Freedom is our finest treasure.
လြတ္လပ္မႈဟာ ငါတို ့ရဲ့ အေကာင္းဆုံး အသိမ္ေမြ ့ဆုံး အမြန္ျမတ္ဆုံး အလွဆုံး ရတနာျဖစ္ပါတယ္။
Freedom is the most precious experience of mankind.
လြတ္လပ္မႈဟာ လူသားရဲ့ တန္ဖိုးအရိွဆုံး အေတြ ့အႀကံဳျဖစ္တယ္။
Freedom is the mother of all values.
လြတ္လပ္မႈဟာ တန္ဖိုးထားစရာေတြအားလုံးရဲ့ မိခင္ျဖစ္တယ္။
လြတ္လပ္ျခင္း ဆိုတဲ့ စကားလုံးဟာ ငါတို ့ရဲ့ ဘာသာစကားထဲမွာ ျမတ္နိုးစရာ တန္ဖိုးထားစရာ အေကာင္းဆုံး
စကားလုံးျဖစ္တယ္။
ဒါေႀကာင့္ ဒီစကားလုံးကို ေပါ့ေပါ့တန္တန္ ေနရာမွာ တလဲြ မသုံးသင့္ဘူး။
လြတ္လပ္တဲ့စိတ္ကို သိလာမွ လူပီသတဲ့စိတ္ကို သိတယ္။
လြတ္လပ္တဲ့စိတ္ကို သိမွ လူသားရဲ့ျမင့္ျမတ္မႈကို သိမယ္။
လြတ္လပ္တဲ့စိတ္ဟာ ဂုဏ္သိကၡာရိွတယ္။ လြတ္လပ္တဲ့စိတ္မွာ အထင္ႀကီးတာ အထင္ေသးတာ မရိွဘူး။
လြတ္လပ္တဲ့စိတ္ဟာ ေႀကာက္ေနတဲ့စိတ္ မဟုတ္ဘူး။
တစ္ေန ့ထက္တစ္ေန ့ ပိုျပီးအသိဥာဏ္ရိွတဲ့သူ ျဖစ္လာဖို ့ ႀကိဳးစားေနရတာ တစ္ေန ့ထက္တစ္ေန ့
ပိုလြတ္လပ္လာဖို ့ ႀကိဳးစားေနရတာ အဓိပၸါယ္ ရိွတယ္။
လူတစ္ေယာက္ပဲျဖစ္ျဖစ္ လူမ်ိဳးတစ္မ်ိဳးပဲျဖစ္ျဖစ္ ကိုယ့္ကိုယ္ကို ကိုယ္ မထိန္းသိမ္းနိုင္ပဲနဲ ့ လြတ္လပ္မႈကို မရနိုင္ဘူး။
လြတ္လပ္စြာ ေတြးေခၚခြင့္ ရိွေနတာကို မသုံးပဲနဲ ့ လြတ္လပ္စြာ ေျပာဆိုခြင့္ကို လိုခ်င္တာဟာ အဆင့္ေက်ာ္ေနပါတယ္။
ကိုယ္တန္ဖိုးထားတဲ့အရာမွာ သူမ်ားရဲ့ ထင္ျမင္ခ်က္ေတြ တုံ ့ျပန္မႈေတြ မပါမွ လြတ္လပ္တယ္။
မွန္တာကို လုပ္ရဲတာဟာ ရိုးသားမႈနဲ ့သတိၱ နွစ္မ်ိဳးလုံး ရိွလို ့။ ရိုးသားမႈနဲ ့ သတိၲ ရိွတဲ့သူမွသာ လြတ္လပ္တဲ့သူျဖစ္တယ္။
Thursday, November 6, 2008
လြတ္လပ္မႈ-(၁)-ဆရာေတာ္ဦးေဇာတိက
က်န္းမာေရး-ဆရာေတာ္ဦးေဇာတိက
က်န္းမာေရးလို ့ေျပာတဲ့အခါမွာ ဒီခႏၶာကိုယ္ေပၚမွာ ေရာဂါမရိွတာေလာက္ကို က်န္းမာေရးလို ့ ေျပာလို ့မရဘူး။
တကယ့္က်န္းမာေရး အစစ္ကို ေျပာရမယ္ဆိုရင္ ဘဝတစ္ခုလုံး အဆင္ေျပေအာင္ ေနနိုင္တယ္ဆိုတာ ပါမွ ရတယ္။
အဲ့ဒီအထဲမွာ ဆက္ဆံေရးပါ ပါလာတယ္။
ဒီေလာကႀကီးဟာ ဆက္စပ္ေနတယ္ေနာ္။ အဲဒီဆက္စပ္မႈဆိုတဲ့ သဘာဝကို နက္နက္နဲနဲ နားလည္ဖို ့ အင္မတန္
အေရးႀကီးတယ္။ ခႏၶာကိုယ္ထဲမွာ ရိွတဲ့ အသဲတို ့ နွလုံးတို ့ အဆုတ္တို ့ ဦးေႏွာက္တို ့ဟာ တစ္ခုနဲ ့တစ္ခု အေပးအယူ
ရိွမွ ညိွျပီးအလုပ္လုပ္မွ ခႏၶာကိုယ္က်န္းမာသလို ပတ္ဝန္းက်င္နဲ ့ အျပန္အလွန္ အေပးအယူရိွျပီး ညိွျပီးလုပ္မွ ေနမွ ဘဝ
က်န္းမာတယ္။
လူတေယာက္ဟာ သူ ့အတြက္ အေရးႀကီးတဲ့ ကိုယ္စြမ္းကိုယ္စေတြ အလားအလာေတြ အရည္အခ်င္းေတြကို
အေကာင္အထည္ေဖာ္ဖို ့အေရးမွာ မေအာင္ျမင္လို ့ရိွရင္ အဲဒီလူဟာ မက်န္းမမာျဖစ္မယ္။
ကိုယ့္အရည္အခ်င္းေတြ ကိုယ့္ပါရမီဓာတ္ခံေတြ ကိုယ့္စြမ္းရည္သတိၱေတြကုိ အေကာင္အထည္ေဖာ္လိုက္ရင္
ေဖာ္လိုက္သေလာက္ပဲ လူသားေတြအေနနဲ ့ ရရိွခံစားနိုင္တဲ့ စိတ္ေက်နပ္မႈထဲမွာ အေလးနက္ဆုံးေက်နပ္မႈမ်ိဳးကို
ခံစားရမယ္။
The abality to manage job stress is an important step to becoming a healthier person.
အလုပ္မွာေတြ ့ႀကံဳရတဲ့ ပင္ပန္းမႈကို ခံနိုင္ရည္ရိွေအာင္ လုပ္နိုင္တာဟာ က်န္းမာေရး ပိုေကာင္းဖို ့ အေရးႀကီးတဲ့အဆင့္၊
အေရးႀကီးတဲ့ ေျခလွမ္းတစ္လွမ္း ျဖစ္တယ္။
ဘယ္လိုအခက္အခဲ ျဖစ္လာျဖစ္လာ အဲဒီအခက္အခဲ ျဖစ္လာတာဟာ ငါ့အေႀကာင္းကိုငါ ပိုျပီး သိလာေအာင္လုပ္ဖို ့
အခြင့္အေရးတစ္ခုပဲ၊ ငါ့ကိုယ္ငါ စိတ္ထားေရာ၊ အသိဥာဏ္ပါ ပိုျပီးေတာ့ ရင့္က်က္တဲ့လူ ျဖစ္လာေအာင္လုပ္ဖို ့
အခြင့္အေရးပဲ ဆိုတာကို နားလည္ျပီးေတာ့ အသုံးခ်သြားတဲ့သူဟာ ႀကာေလေလ ပိုျပီးေတာ့ ေလးနက္တဲ့သူ၊
ရင့္က်က္တဲ့သူ၊ ႀကာေလေလ ကိုယ့္အားကိုယ္ကိုးနိုင္တဲ့လူ ျဖစ္ျပီးေတာ့ အခက္အခဲလည္း နဲသြားတဲ့လူ ျဖစ္လိမ့္မယ္။
ခႏၶာကိုယ္လည္းပဲ က်န္းမာေရး ပိုေကာင္းလာမယ္၊ စိတ္လည္း က်န္းမာေရး ပိုေကာင္းလာမယ္။
ကိုယ့္ဘဝမွာ ေကာင္းတာေတြျဖစ္လာဖို ့ ကိုယ္ ကိုယ္တိုင္က တာဝန္ယူျပီး မလုပ္ပဲနဲ ့ ျဖစ္လာမွာ မဟုတ္ပါဘူး။
ဘယ္နည္းနဲ ့မွ မျဖစ္နိုင္ဘူး။
ကိုယ့္ဘဝမွာ စိတ္ႀကည္လင္မႈ၊ ရႊင္လန္းမႈ၊ ေပ်ာ္ရႊင္မႈ၊ ေအးခ်မ္းမႈ ရိွဖို ့နဲ ့ ကိုယ့္ရဲ့က်န္းမာမႈအတြက္ ကိုယ့္ရဲ့စိတ္အေျခအေန
ကိုယ့္စိတ္ေနသေဘာထားက အေရးႀကီးဆုံး ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။
Hillary has 'zero' interest in trading Senate seat for a job in Obama Administration
http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-40794.html
New York, Nov 5 : Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has said she has 'zero' interest in trading her Senate seat for a high-profile job in an Obama Administration, but that hasn't stopped some of her fervent supporters from dreaming.
