from Dictatorwatch - Burma's semi-freedom score card

Two couples and old cherry tree - photo copyright Kyi May Kaung Italics added. From: free burma Date: Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 11:57 PM Subject: Burma's semi-freedom scorecard To: announce@dictatorwatch.org Please forward this link to as many people as possible. http://www.dictatorwatch.org/articles/semifreeburma.pdf BURMA’S SEMI-FREEDOM SCORECARD By Roland Watson www.dictatorwatch.org April 13, 2012 Dictator Watch has dedicated itself to helping Burma one day unambiguously become free. Our dream is that the dictators of the country, the BSPP/SLORC/SPDC/NDSC, will fall, and never to be resurrected, as occurred with the German and Japanese regimes at the end of World War II. We planned to celebrate this event with the word “VICTORY,” in 96 point type, across the banner of our website. Oh well. Burma is not there yet. The question is: Will Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy joining the rulers in Naypyidaw bring real victory and real freedom closer, or will it make them more remote? Only time, and the actions of Daw Suu, will tell. Many critical elements of the Burma situation have now changed. It is therefore a good idea to appraise where we are. There are clearly winners, but also losers, from the new status quo. The jury is out on what the new situation means for the most important group of all - really the only important group - the people of the country. Losers The victims of Burma’s military regime The biggest losers from the “New Burma” are the victims of the Burma Army (Tatmadaw), the police, and the other organs of the dictatorship’s oppression apparatus (i.e., military intelligence, swan-arr-shin, fire brigades, prisons and labor camps, etc.). Most directly this comprises all of the people who have been raped, assaulted, murdered, robbed, extorted, forced to labor, imprisoned, and tortured. Their victimhood is now compounded, because in the New Burma there is no chance that they (or their families) will ever receive justice. Daw Suu and the NLD made a political calculation that justice must be sacrificed, that there should not be an international investigation into the regime’s crimes against humanity, or a tribunal for them, much less the ability to bring a case to a local court. The NLD talks about establishing the rule of law in Burma, but since it will take years to address the problems with the regime’s 2008 Constitution, which grants the generals and their foot soldiers immunity from prosecution, any possible investigations are probably at least a decade if not two decades away. It is noteworthy that the tribunal for the victims of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge also took decades to organize, and that due to this and the fact that Dictator Hun Sen, who was with the KR, did everything possible to impede it, this effort at national justice failed. Through the process now underway in Burma it is inevitable that the Naypyidaw regime will preserve its own veto power and that its victims will also be denied justice. Almost everyone in Burma is a victim of the regime in one of these ways (directly or through immediate family members) as well as in others, including through having had to suffer enforced relocation, poverty, malnutrition, inadequate medical care, and the denial of education. In this sense then the entire country has lost through being refused justice. In recent years, though, the bulk of the regime’s victims who have suffered the worst forms of abuse have been members of the country’s ethnic minorities (aka the ethnic nationalities). Three observations about this are as follows: 1. Daw Suu had no right to decide unilaterally that the people of Burma should never have justice. While she may have received near unanimous support in 1990, and this year from the country’s Burman majority, her support among the ethnic nationalities, who have their own leaders and who in some cases openly disagree with her, is less. 2. While I would hope this is not the case, the question should be asked: Did Daw Suu make this calculation because the greatest number of contemporary victims are from the ethnic groups, and that it is safe to ignore their suffering? More generally, she has ignored the ethnic nationality plight for years. (She traditionally focused almost exclusively on the nation’s political prisoners.) Through doing this she turned a blind eye to what is Burma’s core social issue: Racism against the ethnic nationalities by the country’s Burman generals. (A credible case of genocide has been prepared.) It is difficult to fathom her actions, but a number of explanations are possible, including: She didn’t know how bad the Tatmadaw was treating the ethnic groups; she was afraid to talk about the subject, fearing a reaction from the regime, so she censored herself; she thinks the problems that the ethnic nationalities have are their own fault (as many Burmans believe); she doesn’t want to upset those Burmans among her supporters who are racist (it is not only the generals who have an ethnic superiority complex); or, she noticed that since the international community ignored the atrocities it was safe for her to do so as well. (Of note, the United States, her close advisor, for two decades only backed her and refused to acknowledge the regime’s war crimes.) I don’t know which one of these possibilities is correct. I’m assuming it is fear of the regime. Nevertheless, since this fear has subsided, she must - if she intends to represent all of Burma - concentrate on the country’s ethnic problems front and center. 3. The regime remains free to continue its crimes, as it has been doing, most notably against the Kachin and the Karen peoples, safe in the knowledge that it has impunity and will never be charged. Many commentators say the reform is driven by the regime’s desire to escape from the United States’ economic sanctions, which is certainly true in part. However, it begins with this. Than Shwe, Maung Aye, Shwe Mann, Thein Sein and the other leading generals want a guaranteed amnesty for all of their past and future crimes. The victims of Burma’s military junta are not unknown. Indeed, a few are as follows. I want to start with Nan Bway Poung, whose story is described in the top center article on the Dictator Watch homepage. On June 10, 2002, now almost ten years ago, she was gang raped by some twenty Burma Army soldiers in Karen State. After returning home (many ethnic rape victims are murdered after they have been violated, but some are released), she announced: “I am not willing to live in this world anymore,” and committed suicide. Her final words remain an indictment of everything that is taking place in Burma, including Thein Sein’s “reform.” (They have been a personal goad for me.) Daw Suu does not have a right to deny Nan Bway Poung and her family justice. What is worse is that the lead perpetrator, Captain Ye Htut, of LIB 349, was clearly identified. Who knows, perhaps he is a Colonel or even a General now. He can and should be brought to trial for this crime and the no doubt many others that he has committed. It is intolerable that the thousands of Ye Htuts in the Tatmadaw can be given immunity. It won’t work in any case, either. If and when Burma does finally becomes free, the dictatorship’s victims will raise their voices and demand justice. From last month: A newly-wed Arakanese woman was gang-raped by one soldier from LIB 550 and two members of the swan-arr-shin, after she and her husband reported their overnight stay at her home village. A Karen villager, Saw Lay La Thaw, was killed by MOC 9 troops while crossing a road. Northeast Regional Command troops in Shan State under Col. Tun Tun Nyi killed two Palaung villagers, Gawlai Hkam and Aik Chaing, while they were fishing. Burma Army troops attacked the Kachin Independence Army’s 5th Battalion with chemical weapons, the latest in a series of attacks using the banned ordinance. A Karen woman was sexually assaulted by two BA soldiers at Thay Baw Bo village. Two Karen women were killed during fighting between the regime’s BGF troops and the DKBA. There have been tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of such victims in Burma since the massacre in 1988 (and of course many more before that), and for which not one person has received justice. For a record of the regime’s atrocities during the last year, please visit our Burma Death Watch blog - http://www.dictatorwatch.org/burmadeathwatch.html I would strongly encourage everyone who has been victimized by the military junta to travel to the NLD office, 97/B West Shwegondine Road, Bahan Township, Rangoon, and file a grievance with their now duly elected Members of Parliament, providing as many details about the crimes as possible. (If a lot of people do this, maybe the Party will start to show more concern.) The Burma Pro-Democracy Movement In the years following the 1990 election, a major pro-democracy movement, one of the most substantial in the world, was created for Burma. It had many different elements, including: - Ethnic and student armies, which sought to overcome the junta through force. - The NLD, which advocated pacifist tactics and which tried, repeatedly, to achieve positive change through “Burma’s legal system” (an oxymoron, if ever there was one). - Student activists inside the country, who led protests and organized other forms of dissent. - And manifold groups on the outside, including both free media and political dissidents, most notably in neighboring Thailand, the United States, Europe, and Australia, and organized both by exiles and foreign activists, which in innumerable ways documented the terrible crimes of the junta and sought to bring about its defeat. The objective of this movement was always singular and clear: The end of the dictatorship and real freedom for the people of Burma, followed by the construction of a well-functioning system of democracy and then carefully planned and methodically implemented social and economic development. This entire movement, and also its goal, are also losers in the New Burma. The reason for this is again quite simple. The movement existed to exert pressure against the junta. Daw Suu, with one sweep of her hand, decided that the correct course of action was actually to join the regime, to merge with it, and then try to change it from within. Pressure therefore was no longer necessary, or even desirable. Through taking this step, she effectively became the Dictator of the Pro-Democracy Movement. She has even repudiated the idea that Burma should be a subject of pro-democracy activism and advocacy. Her astonishing decision has left everyone in disarray, wondering what, if anything, they should now do. Many different organizations that have worked hard for years are failing, their contributions are no longer desired. (If you are not going to prosecute crimes against humanity, why even document them?) In addition, particularly for groups outside of Burma, they are losing their funding. Funders are now redirecting their money to other groups inside the country, and which also have different missions, to set up a financial system, to lay the grounds for economic development, etc. Now, all of this would be fine if we could be certain that the regime will carry through with its reform, that it will meet the basic demands of a free and open society. 1. To stop attacking the ethnic groups and establish a nationwide ceasefire. 2. To stop expropriations of villager land for economic development. 3. To irreversibly end the Myitsone Dam project, and to evaluate properly all other developments that will have a significant impact on local populations and the environment. 4. To put in place strong protections against corruption and bribery. 5. To release all the political prisoners. 6. To end the nuclear and missile programs including their cooperation with North Korea. 7. To allow political parties and the press complete freedom to operate. 8. To hold a free and fair general election in 2015, if not sooner. 9. And finally, to honor that election result. This is what a real democratic transition would encompass, but there is already great evidence that it is not the regime’s intention. Most importantly: Naypyidaw is continuing its policy of divide and conquer with the ethnic groups, currently through making all sorts of promises to the KNU while at the same time conducting a massive offensive against the KIO. There has been no movement on the release of the remaining political prisoners, believed to number close to one thousand individuals. The regime very carefully excluded the ethnic groups and also the 88 Generation student activists from Parliament. This has a number of consequences. First, it means the generals only have to deal with the tame NLD for at least the next three years. Secondly, it reinforces Daw Suu as Burma’s focal point, which responsibilities she is ill-equipped to deal with on a day-to-day basis, if only because there is so much to do. Daw Suu is being forced to act as an opposition Prime Minister, but without resources or staff, and also with no guarantees that her actions will be tolerated. Furthermore, this has also reinforced the death of the Burma Pro-Democracy Movement. The movement has now been transformed into the Suu Kyi Democracy Movement, meaning that where democracy, human rights and environmental activists formerly targeted the regime and also the International Community, the activists that do remain must now press their cases directly with Daw Suu, as she is the only legitimate representative. She is now an advocacy choke-point, which is both a structural flaw and also an inappropriate role, given that she has so many demands on her time, and also that given her age, health, and inclinations she is not really suited for the role of a master hands-on administrator of all the issues that need to be addressed in Burma, and also all the area’s of regime activity, from military to political to economic, that need to be scrutinized. The ethnic nationalities The varied ethnic nationalities are also losers in the New Burma, because they allowed themselves to be out-maneuvered and out-negotiated. They fell victim to a decades-long series of divide and conquer entreaties, and were never able to create a unified military front, which with coordinated campaigns could have defeated the Tatmadaw. They also now have been excluded from Parliament for the next three years, and will therefore be forced to lobby Daw Suu as well, to press for their interests through her, even though she has never been their strong advocate. Furthermore, taken one-by-one they are at the mercy of international corporations, which in partnership with supranational institutions such as the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and Asian Development Bank, and the trade representatives of the United States, the members states of the E.U., China, Thailand, Singapore, India, Japan, Australia, etc., are certain to create unbearable pressure to go along with poorly-planned, large-scale economic developments in their respective homelands. However, the ethnic nationalities, even without representation in Parliament, are in no way powerless. They still control armies, and they should fight back against any regime violations of their ceasefire agreements, inappropriate developments including villager land expropriation, and also assist those groups such as the KIA against which the Tatmadaw continues to wage war. In addition, even though the ethnic nationalities failed to create a working military front, they can create an effective political front, through the United Nationalities Federal Council. This organization is now well-established, and political cooperation is in many ways easier than military. (Burma’s geography always presented a huge hurdle to armed coordination.) Indeed, the UNFC is an excellent forum for the different ethnic nationalities to combine their common interests, to provide a balance to the NLD, and to ensure that their demands are both heard and satisfied, until they are in a position to enter Parliament as well (if and when the regime ever permits it). Internal pro-democracy groups such as 88 Generation, ABFSU, ABMA, Generation Wave, etc. The many different internal pro-democracy organizations, which operated clandestine, “underground” networks, dedicated to supporting if not actually organizing a new popular uprising, are also now left out in the cold in the New Burma. The common goal of these groups was to achieve a real freedom transition following the pattern of what has in recent years been accomplished by the people of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Serbia, the Ukraine, Georgia, Czechoslovakia, and Poland (among others - uprisings are also now underway in Syria and Bahrain). Daw Suu and the NLD, by joining Naypyidaw, ended - for the moment at least - any possibility of a new uprising for Burma. These groups have been sidelined, and it is difficult to see what they can do, what room for action they have, other than to serve a supporting role for the NLD and to patiently wait until 2015. (The question should also be asked: Why did Burma’s massive pro-democracy movement, and which strove for twenty years, fail, when Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, etc., which had relatively microscopic movements, at least at the beginning, succeed, and all in a short period of time? Who is responsible for this?) On the other hand, I do not mean to in any way underestimate the ingenuity of individuals such as Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, and their many colleagues. They are fearless, and will unquestionably make their voices heard through strong and varied pressure for a new, better, and ultimately free and democratic Burma. The workers, natural environment, and future social make-up and character of Burma Countries are graded by the United Nations and other institutions. One measure is the Human Development Index, and under this system Burma is ranked Low Human Development. A broader and in some ways less precise measure is simply “Development,” with countries split between developed, developing or less-developed, and least developed. This measure has an implicit bias towards economic indicators, and here Burma ranks Least Developed. The first is an excellent guide. Every country should strive for high human development, since it encompasses such measures as life expectancy, literacy, education, standard of living, and quality of life. Development in the New Burma should focus almost exclusively on social development projects, beginning with education - schools, health care - clinics, and sufficient supplies of nutritious food and clean water; and political development, meaning real democracy and the rule of law, as these are necessary to ensure one’s quality of life. The quickest way therefore for Burma to escape from its Low Human Development level is to focus on social and political objectives. The standard of living measure in the Human Development Index, and the overall Development characterization, concentrate instead on economic development, meaning the manner and outcome of one’s “employment,” as measured by such variables as personal income and also a nation’s gross domestic product. There is a bias here, though. More income and a higher GDP, and with both growing as fast as possible from year to year, is not only an unequivocal good, it is the goal. Standard development measures (based on the “neoliberal” development model, the idea that markets and corporations should be unregulated for the greatest economic growth to be achieved) assign no value whatsoever to whether a nation has a rich culture or collection of cultures, which prize their traditions and also the elderly; a high degree of personal morality and a correspondingly low crime rate; massive and intact areas of natural environment, in