Saturday, March 21, 2009

Burma and SPDC (I)

I wrote the following last week and left unfinished. But I think I should just post it part by part since it would be a long post. And this post is not a new story. I just want to compile some of my point of views on last year.
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People here are grumbling for electric power outage these days. You know, we get just around 2 hours of electricity a day. It was terrible. The city Thanshwe just built is shining with bright lights at night. You can feel that you are approaching the city when you see the brighter street lights on highway. If you reach to Kyap-pyay (naypyiday as they call) you would think it is a different country due to bright lights and full electricity all time. Although the whole country is suffering, Than Shwe is celebrating the opening of a new huge pagoda called Uppatasanti.  Who knows how much money used in this project while people from delta region are still suffering from poverty after cyclone Nargis. Without the help of INGOs’ I can’t think of how they would survive.


http://www.irrawaddymedia.com/cartoon.php?art_id=15262

ThanShwe built this city. He built it following the instructions of astrologers in order to maintain his power. He used money of the country in building this Kyap-Pyay city (naypyidaw, according to him), in building his strong army and in upgrading is wealth day by day.  But people has no opportunity to do business freely. Villagers are oppressed, ethnic people are oppressed, no freedom of expression, no freedom in religion. It may sounds like an old song but Burma suffered more than that. So, let me write this for the days I couldn’t blog.  

In the end of last year, lots of democracy activists were sentenced to long term imprisonments.  Activists like 88 generation students got around 65 years of jail terms for walking silently on roads after fuel price hike in August 2007. People like comedian Zargana who helped the cyclone victims got of jail terms of 59 years. Thanshwe, that brutal Thanshwe and SPDC did nothing for cyclone victims for weeks. Although international news broadcasted the forecast and warned about cyclone to Burma on time, Burmese SPDC described it as there was no danger. Although there were warnings at evening of May 2 on TV, it was quite late and information was not bold enough to reach all the people. The cyclone Nargis entered the Irrawaddy delta region and Yangon that night. Small huts of villagers were blown away by wind and people were killed by strong tide. When the storm calm down, the land was with dead bodies floating around. People survived have nothing to eat, nowhere to live and family members were dead and lots of dead bodies around them. SPDC even didn’t think to do rescue works. Only the NGOs INGOs and individual people and groups went there to help. The army even stopped the helpers in various incidents. International aids were trying to enter the country by helicopters and by ships.  But Thanshwe and SPDC did not care and resume the planned referendum throughout the country.  (it would be another story to write about their fake referendum for the constitution which was written as they wished to rule Burma eternally.) Later, after the visit of Ban Ki-moon, SPDC allowed foreign aids on May 19.

To be continued ...



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