Many women want to see her on the Supreme Court, largely to protect Roe v. Wade; health care advocates think she'd make an energetic Secretary of Health and Human Services; and there is talk of her becoming secretary of State or Ambassador to the United Nations.
"I know she's going to take a big job with Obama," said Mary Margaret Salkin, a beautician in Lower Manhattan.
"I don't know if it will be a Cabinet job or something bigger, like, you know the Supreme Court. But he owes her after today," she said.
In an Obama Administration, some advocates say, it would be important to get someone with Hillary's passion and experience onto the Supreme Court to hold the center.
Others think she would make an excellent substitute for the current majority leader of the Senate, Harry Reid of Nevada.
But the former first lady and runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination says she wants no part of that, The Times reported.
In an October appearance on the television show Fox & Friends, Clinton said she has "zero" interest in a number of Washington jobs.
"I'm not seeking any other position except for being the best senator for New York that I can be," she said, a comment that her press staff and campaign advisers have repeated frequently.
"We have a majority leader who Senator Clinton respects and fully supports, and she's looking forward to working with Reid and Obama and a hopefully expanded Democratic majority in the [Senate] to bring about real solutions to the problems left in the wake of eight years of failed Bush policies," wrote Clinton adviser Philippe Reines in an e-mail to The Washington Times.
Despite the fervent feedback, Clinton may really not be eager to change jobs, now that the White House is out of reach for at least four and maybe eight years.
--- ANI
Myanmar gas row highlights energy crisis in Bangladesh
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081106/wl_asia_afp/bangladeshmyanmarsecurityenergygas_081106041022
by Shafiq Alam Shafiq Alam – Wed Nov 5, 11:10 pm ET AFP/File – File photo shows a a Bangladeshi warship taking part in a multinational naval exercise. A simmering dispute … DHAKA (AFP) – A simmering dispute between Bangladesh and neighbouring Myanmar in a hydrocarbon-rich stretch of the Bay of Bengal has highlighted Dhaka's desperate plight over dwindling gas supplies, say analysts.
Bangladesh this week took the unusual step of deploying four naval ships to the disputed waters -- claimed by each nation as their own -- after its southeastern neighbour began gas exploration activities there.
Dhaka says it will take "all possible measures" to protect the zone, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Bangladesh's Saint Martin Island.
The military-backed interim government has meanwhile sought to resolve the dispute diplomatically, dispatching its foreign secretary to Myanmar to hold crisis talks.
A senior official from Myanmar's military government said they were open to discussions, but insisted that oil and gas companies were operating inside their territory and far away from the disputed sea boundary.
Myanmar also insisted that the United States was involved and stirring up trouble -- an accusation denied by Washington.
Regardless of what sparked the face-off, experts say Bangladesh has taken an unusually strong stance, especially towards a country it has generally enjoyed friendly relations with.
"There's a chance we might find gas in the Bay of Bengal. India and Myanmar have already discovered gas there so it's crucial for Bangladesh to assert its territory. A lot is at stake," said energy expert Nurul Islam, from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.
Bangladesh has been facing an acute shortage of gas in recent months with demand outstripping supply by 15 percent thanks to its booming manufacturing sector.
The government has told hundreds of factories they will have to wait until 2011 for new supplies, as years of neglect over exploration have fast depleted gas reserves.
To overcome the crunch, the emergency government earlier this year divided its sea territory into 28 blocks and invited bids from international oil companies for exploration contracts.
Myanmar protested the move, although Bangladeshi officials have said they refrained from awarding contracts for blocks lying in disputed waters.
Security expert Imtiaz Ahmed of Dhaka University said Bangladesh's actions this week were aimed at deterring foreign companies who had been awarded contracts by Myanmar to search for gas in the region.
"The government is trying to send a signal to foreign oil companies and the international community that it would take any drillings in the disputed blocks very seriously," Ahmed said.
"Under international laws, Myanmar cannot drill in disputed waters, which have not been demarcated yet."
Ahmed said all seismic surveys showed huge gas reserves in the Bay of Bengal, which would ensure Bangladesh's energy security for decades.
"It's a matter of our future. We may not be rich now but our economy is growing fast. Soon enough we'll have the capacity to drill in deep sea waters," he said.
Myanmar pulls warships from disputed waters: Bangladesh
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081106/wl_asia_afp/bangladeshmyanmarsecurityenergygas_081106061509
Thu Nov 6, 1:15 am ET AFP/File – File photo shows a a Bangladeshi warship taking part in a multinational naval exercise. Myanmar withdrew … CHITTAGONG (AFP) – Myanmar withdrew two warships from the Bay of Bengal Thursday after a four-day standoff with neighbouring Bangladesh over mineral-rich disputed waters, a Bangladeshi naval official said.
The tension between the two countries began after Myanmar sent warships to support a Korean company drilling some 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Bangladesh's Saint Martin Island.
Bangladesh immediately deployed four warships to the area and warned it would take "all possible measures" to protect its sovereignty.
"Myanmar has withdrawn two warships," a senior Bangladesh Navy officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
"It's a positive response. There is now very little tension. The four other ships engaged there for exploration activities are also preparing to back out. Their drilling works have already been stopped.
"We will also withdraw our vessels as soon as they remove drilling ships," he added.
An Armed Forces spokesman confirmed the development to AFP.
Bangladesh foreign minister Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury flew to Myanmar on Thursday for talks on the row.
An official from Myanmar's military government said the country was open to talks, but insisted that oil and gas companies were operating inside its own territory and far away from the disputed sea boundary.
The official, who refused to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media, claimed that other countries were meddling in the spat, and implied that the United States had a hand in the dispute.
Myanmar has discovered huge reserves of natural gas in the Bay of Bengal and has made it clear it intends to explore further.
The two countries have held a series of meetings in the past year aimed at resolving the dispute over their maritime boundary.
Japan's LDP May Seek Alliance With Opposition, Nakasone Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aGv93O.tUVIA
By Bradley K. Martin and Sachiko Sakamaki
Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone said the government will probably seek to form a coalition with the opposition after losing its ability to push through legislation in upcoming elections.
Prime Minister Taro Aso will probably call elections by March or April before he runs out of ``freshness and energy,'' Nakasone said in an interview in his office Nov. 4. If the Liberal Democratic Party loses its two-thirds majority in the lower house, which allows it to override vetoes by the upper chamber, it may approach the opposition Democratic Party of Japan about forming a new coalition, he said.
``The situation is very dire for the LDP according to current opinion polls,'' said Nakasone, 90, who served as prime minister from 1982 to 1987. ``A ship's captain looks for an opportunity to deploy lifeboats in a storm.''
Aso had wanted to call elections last month but was forced to postpone them because of his low public approval rating, said Nakasone, whose son Hirofumi Nakasone serves as Japan's foreign minister. Aso announced a plan to inject 5 trillion yen ($51 billion) into the economy to help households and small businesses last month and indicated he would delay elections until the global financial crisis subsides.
Aso's approval rating fell from 49.5 percent after he took office Sept. 24 to 40.5 percent in a Yomiuri newspaper poll published Nov. 4. The paper didn't report a margin of error in the telephone survey of 1,041 people.
After elections the LDP will approach the DPJ's leader about forming a so-called ``grand coalition,'' Nakasone said. There's about ``a 50 percent chance'' the DPJ will agree, he said.
``A grand coalition is one of a few options the LDP has to stay in power,'' said Tomoaki Iwai, political science professor at Nihon University in Tokyo. ``The LDP is focusing on how to survive as a ruling party.''
Nakasone's term as prime minister is the fourth longest since World War II. Nakasone, who privatized the state-owned railway system, was known for his close relationship with U.S. President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
DPJ chief Ichiro Ozawa served as home minister in Nakasone's cabinet before leaving the LDP in 1993.
To contact the reporter on this story: Bradley K. Martin in Tokyo at bmartin18@bloomberg.net; Sachiko Sakamaki in Tokyo at Ssakamaki1@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: November 5, 2008 21:19 EST
Doctor visits Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi: witnesses
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/081106/afp/081106113445asiapacificnews.html
YANGON (AFP) - A doctor visited Myanmar's detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday, witnesses said, two months after her refusal of food supplies sparked concerns that she was malnourished.
Her regular doctor Tin Myo Win and his assistant went into the lakeside compound where Aung San Suu Kyi is detained in the early afternoon and stayed for about two hours, witnesses near her Yangon home told AFP.
There was no information about the nature of the visit, but a spokesman for her National League for Democracy party has previously said that Aung San Suu Kyi was given a clean bill of health after the doctor's last visit in October.
Tin Myo Win gave Aung San Suu Kyi an intravenous drip on September 14, about a month after she began refusing food rations delivered to her home, prompting her lawyer Kyi Win to describe her as "malnourished."
The NLD and Kyi Win always denied the 63-year-old was on hunger strike, but said she was only eating small amounts of food to call for greater human rights in Myanmar and to protest her detention.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who has no other source of food aside from the daily supplies provided by the military regime, started accepting the food rations again a few days after being given the drip.
The Nobel peace prize winner had been detained for most of the past two decades. She is kept mostly isolated from the outside world, only receiving occasional visits from her doctor and lawyer.
Her NLD won a landslide victory in a 1990 election but the military never allowed it to take office and instead cemented its decades-long grip on power.