which other forms of life are free from hunting and other forms of abuse; a degree of social fairness such that there is limited income and wealth inequality and therefore personal inequality and class structure; and also that the overall society pitches in, through different mechanisms, to help the disadvantaged and disabled. Paradoxically, many traditional societies, while at the mercy of annual weather and crop cycles, do an excellent job on all of these measures. They value their cultures, and establish communities with minimal inequality and where everyone who needs it is helped. They are, though, almost exclusively Least Developed, which to the greater world is an unacceptable stigma and which must be changed, no matter the cost. Had Burma achieved real freedom, it could have used its Least Developed status, ironically, to its advantage. It could have worked to preserve everything that makes the country special, its rich array of cultures and extraordinary natural environment, while working on social and political projects to boost its human development index. Economic development, such as resource exploitation, industrial factories, etc., could have been pursued slowly and very carefully to ensure that the benefits went to all the people of the country and that the social and environmental costs were minimized if not eliminated. This development course is now precluded, because the military regime remains in power. Three years from now, even if the election in 2015 is fair, the die will have been set. So much will take place in the interim that it will be impossible to redirect Burma back to the correct development course. Naypyidaw, working with the U.N., World Bank, ADB, IMF, and the U.S., Europe and Asia (all neoliberal true believers, at least as far as “primitive” countries like Burma are concerned), will shove large-scale economic development projects down the throats of the people (as is happening now with Tavoy and ItalThai). Let the Burma Gold Rush, the corporate rape of the natural environment and the exploitation of Burma’s workers, begin! For decades, young ethnic women have systematically been raped by the Tatmadaw, and Burma’s workers exploited in Thailand. Now the powers that be want to - they will - rape the environment in Burma on a scale hitherto impossible (shiploads of earthmoving machines will soon begin arriving at Thilawa Port), and exploit the country’s workers in new industrial estates full of sweatshops. Indeed, the people of Burma will work for less than the Chinese! It is impossible to understate how quickly this exploitation will ramp up. Corporate dealmakers are already signing contracts with regime officials at the Strand, Sedona and other top-end Rangoon hotels, greased by lucrative bribes, and there are absolutely no controls in place. Years from now, when Burma’s towns and cities are monstrosities like those in Thailand, and there are no longer disparate peoples (as Thailand also once had), and the political economy is so stagnant and class ridden and corrupt that real democracy can never take hold and high-level criminals can never be held to account (again, like Thailand), and where the environment is destroyed (Thailand), everyone should understand that now, 2012, is when it all began. Burma will have higher personal income and GDP, to be sure, but its quality of life, its overall quality as a nation, will be much lower. Winners Daw Aung San Suu Kyi The biggest winner by far in the New Burma is Daw Suu. She is back on the pedestal again and subject to wild public exaltation (at least in Burma’s major cities). She also has such prominence now in the eyes of the International Community that really, the Nobel Peace Prize does not do her justice. She is the Savior Of A Nation. In all of human history, very few individuals have ever been able to claim that accolade. I do not mean to begrudge Daw Suu her due. She has suffered tremendously, including by being locked up interminably under house arrest. She also maintained her courage and commitment throughout years of hardship and sacrifice, and through this deserves unqualified respect. The only concern that one might have is if she fully grasps not only the magnitude of the risk her strategic redirection poses for Burma, but also the risk that having everything channeled through her presents. She has to consider, and guard against, the possibility that she is being used not only by Thein Sein and Than Shwe, but also by the U.S., including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Derek Mitchell, as well as Europe, the U.N., etc. Daw Suu should not want to be the dictator of the pro-democracy movement. She should work to ensure that other, younger leaders are given public prominence, particularly from among the ethnic nationalities. She should ask the diplomats of the world not only to speak to her, but to have regular communications with the leaders of such groups as the UNFC, KNU, KIO, RCSS, etc. At the moment, this is not happening at all. The international community has been very careful not to talk to the ethnic leaders or to show concern for their specific problems. Although I hesitate to mention it, Daw Suu also cannot ignore the legacy of her father. The country’s premier national hero, Bogyoke Aung San’s career was ended by his mortality, and through this all of Burma plunged into dictatorship for over a half a century. The two greatest risks of leadership in the system of representative democracy are (1) poor leadership, and (2) a leader’s passing and the power vacuum this creates and which opportunists soon seek to exploit. The leadership of a nation has to be diversified. For example, the ‘uncles’ of the NLD have been criticized for years for blocking the development of a new generation of leaders. Had this not been the case, there would now be a large group of middle-aged NLD members fully qualified to take charge at both the national and regional levels, and not only as politicians but as administrators. Indeed, the NLD is a beneficiary of the New Burma as much as Daw Suu. Coming under increasing criticism in recent years for its ineffectiveness, it has now been revived. As for policy recommendations for Daw Suu, this article is not the place for such an analysis. I can only suggest that as an MP she finally become specific, that she take clearly defined positions and push for them as forcefully and repetitively as possible. For instance, it is not enough to oppose the conflict in Burma, in general. She needs to acknowledge openly that Burma’s Civil War begins with the Tatmadaw. She also should very aggressively call for the cancellation of the Myitsone Dam. As a figurehead (or diplomat), you have the luxury of not being specific. This is no longer the case when you become a hands-on politician. Daw Suu should announce, firmly and repeatedly, her opposition to uncontrolled economic development, including major projects such as Myitsone, Tavoy, Kaladan, and the Dawei pipeline. If she does not oppose these projects, she is sending a clear signal of what she thinks is important for Burma and how development of the country should proceed. She is saying that she fully supports the neoliberal model. I can further comment that I have a number of friends who are pro-democracy activists for China, and they are very disappointed that Daw Suu on a number of occasions has said that Burma should have good relations with Beijing, i.e., the Communist Party. They think it would be much better if she supported publicly the democratic aspirations of the people of China, rather than implicitly back their oppressors. The military regime After Daw Suu, the biggest winner in the New Burma is the military regime, starting, of course, with Senior General Than Shwe. He can relax and enjoy his Asian-style elderly dictator retirement, still pulling the strings from behind the scenes as required. He will not be overthrown, or tried at the International Criminal Court. His family is protected. All is well. All levels of the regime are in fact winners, and in multiple ways. The other top generals, who should also be tried at the ICC, as well as all the specific on the ground war criminal Tatmadaw commanders and soldiers, are now off the hook. The generals and officers, whether they retain their uniforms or not, will also cement their position as the new upper-class elite of Burma, as they become the part-owners and signatories to the new development deals. Not only will they not be charged for their crimes, they are being given preferred positions as the Gold Rush, otherwise known as the initial stage of astronomical corruption for the country, commences. To them we can also add all the regime cronies and fixers, such as Tayza, Myanmar Egress, etc., Burmese and international consultants, and corrupt ethnic leaders and “pro-democracy” politicians, who are also well-positioned for the start of the nation’s degradation. And finally, the rank and file soldiers of the Tatmadaw are winners. They had been under tremendous stress, with insufficient rations and through being ordered into one battle bloodbath with the ethnic nationalities after another. The peace is good for them. Except against the Kachin their lives are no longer at risk, and they will probably get more food. Development will also improve their lot. There will be a lot more money available for the Tatmadaw, even after the top leaders take their cut. The soldiers should beware, though, their respite may well be temporary. If and when Than Shwe decides that enough is enough, the nation-wide offensives and battles will restart. The Obama Administration Another big winner is the Obama Administration. The President has been roundly and properly criticized for having a weak and poorly conceived foreign policy (and which ignores human rights). Washington has struggled to respond to, much less anticipate, developments in Iran, North Korea, China, and the Arab Spring. Indeed, for the last Secretary Clinton backed the Arab world dictators, pushing for “peaceful,” negotiated transitions in which the dictators would both participate and be protected. The local peoples, though, would have none of it, and instead rose up. This forced Washington to reverse its policy, and it also created mistrust and suspicion among the Arab peoples that the United States was not really for democracy, at least as far as Muslims are concerned. Because of Daw Suu, the U.S. was able to pursue its preferred policy in Burma. A new popular uprising was circumvented. Now there will be an attempt at a negotiated transition, which, even if it fails, still benefits the Administration. The U.S. has positioned itself well in the geopolitical game against China, and also India. Furthermore, U.S. corporations can now grab a share of the Burma lucre. Also, even if it everything falls apart, and Than Shwe’s stormtroopers at some point reassert overt control and even kill or imprison Thein Sein, regarding President Obama’s most important objective, his re-election, he will have a foreign policy victory to trumpet. Presuming he is re-elected, what happens later in Burma is irrelevant. He is limited to two terms. We can prevent a complete betrayal by the U.S. by forcing it to pay attention to the real world, as Daw Suu in fact has done. The U.S. should not end its sanctions until all its benchmarks have been achieved. The by-election was only the first of these (and as we anticipated, it was not free or fair but nevertheless the regime allowed the NLD to win). There are still three benchmarks to go: The end of the civil war; the freeing of all political prisoners; and the hidden issue, which is often ignored, the nuclear and missile program cooperation with North Korea. If we, and Daw Suu, continue to demand that these benchmarks be met, we can force the U.S. to preserve the sanctions, and only eliminate them in response to demonstrable positive change. There is also another issue about the sanctions which no one has mentioned. They do not “belong” to the U.S. government. Rather, the sanctions are “owned” by the many Burma activists who pushed for them, who pressed Congress and then the President to act. As one of those activists - in the Spring of 1997 I was doing a photo show about Burma at a series of U.S. universities, which installation called for sanctions, when President Clinton signed the first law, actually an executive order prohibiting new investment - I feel like they are “our” sanctions. We, the U.S. activist community (most of which was affiliated with the Free Burma Coalition), and other groups such as the NCGUB, pushed for them and got them enacted. I personally want them to stay enacted until their job is complete, until Burma is irreversibly on the road to democracy and a path of appropriate social, political and economic development. (Of note: It is the new investment sanction of President Clinton’s executive order that the Administration announced the U.S.will now relax - ironically, by Bill Clinton’s wife, now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The Administration is able to do this because this sanction is not part of a congressionally-approved law, i.e., the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act or the Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE Act.) We also need to guard against the Administration deceitfully dropping the nuclear/North Korea issue, which is actually, together with the geopolitical positioning relative to China, its greatest concern. To fully illuminate the depth of the deception that is now underway, I want to describe, once again, the State Department’s woeful response to my Freedom Of Information Act filing for the Report on Military and Intelligence Aid to Burma required under Section 10 of the Tom Lantos Act, and which report must include whatever intelligence the U.S. has about the nuclear program and its North Korean links. My April 2010 filing was accepted by State’s FOIA office that June, and it should then have been easy to fulfill. The Act requires that the report be prepared, for submission to the House and Senate foreign affairs and foreign relations committees, with an unclassified version to be placed on State’s website. Therefore, I was not asking for anything extra, something that would require a State foreign service officer to set aside time from his or her busy schedule to prepare. Under the FOIA, the agency in question has to respond within thirty days. I actually expected a response, but that it would say that my request had been denied. The FOIA allows a number of exemptions to information requests, the first of which is for “national defense or foreign policy.” I expected State, specifically the East Asian and Pacific Bureau, to say that it could not satisfy my request, and also the provision of Section 10 which requires the report’s publication, because it would be detrimental to U.S. security. We believe that the report has been prepared, given to the Congressional committees, and that it describes relations between U.S. allies such as Israel and Germany, and the Tatmadaw. Revealing this would be embarrassing. By claiming the exemption, these links can be kept hidden (and perhaps also older military cooperation between the U.S. and Ne Win, not to mention China’s involvement in the nuclear program.) EAP though refused to follow the law, indeed, both laws - FOIA and Tom Lantos. They just ignored the filing. I have had a series of discussions with officials at the State FOIA office, who have been very helpful. They have done everything in their power to get EAP to comply. Every month or two they send a “search tasker,” which request EAP then ignores. This month I escalated the process and a State FOIA officer talked to EAP’s Burma Desk Officer. This individual responded that the Burma department was busy and that they would need an additional six to nine months to release the report. (This after what is already now a two year delay.) This response, though, was a lie. The last BDO apparently never had time to satisfy the filing either. It is clear that what is really happening is that EAP Assistant Secretary Kurt Campbell has instructed the department never to respond. State’s FOIA office told me that my only hope is “judicial review.” What this means is that I must hire a lawyer and sue EAP to get it to comply, which step frankly I can’t afford. EAP therefore itself has immunity, from its legal obligations, and like the criminals in the Tatmadaw it too can act with impunity. Does anyone think that any of this will change when Derek Mitchell, after Daw Suu, the biggest individual winner in the New Burma, is approved as Ambassador? Total and Chevron Probably what activists will regret more than anything is that the western oil companies Total and Chevron, who are clearly villains, absolutely culpable for the regime’s war crimes, are also winners in the New Burma. Starting with the No Petrodollars for SLORC campaign in the early 1990s, we tried - and failed - to force them to divest. Chevron, then Unocal, was given an exemption to President Clinton’s order, and the Tom Lantos JADE Act was postponed and then rewritten to protect it as well. The fact that these companies, like the regime, have gotten away with murder, is deplorable, all the more so because they can now expand their operations in Burma without restraint and exploit the country and the people even more. If Burma had gone free, a new democratic government could have carefully evaluated all of the regime’s contracts with multinational corporations, and invalidated them where appropriate. This opportunity is now lost. Instead, these companies, which helped the regime block democracy in Burma for decades, now get to profit even more from the reform. This is disgusting. The modern world, which Nan Bway Poung forsook, where the rich and powerful do everything they can to exploit the poor and weak, is truly a savage place. Right now, legions of corporate executives and bankers are drooling over Burma, like dogs around fresh meat. They have already begun to penetrate the country, as an invading army. Moreover, not only do they not care if it goes free, they prefer the status quo. Legitimized dictatorships are better for business. If Daw Suu, the NLD, internal activists who are still willing to protest, and the ethnic armies don’t stop it, Burma is open for business, and Everything and Everyone Is For Sale. Conclusion I’d like to conclude by saying that I hope I am wrong, about all of the above: about the New Burma, about Daw Suu, and even about deceptive and self-serving American diplomats. I’m a foreign activist who decided to dedicate his life to helping the people of the country. (There are lots of people like me.) I believe it is too early to tell if the reform is good or not, particularly for the ethnic nationalities. I dearly hope, however, that it does succeed and that in the coming months Daw Suu and the NLD make great inroads in Parliament on all of the above issues. To recall her famous words, we should hope for the best but plan for the worst. (It is not hope for the best and be blind to the rest!) If Than Shwe launches a new crackdown, the people of Burma need to be prepared to rise up, and, Daw Suu should publicly support this. The ethnic armies should never surrender their weapons. They need to continue to improve their cooperation with each other, maintain their operational readiness, and fight against all Tatmadaw aggression. Everyone needs to oppose the forthcoming corporate rape of Burma, including its diplomatic, media, academic, trade association, and economic consultant promoters. There is absolutely no need to rush. The people of the country do not need any new factories, mines, or pipelines this year or even next. Instead, they need food, water, schools, and clinics, and which the International Community should be prepared to help provide, and with no neoliberal economic development strings attached.

