The story in Burma just gets worse. The "warehouse", in which more than a thousand have been kept since their arrest, sounds like someplace even worse than Gitmo. And then there's the story of the Army major who deserted rather than stay to shoot monks, lest he burn in hell forever. American media, to the extent they ever cared about the Burma story, have moved on.
We allow ourselves to be roused to warlike ire by such stories when the government sees fit, even when those stories are untrue. But here, when the reporting on Burma seems against all odds to truthfully reflect the awful situation there, it's hard for us to be roused even to a simulation of moderate interest...
UPDATE: "We'll continue to cover this story, no matter how long it takes.." That was Anderson Cooper Tuesday night, wrapping up a CNN segment in which "exclusive" video of the demonstrations (and the military response) in Burma was aired for the first time--on CNN. Tuesday night--more than a week after the demonstrations occurred, and almost four full days since Al Jazeera English and BBC World aired if not the same almost virtually identical footage. How about continuing to cover it while it can still do some good--i.e., while demonstrators are still putting their lives on the line in the hope of some support from the West?
Harry, I think you know that that's not how the commercial newsmedia works. See, we promised Proctor & Gamble, General Motors, and Pfizer that we would deliver to them 14-million eyeballs. Now if the American public, (whose attention span is only as long as a Viagra ad) gets bored, they will tune out and we won't be able to deliver those eyeballs. Unfortunately the owners of those eyeballs are more interested in the plight of Britney Spears than they are in the lives of millions of people living in an Asian country they've never heard of. So due to circumstances beyond our control, we will be covering celebrity gossip and fluff, and not what is happening in Myanmar. Our apologies to the people of Myanmar, we simply no longer find your suffering sufficiently interesting.
But in this case the US really does hold the key to stopping these crimes in Myanmar.
While China and Russia (don't forget France) do business in Myanmar, the real money which keeps the regime in power comes through Chevron.
Read about it.....
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100307S.shtml
This is also a big part of the reason why US media does not give the Myanmar story much coverage.....sooner or later they might have to say the word "Chevron" and they are too afraid to do this.
But for the rest of us, we have power over Chevron, don't we?
Have a Chevron gas card? Cancel it and tell them why.
Own Chevron stock? Sell it and tell them why.
Have Chevron as a component in one of your mutual funds? Tell your banker/adviser to put your money somewhere else...and why.
Not a rich stockholder? Just a poor hippie?
Go to a Chevron station and hold a sign for an hour or hand out flyer's with info and links to the Chevron connection.
Inform all of your friends/family/co-workers about the Chevron connection and ask them to boycott.
One monk made no difference in Myanmar, but thousands got the attention of the world. One of us boycotting Chevron will change nothing...but let us all try to inspire/inform the people in our lives to make a difference.
Peace.
Personally I find it confusing how Americans choose what to be compassionate about while ignoring the plight of other Americans right here at home.I agree that this is an atrocity but certainly no worse than what Americans have been doing to Iraquis the last 4 years. Sudan, Burma can be used by AMericans to claim a moral superiority when none exists. Through their own agression the American govt. has caused enough grief and strife to millions of people and continues to do so.
CNN is beneath contempt. Shame on anyone who still watches CNN expecting news.
The Clinton administration was involved with the planning to build the pipeline across Afghanistan, what did you hear?
When Sec. Richardson came saying that Kosovo (with the lies of genocide by the Clinton admin. promoting the war) was about energy independence for the US (Caspian).
Personally, compared to coverage of horrific world events of the 90's, I was pleasantly surprised at the attention in the media in Burma - More would be good. But, folks are talking about it.
Almost every time, in recent years, someone has brought up Darfur, in turn I asked them what we should have done in the DR Congo (1998- forward - 4 1/2 million dead -- largest loss of life from any single conflict since WWII). Now I admit, most of these folks are just your typical well educated, well read, older leftists and activists types (one is singing at a peace rally today) -- and so far, I have not ran into a single person, who is familiar with the civil war, genocide, starvation, disease from, and refugee status in the DR Congo.
James Traub of the NY Times went so for as to write that it did not occur. Neither did Sierra Leone, or Afghanistan, etc. (thanks Chuck for Blood Diamond).
Why? The media wanted us to believe that when Bill Clinton said "Never Again," it would be so. James Traub re-writes history for us:
"From 1997 through 2000, the world was largely at peace, none of the horrific civil wars in the Third World rose to genocidal proportions, and the White House was occupied by an internationalist Democrat. Then, in rapid succession, a unilaterally-minded Republican took office, 9/11 shattered the interval of peace.."