At UN, Racism Expert Omits Myanmar like NGOs from Durban II
http://www.innercitypress.com/un1durban110408.html
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, November 4 -- With ethnic strife raging from Eastern Congo to Kashmir, from Italy to Myanmar, the UN's expert on xenophobia and "related intolerance" tried Tuesday to not answer Press questions about specific countries. Kenyan lawyer Githu Muigai, describing himself as very involved in planning the so-called Durban II conference on racism, said that he shouldn't like to be quoted about his negotiations to visit countries.
Inner City Press asked him, since his predecessor Doudou Diene has specifically criticized Pakistan, India and Nepal for not responding positively to requests that he visit, why he only including India and Nepal on his new list of country requests. "Pakistan did not drop off the list," Muigai insisted, without disputing that it is, in fact, no longer on the list. He offered an explanation, that if he visits India, he won't want to stay around "in the neighborhood" and create the impression that only that region has problems. Video here, from Minute 18:27.
It should be noted that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently visited that neighborhoods and visited India and Nepal, as well as Bangladesh and the Philippines, without stopping in Pakistan. Could this be a UN trend?
Inner City Press asked Muigai, since Myanmar has been assigned Special Rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana, if he would be willing to try to visit to investigate the reports of the military government's oppression of minority ethnic groups. No, Muigai answered, it "would not be a very good use of resources, I would imagine the rapporteur" would bring out the information. Video here, from Minute 28:32. In the case of Tomas Ojea Quintana, who went strikingly easy on Myanmar's Than Shwe regime's human rights record, such "imagination" only harms the Burmese people.
Githu Muigai, counselor, investigator, UN special rapporteur
That said, Muigai comes off as an able lawyer. He is representing the former foreign minister of Kenya -- while insisting that he would have no conflict in investigating the ethnic violation, Kikuyu and Luo, that occurred during the dispute Kibaki - Odinga election -- and at the same time serving as a judge. And, as noted, he is a major force in the run-up to the Durban II conference. Already, even the preliminary funding for this sequel conference became a major issue during the December 2007 late night budget fight.
When asked on Tuesday about Durban I, which occurred just before September 11, 2001, Muigai said that most of the problems had come from NGOs, not member states. Inner City Press asked him about the statement by the chairman of the Durban II Preparatory Conference, that the Conference "decided without a vote not to invite 33 NGOs to the first substantive session." Muigai nodded and said it is his understanding that they are inviting only the NGOs which "need" to be there. But who then is deciding?
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund. Video Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile (and weekends): 718-716-3540
Japan Stock Futures Gain on Surging Commodities, Bank Optimism
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=axJnpMd_lmqk&refer=japan
By Nick Baker
Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Japan stock-index futures advanced as Americans voted for a president, commodities surged and traders bet the Treasury will bail out more financial companies.
Toyota Motor Corp., Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and Canon Inc. increased more than 3.9 percent in U.S. trading. American depository receipts for companies across Asia also advanced, including BHP Billiton Ltd.'s 8.9 percent surge as metals and oil jumped.
Nikkei 225 Stock Average futures expiring in December traded at 9,595 in Chicago as of 6:51 a.m. Tokyo time, representing a 5.4 percent gain from the close of 9,105 in Singapore and 9,100 in Osaka, Japan. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index climbed 4.1 percent, while the Bank of New York Mellon Asia ADR Price Index added 5.5 percent.
U.S. stocks staged the biggest rally on a presidential Election Day since it stopped being a trading holiday in 1984. General Electric Co. added 7.6 percent while CIT Group Inc. and Principal Financial Group Inc. climbed more than 22 percent after people briefed on the matter said the government may broaden the focus of its rescue program. Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. led all 40 energy shares in the S&P 500 higher as oil gained. Archer Daniels Midland Co. rose 15 percent after profit more than doubled at the world's largest grain processor.
To contact the reporter on this story: Nick Baker in New York at nbaker7@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: November 4, 2008 17:06 EST
Fw: [BRCJ]11月の活動案内
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ビルマ市民フォーラム メールマガジン 2008/11/5
People's Forum on Burma
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日本ビルマ救援センター（ＢＲＣＪ）からのお知らせを転送させていただき
ます。
（重複の際は何卒ご容赦ください。）
ＰＦＢ事務局
http://www1.jca.apc.org/pfb/
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皆さま、
11月の活動案内をお送りいたします。
日本ビルマ救援センター事務局
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
■月例ビルマ問題学習会 （1４日、大阪市・谷七）
「ビルマ語講座入門」
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
○日時：１１月１４日（金） １９：００～２０：３０
○講師：遠藤 茜さん、マウンマウンさん
○内容：ビルマの文化を紹介しながら、あいさつや簡単な会話を勉強します。
入門編ですので、お気軽にご参加ください。
○会場：大阪ボランティアセンター（大阪社会福祉指導センター）
地下１階ボランティアルーム
地下鉄「谷町６丁目駅」より谷町７丁目交差点を右
地下鉄「谷町９丁目駅」より谷町７丁目交差点を左
＊向かいの大阪社会福祉会館ではありません。お間違えのないように。
会場周辺の地図は、次のアドレスからご覧いただけます。
http://www.osakafusyakyo.or.jp/sidoucenter/sidoucenter-access.htm
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■神戸松蔭女子学院大学 （26日、神戸市・灘区）
2008年秋季特別講座シリーズ
「ミャンマー（ビルマ）の現状」
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
○日時：１1月26日（日）１４：４０～１６：１０
○会場：神戸松蔭女子学院大学
TEL:078-882-6122
http://www.shoin.ac.jp/access/index.html
○予約：不要/無料
○講師：中尾恵子（日本ビルマ救援センター代表）
以下、ジュマ・ネット/アーユス仏教国際協力ネットワーク関西からのお知らせ
です。イベントの詳細につきましては主催者にお問い合わせください。
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
●差別と女性に対する暴力の撤廃を目指して、
民族や宗教をこえて連帯する女性たち
～バングラデシュ、チッタゴン丘陵の女性運動の現場より～
ベッキー＆アヌワラ来日トーク
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日時：2008年11月9日（日）午後15時～17時
場所：大阪市立加島人権文化センター 2階 和室
（大阪市淀川区加島1-39-2、06-6309-2255）
地図：http://www.city.osaka.jp/shimin/shisetu/02/kasima.html
アクセス：JR東西線「加島」下車 1番出口より東へ徒歩10分
梅田・十三より大阪市バス「神崎橋」「加島駅前」行き、阪急バス
「加島駅」「西川」「阪急塚口駅」行きで「加島中」下車 南へ徒歩5分
会費：500円（来日ゲストへのカンパ）
定員：50名
お申込み：メールか電話でお申込み下さい。当日参加も大歓迎です。
メール：jummanet@gmail.com、電話：03-3831-1072
●夜、19時～の交流会もご参加ください！「みつや交流亭」にて
大阪市淀川区三津屋中1丁目4-29（三津屋商店街の中）
20世紀は、民族アイデンティティに依存しすぎた時代だったのかもしれません。
民族の違いが、あまりにも簡単に殺戮、差別、同一化の理由になってきました。
その中で一番苦しんできたのは女性たちではなかったでしょうか？彼女たちは常
に人身売買、性搾取の恐れの中で生きてきました。日本でも、バングラデシュで
もその構造は同じです。
21世紀に生きる私たちは、次世代のためにも差別構造としての民族性ではなく、
「共存のための民族性」を考え、生み出していかなくてはなりません。そのため
にも、これまでの差別の構造を向き合う必要があります。
バングラデシュ、チッタゴン丘陵地帯には古くからモンゴロイド系の先住民族
ジュマの人々が住んでいました。その地へ1970年代から政府による大規模な入植
政策と軍事占領が始まり、数々の人権侵害と虐殺事件から紛争へと発展しました。
1997年には政府とジュマの間で和平協定が結ばれ、紛争が終結したものの、2008
年の現在まで政府は和平協定の約束を実施せず、様々な人権侵害が続いています。
この20年以上に渡る紛争の中で、最も大きな犠牲となったのはジュマの貧しい女
性被害者たちでした。
このような民族対立を抱えたチッタゴン丘陵地帯で、民族や宗教の違いを越え
て連帯し、女性の人権を守るために大きく活躍している「ドゥルバル・ネット
ワーク」のベッキーさん（トリプラ民族/ジュマ・キリスト教徒）とアヌワラさ
ん（ベンガル民族・イスラム教徒）です。お2人からバングラデシュの女性たち
が差別と暴力にどのように立ち向かっているのか、彼女たちの取り組みについて、
お話を聞きます。また、皆さまからのご質問もお待ちしています。
●プロフィール：
ベッキー・トリプラさん（トリプラ民族/ジュマ・キリスト教徒）30歳
チッタゴン丘陵カグラチャリ県のカグラプール女性福祉組合のディレクター。
民族対立の激しいカグラチャリ県でレイプ被害者の支援にたずさわる。
アヌワラ・ベグンさん（ベンガル民族・イスラム教徒）40歳
チッタゴン丘陵バンドルボン県の女性NGO「EKATA」の代表。バンドルボン県では
じめてドゥルバル・ネットワークに加盟した古いメンバーの1人で、暴力に傷つ
いた多くの女性たちを力付けて来た。
●通訳・解説：
下澤 嶽（ジュマ・ネット代表）
共催：ジュマ・ネット/アーユス仏教国際協力ネットワーク関西
問合せ：
ジュマ・ネット
〒110-0015東京都台東区東上野1-20-6 丸幸ビル5F
Tel/Fax：03-3831-1072
Email:jummanet@gmail.com
URL:http://jumma.sytes.net/
アーユス仏教国際協力ネットワーク関西
淀川区西三国2-12-43 自敬寺内
Tel:090-2593-9991
---------------------------------------------------------------------
以下の通り各地でもイベントを行います。
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・11月8日（土）14：00～17：00 シンポジウム【東京、明治学院大学】
主催・ジュマ・ネット/明治学院大学国際平和研究所
http://daily.jummanet.org/?eid=873026
・11月10日（月）17：00～19：30 講演会【京都、龍谷大学】
主催：龍谷大学、ボランティア・NPO活動センター（Tel：075-645-2047）
http://park15.wakwak.com/~knc/entrance/event.htm#ryukoku
・11月13日（木）13：00～17：00 ワークショップ【東京、新宿常圓寺】
共催：アーユス仏教国際協力ネットワーク/ジュマ・ネット
http://daily.jummanet.org/?eid=873088
・11月14日（金）10：00～12：00 講演会【神奈川、かながわ県民センター】
共催：ジュマ・ネット/WE21ジャパン
http://daily.jummanet.org/?eid=873090
・11月15日（土）13：30～16：00 報告会＆映画【神奈川、あーすぷらざ】
主催：地球市民かながわぷらざ
http://www.k-i-a.or.jp/plaza/news/200811chikyushiminl.html#a
・11月15日（土）19：30～21：00 交流会【千葉、カフェブルー】
主催：ジュマと歩む会
http://chiba.way-nifty.com/civic_action_chiba/2008/10/post-c7bc.html
・11月16日（日）13：00～16：00 交流会【東京、常圓寺（じょうえんじ）】
主催：ジュマ・ネット
http://daily.jummanet.org/?eid=873511
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●招聘元・問合せ・申込み：ジュマ・ネット
〒110-0015東京都台東区東上野1-20-6 丸幸ビル5F
Tel・Fax：03-3831-1072
Email：jummanet@gmail.com URL：http://jumma.sytes.net/
============================================================
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◇■日本ビルマ救援センター（ＢＲＣＪ）事務局■◇
FAX:050-2008-0125
E-Mail:brcj@syd.odn.ne.jp
URL:http://www.burmainfo.org/brcj
-- Burmese Relief Center-Japan
SAARC: Full of Challenges and Opportunities
http://www.telegraphnepal.com/news_det.php?news_id=4301
By Anjan Shakya
As a common regional cooperation forum, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was founded in 1985. The regional organisation was set up as per the concept of regionalism, which has been gaining ground worldwide.