Amnesty International interview with Amir, author of the graphic novel Zahra's Paradise

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaYBT7YCO70

From Belfast Telegraph - Chinese dissident Fang Lizhi dies in Arizona

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/chinese-dissident-dies-in-exile-16141977.html?r=RSS

Burma sanctions overview - US Treasury

http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Documents/burma.pdf

Frozen mammoth from 10,000 years ago

http://lightyears.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/05/woolly-mammoth-likely-killed-by-humans-10000-years-ago-discovered/?hpt=hp_c3

Vietnamese businessmen buy smallest USA town

http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/05/us/wyoming-town-auction/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Harry the pygmy hippo

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/apr/03/harry-pygmy-hippo-video

Bee population declining due to embedded pesticides

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/environment/Studies-Link-Bee-Decline-to-Insecticide-145190025.html

Kyi May Kaung's Analysis: April Fools' Day By- Election in Burma in Asian Correspondent

http://asiancorrespondent.com/79400/burma-the-april-fools-day-by-election/

On the eve of April Fools' Day by election in Burma - Verdi's Slaves Chorus from Nabucco

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRDIggpHL-w&feature=related Slaves chorus - from Verdi's Nabucco http://theasianchannel.com/video/D6JN0l7A_mE/nabucco-hebrew-slaves-chorus/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Va,_pensiero Libretto Italian &

Rangoon City Hall frame grab Translation in English Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate; va, ti posa sui clivi, sui colli, ove olezzano tepide e molli l'aure dolci del suolo natal! Del Giordano le rive saluta, di Sionne le torri atterrate... Oh mia patria sì bella e perduta! Oh membranza sì cara e fatal! Arpa d'or dei fatidici vati, perché muta dal salice pendi? Le memorie nel petto raccendi, ci favella del tempo che fu! O simile di Sòlima ai fati traggi un suono di crudo lamento, o t'ispiri il Signore un concento che ne infonda al patire virtù. Fly, thought, on wings of gold; go settle upon the slopes and the hills, where, soft and mild, the sweet airs of our native land smell fragrant! Greet the banks of the Jordan and Zion's toppled towers... Oh, my country so beautiful and lost! Oh, remembrance so dear and so fatal! Golden harp of the prophetic seers, why dost thou hang mute upon the willow? Rekindle our bosom's memories, and speak to us of times gone by! Mindful of the fate of Jerusalem, give forth a sound of crude lamentation, or may the Lord inspire you a harmony of voices which may instill virtue to suffering.

Love Story - Sanjay Gupta and Rebecca Olsen

http://www.instyle.com/instyle/package/general/photos/0,,20352342_20352309_20756939,00.html

Sanjay Gupta's novel - Monday Mornings

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/story/2012-03-12/sanjay-gupta-monday-mornings/53490624/1

John Chamberlain - sculpture - Guggenheim Museum

http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/exhibitions/on-view/john-chamberlain-choices

Latest Tibetan exile to set himself on fire in protest, dies in India -

http://asiancorrespondent.com/79183/tibetan-exile-who-set-self-on-fire-in-india-dies/

Shan business woman falls to her death in Rangoon police station.

http://us.mc1620.mail.yahoo.com/mc/welcome?.gx=1&.tm=1333038234&.rand=6k094755c4lo5 This is "change??"

Paul Gauguin's letters - documentary from the Tate Modern

http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/gauguin/default.shtm

How to get into a Political Science Ph.D. program

http://drezner.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/03/18/so_you_want_to_get_into_a_political_science_phd_program_part_one *

Mongpawn Mahadevi - Sao Ohn Nyunt

http://bobolansin.wordpress.com/2011/02/13/saw-ohn-nyuns-legacy/

Poetry -- Seamus Heany's new translation of Beowulf

http://www.amazon.com/Beowulf-New-Verse-Translation-Bilingual/dp/0393320979#reader_0393320979 Everyone should also read John Gardner's Grendel. Kyi May Kaung

the children of rape - from Mother Jones magazine

http://motherjones.com/photoessays/2009/05/rwanda/08#

Encyclopedia Brittanica ends print edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17362698 RIP and start on line fast. Kyi May Kaung

Found abstract, Kramer and Kramers Bookstore and Restaurant, Washington, DC. Photo copyright Kyi May Kaung

Famous Burmese comic Zarganar cracks jokes in Ottawa

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Myanmar+Rick+Mercer+takes+road/6286879/story.html

Edith Mirante interviews General Gun Maw of Kachin Independence Army, Burma

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22589&page=1 from Irrawaddy

Elie Kedourie - foreign policy and the scholar, nationalism, the Middle East

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elie_Kedourie http://www.martinkramer.org/sandbox/reader/archives/elie-kedourie/

Chappati and dahl on handmade plate - Plate and photograph copyright Kyi May Kaung

Democratic Voice of Burma reporter - 13 years and dog cell for using Internet

http://www.dvb.no/news/suu-kyi%E2%80%99s-convoy-pelted-by-stones/20620 See TV on lower right hand side of page.

