This One Story Shows Why Burma Has To Stay In The Headlines

Just over one week ago, I launched the Burma NewsLadder in pretty quick order to help folks aggregate stories, photos, blog posts and more about the situation in Burma; a country I know relatively well because of my father's experiences there in the State Department.

The response to the Burma NewsLadder has been encouraging to say the least with people posting amazing stories from all around the world; linking to everything from the official newspaper site of the Burmese government to shocking photographs.

One story that was posted from Europe stunned me considerably. It's about the ongoing cremations the Burmese government continued long after the first wave of riots stopped, literally, as they burned the evidence of dead monks.

"Secret cremations hide Burma death toll." ">Here's the story.

Here's one of the more tragic quotes:

The secret cremations have been reported by local people who have seen olive green trucks covered with tarpaulins rumbling through the area at night and watched smoke rising continuously from the furnace chimneys.

There was one more thing I noticed as the week wore on. The international press kept covering the story, offering deeper and deeper analysis and discussions of the continuing worldwide efforts to stop the violence.

Our domestic press here, slowly, but surely, has dropped the story. It is just a trickle now. And this is one of the nice added benefits of the NewsLadder concept, we all get to decide what the news is.

So if Burma is still important to you, join me over at the Burma NewsLadder. Because it still matters to me.

(P.S. Did you know that U2 wrote "Walk On" in honor of Aung San Suu Kyi? Neither did I.)