SAARC aims to promote well-being of the people in this part of the world and improve their living standard. Gearing up economic growth, making social progresses and cultural developments, reinforcing links between the member states and enhancing mutual collaboration and assistance in the economic, social, technical and scientific fields are other objectives of this organisation.
Challenges & Opportunities
The region is full of challenges and opportunities. South Asia is home to more than 1.5 billion people associated with various racial, lingual and religious groups. Some of the main challenges and problems facing the region include poverty, illiteracy, underdevelopment, terrorism, human trafficking, and racial and ethnic conflicts. Similarly, food and energy crises have also come out as burning issues of the region. In spite of such challenges and problems, South Asia is abundant in human as well as natural resources. When these resources are managed and utilized effectively, the region is sure to make considerable socio-economic progress within a short span of time.
The South Asian people have many reasons to be optimistic if we look at the SAARC Charter that has included all the existing realities in the sub-continent, with the countries of different sizes, various levels of socio-economic development, historical legacies between and among the nations of the region. But, when the progress made by SAARC is assessed minutely, we do not find a very encouraging picture in terms of quality of life the people in South Asia.
However, SAARC is gradually fostering cooperation among the member states in a wide range of areas. Because of its contributions to promoting peace, good neighbourly relations and bringing about socio-economic transformation in the region, SAARC has become a valuable forum among its member states. As a saying goes: 'Rome was not built in a day', the regional forum also requires some more time to achieve its goals and objectives.
15th Summit
The 15th Summit of the regional organisation was held in Colombo in the first week of August 2008. The Summit was mainly concentrated on advancing regional cooperation, accelerating economic growth, social progress and cultural development for contributing to peace, stability and progress in the region. The regional body also realised the need for laying much focus on developing and implementing regional and sub-regional projects in the areas agreed on a priority basis. The South Asian leaders stressed enhancing relations and ensuring effective implementation of all regional programmes and mechanisms.
The issue of developing better connectivity within the region and the rest of the world got prominence in the Summit. The member states emphasised the need for launching fast-tracking projects for improving intra-regional connectivity and facilitating economic, social and people-to-people relations. Apart from these, the issues concerning energy and environment were high on agenda of the regional forum's Summit. The leaders of the region recognised the need to expeditiously develop and conserve the conventional sources of energy and to build up renewable sources of energy, including indigenous hydropower, solar, wind and bio-gas. The Summit also recognised the necessity to develop the regional hydro potential grid connectivity and gas pipelines.
The Summit showed its serious concern over some of the contemporary global issues such as increasing global warming, climate change and other environmental challenges facing the region. The leaders decided to intensify cooperation within an expanded regional environmental protection framework to deal, in particular, with issues associated with climate change.
The Summit also stressed forging close cooperation for capacity building, developing the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects and launching of advocacy and awareness-generating activities on climate change. Similarly, issues associated with disaster management and water conservation were also extensively discussed in the Summit.
The South Asian leaders laid their focus on poverty alleviation and SAARC Development Goals (SDGs) as major issues. They resolved to fight poverty through all available means, especially through people's empowerment. They expressed the satisfaction at the signing of the Charter of the SAARC Development Fund (SDF), and finalisation of its by-laws. They called for an early ratification of the SDF Charter.
The development and promotion of the Information and Communication Technology was another matter of discussion of the Summit. Besides, the Summit expressed its firm commitment to implementing the South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA) in letter and spirit and realised the need for removing major barriers hindering the process of trade liberalisation in the region.
The Summit underscored the imperative for making steady progress in the enforcement of the SAARC Social Charter. The member states are supposed to formulate the National Plans of Action. Moreover, terrorism, education and issues related to women and children were also discussed in the Summit. Taking into account the fast spread of tentacles of terrorism in the region, the member states agreed to raise united voice against terrorism.
Conclusion
It goes without saying that terrorism is one of the major concerns of SAARC. The issues related to food security, energy and trade are equally important in the region. Moreover, effective connectivity, cooperation, coordination, dignity, welfare and quality of living standard of the people in the South Asia are also crucial agendas. The 15th Summit has pledged for improving and implementing SAFTA by sighing an agreement on South Asian Regional Standards Organisation. The commitment to materialising the fast track projects for improving intra-regional connectivity and facilitating socio-economic sector could help strengthen the people-to-people ties in the region.
Similarly, the South Asian leaders' realisation to form the South Asian Economic Union could yet another valuable effort for the development and diversity of intra-regional trade in positive way.
The contribution of the observer countries like China, Japan, South Korea, Iran, Mauritius, USA and EU, and new observers-- Australia and Myanmar-- could be very crucial. They are expected to play a pivotal role in developing South Asia as a prosperous and developed region.
Anyway, looking at the resolutions of the 15th Summit, it can be said that the SAARC process is on the right track, as the regional organisation is committed to bringing about tangible changes in the lives of people. The regional forum has taken its third decade as a period of implementation. How SAARC declarations and commitments will be implemented remains to be seen.
(The author is Deputy Executive Director of Institute of Foreign Affairs.)
2008-11-05 06:49:09
Children Not in School Six Months after Cyclone -IRRAWADDY
http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=14568
By SAW YAN NAING Tuesday, November 4, 2008
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An estimated 300,000 children are still unable to attend school six months after Cyclone Nargis hit Burma, according to a leading relief agency, Save the Children in Burma.
Andrew Kirkwood, the country director of the relief agency, said that following the cyclone: “There’s a huge demand for this, from communities and children. There were about 400,000 children who were not able to go to school. Now, we’ve managed to get 100,000 of those kids back into school through, for example, the rebuilding of temporary schools, using relatively inexpensive materials.”
A Buddhist monk walks over the remains of his cyclone-destroyed monastery in Kaunt Chaung. (Photo: AFP)
Save the Children has rebuilt more than 350 temporary schools, according to a report it on October 31, highlighting the critical role of education in helping children recover.
“It’s hard to overstate the importance of getting children back to school,” said Kirkwood.
“The best way to deal with emotional distress is to normalize the lives of children, get them back into a routine and enable them to pick up what they were doing before the cyclone.”
The father of a student in Bogalay Township said many children are not able to attend school because their family focuses on their daily survival, and they believe the children can live without an education for now.
A housewife in Bogalay said, “You can see many children along the roadside, some begging, some stealing things, some surrounding rubbish baskets and collecting plastic to sell it to earn money. Some parents of children don’t want their children to go to school, and they tell their children to beg.”
The relief agency estimated that around 40 percent of the 140,000 people who were killed or disappeared in the wake of the cyclone disaster were children. Many who
survived were orphaned or separated from their parents.
According to a UNICEF report, it identified 220 orphans, 914 children separated from their parents, 302 “unaccompanied” children and 454 judged to be “extremely vulnerable.”
More than half of all schools in the Irrawaddy delta were destroyed, according to Save the Children.
Recently, Kyaw Thu, Burma’s deputy foreign minister and chairman of the Tripartite Core Group (TCG), the humanitarian assistance task force comprising Asean, the UN and the Burmese government, said in a press release: “Children are back in school, people are working again, the rice crop is due for harvesting shortly and transport and health facilities are again accessible.”
