Burma news aggregator

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"Thousands" of protestors killed by Burma's junta

The Daily Mail:

Thousands of protesters are dead and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle, a former intelligence officer for Burma's ruling junta has revealed.

The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: "Many more people have been killed in recent days than you've heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand."

[...] A Swedish diplomat who visited Burma during the protests said last night that in her opinion the revolution has failed.

Liselotte Agerlid, who is now in Thailand, said that the Burmese people now face possibly decades of repression. "The Burma revolt is over," she added.

"The military regime won and a new generation has been violently repressed and violently denied democracy. The people in the street were young people, monks and civilians who were not participating during the 1988 revolt.

"Now the military has cracked down the revolt, and the result may very well be that the regime will enjoy another 20 years of silence, ruling by fear."

Above: A monk allegedly executed by Burmese police.

Duncan Hunter's website hacked

As of 10:15 CST Monday morning, Republican presidential candidate Duncan Hunter's website included an anti-war message, thanks to hacker Adanali. According to a Common Dreams story, "Savasa Hayir" is Turkish for "No to War."

Screen grab:

The Loneliest Icelander

Iceland has already withdrawn its two troops from the "Coalition of the Willing," and today it announced that next month it will withdraw a Crisis Response Unit member from a NATO program training the Iraqi army. This individual -- a press aide, not a soldier -- represents the very last Icelander in Iraq and spawned this (Icelandic-techno-rap-laden) video of his tale.

Video: Kenji Nagai murdered, shot at point blank range

The National Press Photographers Association has more on the murder of 50-year-old AFP contract photographer Kenji Nagai by Burmese police. Yes, murdered. A heart-wrenching video on Japanese television shows a soldier or police officer aiming a gun at Nagai and shooting him, point blank, capturing Nagai falling to the ground. "A loud crack is audible as a soldier points his rifle at the prone figure before launching himself at the dispersing crowd of protesters," reports The Times of London.

"Something deplorable is happening there," said Japanese PM Yasuo Fukuda. "We must consider what on earth we should do to resolve the situation."

Video below. Warning: graphic content.

My Flak Moment

First came the butter-up, then the drubbing.

As a guest host on this week's edition of the Flak Magazine podcast, I was introduced as being among Taylor Carik and Jim Norton's all-time wish list for guests, an auspicious roster with names ranging from John Goodman to Nelson Mandela, Chilean president Michelle Bachelet to Gwar. Disoriented by flattery, I was then summarily destroyed by Taylor in the news quiz (who knew Twinkies have some of the same ingredients as rocket fuel and shampoo?).

But before that, we had a great discussion on new media and the Twin Cities newspaper scene, internet oddities (from a TV news report on a drunk guy stuck in a chimney to Eyeteeth's post on the Bush family pool boy), new music (Iron & Wine's The Shepherd's Dog and the inadvisability of metal bands attempting to cover a Ronnie James Dio classic), and Taylor's discovery that entire movies, like Red Dawn and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, are available in small-screen splendor on YouTube.

Sincerely, these guys are great -- sharp as tacks, incredibly informed, funny as hell, and definitely worth your listening time -- and I enjoyed being a part of their show. Give a listen.

The death of brands / Death and brands

Above: Laura Keeble's installation of branded gravestones, Idol Worship. Below: Pepsi's truth in advertising.

Buddha's Army

I confess I have this thing about democracy -- people, together, guiding a shared future: it's a beautiful thing they're fighting for. So the Burma/Myanmar protests touch that part of me. But also there's something moving about the symbols, the aesthetics, and the powerful example set by brave individuals acting collectively.

Some of the most affecting images of the Saffron Revolution, for me, are the ones where "armies" of orange-robed monks march in perfect regimented lines, like soldiers, but with a confidence deeper than the false one that comes from carrying sidearms. A Reuters photo series (where I got most of these photos) also shows some of the individual actions, from the example of resolve set by long-imprisoned opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to the image above that seems to show a lone, anonymous protester in a moment of bravery not unlike the man at Tiananmen Square who stopped a line of tanks with his will alone.

Their courage, wherever it comes from, must be linked to deep frustration. I can't help thinking: life under the junta must be awful for a revered institution like Buddhism to have its members turn their alms bowls upside down in direct defiance of the government and its supports. Or: life must be bad when Buddhist monks and nuns, who likely understand better than the rest of us that life is suffering, have had enough.

Nine people are confirmed dead in the violent police crackdown on protest, including AFP photographer Kenji Nagai (above and below), who lying injured after being shot by soldiers still kept taking photos.

Yet they still march.

Time had a sobering photo essay on all the protests these last 19 years. All registered dissent, but none toppled the junta. Will this one be any different? Maybe: The eyes of the world are on Burma like never before (not that the regime has cared one iota about what we think). What I want to know is: how can we help?

One answer came in my inbox (thanks, Mary): Amnesty International has launched an email campaign where you can urge Bush to call for an immediate deployment of a UN Security Council mission to Burma. A letter-writing campaign doesn't seem like much, but according to blogger Nyein Yan Char, who says there are now more than 1400 (and counting) political prisoners held by the regime, direct action by the UN is what's needed.