NOW WE ARE SPREADING DEMOCRACY?
WHY TO OVERTHROW THEM AGAIN?
Beg pardon, but what "good" would you recommend? An invasion, perhaps?
Color me cynical and perhaps more than a little fatigued by it all but I'm serious. Other than the usual sound and fury at the UN and all the talk of envoys and sanctions, signifying nothing, what can really be done? We can make ourselves feel noble by standing up on soap boxes, railing against the junta all we want but the world is ultimately powerless.
About the only thing that will change the situation is a few hundred thousand PRC troops massing along the border, ready to invade, and you know how well that would go down.
This will probably have to burn itself out in the standard manner.
I WILL NOT ALLOW THIS FLAME TO DIE!!! NO!!!
FUCK THIS BRUTAL APATHY!!!
JESUS CHRIST HAD BETTER PRESS THAN THIS!!!!!
We have posted links to bloggers.
We have posted links to breaking news.
We have posted links to companies invested in that murderous band of devils perpetrating this crime against humanity.
We have posted links to list of corporations invested in the Olympics.
To date, there is more information on this affront to human dignity and self determination--as well as solutions for effective responses--posted Here
on Harry Shearer's many Posts than in any one place else on the internet.
I've checked.
Here's the information. You are in the perfect, karma elevated place known to those suffering Buddhists of Burma as precious human rebirth--born into a country where we have free speech and press,
where we have freedom to practice any religion and where we invented the greatest tool for confronting and countering tyranny since the the printed word: the Internet.
So please drop the apocryphal postulates of "invasion" soap-box agrandizement and reinforcement of staus que powerlessness.
Rise up and face this crime or bend over and assume the position of the Bosses.
Write and call your members of Congress, as have I.
Start going over and respond to these links and lists, as have I.
You ask that I "color you cynical"???
What color would that be?
What is the color of this cynicism?
What is the color of spilled blood?
http://mizzima.com/Foto-2007/Sep/27foto/japanbig.html
What is the color of a child's brain lying in the gutter.
http://www.zinmedia.net/2007/09/brain-of-child-who-was-killed-by-army.html
The color of Freedom?
http://mizzima.com/Foto-2007/Sep/yangon-todaylai.html
The world IS NOT ultimately powerless unless we continue to say it is.
To be or not?
Are We The People nor Not?
BTW His Holiness the Dali Lama is on tour across the country this month.
http://www.dalailama.com/page.60.htm
One peace at a time,
from the back hand path.
Oh, sure. The leaders of Burma will tremble, turn tail, and run at the thought of a (*gasp*) Congressional investigation.
Congressional Representatives and Senators care about only two things: aggrandizing personal power and getting reelected so they can stick their noses deeper into the trough. My former representative, Randy "Duke" Cunningham, is a sterling example of the cynical crassness of the breed. DiFi and B-1 Barbara? Don't make me laugh. Both of them are so deep into the pockets of the "defense" industry that they're sucking lint.
Do you think they give a rip about a bunch of dead Burmese?
To heck with it. It's game over. Sea level is rising. The ozone layer continues to deteriorate. If India and Pakistan ever come to nuclear blows (a probability of virtual unity within the next century), a billion people will die of starvation.
Go ahead. Push string uphill.
I'm tired. I'm old. And in a short while it's not going to matter at all.
Now, thanks to James Boyce, we also now have:
http://www.burma.newsladder.net/
I am a blogger about Thai politics.
Thailand has been under a military dictatorship for the last year. I bet nobody on this blog knew about it or even cared. There is a civil war going on in the South of Thailand between Buddhists and Muslims(with Kosova like implication), which can widen into a regional war. Further, Thailand, not China, is Burma's largest trading partner. The Thai military and business class has a deep economic partnership with the Burmese junta.
So the US media has ignored Burma, it has ignored Thailand, it has ignored Laos(oppressive Communist dictatorship) and Cambodia(one party kleptocracy with huge oil reserves). It has ignored India's influence on Burma also. The Burma problem is not exactly a Chinese problem. There are regional and non-regional (Russia) actors propping up the Burmese junta. The British,French, Japanese and Singaporeans also have invested large amounts of money in Burma, but nobody dares to notice their imperialistic ways, because they ain't American.
There is an entire world outside of Iraq, Iran and Israel that the US media, including the Huffington Post, routinely ignores.
Burma is a fascinating country with an ancient civilization. It is too bad that it doesn't get the coverage that it deserves.
Is there really a difference?