Barrack Obama and Burma -MIZZIMA
http://www.mizzima.com/edop/commentary/1247-barrack-obama-and-burma.html
by Mizzima News
Wednesday, 05 November 2008 19:04
1 Obama Statement on the Tragedy in Burma May 06, 2008
2 Senator Obama Statement on Burma
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
3 Obama Statement on the Situation in Burma
Monday, October 1, 2007
4 Obama Joins Kerry Resolution on Humanitarian Aid for Burma
Thursday, May 8, 2008
5 Statement of Senator Barack Obama on the 63rd Birthday of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
Thursday, June 19, 2008
6 Obama Statement on the Continued Detention of Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
7 Statement of Senator Barack Obama on the ASEAN Regional Forum Ministerial Meeting
8 Statement of Senator Barack Obama on International Human Rights Day
Obama Statement on the Tragedy in Burma
From the Campaign Office of U.S. Senator Barack Obama for President
Chicago, IL - Senator Obama released the following statement today in response to the tragic cyclone in Burma.
“My heart goes out to the people of Burma who have lost loved ones or otherwise been tragically affected by the cyclone that devastated Burma this past weekend.
I support the Administration's plan to deploy a disaster assistance response team to Burma to assess the needs of Burma’s people, and I urge the Burmese government to allow our team access so that we can move quickly and expeditiously in coordination with others in the international community to get help to those who most need it. Although the regime in Burma is one whose repressive rule deserves our condemnation, I also strongly believe that humanitarian assistance should not be used as a political tool against those in need."
Senator Obama Statement on Burma
Wednesday, September 26, 2007/ http://obama.senate.gov/press/070926-senator_obama_s_1/
"In Burma, thousands of ordinary citizens, inspired by their religious leaders, are calling for change in their long-suffering nation. We are witnessing the power of the human spirit -- and the power of non-violent protest consistent with Buddhist tradition. Yet tragically, today, in spite of the peaceful nature of this protest, the Burmese government began another brutal crackdown -- beating demonstrators, firing tear-gas and arresting hundreds. The military junta should halt this violence immediately, heed the will of the Burmese people, release Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, and begin the process of national reconciliation.
"The people of Burma have endured terrible oppression under that country’s brutal military junta. The heroes standing firm in the streets of Rangoon and other cities now deserve our strongest support. The United States and the international community must not wait for hundreds or thousands of people to be killed before taking additional action to try to prevent further violence from occurring.
"While, ultimately, change must come from within Burma, the international community has an important role to play to signal strong support for the courageous Burmese people. I have supported sanctions against Burma and welcome the additional sanctions the President announced at the UN General Assembly. But far more needs to be done -- immediately. It is not enough for the US to act alone. We must take the lead in working with the other key international players, particularly ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), India, Japan, the European Union, and especially China, to join the United States in pressing for the peaceful resolution of the current crisis in Burma and making clear the junta should not use force against peaceful protesters, including Buddhist monks.
"As the people of Burma stand up, we must stand with them."
Obama Statement on the Situation in Burma
Monday, October 1, 2007/ http://obama.senate.gov/press/071001-obama_statement_88/
For the last several days the world has watched the images of monks as they courageously and peacefully demand democracy in Burma – and the military junta's violent response. A regime that claims to be impervious to international criticism has moved to close off media and communications access to stem the flow of those images out of the country. The generals apparently believe that, without pictures, the world will eventually lose interest and move on. We must not allow this to happen.
I am pleased that the United Nations has dispatched Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari to Burma and that he has met with Aung San Suu Kyi. I hope he will persuade the junta to open a dialogue with the opposition, to release political prisoners, and to account for those who were killed or imprisoned in the last few days. Meanwhile, President Bush is right to try to increase pressure on Burma's repressive regime. I urge all nations, including the EU and Burma's neighbors, to cooperate in enforcing the financial sanctions the United States has imposed. The United States should also push for a UN Security Council Resolution to ban the provision of arms to Burma, and press China to help persuade the regime to begin a serious dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi and those seeking democratic reform. We also should lead in charting a unified course with ASEAN, China, India, Japan, and the EU to forge a road map for change in Burma, and prevent the junta from playing countries off each other as they have in the past.
It is easy in this age to be cynical about the power of people to bring about change. But ordinary people armed with courage and hope are not powerless; they are history's mightiest force, even before the guns of a brutal regime. We must remain true to their cause and honor their bravery.
Obama Joins Kerry Resolution on Humanitarian Aid for Burma
Thursday, May 8, 2008/ http://obama.senate.gov/press/080508-obama_joins_ker_1/
After Devastation of Cyclone, Resolution Asks that Roadblocks to Aid be Lifted, Evaluation of Aid Strategy
WASHINGTON, DC - The Senate has passed a resolution introduced by Senator John Kerry and a bipartisan group of 19 Senators urging humanitarian aid to the Burmese people following the devastation of the cyclone and accompanying tidal wave. There are currently 100,000 people dead and tens of thousands missing, with disease spreading rampantly throughout the flooded country. The resolution was cosponsored by Foreign Relations Chairman Joe Biden (D-DE), Ranking Member Richard Lugar (R-IN), Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), along with Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chris Dodd (D-CT), Barack Obama (D-IL), Jim Webb (D-VA), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Bob Menendez (D-NJ.), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Joe Lieberman (D-CT) Chuck Hagel (R-NE), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.)
The senators requested that the Bush Administration send the aid they have promised the troubled nation, and also sustain humanitarian aid to the Burmese people beyond the immediate crisis created by Cyclone Nargis. The resolution also asked that any restrictions placed by Burma's State Peace and Development Council on international non-governmental organizations be lifted, so that they can freely lend assistance, medical attention and funds to the victims of the disaster. Lastly, the resolution asks that the United States Agency for International Development conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the organizations capable of navigating these political roadblocks to effectively lend assistance to the Burmese people.
The full text of the resolution can be found at this LINK.
"At this tragic moment, the United States has a responsibility to help the Burmese people and push the junta to allow humanitarian aid to get to the people who need it the most, freely and rapidly," said Kerry. "This could be remembered as the moment when the United States and the world came to the aid of the Burmese people and made it clear that while we loathe the junta that has isolated Burma from the world and oppressed its citizens, we find common cause with the people of Burma and we will be there by their side at this difficult time."
"We're hearing reports that the death toll in Burma may reach over 100,000 - making it one of the most fatal disasters in modern history," said Biden. "The United States and the international community have a moral obligation to step up and offer immediate humanitarian assistance to the region. The Burmese government has to do its part as well, by allowing in aid workers and lifting restrictions on the flow of international assistance. Together, we must act now in order to prevent disease, starvation and a lack of resources from claiming even more lives."
"The U.S. Senate makes this emphatic humanitarian statement, expressing our sympathy for the people of Burma, and encouraging that all possible assistance is extended quickly to them," said Lugar.
"My prayers go out to the families of those killed, injured or missing in this past weekend's natural disaster in Burma," said McConnell. "It is my profound hope that the regime will permit the U.S. to help the Burmese people recover from this tragedy."
"Cyclone Nargis has left a path of death and destruction in its wake. The people of Burma are in desperate need for food, shelter, medical assistance and other humanitarian aid," Feinstein said. "It's our hope that the military regime will open the country to disaster assessment teams and international aid from the United States and other nations who stand ready to help."
"Cyclone Nargis has left a path of devastation and despair across Burma, and we must take immediate steps to help alleviate the dreadful living conditions that the survivors are facing," said Dodd. "The road to recovery will be long, and we must stand ready to aid the Burmese people as they begin to pick up the pieces. In light of this unprecedented need for humanitarian aid, I sincerely hope that the State Peace and Development Council will lift current restrictions on foreign assistance in Burma and allow the United States to provide the aid that is so desperately needed."
"The tragedy in Burma is heartbreaking," said Obama. "I support the United States' commitment to deploying disaster assistance and aid to the region, and I urge the Burmese government to take the steps necessary to ensure the international community can provide help to those who need it."
"Through tragedy, there may be some hope for the future for the citizens of Burma. After years of being isolated from the rest of the world, the United States along with the international community can use this opportunity to assist Burma and demonstrate good will towards the Burmese people," said Webb. "The time is ripe to move beyond the strategy of isolation and sanctions and toward the goal of opening up Burma. I am hopeful that the administration will move forward in that spirit and that the Government of Burma will accept the outpouring of international aid and allow international relief organizations access throughout the country."
"I have the utmost sympathy and support for the people of Burma," said Murkowski. "I want to assure them that the United States will provide assistance in this time of great need. As citizens of not only the United States, but of the whole world we must come to each other's aid in times of such terrible disasters."
"As the tragedy continues to unfold in Burma, the United States should take a firm leadership role in providing a decisive, generous humanitarian response," said Kennedy. "The Burmese Government must do its part as well and allow assistance to reach those in need."
Menendez said, "We are standing together as Americans, as citizens of the world, ready and willing to do what it takes to help the Burmese people get food, water and shelter and recover as best they can from this unimaginable tragedy. Unless the ruling military junta in Burma lets international aid workers provide assistance freely throughout that nation, the mind-boggling death tolls will rise and the extreme suffering will continue. Now is not a time to consolidate power, it is a time to accept the world's cooperation and compassion."
"The devastation caused by the cyclone in Burma is tragic and overwhelming but Americans stand ready to help the people of Burma in any way we can," Feingold said. "The Burmese government must lift its restrictions and allow the international community to help prevent the further loss of life."