Resources:
Protest Q&A from The Telegraph
Video update from Global Voices
Hour-by-hour updates on the situation, from The Buddhist Channel
Photos by Flickr user gmhembree

*A note about terminology: Out of habit, I refer to Myanmar with the anglicized name, Burma. Long ago, I heard -- somewhere -- that because the junta made the official decreee that changed the name to Myanmar, Burma was the preferred name.

Orange power

Love this picture. [via TIME]

Monk meme

Saffron Revolution Worldwide has made a stencil of Burma's marching monks so people can visually show solidarity with their peaceful resistance. Spread the meme.

Think of the childrens.

What better spokesman? George Bush, promoting No Child Left Behind after the National Assessment of Education Progress results came out yesterday:

"As yesterday's positive report card shows," Bush said, "childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured."

Of course, the official transcript of his words don't have that pesky "s."

$600K fix planned for swastika-shaped Navy complex

D'oh!

"The U.S. Navy has decided to spend as much as $600,000 for landscaping and architectural modifications to obscure the fact that one its building complexes looks like a swastika from the air," Tony Perry reports in Monday's edition of the LA Times. "The four L-shaped buildings, constructed in the late 1960s, are part of the amphibious base at Coronado and serve as barracks for Seabees."

Quotes du Jour: Liberals & Conservatives

Via Neatorama:

"A liberal is a person whose interests aren’t at stake at the moment."

- Willis Player, businessman (1915-1981)

"A conservative is a man who sits and thinks, mostly sits."

- President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924)

Shirts for monks?

Out of print and probably intended for type geeks and hipsters, these "Avant-Gandhi" t-shirts by Emil Kozak oughta come in saffron.

Saffron Revolution marches on despite violence

It's been amazing watching resistance to the junta in Burma grow: tens of thousands of saffron-robed monks, nuns, and student supporters taking to the streets in peaceful protest against an oppressive 19-year military dictatorship and the high prices and restricted freedoms that have come with it. Now riot police are kicking back.

Yesterday monks worried about "white heads" -- police, their freshly shaven heads as a giveaway, posing as monks -- infiltrating their ranks and stirring up violence to create an excuse for a military response. Today, police have charged crowds, firing tear gas and beating some (including an 80-year-old monk), reportedly killing one, and troops now are surrounding at least six monasteries. Other reports say a nun and six monks have been shot, 17 have been injured, and four have died.

Pro-democracy protesters topped 100,000 in Yangon Monday, led by the monks, who chanted "Do-aye!": "It is our task!"

The big question, of course, is whether the regime will respond to the monks and mounting world pressure. Looking at the crowds, it's hard not to not be hopeful about momentum being on the side of democracy.

For more: Democratic Voice of Burma

Geek Protest

Vatican to go carbon-neutral

Jesus, that's cool:

[T]he Vatican has just become the world's first state to announce its intention to become carbon-neutral.

Its vital partner in this endeavor is a start-up enterprise from Hungary called KlimaFa and its San Francisco parent company, Planktos International. The company plans to recultivate an area that once was the lush 37-acre Tiszakeszi forest northeast of Hungary's capital, Budapest.

The so-called Vatican Climate Forest may be more than 500 miles away from the Vatican, but according to KlimaFa it will be large enough, at least in theory, to offset the Vatican's entire carbon-dioxide emissions for 2007.

[Read more]

George H.W. Bush's poolboy speaks

James Razsa, who grew up in Grey, Maine, and found himself pool boy to former president George Bush, recently spoke with the San Francisco Chronicle about the experience. His summation: "If every American had to pool-boy for these people for a day, you'd have a revolution on your hands."

While a leaf skimmer doesn't get great access to the powerful, the story does offer this glimps of the Bushes:

Razsa recalls one day when former first lady Barbara Bush was on her way over, and it looked like there wouldn't be time to bring the pool's temperature up to her desired 82 degrees in time. The family's caretaker was in a panic, he says.

"He kept shouting, 'Barbara will go crazy! Barbara will go crazy!'" Razsa recalls. "This is the same woman who after Hurricane Katrina said (of the Houston Astrodome refugees), 'You know, they're underprivileged anyway, so this -- this is working very well for them.'"

Wilco Action Figures

File under: "You know you've made it when..." One of my favorite bands, immortalized in plastic, by Portland-based UNKL (Derek Welch and Jason Bacon).

Francis' Fabiolas

For some 20 years, Francis Alÿs has collected paintings of the Catholic saint Fabiola. Each of his nearly 300 paintings is based on a now-lost original by 19th century French painter Jean-Jacques Henner. Last week, Alÿs' collection went on view at the Hispanic Societey of America in New York. The Belgian artist first noticed two of the paintings at a Brussels flea market in 1992; he didn't buy them but they registered in his mind: a woman in profile, always facing the same direction, always wearing red. He kept noticing the woman, rendered in paint, thread and carved wood. The ubiquity of the iconic image, Alÿs said, "indicates a different criterion of what a masterwork could be." The Dia-commissioned exhibition is on view through April 2008.