Park Center for Independent Media

http://www.ithaca.edu/rhp/independentmedia/

Aung San Suu Kyi awarded honorary Canadian citizenship

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Baird+gives+honorary+citizenship+Myanmar+opposition+leader/6270050/story.html

Kyi May Kaung's say on Sanctions

II. ‘SANCTIONS ARE FOR AN ETHICAL OR MORAL REASON’ As part of a new strategic dialogue, Kyi May Kaung - a Burmese dissident, artist, poet, and political analyst living in exile - replies to a crucial question asked by Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF): Which is the best way to effect change in Burma - through sanctions against the government, by engaging the leadership, or some combination of the two? Here are some excerpts [FPIF: 18.1.07] BURMA now is second only to North Korea as a rogue regime, to use the phrase first used by Noam Chomsky. With North Korea, I have heard Wendy Sherman of the Albright Group argue for more engagement, and with respect to North Korea, I agree with her. But North Korea is much more a hermit kingdom than Burma is, and we know much less about it. And so there can be an argument for the United States “engaging” with North Korea just to know what is going on and to have some leverage. In the Burmese case, however, the outside world knows a great deal already, more than enough. The United States has very little trade with Burma. As one Burmese dissident from the 1988 generation pointed out at a seminar in Washington D.C. last fall, “we don’t need to go to Burma to find out about Burma. There are thousands of refugees in Thailand and elsewhere, and we can find out everything we need to know from them.” Chiang Mai in northern Thailand is fast becoming the base for many foreign non-profits, Western and Australian expatriates, Burmese refugees, and Burma watchers. In the eye of the storm, in Rangoon itself, there is often a false calm due to the news blackout. A senior broadcaster who once worked at the Voice of America called this “Rangoonitis.” It often affects even western diplomats who unconsciously start to echo the junta’s statements. So, in terms of a token engagement in order to find out more about the system and how it operates, there is very much less of an argument in the Burmese case. … Sanctions and Burma have been an academic and policy issue for Burma watchers and foreign policy makers since at least 2001. At that time, the international sanctions movement picked up steam, with great success in divestment achieved by organizations such as The Free Burma Coalition (up to 2003) and Burma Campaign UK. Since then, the junta has sent overseas a steady stream of apologists to argue that sanctions hurt Burma. But their arguments have not been convincing at all. Alfred Oehlers has argued convincingly that sanctions in Burma are not scattershot but finely focused and have minimal “collateral damage.” There is no ban on travel to Burma or on exports, including food and medicines. To my mind, sanctions in the case of Burma are meant to send a message, to hurt but not to totally bring down a regime. When a tourism ban to Burma was first discussed in the early 1990s by one of the very first Burmese activist groups, the Canadian Friends of Burma, I had mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, the junta will understand nothing except what hurts their pocket book; on the other, total isolation might not be the best idea. Burma-born economist Ronald Findlay, who is an international trade theorist, told me at the time that “sanctions are for an ethical or moral reason.” Later, at an Open Society Institute event in 2004, he said, “Collapse is not an economic term.” By this I think he meant that a nation can go on for decades without a regime change, hanging on at the survival level. … The anti-sanctions faction argues for removing sanctions and visa bans against officials and families of the Burmese military regime. But it is impossible to ignore the fact that human rights abuses not only still exist in Burma, they are growing more numerous, more widespread, and also more blatant. Should we listen to the testimony of one million internally displaced persons inside Burma, thousands of political prisoners, and thousands of refugees outside the country? Or should we be taken in by the “arguments” of a few individuals who support engaging with the Burmese generals. Should the free world appear to “reward” such a horrible regime? 

Forest inside DC limits - Photo copyright Kyi May Kaung

The late Candida Donadio - literary agent for Mario Puzo, Joseph Heller etc - who was never late as regards writers

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/25/arts/candida-donadio-71-agent-who-handled-catch-22-dies.html