"This bipartisan resolution sends an unmistakable message to the Burmese people that the United States stands ready to help them in the wake of this terrible natural disaster. Rather than compounding the suffering of the Burmese people, it is now critical that the military junta put aside its paranoia, lift restrictions on the delivery of aid, and allow its people to receive the humanitarian relief they so desperately need," said Lieberman.
"Devastating humanitarian disasters like these do not heed borders, boundaries or political circumstances. They affect only the innocent, and we all need to work towards the common goal of easing their plight. I urge the Burmese Government to accept our offer of immediate humanitarian assistance," Hagel said.
"We in Louisiana understand the wrath of a catastrophic natural disaster," Landrieu said. "Countries all over the world came to our aid in 2005, and we now have the moral responsibility to get aid to Burma as quickly and efficiently as we can to help the suffering survivors. The military junta must back down and let the international community bring critical resources to the Burmese people."
"From my time with the American Red Cross, I know first-hand how important the humanitarian response is to those who are suffering. There is much to be done in the wake of Cyclone Nargis and time is of the essence. Aid to the people must not be hindered, and I urge the military junta to let the United States help," said Dole.
Statement of Senator Barack Obama on the 63rd Birthday of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
Thursday, June 19, 2008
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Barack Obama today released the following statement on the 63rd birthday of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma:
"The 63rd birthday today of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma offers an opportunity to remind the world community of the continuing tragedy in her country and the responsibility we have to press for change there.
"This year marks the 20th anniversary of Burma's 1988 democracy movement and of Daw Suu's emergence as its inspirational leader. She has sacrificed family and ultimately her freedom to remain true to her people and the cause of liberty. And she has done so using the tools of nonviolent resistance in the great tradition of Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King, earning the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.
"Since her last birthday, the world has watched in horror as Burma's ruling junta first crushed the "Saffron Revolution," gunning down and rounding up Buddhist monks and other Burmese citizens peacefully demonstrating for political reform and social justice, and then, last month, resisted and impeded international provision of critical assistance to millions of Burma's people in the aftermath of cyclone Nargis. Tens of thousands died from the immediate impact of the cyclone itself, and at least 2.4 million people, 40 percent of them children, remain homeless and in desperate need of assistance.
"For decades, the junta has overseen the continued deterioration of living standards, basic human rights, and general well-being of the Burmese people. Two million refugees, thousands of political prisoners in Burma's jails, and the retreat of the junta's leaders themselves to an Orwellian capital cut off from its people are further testament to the alienation and devastation that Burma's current leaders have brought upon their nation.
"This situation offends the conscience of the American people, as it does for millions of others around the world. If the junta continues its failure to protect the dignity, health and well-being of the Burmese people, the international community must be prepared to work harder toward effective coordinated action, including but not limited to action through the United Nations Security Council.
"Aung San Suu Kyi will spend her birthday the way she has spent 13 of the past 19 birthdays, under house arrest. Nonetheless, she continues to serve as a consistent manifestation of hope even as hope has been on the retreat in Burma. As we honor Daw Suu today, we must do so the way she would want it done: by honoring the people of Burma, and keeping faith with them in their struggle for freedom, justice, and democracy."
Obama Statement on the Continued Detention of Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma
Tuesday, June 19, 2007/ http://obama.senate.gov/press/070619-obama_statement_68/
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today released the following statement on the ongoing detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma, on her 62nd birthday:
“Birthdays are supposed to be celebrations--moments of joy spent with friends and family. Today is Aung San Suu Kyi’s 62nd birthday and it will be neither of these. She will spend this day, as she has eleven of her last seventeen birthdays, under house arrest -- the continuing target of a repressive military junta that rules Burma with an iron fist and has mismanaged the country both economically and politically.”
“The junta fears Aung San Suu Kyi, because in 1990, the people of Burma overwhelmingly chose her and her National League for Democracy to lead the country. To this day, the Burmese military has ignored the election results. But, she has not let them forget. Risking her own safety, she has consistently spoken out against the government’s imprisonment of its critics and its violations of human rights.”
“The world has taken note. For her steadfast bravery she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and, characteristically, used the $1.3 million award to establish a health and education trust for the Burmese people. By contrast, the junta has ignored the health and safety of its citizens, generating over 2 million refugees, making the country a center for heroin and methamphetamine production, and driving the country to the brink of economic collapse.”
“Today, I stand in solidarity with Aung San Suu Kyi, call for her immediate and unconditional release, and look forward to the moment when she can celebrate her birthday with friends, family and colleagues in joy and in freedom.”
Statement of Senator Barack Obama on the ASEAN Regional Forum Ministerial Meeting
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's attendance at the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Ministerial meeting in Singapore is an opportunity for us to reflect on the relationship between the United States and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and indeed Southeast Asia itself.
After September 11, official U.S. attention returned to Southeast Asia focusing especially on concerns about Islamic extremism in the region. This threat remains, coming from a small number of extremists living amidst a broadly tolerant and moderate Muslim population in Southeast Asia. But it must not be the sum total of our attention and interest in the region. Our alliances with Thailand and the Philippines, and special relationship with Singapore, remain critical components of our regional presence. Relations with Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam will only become more essential to the security and prosperity of the United States, and the world, in coming years.
Half of the world's oil passes through Southeast Asia's sea lanes, as does a third of global trade. U.S. trade with the ten nations of ASEAN is more than $170 billion per year, making the region as a whole our fourth-largest trading partner.
ASEAN's impact extends beyond Southeast Asia and provides the model for, and in some cases the core of, many transnational institutions in the Asia-Pacific region. ASEAN has led efforts to construct new vehicles for regional cooperation and confidence-building among nations with histories of tension and mistrust. The ASEAN Regional Forum is one such organization. These efforts have helpfully supplemented the existing regional security arrangements, notably the U.S. system of alliances, that have underwritten stability for generations.
ASEAN is at a crossroads in its own institutional development, and in its relations with the United States. The new ASEAN Charter offers the promise of a more cohesive and assertive institution, one that demands respect for human rights from its member states. These emerging trends need to be strengthened, and I join the growing number of those in Southeast Asia who recognize that what happens in one ASEAN member country often affects the interests of others. As a U.S. Senator, I will support ASEAN's efforts to evolve to accommodate this era of increasing inter-dependency.
I remain particularly concerned about conditions in Burma. I commend ASEAN for its attempts to reach the suffering people in southern Burma, who continue to struggle in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. But more needs to be done to reach them. I hope the upcoming ARF meeting deals directly with this issue, as well as with broader plans for regional cooperation on humanitarian assistance to the country. I urge ASEAN to take the lead in a broader, long-term effort to effect a coordinated international response to the situation in Burma that can encourage the junta toward reform and true national reconciliation in that country.
The United States needs to strengthen its relationship with ASEAN, and we have some new opportunities to do just that. But to do so we must listen to the region's concerns and be part of the regional discussion. The United States should hold summit meetings with ASEAN's leaders. In addition, I am pleased that the United States is the first country to have an Ambassador for ASEAN Affairs, but that is only a beginning step. We should encourage others in the Asia-Pacific region to work with us to strengthen ASEAN and to address a growing list of developmental challenges and new security threats, such as infectious disease, drug and human trafficking, environmental degradation, climate change, energy security and disaster mitigation.
Attendance at Asian regional meetings sends important signals to the region's leaders about the importance of East Asia, and particularly Southeast Asia, to the continued security and prosperity of the United States. We should demonstrate unmistakably through our high-level participation in such forums that our interests are profoundly engaged in the region.
I have a deep personal interest in Southeast Asia: for four of the first ten years of my life, I lived in Indonesia with my mother and sister. My years there gave me an appreciation for the region's rich diversity of cultures, societies, and traditions. Our policy toward Southeast Asia should reflect an understanding of that diversity, and of the increasing importance of the region to the peace, stability and prosperity of the United States and the broader international community.
Statement of Senator Barack Obama on International Human Rights Day
Monday, December 10, 2007
WASHINGTON, DC -- The following statement was submitted by U. S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) in the Congressional Record today on International Human Rights Day:
“Mr. President, today is Human Rights Day. Fifty-nine years ago today, thanks in large measure to the tireless leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
“The principles encompassed in the Declaration are uniquely rooted in the American tradition, beginning with our founding documents. Yet the Declaration also wove together a remarkable variety of political, religious, and cultural perspectives and traditions. The United States and the United Kingdom championed civil liberties. The French representative on the committee helped devise the structure of the Declaration. India added the prohibition on discrimination. China stressed the importance of family and reminded UN delegates that every right carried with it companion duties. Today should be a day of celebration, a day when we hail the universality of these core principles, which are both beacons to guide us and the foundations for building a more just and stable world.
“The Universal Declaration was a radical document in its time, and its passage required courageous leadership from political leaders. Even though no country could have been said to be in full compliance with its provisions, including the United States where Jim Crow still prevailed, all UN member states committed themselves to promoting, protecting, and respecting fundamental human rights. Although Franklin Delano Roosevelt did not live to see the enactment of the historic Declaration, it enshrined his “four freedoms”– freedom from want, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom from fear. Individuals in the United States and everywhere else were entitled, simply by virtue of being human, to physical and economic security. The Declaration was born of the recognition, in the words of one human rights scholar, that “what is pain and humiliation for you is pain and humiliation for me.”