Fight for your cause - stop blaming only one side. If you want all of this changed - hold the Democrats accoutable, first. Putting them back in, and believing that you have solved a problem - will only make it worse, as nobody will be watching, again.
Christian, and what they take that to mean will be nothing you'd recognize, I assure you.
Matteo Ricci spent more than 50 years in China trying to harvest Catholic converts. His total harvest: 0. Believe me, it's no different today. Only when Christianity is allowed to be turned into a business, as it is in the West, will you begin to see "Christians" in any number in China.
(I know you know that I'm being sarcastic. But many of us lack the irony gene.)
http://www.newsdeskspecial.co.uk/burma/
Only thing that would be different is if the C I A wasn't envoluved here.
We've become a shallow, shortsighted, self involved people. TV is our alter, reducing a three-dimensional world to two dimensions for one-dimensional man.
HARRY RESPONDS: The international (BBC, AJE) coverage was not prompted by Bush's speech, it was prompted by the upsurge in demonstrations in a country that had been cowed by its junta since 1988. Bush's speech reference was a hasty response to that development.
Since when the US administration is cocerned with the human rights violation anywhere in the world? They play these events as they fit their agendas. US has a history of oppressing popular movements throughout the world. The question is why they are suddenly concerned with current events in Burma?
HARRY RESPONDS: Yeah, that's right, it's a zero-sum game, can't chew gum and walk at the same time. Sorry about that.
Mr. Shearer, you know there are limits to the number of things people can be vested in. Are you making the case for being roused by an issue over which you have no control and for which you have no plans to act? What exactly do you think people should be doing about Burma? People with time on their hands have plenty of ways to find out what is going on in Burma and they can organize all the protests, email campaigns, etc. that they want.
What should American politicians be doing that they aren't doing about Burma? Should we be putting additional pressure on China, with whom we are closely entangled economically? Should Americans be making voting decisions based on their politicial records on Burma (as opposed to, say, their records on global warming, healthcare, Iraq).
We are in no position to cut economic ties with China, and Burma will not make a difference in the lives of most Americans. Americans can "care" about Burma, all we want, but in the end it will hardly be different than Bush's caring about the working people of this country.
I'm really not concerned here with "other people" but with you and me and Harry and everyone else interested in paying attention and getting the word out...the good, the bad and the ugly.
Yes I think Americans should be making voting decisions. That would be a nice start.
We must hold our elected officials accountable not just to our wishes but to common human decency, the elimination of totalitarian oppression and torture in any form wherever it exists whether in Washington D.C. or Mandalay, Burma.
It is a myth of neo'concervative Republican non-politics that one vote has to be opposed to another, when the basis of our system of government is built on working compromise.
I refuse to assume that position or perpetuate that lie with cynical apathy.
There is no better position from which to raise Hell than now.
We are in a perfect position to effect an Olympic boycott, network support both here and around the world, increase information flow by using it right in the comfort of your own home.
We can grasp only what we can reach.
We can hold only what we can handle.
What we can handle is, at least for now, as close as your finger tips.
My point, as it has been since Bush announced the American "outrage" over the incidents in Burma (to which most Americans replied "huh?"), is that life on this planet is a tapestry of pain and turmoil, much of it we have a direct hand in. Should we not put our house in order before seeking another position as the democratic freedom police? If they're truly Budhist, does not their suffering fulfill a kind of purpose in their advancement? Sounds cold, but who are we to cry out to the world that evil is taking place over there, while we have evil seeping out from the halls of our government right here? Who are we to decry the deaths of hundreds or thousands, while we're directly responsible for the death and dislocation of hundreds of thousands into the millions?
We want to show how advanced we are, while contemplating yet another military action that is SURE to lead to more disaster. Where are our priorities?
Oh, wait, I just remembered I've got HEROES TiVo'd from the other night. Gotta go.
You may or may not survive what you to see in this "tapestry of pain and turmoil", but it is what you refuse to see that will kill you every time.
Your which came first soul searching is old time circular BS. If you want to know about Buddhism why don't you ask one that you know or, failing that piece of virtuous karma, just look it up and read it for yourself. Such info is published in at least a bazillion languages. They even have children's books.
Otherwise quit jacking around here, trying to get your kicks by kicking around people that you have decided to know nothing about, while those innocent people are really slaughtered in this real world.
The first Noble Truth is the reality of suffering. Pain is real, for each of us. It is not something that just happens to someone else. Pain is not an intellectual concept but visceral, something you have to own and from which you must take responsibility for your own liberation.
Compassion allows us to help ourselves through helping each other in pain and the liberation from it because pain is the ONE thing that we all know.
Try here: http://www.dalailama.com/