Song for President Thein Sein by Pink

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz7pjusCFxM&feature=share

The Queen's new in-laws - frame grab

Myitsone Dam and other Dams in N Burma - International Rivers Report

http://www.internationalrivers.org/node/6876

Important conversation between Aung San Suu Kyi and Veteran Kachin Leader

Daw Inhpangyar-yar (spelled phonetically) met ASSK for dinner, and in response to ASSK's 2 Qs 1. on origins of KIO 2. why there is no reconciliation - related how Aung San came to Kachin first for historic Panglong Treaty and how other major ethnic groups signed because they signed - with guarantee given by AS that they could secede in 10 years. - however AS was assassinated and U Nu sold off Kachin territory to China (in 50s) - as for 17 year ceasefire, which is not "peace" yet, it was violated by SPDC. This is an informal summary - if you need more ask your (other) Burmese speakers to translate - to read the Burmese you need Zawgyi or other Burmese font. Daw Inhpangyaryar said they spoke for two hours, and ASSK listened so intently - as if it was all new to her, that "her neck seemed to be bent to one side." Daw Inhpangyaryar said she told Daw Suu, "Well, you were very young then and so you didn't know all this, and then you went overseas with your mother --" --- Those of you in the Burmese language media etc should have this translated and should follow up on this some more. As Stiglitz said, "National Reconciliation" has to come first. Kyi May Kaung --- On Tue, 2/28/12, xxx wrote: From: Subject: [8888peoplepower] Fwd: ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုကုိ ေဒၚအင္ဖန္ဂ်ာရာ(ကခ်င္အတုိင္ပင္ခံအဖြဲ ့နာယက)ေျပာခဲ့ေသာစကားမ်ား [1 Attachment] To: Date: Tuesday, February 28, 2012, 4:43 AM [Attachment(s) from xxx included below] ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Date: Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 4:36 PM Subject: Fwd: ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုကုိ ေဒၚအင္ဖန္ဂ်ာရာ(ကခ်င္အတုိင္ပင္ခံအဖြဲ ့နာယက)ေျပာခဲ့ေသာစကားမ်ား To: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Date: 2012/2/28 Subject: ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုကုိ ေဒၚအင္ဖန္ဂ်ာရာ(ကခ်င္အတုိင္ပင္ခံအဖြဲ ့နာယက)ေျပာခဲ့ေသာစကားမ်ား To: YPI – ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ ကို ေဒၚအင္ဖန္ဂ်ာရာ ေျပာခဲ့တဲ့စကားေတြ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ ကို ေဒၚအင္ဖန္ဂ်ာရာ ေျပာခဲ့တဲ့စကားေတြ by Yangon Press International on Saturday, 25 February 2012 at 08:25 · ျမစ္ႀကီးနား၊ ေဖေဖၚ၀ါရီ ၂၅၊ ၂၀၁၂ (YPI) (ဆိုင္းဆြတ္) ေဖေဖၚ၀ါရီလ ၂၃ ရက္ေန႔ ည ၈နာရီ ျမစ္ႀကီးနားၿမိဳ႕ မေနာကြင္း မဂ်ြယ္ခန္းမမွာ ကခ်င္ျပည္နယ္သို႔ စည္းရုံးေရး ခရီးစဥ္အျဖစ္ ေရာက္ရွိေနတဲ့ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုႀကည္နဲ႔ တိုင္းရင္သား ေခါင္းေဆာင္းမ်ား၊ ဘာသာေရး ေခါင္းေဆာင္မ်ားနဲ႔ ညစာအတူစားခဲ့ၾကပါတယ္။ ထိုစဥ္က ကခ်င္အတုိင္ပင္ခံအဖဲြ႔ နာယက ေဒၚအင္ဖန္ဂ်ာရာ နဲ႔ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္တို႔ ေျပာဆိုၾကတဲ့အေၾကာင္းကို YPI သတင္းေထာက္က ေဒၚအင္ဖန္ဂ်ာရာကို ေမးျမန္းထားပါတယ္။ ေဒၚအင္ဖန္ဂ်ာရာ။ ။ ည ၈နာရီ ကေန စျပီး ၁၀ နာရီ ေလာက္အထိ စကားေျပာျဖစ္ခဲ့ပါတယ္ သူက အဖြားကို ေမးခြန္း ႏွစ္ခုပဲေမးပါတယ္။ အဲဒါေတြက ၁- KIA က ဘာလို႔ျဖစ္လာတာလဲ ၂ – ဒီေန႔အထိ ဘာေႀကာင့္ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး ေဆြးေႏြးလို႔ မရေသးတာလဲ ဆိုတာကို ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုႀကည္က ေမးခဲ့ပါတယ္။ အရမ္းအေရးႀကီးတဲ့ ေမးခြန္ေတြကို သူေမးခဲ့ပါတယ္။ ကြ်န္မ ျပန္ေျပာျပလိုက္ပါတယ္၊ အရင္ကတည္းက ကခ်င္ႏိုင္ငံဆိုျပီးရွိခဲ့တာပါ ဘယ္ဘုရင္ကမွ ဒီေနရာက ကခ်င္ေတြအတြက္ဆိုျပီး ေပးထားတာမဟုတ္ပါဘူး၊ ကခ်င္ေတြက ကိုယ္ေနရာ ကိုယ့္ႏိုင္ငံ ကိုယ့္ေဒသနဲ႔ ကိုယ္ ေနထိုင္ခဲ့ႀကတဲ့သူေတြျဖစ္တယ္၊ ကိုယ့္ႏိုင္ငံ ကိုယ့္ေနရာနဲ႔ကိုယ္အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္ျပီး ျငိမ္ျငိမ္းခ်မ္းခ်မ္း ေနထိုင္ခဲ့ ႀကတာျဖစ္တယ္၊ ကြ်န္မတို႔ ကခ်င္လူမ်ိဴးေတြဟ ျမန္မာျပည္ဘက္ကိုလည္း မသြားဘူး ျမန္မာလူမ်ိဳးေတြကလည္း ကခ်င္လူမ်ိဴးေတြကို ေတာသား လူရုိင္းေတြဆို ျပီး အရမ္းေႀကာက္ခဲ့တာ။ ျဗိတိသွ် အုပ္ခ်ဴပ္တုန္းက ကြ်န္မတို႔ ကခ်င္လူမ်ိဴးေတြဟာ စစ္ေရးစစ္ရာ တိုက္ခိုက္တဲ့ေနရာမွာ ကြ်မ္းက်င္တဲ့ လူမ်ိဴးေတြျဖစ္တယ္၊ ပထမ ကမၻာစစ္နဲ႔ ဒုတိယ ကမၻာစစ္ ဂ်ပန္ေခတ္ ေတြမွာ ကခ်င္လူမ်ိဴးေတြ ေတာ္ေတာ္မ်ားမ်ား ပါ၀င္ တိုက္ခိုက္ပါ၀င္ခဲ့ႀကတယ္၊ ဒီလိုနဲ႔ ၁၉၄၇ ခုႏွစ္မွာ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဴပ္ေအာင္ဆန္း ကခ်င္ျပည္နယ္ကိုတက္လာတာျဖစ္တယ္၊ ကြ်န္မ က အဲဒီအခ်ိန္ ၁၅ ၊ ၁၆ ႏွစ္ဘဲရွိေသးတယ္၊ အဲဒီတုန္းက ကြ်န္မ ႀကိဳဆိုဧည့္ခံေရး အဖဲြ႔မွာပါ၀င္ခဲ့တယ္၊ အခုက်ြန္မ အသက္ ၈၀ ေက်ာ္ျပီေလ၊ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဴပ္ေအာင္ဆန္းက ျဗိတိသွ် ေတြဆီက လြတ္လပ္ေရးရေအာင္ဆိုျပီး တျခားလူမ်ိဳးေတြဆီ မသြားပဲ ကခ်င္ျပည္နယ္ကို အရင္လာတာျဖစ္တယ္။ ကခ်င္ေခါင္းေဆာင္ေတြနဲ႔ ေတြ႔ဆံုေဆြးေႏြးခဲ့ႀကတယ္၊ အစကေတာ့ လြတ္လပ္ေရးမွာ မပါ၀င္ခ်င္ဘူး၊ ဒါေပမဲ့ ေအာင္ဆန္းက ကခ်င္တစ္က်ပ္ ဆို ျမန္မာတစ္က်ပ္ဆိုတဲ့ အခြင့္အေရးေပးမယ္ဆိုျပီး ျပည္ေထာင္စုမူ အရ ကြ်န္ေတာ္တို႔ယူႀကမွပါ ခင္ဗ်ားတို႔ မႀကိဳက္ရင္လည္း ေနာက္ ၁၀ႏွစ္ေလာက္ဆို ျပန္ခဲြထြက္လို႔ ရတယ္ဆိုလို႕ ကခ်င္ေတြ ပင္လံုစာခ်ဳပ္မွာ လက္မွတ္ေရးထိုးခဲ့ႀကတာပါ။ ကခ်င္ေတြ ပင္လံုစာခ်ဳပ္ခ်ဳပ္ဖို႔ သေဘာတူလို႔ ရွမ္းျပည္ကိုေရာက္တယ္ ရွမ္းေတြလည္း လြတ္လပ္ေရးကို မလိုခ်င္ႀကဘူး ဒါေပမဲ့ ကခ်င္ေနာင္ေတာ္ႀကီးေတြေတာင္ သေဘာတူတယ္ဆိုေတာ့ ဆိုျပီး ရွမ္းေတြလည္းသေဘာတူ လက္မွတ္ေရးထိုးခဲ့ႀကတယ္။ ျပီးေတာ့ ခ်င္းေတြ ျပန္ေရာက္လာတယ္ ခ်င္းေတြေရာ ဒီအတိုင္းဘဲ သေဘာမတူဘူး လြတ္လပ္ေရးကို မလိုခ်င္ႀကဘူး၊ ဒါေပမဲ့ ကခ်င္နဲ႔ ရွမ္းေတာင္ လက္မွတ္ေရးထိုးတယ္ဆိုျပီးသူလည္း သေဘာတူခဲ့တယ္၊ ပင္လံုမွာလက္မွတ္ေရးထိုးတာက ဗမာ ကိုယ္စား ေအာင္ဆန္း (ဖဆပလ) ေခါင္းေဆာင္ လက္မွတ္ထိုးတယ္ ကခ်င္၊ ရွမ္း၊ ခ်င္း ေလးဦး သေဘာတူျပီး ပင္လံုမွာ စာခ်ဳပ္ခ်ုဳပ္ခဲ့တာျဖစ္ပါတယ္၊ ၁၉၄၈ ဇန္န၀ါရီ ၄ မွာ လြတ္လပ္ေရး ရတာျဖစ္တယ္၊ ဒါေပမဲ့ ရွင့္အေဖ ေပးထားတဲ့ ကတိစကားကို ကြ်န္မတို႔ အရမ္းအားကိုးနားေထာင္ျပီး လက္ခံထားတာကို ေအာင္ဆန္းမရွိေတာ့လို႔ ကၽြန္မတို႔ အရမ္း၀မ္းနည္းျပီး စိတ္ပ်က္သြားတယ္၊ အဲဒီအခ်ိန္က စျပီး ကြ်န္မတို႔ ကခ်င္ေတြက ဘာ အခြင့္အေရးမွ မရေတာ့တာပါ၊ ဦးႏုက ဖဆပလ (ဥကၠ႒) တက္လာေတာ့ ကခ်င္ေတြကို ဘာမွ မဟုတ္သလို ဆက္ဆံခဲ့တာပါ၊ ဒီလိုနဲ ့ကြ်န္မတို႔ ကခ်င္ျပည္နယ္ တရုတ္ျပည္နယ္စပ္က ဖီေမာ္၊ လံကိုင္ နယ္ေျမကို ဘယ္သူ႕ကိုမွ မတိုင္ပင္ဘဲ တရုတ္ေတြကို ေရာင္းစားလိုက္တာဟုတ္တယ္။ ဒါေႀကာင့္ အရမ္း၀မ္းနည္းတယ္ အခုထိလည္း ၀မ္းနည္းေနတုန္းပါဘဲ။ ၁၉၆၂ မွာ ကၽြန္မတို႕ ကခ်င္ေတြ သူပုန္ထလာတာျဖစ္တယ္၊ ဒါဘာျဖစ္လို႕လဲဆိုေတာ့ ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္ဘာသာ ဆိုတာကို ဘယ္သူ႕ကိုမွ တိုင္ပင္တာမရွိပဲ ဦးႏု သူ႕ဟာသူ စီစဥ္လုပ္ခဲ့တယ္ ႏုိင္ငံေတာ္ဘာသာမွာ ဆိုရင္ (တစ္ႏိုင္ငံလံုး ဗုဒၶဘာသာ ျဖစ္ရမယ္ဆိုတဲ့ ဦးတည္ခ်က္နဲ႔သြားရမယ္) က်န္တဲ့ ခရစ္ယာန္ ၊နတ္စား ၊ စတဲ့ ဘာသာေတြကို ႏိွမ္သလိုျဖစ္လာျပီး ဒါေႀကာင့္ KIO ေတာ္လွန္ေရးစလာတာပါ၊ ကခ်င္ေတာ္လွန္ေရးကိုစခဲ့တာ ေနာ္ဆိုင္းဟုတ္ပါတယ္ ေနာ္ဆိုင္းက ရွမ္းျပည္ကေန ကခ်င္ဖက္ကိုတက္လာေတာ့ သူ႕ကို ဘယ္သူမွ ႀကိဳဆိုေထာက္ခံမဲ့သူ မရွိလို႔ ေနာ္ဆိုင္းက တရုတ္ကြန္ျမဴနစ္ေတြနဲ႔ ေပါင္းသြားတာျဖစ္တယ္။ ကၽြန္မတို႕ ကခ်င္ေတြက ျမန္မာေတြကို သတ္မယ္ျဖတ္မယ္ဆိုတဲ့ စိတ္ဓာတ္လံုး၀ မရွိပါဘူး ဗမာကို မုန္းရေအာင္ေနာ္ဆိုတဲ့ စိတ္လည္းမရွိပါဘူး၊ ဒါေပမယ့္ ကိုယ့္ႏိုင္ငံကိုယ့္ျပည္ကို ကိုယ္ပိုင္ဆိုင္ခြင့္ အရင္က ပိုင္ဆိုင္သလို ပိုင္ဆိုင္ခြင့္ ကိုယ့္ႏိုင္ငံႀကီးပြားတိုးတက္ဖို႔ ကိုယ့္ေျခေထာက္ကိုယ္ ရပ္တည္သြားမယ္ ဆုိျပီး ေျပာႀကည့္ရင္လည္း မျဖစ္လို႔ ေတာ္လွန္ေရး KIO ဆိုတာ ျဖစ္လာတာဟုတ္တယ္၊ ဒီေန႔ အထိလည္း ဒါပါပဲ တျခားေတာ့ ဘာမွမဟုတ္ဘူး အပစ္ေခတ္ရပ္စဲေရးကို ၁၇ ႏွစ္ႀကာေအာင္ ျပန္လုပ္ခဲ့ျပီးျပီး က်ြန္မတို႔ အရမ္းေပ်ာ္ရြင္ခဲ့ပါတယ္၊ ဒီအပစ္ခတ္ရပ္စဲေရး လုပ္ျပီး ေတာ့ ေနာက္တစ္ဆင့္အေနနဲ႔ ျငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး လုပ္ဖို႔ လိုအပ္လာတယ္၊ အပစ္အခတ္ရပ္စဲေရးက ျငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရးမဟုတ္ဘူး..ျငိမ္းခ်မး္ေရး ဆိုတာ ႏိုင္ငံေရးအရ စားပဲြေပၚမွာ ျပဳလုပ္ဖို႔ျဖစ္တာ ဒါကို လုပ္ခြင့္မေပးဘူး KIO အေနနဲ႔ ခဏခဏေတာင္းဆိုတယ္ မလုပ္ေပးခဲ့ဘူး “ျပည္သူ႕အစိုးရေပၚလာေတာ့မယ္ မင္းတို႔ သိပ္မေလာႀကနဲ႔ ဆိုျပီးျပန္ေျပာတယ္” ျပည္သူ႕အစိုးရ ေပၚလာျပီး အစည္းအေ၀းေတာင္ မလုပ္ေသးဘူး သူတို႔ အရင္ပစ္တယ္ ၂၀၁၂ ဇြန္ ၉ မွာ စစ္စျဖစ္တယ္။ အခု ကခ်င္ျပည္နယ္မွ ျမန္မာစစ္သား ၁သိန္းေက်ာ္ျပီး သိလား.. ဒံုးက်ည္ ၂ေသာင္း ေရာက္ေနတယ္.. အေျမာက္ေတြလည္း အမ်ားႀကီးေရာက္ေနတယ္ ကခ်င္နဲ႔ခရစ္ယာန္ေတြကို အျမစ္ျပတ္သြားေအာင္ လုပ္သြားမွာျဖစ္တယ္။ ဘာျဖစ္လို႕လဲဆိုေတာ့ အျပင္က ေလာဘ စိတ္ေႀကာင့္ဟုတ္တယ္ ကြ်န္မတို႔ကခ်င္ျပည္နယ္မွာ သံယဇာတေပါမ်ားတယ္ ဒါေႀကာင့္နယ္ေျမကို လုယူပိုင္ဆိုင္ခ်င္လို႔ျဖစ္တယ္ လို႕ ကြ်န္မတို႕ ကေတာ့ ဒီလိုပဲ ထင္ႀကပါတယ္။ ကခ်င္လြတ္လပ္ေရးအဖဲြ႔ ကေတာင္းဆိုထားတာကက (၁) ပင္လံုစာခ်ဳပ္ ပင္လံုစိတ္ဓာတ္ ႏိုင္ငံေရးကို ႏုိင္ငံေရးလို စားပဲြေပၚမွာ ပင္လံု အေျခခံျပီး ေဆြးေႏြးမယ္ (၂ ) ကခ်င္ျပည္နယ္ ေရာက္ေနတဲ့ တပ္မေတာ္သားေတြ ကို ကိုယ့္ေနရာကိုယ္ျပန္ဆုတ္ခိုင္း ဒါဆိုရင္ အပစ္အခတ္ရပ္မယ္ စာခ်ဳပ္ခ်ဳပ္မယ္ဆိုရင္ႏိုင္ငံတကာက လူေတြကိုေခၚျပီး စာခ်ဳပ္ခ်ဳပ္မယ္ဆိုျပီးေတာင္းဆိုထားတာ အခုထိေတာ့ဘာမွ အေႀကာင္းျပန္လာတာ မရွိေသးဘူး၊ ေဒၚစုက အံႀသစြာနဲ႔ လည္ပင္းေတာင္ ေစာင္းတယ္ ကၽြန္မေျပာတာကို နားေထာင္ေနတာ သူက ဘာမွမသိတဲ့ပံုပဲ မင္းကအဲဒီတုန္းက ငယ္ေသးတယ္ေလ ျပီးေတာ့ မင္းအေမေနာက္လိုက္သြားရေတာ့ ငါတို႕ဒီက သမိုင္းေႀကာင္းကို ဘာမွ မသိလိုက္ဘူးေပါ့ လို႕ကၽြန္မေျပာခဲ့တယ္။ အထက္က ေျပာဆိုခဲ့သည္မ်ားမွာ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္အား ေဒၚအင္ဖန္ဂ်ာရာက ေျပာဆိုခဲ့သည့္ စကားမ်ားကို ၎ကိုယ္တိုင္ ျပန္လည္ေျပာျပတာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ ထိုေန႔ညက ရွင္းျပအၿပီး ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္အား သူေျပာခ်င္တဲ့ စကားတစ္ခြန္းျဖစ္သည့္ “ျမန္မာ့နည္းျမန္မာ့ဟန္ ဆိုရွယ္လစ္ အခုလည္း ျမန္မာ့နည္းျမန္မာ့ဟန္ ဒီမိုကေရစီ မလုပ္ရင္ေကာင္းတယ္” ဆိုတာကို မီးပ်က္သြားတာေၾကာင့္ မေျပာလိုက္ရဘူးလို႔ ေဒၚအင္ဖန္ဂ်ာရာ က YPI ကိုျပန္ေျပာျပပါတယ္။ အဲဒီ့ေနာက္ YPI သတင္းေထာက္က ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ ဘာေၾကာင့္ ကခ်င္ျပည္နယ္သို႔ လာသည္ထင္သလဲ ဟုေမးရာ “ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ ပါတီစည္းရံုးေရး ထြက္လာတယ္ ထင္တာပဲ” လို႔ေျဖဆိုပါတယ္။ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ ကခ်င္ျပည္နယ္ လာတဲ့အေပၚ ဘာေမွ်ာ္လင့္ထားလဲ ဆိုတဲ့ ေမးခြန္းကိုေတာ့ “ ဘာမွ ထူးထူးျခားျခား မေမွ်ာ္လင့္ပါဘူး၊ ပါတီစည္းရံုးေရး သက္သက္ပဲ ထြက္လာတယ္၊ တကယ္လို႔ သူေရြးေကာက္ပြဲမွာ ႏိုင္လို႔ လႊတ္ေတာ္မွာ ၀င္ထိုင္ျဖစ္ရင္ေတာ့ ကခ်င္ျပည္နယ္အတြက္ ေမွ်ာ္လင့္ခ်က္ အေတာ္မ်ားမ်ား ရွိတယ္ ” လို႔ေျဖသြားပါတယ္။

