating national unity/consent from the top down has been dubbed "Myanmarification".*
Early tremors of this ruthless form of politics can be felt even in our own country. Most monopolies from FEMA to school boards to private corporations deal with the physical consequences of their mistakes as a "perception" issue, solved by advertising and rubbing elbows. Even our political candidates have taken this bent (i.e. Hillary Clinton's reputation as being unscrupulous and a sore loser) which should lead us to elect those who refuse to use such tactics (a case for Barack Obama). I have a sibling living in Thailand who works with Burmese refugees of the Karen tribe, whose leader was executed by the junta earlier this year. I read this story at edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/10/myanmar.vote/index.html#cnnSTCText.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma
**http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/10/myanmar.vote/index.html#cnnSTCText
***http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Burmese_anti-government_protests
Question of the Week: Should the UN or U.S. use its superior military strength to protect aid shipments to Burma and ensure they get to the right people? Would this be a better use of military action than the occupation of Iraq or Afghanistan? Send your opinions to russo@richmondliberty.org.
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