“Anniversaries are a good time to examine how faithful we have been to our own aspirations – to ask ourselves how well we are measuring up, to assess whether our practice lives up to our promise. We in the United States enjoy tremendous freedoms, but we also carry a special responsibility – the responsibility of being the country so many people in the world look to, just as they did in Mrs. Roosevelt’s day, for human rights leadership.
“Today, on this anniversary, we must acknowledge both bad news and good news. The bad news is that for nearly seven years, President Bush has ignored Franklin Roosevelt's wise counsel about the corrosive effects of fear. Indeed, instead of urging us to reject fear, he has stoked false fear and undermined our values.
“Wounded by a horrific terrorist attack, we were warned that Saddam Hussein – a man who had nothing to do with that attack – could unleash mushroom clouds from nuclear bombs. We were told that waterboarding was effective. We were assured that shipping men off to countries that tortured was good for national security. We were led to believe that our military and civilian courts were inadequate, and so we established a network of unaccountable prisons. And the Administration launched secret wiretapping initiatives, scoffed at the rule of law, and flaunted the will of the Congress.
“Nonetheless, in his second inaugural, President Bush rightly proclaimed, “America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one.” But, tragically, he has failed to heed his own words. We have not only vacated the perch of moral leader; we have also compounded the threat we face, spurring more people to take up arms against us.
“The further bad news is that other countries have not stepped up to fill the void left by our lack of moral leadership. The hundreds of thousands killed and two million displaced by the genocide in Darfur; the shell-shocked Buddhist monks in Burma; the political opposition in Zimbabwe; the imprisoned independent journalists in Russia; the brave human rights lawyers and judges in Pakistan – they do not know where to turn internationally. Human rights abusers win seats on the UN Human Rights Council, the International Criminal Court issues war crimes indictments, but no country steps up to enforce them; the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations begs in vain for troops, helicopters and police to help stave off humanitarian catastrophes. For all these reasons, the world needs renewed, principled U.S. leadership.
“There is another critical reason why America must again provide moral leadership on human rights: the fate of women around the world. Whether it is in creating wealth, access to capital, and property rights, or receiving quality education, health care, and social services, women still lag far behind men. And of course the lack of full reproductive rights can be a matter of life and death for too many women. Inequality means insecurity for women, especially those who comprise 70 percent of the world’s poorest. There is a clear link between discrimination and violence against women; equality and empowerment of women is the most effective approach to ending violence against women. Today, violent acts against women, in the words of UNICEF, “are the most pervasive violation of human rights in the world today.”
“Women’s inequality and the persistent prevalence of honor killings, trafficking, repression, and sexual assault nearly six decades after the Universal Declaration shame us all. One need only look to Saudi Arabia, where a 19-year-old woman, who was raped, instead of receiving treatment and support, was sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison for riding in a car with a non-related male. In the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Darfur, rape is routinely used as a weapon of war by militia and government forces. In northern Uganda, young girls are given as “prizes” to older male soldiers to reward performance.
“In Pakistan, international observers report that one of the largest challenges facing its next election is guaranteeing women enough security so they can leave their homes to vote. In Iraq the militarization and rise of radical Islam has eroded women’s rights. In Afghanistan, while nothing can compare to the day when the Taliban ruled the entire country, women throughout that country complain that their freedoms have been woefully curtailed. The United States alone cannot solve the problem of women's suffering and gender inequality around the world, but with new, principled leadership, the United States can elevate women's economic, political and social development to the top of our international agenda and ensure that women around the world know that they have a reliable friend and partner in America.
“Let me close by saying that the very depth of the anti-Americanism felt around the world today is a testament not to hatred but to disappointment, acute disappointment. The global public expects more from America. They expect our government to embody what they have seen in our people: industriousness, humanity, generosity, and a commitment to equality. We can become that country again.” Next >
Hundreds Flee as Regime Troops and their Allies Seize KNLA Base
http://thailandtonight.blogspot.com/2008/11/hundreds-flee-as-regime-troops-and.html
By SAW YAN NAING Tuesday, November 4, 2008
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Hundreds of Karen villagers have fled their homes along Burma’s border with Thailand to escape fighting between troops of the rebel Karen National Union (KNU) and soldiers of the breakaway ceasefire group Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) and Burmese government.
A spokesman of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the military wing of the KNU, said the DKBA had seized a base of the KNLA’s Battalion 201 in Kawkareik Township, near the Burmese-Thai border, in two days of heavy fighting at the weekend.
The KNLA spokesman, Capt Bu Paw, said the attack on the Battalion 201 base was part of a regime strategy to seize all the KNLA bases along the Burmese-Thai border by 2010, the year Burma is scheduled to hold a general election.
A DKBA source said it was doubtful, however, whether the breakaway group would participate in the 2010 election or disarm before then. The DKBA intended to control the border area and its business dealings, he said.
The DKBA has been recruiting soldiers in Pa-an District in southern Karen State since mid-August and has forced Burmese villagers to attend military training, in an effort to prepare an offensive against the KNLA, according to Karen sources.
The KNLA had been urged by authorities in neighboring Thailand not to engage the DKBA forces in case the breakaway army’s soldiers took revenge on Thai villages in the area, said Bu Paw.
In early October, dozens of soldiers from DKBA Battalion 907 attacked a Thai village, Mae Klong Khee in the Umphang District of Tak Province, forcing hundreds of villagers to flee their homes. The soldiers burned down several maize barns on Burmese territory opposite Mae Klong Khee, according to sources.
About 500 Karen villagers had fled the most recent outbreak of fighting and had sought refuge near the Thai border, according to Naw Iris, a coordinator for a Karen relief group, the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People.
Another relief group, the Free Burma Rangers (FBR), reported that many displaced people have insufficient food and all are in urgent need of safe drinking water and medicine. Some Thai villagers in the border region had also moved to more secure areas, sources said.
One displaced Karen civilian told the FBR that the DKBA and Burmese Army troops had seized supplies from local villagers.
A FBR report said at least 14 houses, 26 corn bans and four primary schools in four villages had been destroyed by DKBA and Burmese troops, who had also planted landmines.
Posted by Saigon Charlie at 5:46 PM
Bangladesh asks China for help in Myanmar sea row
http://in.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idINDHA8715020081105
Wed Nov 5, 2008 5:40pm IST
(Reuters) -
Bangladesh asked China on Wednesday to help it resolve a row with Myanmar over oil and gas exploration in deep-sea blocks in disputed waters in the Bay of Bengal, foreign ministry officials said.
Bangladesh sent a naval patrol to the area on Sunday after Myanmar began exploration in the blocks, thought to be rich in gas reserves. The two have been holding talks for years to demarcate their border in the Bay of Bengal.
"I have explained our peaceful intentions to our Chinese friends and hope that Myanmar stops activities on the disputed waters," foreign minister Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury told reporters after meeting Chinese ambassador Zheng Qingdian.
Earlier, Iftekhar said Bangladesh would do everything needed to protect its sovereignty and assert what Dhaka says are its rightful claims in the Bay of Bengal.
Myanmar said on Tuesday it would go ahead with the exploration of the deep-sea blocks. Yangon summoned the Bangladesh ambassador on Sunday to complain after Dhaka sent navy ships to the area.
Bangladesh also sent a diplomatic team to Yangon on Tuesday in a bid to resolve the standoff, saying it wanted a diplomatic solution to avoid any confrontation.
Technical delegations from both sides were scheduled to meet in Dhaka on Nov. 16 and 17 to discuss maritime boundary demarcation, officials said.
Bangladesh said last year some offshore blocks that Myanmar had been trying to explore in cooperation with India were in its waters. (Reporting by Nizam Ahmed and Masud Karim; Editing by Paul Tait)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Bangladesh-Burma (Myanmar) maritime boundary dispute escalates
http://asianenergy.blogspot.com/2008/11/bangladesh-burma-myanmar-maritime.html
The oil-rich Bay of Bengal has been contested territory for years.
By Huma Yusuf
Naval ships from Bangladesh and Burma (Myanmar) are facing off in the Bay of Bengal as a maritime boundary dispute between the two countries escalates. On Wednesday, a Bangladeshi diplomatic mission is expected to arrive in Rangoon (Yangon) to settle the matter peacefully.
According to the BBC, the dispute is unfolding 50 nautical miles southwest of St. Martin's Island, where Burmese shipsbegan oil exploration over the weekend.
Naval vessels from both countries are facing one another after the Burmese side reportedly began exploring in the area for oil and gas.
Bangladesh insists that the area lies well within its waters and has formally protested over the issue.
On Monday, Bangladesh vowed to take "all possible measures" toprotect its territorial integrity, reports Agence France-Presse(AFP).
Bangladesh's foreign minister Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury said he had warned Myanmar's envoy to Dhaka that "all steps would be taken to protect the sovereignty and territory of Bangladesh."
His comments came a day after Bangladesh summoned Myanmar's envoy to hand over a "strong protest note" over the reported intrusion of vessels from its southeastern neighbour to carry out oil exploration activities.
Foreign ministry officials have confirmed that Bangladesh rushedtwo warships and a naval patrol vessel to monitor Burmese exploration activities, reports Narinjara News, an independent news organization founded by Burmese refugees in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh sent three navy ships to disputed waters near Burma to protect its territory after Burmese ships intruded into the area to explore for gas and oil, stated a report of a Bangladesh official.
The report said, "Three naval ships of Bangladesh - BNS Abu Bakar, BNS Madhumati, and BNS Nirvoy - went to the spot challenging the Burmese ships."