Martin Klimas - paint sculptures made from sound waves

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/21/martin-klimas-paints-with-sound_n_1290756.html?ref=arts

Scammed for $17m etc -New York Times Arts and Design page

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/arts/design/index.html pl read - especially on fake Pollocks etc - I don't see how people got scammed - they are obviously fakes to me. Barnes Foundation Cindy Sherman Ramellzee Rembrant and Degas etc kmk

Kyi May Kaung - found collage - not a fake - art and photo copyright Kyi May Kaung

Mostly rose colored - but nice pics

http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/02/26/all-roads-lead-to-yangon/

Upcoming Burma "by-election" already not "F and F"

Peace Rose, photograph Copyright Kyi May Kaung Upcoming Burma election already not free or fair Saturday, February 25, 2012 11:47 AM --- On Sat, 2/25/12, free burma wrote: From: free burma Subject: Upcoming Burma election already not free or fair To: Date: Saturday, February 25, 2012, 11:35 AM DICTATOR WATCH (www.dictatorwatch.org) Contact: Roland Watson, roland@dictatorwatch.org UPCOMING BURMA ELECTION ALREADY NOT FREE OR FAIR February 25, 2012 Please forward. Burma is holding a by-election on April 1st for forty-eight seats in Parliament (just over 10%). International observers view this as a significant benchmark in the country’s supposed reform to democracy. Both the U.S. and the E.U. have ended some of their sanctions, with the promise that more will be eliminated if the election is free and fair. The judgment of free and fair, however, does not apply only to what happens on election day. It is the entire process that must be appraised, starting with the freedom of the candidates to campaign and to speak their mind. Considering the steps that the military-backed regime has thus far taken, the upcoming election is already fatally flawed. Election-specific actions Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been campaigning throughout Burma. On a number of occasions she has been denied permission to use sports stadiums to hold rallies, with the result that she could not speak freely to local constituencies. Much more importantly, though, and which few commentators have noticed, the regime continues to enforce the requirement (Union Election Committee notification No. 91/2010, imposed in advance of the fraudulent 2010 national election) that speeches by candidates must be pre-approved, and that they cannot “criticize the constitution, tarnish the image of the state or the military, or harm security.” Among other provisions, candidates have to anticipate the size of the crowds to which they will speak, and take responsibility for them. It is not permitted to shout slogans. (Notification No. 91/2010 has also just been reinforced by an election commission statement on February 17, which applies the same provisions to radio and TV broadcasts.) In late January Daw Suu did in fact criticize the 2008 Constitution, and it was just after this that reminders of the requirement began to appear in pro-regime media. A careful read of this notice makes it clear that candidates cannot criticize or even comment upon, without fear of arrest or being banned from the election, the most important issues facing the country. It is notable that Daw Suu ceased talking about the Constitution after the notification was publicized. (She changed her focus to “jobs.”) It appears that she is censoring herself: Bending over backward so as not to anger the regime. Alternatively, she may have made a tactical retreat, and will speak strongly on these subjects once in Parliament. Only time will tell. (It is difficult to see, though, why the regime will become more tolerant.) Regardless of what Daw Suu ultimately ends up doing, if the candidates do not have freedom of speech, or freedom of assembly with voters, then the election is neither free nor fair. It doers not matter what happens on April 1st. The election is already discredited. This is not the only condemnation that can be made. Even though there is still a month to go, the regime has taken the following dishonest actions: After free speech and freedom of assembly, probably the most important factor for an election is freedom of the press. Notwithstanding some minor changes in the application of current press laws, e.g., images of Daw Suu can be shown, nothing material has changed. (Consideration of a new press law has been postponed until after the election.) Burma has an extremely repressive press environment. Journalists, like the candidates, are forbidden from discussing the country’s most important problems, including the Constitution, the on-going civil war and Burma Army atrocities, theft of land from villagers and bribery and corruption in development projects, etc. And, along with the refusal to allow the use of sports stadiums, there is a growing list of other types of “dirty tricks.” Pro-regime militia in Shan State have ordered villagers to vote for the military party, the USDP. In the Irrawaddy region, local officials have been warned that they will be forced to resign if the USDP does not win. There are also reports of similar threats in the Dawei area, as well as demands by government officials there that the polls themselves be manipulated, i.e., rigged. Considering all of this, and again with the proviso that there is still one month to go, we can already conclude that the vote will not be free or fair. While it might not be as openly fraudulent as the 2010 general election, and while most if not all NLD candidates will probably win their seats, the process by which this occurs will fail to meet democratic standards. However, the anti-sanctions crowd, starting with the E.U., will no doubt ignore this and instead argue that since the NLD won that is all that is required. The end is important, not the means. It is interesting that the E.U. has said election monitors are not necessary. This, though, is not linked to a belief that there will be no problems at the polls. Rather, Europe, which is determined that sanctions end and massive development proceed, is itself trying to censor news of poll irregularities that would force it to delay or even terminate its anti-sanctions drive. Other repression in Burma The idea that free elections justify ending the sanctions is based on an implied assumption that other conditions in the country are satisfactory. As the following list makes clear, other than ingratiating itself with Daw Suu and the International Community, Burma’s military regime is still as tyrannical as ever. The first issue here is not only freedom of speech for candidates, but for ordinary people as well. The monk Ashin Gambira was detained and is now being charged, reportedly for entering a locked monastery. But U Gambira has been outspoken about the lack of real democracy in Burma, how many monks are still being held as political prisoners, and how monasteries remain closed, now some four and a half years after the Saffron uprising. Similarly, another prominent monk, Ashin Pyinnyar Thiha, has been banned from preaching. Moreover, all of this has been accepted by the elders of Burma’s Buddhist council, the Maha Nayaka, who are blocking the re-ordination of the monks who have been released, and who seem determined to continue their long-standing support of the military regime. Of course, even though many prominent political prisoners have been released, one thousand or more prisoners of conscience remain. Indeed, it is astonishing that the NLD has disputed the assessed totals of political prisoners tracked by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), which has assiduously worked to identify and help them and their families since 2000. Not every political prisoner is a recognized dissident. Villagers who stand up for their rights and are then arrested are political prisoners as well, as are any individuals who are detained by the regime for any reason other than overt criminal activity. The fact that Burma has so many political prisoners destroys the argument that the NLD winning a few seats in Parliament will signal that democracy is truly on its way. The most pressing problem, though, is the continued Civil War. It is impossible to accept that the by-election has positive significance when the regime continues to attack the ethnic minorities of the country. Thein Sein ordered the Tatmadaw to cease and desist, but the commanders have refused. Some commentators blame rogue generals - hardliners - saying that a power struggle is underway. More seasoned analysts, though, argue that the entire presentation is a charade. Thein Sein is a hardliner as well: Everyone in the regime, including in the Tatmadaw and Parliament, is a hardliner. All that is occurring is a sophisticated good cop/bad cop presentation, orchestrated by the only person in Burma who has real power, Senior General Than Shwe. The puppet theater is being used to mollify regime opponents, and to provide support to regime apologists including Asean, the E.U., international corporations, biased academics and retired diplomats, and business press such as the Financial Times. The surface objective is to get the U.S. to end its sanctions, but the deeper goal is to create a drawn-out pseudo-democratic transition - commercial development before political change - that ensures that the generals and their cronies own all of the significant business interests in Burma, that such interests can never be seized, and, most critically, that they will never be tried for war crimes and other human rights abuses. Right now the regime is fighting the Kachin Independence Army in Kachin State and northern Shan State, the Shan State Army in southern Shan State, the Karenni Army in Karenni State, and both the Karen National Union and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army in Karen State and Tenassarim Division. (Even though the conflict has died down in a few areas, it can re-ignite at any time. The word out of Karen State is that Tatmadaw troops are acting like conquerers, and preparing for future offensives.) All of this fighting has been accompanied by Burma Army-perpetrated human rights violations. Villages have been bombed and women have been raped, for the latter most recently at the Kachin front and in Karenni State. Many ethnic villagers have been detained. Returning to an earlier point, they are all political prisoners, as is KNU leader Mahn Nyein Maung. Indeed, the women who are known to be being held as sex slaves by Burma Army units at the Kachin front, and forced to undergo gang rapes every night, are the most persecuted individuals in the entire country. I would argue that their freedom is actually the most important issue in Burma. It is intolerable that anyone would be subjected to such unspeakable torture. The by-election should not even be held until their whereabouts are determined and they are freed, using whatever level of force is required. The regime has responded to this by saying that it will not allow an inquiry into its atrocities in the ethnic areas, and further that its war with the Kachin may last three more years. The former is deplorable (as is the U.N.’s refusal to investigate), and the latter is ridiculous, considering that it is the Tatmadaw itself which is wholly responsible for the conflict. The generals are basically saying, we will continue to attack the Kachin for at least the next three years, or, more practically, until we defeat the KIA and our Chinese allies can restart the Myitsone Dam. The only acceptable response is that the Tatmadaw immediately cease its offensives and dismantle all its camps in the ethnic areas. To local villagers these camps are terrorist outposts, akin to al-Qaeda camps. There is no solution to the conflict other than their complete removal. Earlier this month, Daw Suu said that Europe and the U.S. should delay their decisions about the sanctions until after the by-election. She should in no way certify the regime’s fraud. Even more, she should stick to the position that the sanctions not be eliminated, or even reduced, until the Tatmadaw stops its war of aggression against Burma’s ethnic minorities, and frees all the political prisoners.

Burma soldier and Burmese-born US Marine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EknTt3aCDKc&feature=relmfu VOA interview by U Ronnie Nyein summary: The first interviewee compares what little he got from the Burmese government (about $6 lump sum payment and about $1 per month in pension, which was cut off when he joined the National League for Democracy, with the Disability pension he receives from the US Government in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he lives.

Burmese Puppet - almost bent over backwards but still looking up

Bent backwards Burmese puppet - photo copyright Kyi May Kaung

Found on Facebook - How to get away with murder - step by step guide from Burma junta

"How to get away with murder, a step by step guide book by Naypyidaw regime 1. First hire a PR firm from NY to give your SLORC a kinder softer name SPDC. 2. Be so mean and nasty that when you release a person, or allow UN emergency aid to dying victims of the Cyclone, it is applauded. 3. Who cares about the rest. Because you are working on it. 4. Own a country with natural resources as if it were your stepfather's whorehouse. 5. Sell them to highest bidder after meeting in golden presidential palace. 6. Make sure you and your buddies make more money this way. 7. Use flattery and stroke bloated egos and delusional patriotism. 8. Bring along locals to run your show but not to have control over it. 9. Allow former enemies of your state, or whorehouse, to come back and bring their foreign development funds to make them feel better and make you look good. 10. Some of them might even pimp for you: They will repeat how open your regime is, or there is nothing to complain, or there is ground for "cautious optimism" while the minorities are slaughtered. 11. Allow some wealthy to give charity to humanitarian causes because you do not have enough money to support the citizens of Burma, what with all the private things you and your families need. 12. Make sure that all the past is forgotten and ensure that your constitution makes this possible. 13. Just move on to a better place, and leave the population with massive foreign debt by the tune of billions. 14. And hold by-elections, throw crumbs at the desperate opposition and let the West have the bones."

