The situation in Burma is pretty terrible right now. More accurately, the situation has been terrible in Burma, but perhaps it has reached its tipping point. The last major protest they had in 1988 resulted in the killing of 3,000 protesters. The government has already reacted violently, throwing citizens in jail (including monks) and shooting a Japanese photographer for the world to see. Yesterday, I went to a presentation on the situation in Burma. Scott Carrier, a freelance journalists who has appeared on This American Life and NPR numerous times, was the presenter. He played YouTube clips for us, and discussed how YouTube has acted as a catalyst to broadcast the atrocities of a country that does not give out journalist visas. I'm sure the government will discover a way to suppress these postings, but hopefully this "glimpse" will spark some kind of reaction from the international community. Of course, Rwanda was broadcast over network television and motivated little assistance. Yesterday, as I was reading The New York Times, my attention was split between the front page article about Burma and the A.O. Scott review of The Darjeeling Limited. That feels so wrong.
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you might remember that the refugees i translated for in slc were from burma. i even knew a lady that was good friends with Au sung suchi. anyways, the stories were bad, and they were so robbed of hope. such a long time of repression i wonder what got them up and excited again.
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