The deployment came about after two naval warships escorted four Burmese ships into Bangladesh maritime territory to explore for oil and gas, ignoring Bangladesh navy warnings. Bangladesh has now positioned three ships at the scene in response to the encroachment.
According to the Associated Press, Burma will continue exploring for gas and oil.
The Myanmar government, meanwhile, said it would continue exploration in the Bay of Bengal, despite the territorial dispute with Bangladesh, a Foreign Ministry official said Tuesday.
The official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said Myanmar has formally lodged a complaint over an alleged intrusion of Bangladesh Navy boats.
"We will not stop our exploration activities, which are inside Myanmar waters," the official said. "We have warned Bangladesh against the intrusion of their naval vessels into our territory."
But quoting a Burmese navy official, Reuters India reports the Burmese ships have ceased exploration activities, though they are not withdrawing from the disputed waters.
According to Nairinjara News, talks between Bangladeshi and Burmese naval officers stationed on the deployed ships are also reportedly underway.
According to an official source, three Bangladesh navy ships are now in the area to discuss the issue with officials from the Burmese ships.
"The commanding officer of BNS Abu Bakar is currently in dialogue with the officers of Burma naval ships there," the official sources said.
The Burmese navy has responded by alleging that the Bangladesh ships are trespassing in Burmese territory.
Bangladesh has strongly protested the incursion through diplomatic channels and is demanding that the Burmese ships withdraw until amaritime boundary can be agreed upon through negotiations, reports the New Age, a Dhaka-based national newspaper.
Myanmar ambassador U Phae Thann Oo was summoned twice to the foreign ministry in [the] last 24 hours to lodge strong protests against the reported intrusion of marine vessels into Bangladesh waters and tell the authorities in Yangon to stop gas exploration works until territorial disputes are settled at the UN level.
On Wednesday, a diplomatic mission from Bangladesh is expected to arrive in Rangoon to defuse the escalating row, reports Reuters India.
"The dispute should not lead to a confrontation between the two friendly neighbours and must be solved immediately through diplomacy," Foreign Adviser (minister) Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury told reporters....
A team headed by Foreign Secretary Touhid Hossain will visit Yangon on Wednesday, Chowdhury said. Another scheduled meeting on sea boundary demarcation will be held in Dhaka on Nov. 16 and 17.
Burma's alleged intrusion into Bangladesh's waters occurs less than a month after the Burmese Vice Senior General Maung Aye led adelegation to Dhaka and signed an agreement to speed up the resolution of longstanding issues. In October, Mizzima, a news service founded by exiled Burmese journalists, reported that disputed maritime boundaries were at the top of the agenda during the Bangladesh-Burma talks.
According to a Bangladesh based Burmese news agency, Kaladan Press Network (KPN), Bangladesh is keen on resolving the dispute over the maritime boundary with its neighbour Burma as it wants to explore the Bay of Bengal for natural gas reserves.
The Bangladesh government has recently taken measures to exploit the oil-rich Bay of Bengal, which have angered the leadership in Rangoon, reports AFP.
Early this year Bangladesh divided its sea territory into 28 blocks and auctioned off the area to international oil companies as part of its efforts to end chronic gas shortages in the once gas-rich country.
Myanmar immediately protested the move.
For several years, Bangladesh has been trying to define its maritime borders with the backing of the US and the European Union, but it has faced challenges from India and Burma. According to the New Age, Bangladesh and Burma have held a series of meetings this past year aimed at resolving maritime boundary disputes.
The two next-door neighbours resumed maritime boundary delimitation talks in January this year with a view to settle disputes over their command areas in the Bay of Bengal, rich in mineral resources.
They have planned to submit their claims to the United Nations as both are signatories to the UN Conventions on Law of the Sea. Myanmar is under UN obligation to draw its sea boundary by the middle of 2009, while Bangladesh will get time up to 2011.
During their three meetings so far, the two countries in principle agreed that none of them would carry out any exploration work in the disputed waters until the issue was amicably settled at the global forum.
Posted by Saigon Charlie at 7:09 PM
Why Obama won
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/15301?full
Ben Smith, Jonathan Martin Ben Smith, Jonathan Martin – Wed Nov 5, 2:37 am ET
Slideshow: Election '08 Play Video Video: Keys to Victory FOX News Play Video Video: McCain Camp Accepts Tough Loss ABC News Barack Obama’s sweeping victory as president of the United States sends him to the White House to face what may be the worst national financial crisis since the time of Franklin Roosevelt’s election in 1932.
Obama won on his own terms, strategically and symbolically. He rolled up a series of contested states, from Colorado to Virginia, long out of Democratic reach. And his victory reflected the accuracy of his vision of a reshaped country. Racism, much discussed, turned out to be a footnote, and African-American turnout was not unusually high. Instead, Obama drew his strength from an array of racially mixed, growing areas around cities like Orlando, Washington, Indianapolis, and Columbus on his way to at least 334 electoral votes.
“Even as we celebrate tonight we know that the challenges tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime: two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century,” Obama told a crowd of more than 100,000 in Chicago’s Grant Park.
The assembled crowd had been strangely silent through the evening, even as Obama shut the door for McCain by winning New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, and even after his victory in Ohio pointed toward a landslide, seemingly unwilling to accept or believe the impending victory.
Only at 11:00 p.m., when CNN declared that Obama had surpassed 270 electoral votes, did the crowd roar in approval.
"This victory alone is not the change we seek — it is only the chance to make that change," Obama said, standing between two bulletproof glass walls.
McCain, speaking in a somber concession speech outside the Phoenix hotel where he married his wife, declared that he had done what he could.
"I don't know what more we could have done to try to win this election," he said.
Calling Obama "my president," McCain vowed to work with him to help repair a nation facing profound challenges at home and abroad.
"These are difficult times for our country, and I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face," McCain said.
After booing Obama's name and offering a few jeers, the crowd came to recognize the history in the evening when McCain paid tribute to the nation's first black president by recalling his own favorite commander-in-chief.
"A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters," McCain recalled. "America today is a world away from the cruel and prideful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States."
For the first time, claps and even a few cheers were heard from the dejected crowd.
Obama’s win came with Democratic gains in the Senate and House, though his broad victory — he swept swing states ranging from Indiana to Ohio to Virginia — was perhaps even more dramatic than his party’s success in congressional races. Obama and other Democratic leaders quickly signaled their awareness of the risk of overreaching, with Obama avoiding any claim of partisan victory, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid going further.
"This is a mandate to get along, to get something done in a bipartisan way. This is not a mandate for a political party or an ideology,” Reid told Politico.
As grand as the symbolism of Obama’s victory was, it was also a victory for his steady, corporate campaign management. The campaign’s early decision to play on a more ambitious map than other Democratic nominees was the source of his mandate. And the result closely mirrored the PowerPoint presentation his campaign manager, David Plouffe, pitched to sometimes-skeptical audiences of reporters and donors.
McCain’s campaign blamed larger forces for their candidate’s defeat.
“We were crushed by circumstance,” communications director Jill Hazelbaker said after McCain’s speech. “The economic crisis was a pivotal point in this race.”
External factors aside, McCain and his campaign also lagged far behind Obama in every key metric — money, organization, discipline — and failed to embrace Obama's organizational model or the technology it borrowed from the private sector.
Earlier campaigns had celebrated their technological prowess, but in Obama’s cutting-edge campaign, new political technology was implemented and came of age, evidenced by its vaunted fundraising machine and its “Houdini” computer system, which enabled the campaign as late as Tuesday afternoon to identify and bring to the polls a last wave of supporters who hadn’t yet voted.
The coalition Obama assembled proved as modern as the technology his campaign employed.
In his clear-cut victory, Obama became the first Democrat to win a majority of American votes since Jimmy Carter’s 1976 election. He won states just months ago thought to be impregnable to his party, places that just four years ago went for President Bush by double-digits: Virginia, Indiana, and North Carolina among them.
Indeed, Obama won in all regions of the country but the Deep South, piling up big wins in the perennial Democratic bulwarks on both coasts and making deep inroads into New South states, the industrial and agricultural heartland and the fast-growing Rocky Mountain West.
But perhaps most spectacularly, he found victory with a multiracial coalition that has the makings of a formidable political base of power.
If his was the first 21st century campaign, his victory was powered by a new face of America: comprised of all ethnicities, hailing mostly from cities and suburbs, largely under 40 years old, and among all income classes.
As they emphatically proved by obliterating the presidential color line, many of these voters are not guided by traditional cultural attachment to race, religion or region.
What makes his victory so resounding, and so daunting for Republicans, was that he combined support from African-Americans, Jews, and young whites with other key groups. He also reversed President Bush’s advances with Hispanic voters.
Further, and even more worrisome for the GOP, Obama was dominant among self-described “moderate” voters, a 60 percent swath of Americans larger than either self-described liberals or conservatives.
This 21st century coalition allowed Obama to blow out McCain in cities and suburbs where Bush had narrowly won or lost by smaller margins four years ago, and to pull off narrow wins in Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Indiana and Ohio.
He ran up huge margins in heavily-black cities and counties in each, but was able to edge out McCain thanks to big wins in populous, racially-mixed localities like Northern Virginia's Fairfax County (59 percent), Charlotte’s Mecklenburg County (62 percent), Orlando’s Orange County (59 percent), Indianapolis’s Marion County (64 percent) and Columbus’s Franklin County (59 percent).
The coalition underscored the theme that made Obama famous in 2004, and one that he returned to in his victory speech, citing his support from “young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled — Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America."
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