Datura - a flower poisonous in all its parts - photo Copyright Kyi May Kaung

Some fantastic phtographs of a badly scarred earth

http://magazine.saatchionline.com/articles/artnews/jhenryfair

Time magazine email interview of Garielle Gifford

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2102334,00.html

The atrocities of war - a brilliant short story from Guernica Magazine

http://www.guernicamag.com/fiction/3279/breytenbach_12_1_11/

Beautiful & brilliant Burmese comedian Zarganar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlTTD0kwCcg&feature=related 3 part interview from DVB. I did not however like what he said about having campaigned 30 years ago so "Chinese" i.e. those holding FRCs or Foreigners' Registration Cards could not go to medical school. I think that is racist. Kyi May Kaung

1940 Clare Booth (later Clare Booth Luce's) articles in Life Magazine about bombing of Mandalay and Maymyo -

http://cbi-theater.home.comcast.net/~cbi-theater/mission/life-mission.html

Performance "Tomorrow" in honor of Victms of Northern Massacre

http://www.8888peopletoday.net/ On 12th Feb 1992, in Pajau on Burma-China Border, 15 people were accused of being SLORC spies and tortured and executed by ABSDF (Northern Burma). ABSDF is an armed student group set up in 1988 by university students who fled Burma after the clampdown on 18th Sept. Some alleged perpetrators and several survivors are still alive. This performance was staged by artist Soo Myint Thein (spelled phonetically) at the recent merit sharing ceremony in Rangoon, Burma. *

Ashes from burned paper - photo copyright Kyi May Kaung

Nien Cheng, author of Life and Death in Shanghai, died in Nov 2009

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nien_Cheng I met her at a friend's house and interviewed her in 1998. Kyi May Kaung

Chinese diaspora writing - costs and benefits

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,409644,00.html

Multicultural Christmas still life - photo copyright Kyi May Kaung

"Burmese waterboarding" Kyi May Kaung's translation of Naing Win Swe's

Moe Makha Plant in http://www.fpif.org/articles/moe_ma_kha_plant This happened in jungle among rebels, I am unsure which. Naing Win Swe died in battle, his comrades having no time to bury him, "just covered him with wild flowers". It was the first poem I introduced and produced/broadcast on my Poems of Those who Love their Country, in 1997. Weekly program went on for 3 years. It has also appeared on another international poetry website (not available now). Kyi May Kaung

Tamarind pods soaking in water - photo copyright Kyi May Kaung

funnies - if you prefer to rent rather than buy - and your name is --

http://www.boston.com/realestate/luxuryliving/galleries/luxury_boston_condos_for_rent?pg=2

Kyi May Kaung - Burma - Economists, generals and culture vultures Part 1

http://asiancorrespondent.com/author/kyimaykaung/

Nancy Hudson-Rodd in DVB - Trouble brews as Burma turns to world markets

http://www.dvb.no/analysis/trouble-brews-as-burma-turns-to-world-markets/20116#comment-48580

How to prep coffee beans - in Thai cafe - photo copyright Kyi May Kaung

Born a Criminal (in Burma) by Francis Wade

http://asiancorrespondent.com/54660/born-a-criminal-in-burma%E2%80%99s-prison-hospitals/

Memorial Poem for Astronaut Dr Janice Voss

Dear Linda please feel free to use this on the Memorial Cards and to read at the Service. So long as my name is on the bottom in small print it is fine. I don't know why the email is typing like this. I did not change to Plain Text as formatting would be lost. Sincere Condolences Kyi May http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/voss-jan.html A veteran of five space flights, Dr. Voss has logged over 49 days in space, traveling 18.8 million miles in 779 Earth orbits. Dr. Voss first flew on STS-57 (June 21 to July 1, 1993). Mission highlights included retrieval of the European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) with the Shuttle’s robotic arm, a spacewalk, and the first flight of the Spacehab module. She next flew on STS-63 (February 3-11, 1995). Mission highlights included the rendezvous with the Russian Space Station, Mir, the deployment and retrieval of Spartan 204, and the third flight of Spacehab. She also flew as payload commander on STS-83 (Apr 4-8, 1997).

Moon Flower and Blood Grass - photo - copyright Kyi May Kaung/ Janice, I wish I had met you/ before the cancer got you./ I only ever met two other/ Astronauts in my life. One man and one woman/ about five feet tall./ You loved science fiction and square dancing./ Look down on us from your last/ Circling of the Earth./ Know, we miss you./ Copyright Kyi May Kaung

Dead whale shark in Karachi

http://videos.geo.tv/VideoGallery.aspx?ID=3438 I wonder what the did with it did they stuff it? Kyi May Kaung

A partial Burmese economic history through its banknotes

http://banknotesofburma.blogspot.com/ Banknotes of Burma Blog by Min Sun Min U Kaung in the early banknotes was my father who was at one time Chairman of the Burma Currency Board. In the early 50s. Kyi May Kaung

Dickens vs lawyers from New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/opinion/dickens-v-lawyers.html?_r=1

Military rule mars hopes for democracy in Burma

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/military-backed-rule-blurs-hopes-for-democracy-in-burma-184814-page-2.html

US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs scratches his eyebrow frame grab

Kyi May Kaung's article - Burma's Economy: Can World Class Advisors Make a Difference? -- in Asian Correspondent

http://asiancorrespondent.com/75403/burmas-economy-can-world-class-advisors-make-a-difference/

Badly split banana leaf - photo copyright Kyi May kaung

Kay Htwe's translation into Burmese of my poem Mother Rape

http://www.scribd.com/KayHtwe/d/51893056-Mother-Rape

Kolkata Massala slide show - India

http://telsawy.tripod.com/Kolkata_Masala/publish_to_web/index.html

Wislawa Symborska's The Joy of Writing and other poems on her Nobel Prize page

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1996/szymborska-poems-5-e.html

Young bamboo that will become invasive Photo copyright Kyi May Kaung.

An Iranian Vote - from an Iranian dissident

MY VOTE! ای دشمن آزادگان، ای جمهوری اسلامی ایران ، ما بی شمارانیم 33 years of Torture, imprisonment, injustice, rape and stoning, taking out eyes from the socket, amputations, over 100.000 executions, oppression, suppression, 8 years of forced Iran-Iraq war with 1/2 millions death, drug addictions, poverty, lack of jobs and security... And more. After all these, is there anyone in favour of the ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN?

Image provided by Iranian Dissident posted with permission. Note: It says in Persian: Islamic Republic of Iran, you are the enemy of freedom fighters but we are so many and in abundance.

Burmese-born poet Ko Ko Thett translates Symborska

Yahoo! Mail true love: a tribute to Szymborska (1923-1212) Saturday, February 4, 2012 4:03 PM Just noticed Szymborska died on 1 Feb! I was oblivious to her passing when I gave her poem 'true love' in translation to kaungkin the other day, for Valentine's. I am just passing through, it’s a five-minute stop. I won’t catch what is distant: what’s too close, I’ll mix up. While trying to plumb what the void's inner sense is, I'm bound to pass by all these poppies and pansies. What a loss when you think how much effort was spent perfecting this petal, this pistil, this scent for the one-time appearance, which is all they're allowed, so aloofly precise and so fragilely proud. from 'Birthday' translated from Polish by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh She has passed through. Her one-time appearance is intransient. -- KKt ko ko thett အခ်စ္စစ္ အခ်စ္စစ္တဲ့၊ ပံုမွန္မွဟုတ္ရဲ့လား အေလးအနက္လား၊ လက္ေတြ႕ေရာက်ရဲ႕လား ႏွစ္ေယာက္တည္းတစ္ကမၻာလုပ္ေနတဲ့ လူႏွစ္ေယာက္က ဒီကမၻာႀကီးကို ဘာေပးႏိုင္မွာတဲ့တုန္း။ အေၾကာင္းျပခ်က္ ေျခေျချမစ္ျမစ္ မရွိဘဲ မ႑ပ္တိုင္ထူလိုက္ၾက သန္းေပါင္းမ်ားစြာထဲက တစ္ေယာတ္ကို စုံလုံးကန္း ေရြးလိုက္ၿပီးမွ ဒါဟာ ဒီလိုပဲျဖစ္ရမယ္လို႕ ယံုၾကည္လိုက္ၾက ဘာအတြက္လဲ - သဲထဲေရသြန္။ ရုတ္တရက္ သက္ဆင္း လာတဲ့ အလင္းတန္း။ ဘာေၾကာင့္ တျခားသူေတြေပၚ မက်ဘဲ ဒင္းတို႕ ႏွစ္ေယာက္ေပၚက် ဒါဟာ တရားမွ်တမႈကို ပါးခ်တာမဟုတ္လား - ဟုတ္ပါ့။ ဒါဟာ က်ားကုတ္က်ားခဲ ထူေထာင္ခဲ့ရတဲ့ စည္းမ်ည္းေတြကို ခ်ိဳးေဖာက္တာ၊ အထြဋ္အထိပ္ ေရာက္ၿပီးသား က်င့္ဝတ္ေတြကို လႊင့္ပစ္တာ - ဒါေတြအားလံုးဟုတ္။ အဲဒီစုံတြဲ သဲေနပံုကိုၾကည့္။ သိုသိုသိပ္သိပ္မေနႏိုင္ၾကဘူးလား သူငယ္ခ်င္းေတြကို စာနာစိတ္နဲ႕ စိတ္ဓာတ္က်ခ်င္ေယာင္ေဆာင္ မေနသင့္ဘူးလား။ နားေထာင္ၾကည့္ ဒင္းတို႕ရယ္သံကိုက- ေစာ္ကားေမာ္ကား။ ဒင္းတို႕ေျပာတဲ့စကားေတြက ရိုးလြန္းလို႕ယံုႏိုင္စရာမရွိ။ ဒင္းတို႕ရဲ႕ အေသးအမႊားေပ်ာ္ပြဲေတြ၊ အပရိက ထံုးတမ္းစဥ္လာေတြ၊ အပိုဆာလား အျပန္အလွန္ နိစၥဓူဝေတြ - ေသခ်ာတာက အခ်စ္စစ္ဆိုတာ လူသားမ်ိဳးႏြယ္ရဲ႕ ေနာက္ေၾကာက ကလိန္ျခဳံမႈ။ လူတုိင္းသာ သူတို႕လို အတုျမင္အတတ္သင္ျဖစ္ကုန္ရင္ ဒုကၡ ေတြးေတာင္မေတြးရဲ။ ဘာသာတရားနဲ႕ ကဗ်ာကို ဘယ္ေပၚသြားထားမလဲ။ ဘာေတြကိုတသ၊ ဘာေတြကိုစြန္႕ပစ္ရမွာလဲ၊ ဘယ္သူေတြကမ်ား အေႏွာင္အဖြဲ႕ေတြၾကား ေနခ်င္ပါေတာ့မလဲ။ အခ်စ္စစ္တဲ့၊ တကယ္ လိုအပ္လို႕လား။ အရွက္ကြဲမႈတစ္ခု ဘဝရဲ႕အျမင့္ဆံုး အသိုင္းအဝိုင္းေတြထဲ လူသူမသိ ေက်ာ္ျဖတ္သြားပံုမ်ိဳး လိမၼာေရးျခားရွိမႈနဲ႕၊ လူပိန္းေတြးေတြးမႈက အခ်စ္စစ္ကို ျဖတ္ေက်ာ္ဖို႕ ငါတို႕ကို ေျပာတယ္။ ေျခာက္ျပစ္ကင္း သားသမီးရတနာေလးေတြေမြးဖို႕ အခ်စ္စစ္မလို။ အခ်စ္စစ္ ဆိုတာ ဒုလႅဘမို႕ သူ႕အားကိုးေနရင္ ေနာင္ႏွစ္တစ္သန္းလည္း ကမၻာ့လူဦးေရ တိုးတက္မွာမဟုတ္။ အခ်စ္စစ္ကို မႀကံဳဖူးတဲ့လူေတြ အခ်စ္စစ္ဆိုတာ ေလာကမွာမရွိဘူးလို႕ ေျပာၾကပါေစ။ အဲဒီလိုယံုေတာ့ သူတို႕ေတြ အေနေျဖာင့္ အေသေျဖာင့္တာေပါ့။ ဗစ္စ္ဝါဘာ ရွင္ေဘာ္စကာ ႏိုဘယ္လ္ဆုရ ပိုလန္ကဗ်ာဆရာမ Wislawa Szymborska (1923-1212) ၏ true love။ Stanislaw Baranczak ႏွင့္ Clare Cavanagh က အဂၤလိပ္လိုျပန္ထားေသာမူကို ကိုကိုသက္ ျမန္မာမႈျပဳသည္။

Outsider artist in Texas with bottle cap art - photo Copyright Kyi May Kaung - with permission of the artist, 2011.

