Part of the problem with Burma is the poor standard of reportage about this poor country, of which this article is an example.
It's just a cut and paste mish-mash of previously published material, some vaguely accurate but most of it erroneous.
Like all such articles it just reinforces a sort of voodoo horribleness of the Burma regime which really serves no valid purpose.
we all know the regime is bad but to progress we really need to start engaging with the military and to get learned insight on what is really happening, who the players really are and so on.
The world needs to educate itself about this country and why it is in its current mess. Ignorant articles like this simply exacerbate the problems.
Just one correction: Orwell academics have consistently grounded the theories that there is any connection between Orwell's first book, Burmese days and Animal farm and 1984.
Burmese Days, for those who have read it, isn't actually about an Orewellian nightmare regarding the Burmese totalitarianism which didn't exist in Orwell's day : it is an indictment of the savagery, cruelty and insensitivity of British colonial rule in Burma.
Orwell was a colonial policeman there, and one of his jobs was to witness the countless executions perpetrated by the British. What he saw caused him to quit his career and become down and out in Paris.
In writing this I'm not an apologist for the Buemse regime ; quite the opposite. I'm saying that coverage of the situation needs to become more mature and learned and a world armed with understanding and knowledge might just be able to help disarm the military regime.

"we all know the regime is bad but to progress we really need to start engaging with the military and to get learned insight on what is really happening, who the players really are and so on."

Australia has been actively engaging with the Burmese Junta for a while now, extending beyond the diplomatic to training on Human Rights for Burmese officials (not that that seems to have done much good) as well as building links between the Burmese police and the AFP.

The problem lies in the fact that the Junta is bordering on the xenophobic. They barely listen to their biggest ally (China) and routinely tell the rest of the world to go jump.

Burma's Situation is NOT written in the stars.

The Monks for their NON VIOLENT ACTION is the most important moment in Civic vs Government vs Business relations in the history of modern time.

We the human race are at cross-road. The Monks of Burma who have done everything for everyone and with their LIFE, show us how ridiculous and out of BALANCE the world is.

I hear Norway, I hear the UN and wish we could DO more to support the UN. I do not hear Australian leaders or any expressions of real Western, ASEAN or APEC committment to resolving this crisis.

Like Darfur, we appear to be NUMB on the things that matter and have little to say unless it is about threats or santions, that could cause more unbalance to an already emotionally deprived and ethically desperate world.

Yes I believe Business groups must now step up to help and be heard... this mess cant go on.

The Burmese Black Market as with the other CRIME Cartels in the world are at the core of our problem. Western Nations need to scruntise their own countries involvement before TRUST in governments and their political and business associations can be transparently accepted.

Poverty Breeds Crime.

The powerbase is between boarders exbounds all the issues that under-mine democracy. They fester with the complexity of life that hangs on the margins of under-development.

Our long-term goal must to face this music at whatever cost. This is to clear the way for sustainable living (Alma Ata) by ridding the backage of dishonesty and crime indices that is tearing the worlds whole connectivity apart.

Leaders need to be Leaders and DO SOMETHING that counter-acts the violence and hostility we have become so used to in the world.

For me the Monks Give Us All Hope that we have capacity to change the way we inter-relate giving good reason why our mindfulness must become more ethically active.

ie: We stand and watch as the "legitimacy to the junta who have gutted the country for their own pockets"... has us fooled.

http://www.miacat.com/
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piotr

I agree. The article is almost stream of consciousness stuff. Nothing really about the current Burmese crackdown.

Its literary angle is a rather pathetic waste of space when what we really expect is informed commentary on the CURRENT situation.

SBS coverage of the crackdown has been similarly unenlightening. Constant scenes beatings, blood and sandals on the pavement are tragic but lose their impact when there appears to be no incountry reporting. The SBS reporter talking from northern Thailand has no advantages of geography.

Without the British Ambassador's commentary we Australians would be even further in the dark.

Presumably Australia's Embassy have been gagged due to ASEAN regional and trade sensitivities. So we (Aussie public) have to rely on the Brits.

Pete

Pete,

I assume you have considered the fact that the Junta doesn’t want any information getting out because it is all damaging. SBS’s footage and that of others is composed of what little a few brave and hardy souls are able to secret out of the country. Footage of the Japanese journalist being shot brings sharply into focus the junta’s attitude to the free press.

China has always been deliberately unhelpful because it knows when all of the other petty dictatorships have fallen the world will come calling for them.

The commitment and bravery of the protesters brings to mind the Chinese students at Tiananmen Square. Surely the western world must do something to help these people who should rightly be considered our allies in the fight for democracy and freedom.

Bushbred

This is where your realpolitik falls down since it is in no nations self interest to help the Burmese. On the contrary, retaining good relations with China is a concrete reason not to interfere.

So what do we do Pete?

There's your problem if the government is consulting astronomers. The doors are wide open for demon activity and for the fallen powers to gain control. The average christian observer will confirm this. What can be done about it goes down to intense prayer to break the military hold and to dispalce the powers manipulating the government. Thats the Bible process. Christians take aim at the Burma military and their evil spirit consultants. Third world countries are poor and in troubles because of the evil spirit activity in them. Down in central and sth America its the RC church and the powers behind it, that have their hands around the throats of the people. Wherever the Word has been rejected or altered (RC practices) the people suffer.

Paul

Bugger all I'd say mate. Burma has some oil but not enough to interest Western ideologues to invade it and occupy it for Western style "democracy and freedom". So Burma languishes as China's vassal.

There is a minute Western press corps not only because of junta restrictions but because the West sees insufficient economic gain in pressuring the junta.

Got any ideas?

Pete
(card carrying cynical capitalist)

Until China withdraws support for the regime in Burma (currently an unlikely scenario) little will be done. There is a need to put far more pressure on China but the world in general is afraid to do so. China is an economic mess. If it collapses then the world will collapse with it. So the rest of the world props up China and they in turn prop up Burma, North Korea, Zimbabwe and the like.
I have suggested elsewhere that boycotting the Olympics would help - but it would take a massive boycott and that is unlikely to happen because most athletes and their governments are too selfish to consider such a move.
A colleague in a camp on the Thai-Burma border informed me this morning that the death toll is now thought to run to thousands, many of them monks. Internet services have been cut, telephone services have been cut in many places (and elsewhere are being monitored). Movement around the country has been severely restricted - resulting in more than the usual food shortages and still further downgrading of services we see as essential.

Diplomats need to intensify their efforts at persuading China to use her strong economic and political power as a force for championing human rights and good governance accross the globe.

Could anyone doubt that China's reputation and public opinion would skyrocket if it took a bold change to their current rigid standard foreign policy position? 'No interferance in another nation's internal affairs' is unsustainable when you are a giant in world affairs.

If China is to gain respect in the global village, its leaders need to be prepared to hold their trading partners accountable to universally recognised high ethical and performance standards that will better the lives of citizens. This is the measure of true leadership.

Time to running out for Chinese leaders to recognise and respond to the aspirations that billions of global citizens have for China in its role as an emerging superpower.

This is the leadership litmus test that China cannot afford to fail if it is to gain the accolades it desires at the next Olympics and into the history books of this millenium.