Race, parenting, the South, etc - Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is 50 years old

Harper Lee & Truman Capote were first cousins and both became bestselling novelists. http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/03/showbiz/to-kill-a-mockingbird-50/index.html?hpt=hp_bn4 Kyi May Kaung

Quote of the Day - Dr Zarni in LA Times Oct 2011

"We're basically dealing with the same creature, with slightly more enlightened posturing," said Zarni, founder of the London-based Free Burma Coalition, an activist group, who uses one name. "We shouldn't fool ourselves that the regime is driven by reformers. "

Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei -- frame grab

NPR - interview of Emma Larkin (pseu) Finding George Orwell in Burma

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=4761169&m=4761207 This is a very good book, as is her second "Everything is Broken" Kyi May Kaung

My Amazon.com review of Mo Yan's Red Sorghum

http://www.amazon.com/review/R1UGSVAK6M3TYV Red Sorghum: A Novel of China (Mass Market Paperback) I read Red Sorghum by Mo Yan and translated by Howard Goldblatt about five years ago. It is unforgettable and beautifully translated, though not an easy read as Mo Yan writes about a grandmother in the voice of her grandson, so the time shifts are sometimes jarring. Most of the story is in flashback. I have not seen the film. However, many scenes are unforgettable. A great work of international literature. Yes, I don't usually like to read "Chinese" or "Burmese" or whatever fiction written by writers who base it all on research, not on life. Red Poppy by Alai, a Tibetan writer who writes in Mandarin, also translated by Goldblatt, is also excellent. Kyi May Kaung See your review on the site

Michelle Yeoh plays Aung San Suu Kyi in The Lady

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/life/Burma-in-the-balance-30174980.html

One person who should also be called in to advise on Burma - Jeffrey Sachs

http://www.earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/1770

Mitch McConnell interviewed by PBS about Burma

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2012/01/changes-in-myanmar.html

Aung San Suu Kyi's address at World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland

http://www.weforum.org/videos/aung-san-suu-kyi-annual-meeting-2012

Residence of Chang Da Chien - master painter and forger

http://www.npm.gov.tw/exh96/dai-chien/index.html I don't know how to activate links on this new format but the Memorial is at the National Palace Museum in Tapei, Taiwan. Kyi May Kaung

Voltaire and his room at Sans Souci Palace in Potsdam

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaire I've seen Frederick's San Souci palace in Potsdam and the overly decorated room with pink parrots on the walls where Voltaire lived for a while. The whole palace was not more than one room wide throughout its length and the slaves/servants - had to go in the narrow passages between the walls to empty out the commodes the guide said no one ever bathed much and overused perfumes etc. I wrote a short story called My Potsdam - about a guide whose home had been confiscated in E. Germany days. One cottage I saw was held together by a wire mesh. kmk

Wai Hnin Pwint Thon - daughter of a Burmese political prisoner, is skeptical about "reforms"

http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2012/01/my-fathers-release-from-prison-is-good.html

Vietnamese-American artist Huong's Immigration Wall

From: Huong Subject: Thank you for your support on Immigration Mural! To: "immigration mural" Date: Wednesday, January 18, 2012, 8:47 AM My dear ART-Lovers & PEACE-Makers, Thank you for your SUPPORT! Your presence helped to the unveiling a fun and real SUCCESS! Your words of encouragement fuel me to plow to this project faster and faster. We have no time to waste. The immigration tidal wave is coming on the shore! I appreciate your words of wisdom, your emotion respond and your guideline for the future chapter of this mural. I am LISTENING and COUNT ON YOU! Cheers from the Artist, Huong P.S. Here are the press covered on the unveiling which generated a lot of debate and communication. Please throw your thoughts there and educate me more! Miami Herald: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/14/2587815/the-art-of-immigration.html Miami New Times: http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/cultist/2011/12/huongs_immigration_mural_turni.php Foreign Policy in Focus: http://www.fpif.org/articles/giving_voice_on_immigration South Miami News : http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/11/v-print/2584899/peace-mural-to-stir-immigration.html#storylink=cpy

Poetry International Website - special issue on Burma and Vietnam

Abstract chairs - photo copyright Kyi May Kaung http://www.poetryinternational.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_name=www

"reforms" in Burma

Yellow rose half light. Photo copyright Kyi May Kaung

Mrs. Clinton's announcement on release of Burmese political prisoners

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7-fOsJLA5c

Sen. Mitch McConnell and Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma meet in person at last --

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-01-16/mcconnell-suu-kyi-meeting/52601680/1?csp=34news You've spoken up for me and my Cause, so you are my Friend. Blog not - Kyi May Kaung

How bestselling author Daniel Silva writes -

Amazon Exclusive: Daniel Silva on Writing Portrait of a Spy with a Pencil While on book tour, I’ve been surprised to find that readers are fascinated by how writers actually write. Most readers hold in their mind an idealized image of the novelist at work—a figure in a trendy urban coffeehouse, a solitary figure walking along an empty beach. The truth, however, is seldom so romantic. Before going any further, let us stipulate that, much like the hero of my novels, the art restorer and spy Gabriel Allon, I am something of a creature of habit. I work seven days a week, from early in the morning until six thirty in the evening, when I stop to watch the evening news. My work clothing never varies: gray sweatpants by Russell Athletic, a long-sleeve T-shirt by L.L. Bean, fleece Acorn moccasins, and discount cotton socks from Marks & Spencer in England. Occasionally, visitors to our house will catch a glimpse of this outfit, but, for the most part, my wife and children tend to shield me from public view. As a rule, I don’t answer the telephone—unless it is a family emergency of some sort—and I don’t read e-mail. I nibble rather than eat. Portrait of a Spy, like all the Gabriel Allon novels, was fueled largely by McVitie’s digestive biscuits. I have a computer, of course, but I really do most of my actual writing in longhand, on yellow legal pads. I prefer to work while lying on the floor rather than at my desk. This annoys my wife because she took a great deal of time and effort to have a desk custom made to fit my office. When I showed her a photograph of Muriel Spark, one of her literary heroes, writing in longhand stretched across a floor, she was only partially mollified. Sometimes we talk about living somewhere other than Georgetown. Secretly, the very idea terrifies me. After writing 14 books in the same room of the same house, I am afraid I have lost the ability to work anywhere else. As for my writing instrument of choice, it is unquestionably the pencil. There is something about the sound it makes scratching across the page that, for me, is the essence of composition. The pencil is the antithesis of all things cyber and e, a means of returning, however briefly, to a world that is unconnected and unwired. A pad and pencil do not freeze or crash. There are no viruses or error messages. If a thunderstorm knocks out the power, the words will still be there when the lights come on again. And then, there is the satisfying natural rhythm of the work itself—the turning of the completed page, the sharpening of the dulled point, the fortnightly disposal of the fluffy wooden shavings. Lately, I have been hoarding pencils. I’m not sure precisely when it began; I suspect it had something to do with the death of the typewriter. An irrational fear gripped me, a fear that pencils were next. If the typewriter could go extinct, how could the lowly, environmentally hostile pencil possibly hope to survive in the brave new world? I now order my favorite brand—the Paper Mate Mirado Black Warrior No. 2—by the case. I am reasonably confident I now have enough pencils on hand to see me through the next several novels—though, if I happen to misplace a pencil, I will search the house thoroughly before removing a new one from its special drawer and sharpening it for the first time. To sharpen a virgin pencil is, in a sense, to commit an act of assisted suicide. It saddens me. I wish it were not so. I wish I could write on a computer while traveling on an airplane or sitting in a strange hotel room, but I cannot. I have become a prisoner of my office. I need my floor, and my Mirado Black Warrior No. 2 pencils, and my McVitie’s digestive biscuits. I hoard them, too. I keep them on a special shelf in the storage room, next to my socks from Marks & Spencer. Copyright © Daniel Silva 2011. All Rights Reserved.

Poetry International Web - Zeyar Lynn

Poetry International Web - Zeyar Lynn

Images of Burma

http://www.myanmar-image.com/mandalay/misc/image19.html

Bhava Chakra - in Burmese - Bawa Setkya - the Wheel of Life

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhavacakra

see also Wiki - Buddhist Hells
seven layers of hell

hot hells and cold hells.

kmk

Ajanta Caves in India - nearby Ellora Caves

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/india/ajanta-caveshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Former Czech President Vaclav Havel's memorial and Aung San Suu Kyi's tribute

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ihT3AX1Aww&feature=relmfu

Billionaire George Soros meets Daw Aung San Suu Kyi - will open Rangoon office

http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/6354-suu-kyi-meets-soros-the-billionaire.html

Iran accuses American of spying and sentences to death

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/09/world/meast/iran-accused-spy/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

re-posting - Kyi May Kaung's memoir profile from 2005

http://www.wildriverreview.com/4/profile_kaung.php

Wordnik on line dictionary

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/business/wordniks-online-dictionary-no-arbiters-please.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha26

Kyi May Kaung's poem, In the Garden by the Lake: Mrs. Clinton goes to see Aung San Suu Kyi

Rose in front bed - copyright Kyi May Kaung


in Foreign Policy in Focus

http://www.fpif.org/articles/in_the_garden_by_the_lake

Why some prefer fiction over fact
reform vs. so-called reforms
election vs. sham election
Myanmar vs. Burma
Political prisoners vs. those who have committed crimes
Democracy vs. discipline flourishing democracy

One anonymous commentator says
do Suu Kyi and Hilary have
the same hair stylist what
they don’t realize is Burma is
very hot both climatically and
politically pulled back hair
off the face is best.
In the garden they hold hands like
long lost sisters.
In the background is Monica Lewinsky
and her blue dress Bill’s heart attack
Aung San Suu Kyi’s middle brother who drowned
as an infant
her elder brother who sued her about the house
at the junta’s instigation.

The private dinner is on American soil
Did they cue each other
that they’d both wear cream or off-white
or white? For hope and change. How many years is it
since Suu had a sit down western-style
formal dinner?

In the garden it’s like Carnation Lily Lily Rose
Suu’s mother was born
a Christian and loved white amaryllis with green centers which
she fertilized with the same water hyacinth that may later have helped drown her son.
A junta newspaper once faulted Daw Khin Kyi with having had
both a Christian and a Buddhist funeral service. What’s wrong with that?

The U.S. government plane flies into Naypyidaw (The King’s Royal City)
in the daytime, it’s not a night time airport
sleeps over in Thailand, then
picks up the U.S. delegation
and the press corps again.

In the garden it’s carnation
lily lily rose.

Dec 2, 2011.

Foreign Policy in Focus contributor Kyi May Kaung is a poet and visual artist and an analyst of Burmese and SE Asian politics.

Rare violin recovered on bus - Merry Christmas!

http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_t3#/video/us/2011/12/24/green-pa-lost-violin-bus.kyw

N. Korea - Lisa Ling and sister Laura Ling who was held captive in N Korea interviewed by Sanjay Gupta on Anderson Cooper 360-

transcript

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1112/19/acd.01.html