http://thechristianradical.blogspot.com/2008/11/how-bush-iraq-invasion-boosted-burmas.html
Sherwood Ross
November 15 2008
Besides wrecking Iraq and killing a million people, President Bush’s illegal invasion has given a boost to military dictators around the world.
“The idea, popular in the nineteen-nineties, that the world may intervene in countries whose governments show no regard for human life is now seen as reflecting Western arrogance,” writes George Packer in The New Yorker magazine. Packer refers specifically to Burma but militarists globally have followed the U.S. assault on Iraq closely. Many dictators consider George Bush to be a man after their own heart---and he proves it by showering them with weapons. (...)
According to Rachel Stohl, a senior analyst at the Center for Defense Information(CDI), “the U.S. is sending unprecedented levels of military assistance to countries that it simultaneously criticizes for lack of respect for human rights and, in some cases, for questionable democratic processes.”
“The occupation of Iraq has been a boon to the Burmese generals,” Packer writes. It has deprived the U.S. of any moral authority it once had. And neighbors China and India---motivated by selfish economic concerns---look the other way at the Burmese junta’s horrendous human rights abuses. China’s approach, Packer says, “has become the standard.” Chinese businessmen are plowing investment funds into Burma and China’s dictators are selling arms to their Burmese counterparts. China and India are also competing for contracts to explore offshore oil and gas and to build a gas pipeline across Burma, Packer writes.
China even tried to prevent the United Nations Security Council from discussing Burma and when a U.N. envoy said he planned to discuss the prospect of talks between the junta and opposition political leader Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest, at a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Burmese Prime Minister threatened to walk out. The U.N. envoy’s talk was cancelled.
The despotism in Burma, like Bush’s criminal war against Iraq, is a textbook study in human folly that cries out for international solution. Both reflect how calloused militaries ravage innocent civilian populations because there is no real “law and order” on much of planet Earth.
Since seizing control in 1962, military officers have installed themselves in most of Burma’s top government posts, operating with absolute contempt for the well-being of the nation’s 50-millions. Arbitrary arrests, torture, the use of child labor, and total suppression of political freedom are the norm. Starvation is common. The junta’s failure to aid the survivors of last May’s cyclone that killed 130,000 people or to allow Western aid into the country makes the Bush response to hurricane-struck New Orleans appear positively benevolent.
“American policy toward Burma has been to isolate the regime through sanctions,” Packer writes. “This policy has been pursued as a moral response to a deplorable government, without much regard for its effectiveness.” And he adds, “the alternative policy---economic engagement along the lines of Burma’s neighbors---has also failed. Every year, the junta grows stronger while the country sinks deeper into poverty.”
“Sanctions are a joke,” one Western diplomat stationed in Rangoon told Packer. “They’re just a pressure release. The generals don’t care what the rest of the world thinks about them, because they don’t think about the rest of the world. What they care about is their financial and physical security.” FYI, Transparency International ranks Burma as the second most corrupt regime in the world, after Somalia.
The only bright spot for U.S. policy in Burma is the State Department’s American Center in Rangoon, crowded with Burmese reading Western literature. Packer credits two State Department officials, Thomas Pierce and Kim Penland, for expanding the Center’s library, plus starting a political discussion class, a training workshop for journalists, a literature book club, and a debate club. “In a country where the law forbids unauthorized meetings of more than five people, none of this could have happened anywhere outside the gates of the Center,” Packer writes.
The lesson of Burma is the UN needs a standing army to step into a country and guarantee honest elections, and, when necessary, even to depose a junta. The lesson of Iraq is that the UN needs a mechanism to prevent jingoists like Bush from making a war in behalf of financial interests, in this case the western oil firms and the U.S. military-industrial complex. Diplomat Heraldo Munoz, Chile’s permanent representative to the United Nations, is quoted in the November 15th New York Times as writing in his book “A Solitary War” that “Americans do not recognize the value of the United Nations in assuring the United States’ central role in the world.”
As psychologist Michael McCullough writes in his book “Beyond Revenge”(Jossey-Bass), “By acting as the world’s policeman, the United Nations was supposed to be the strong supranational government that could prevent warfare between nations. However, the UN’s ability to stop nations from attacking each other has been hamstrung by the fact that any member of the UN Security Council (which includes the most militarily powerful nations in the world) can veto any proposed UN military action that it views as a threat to itself or one of its allies.”
“Until the UN becomes strong enough to stop violence between nations before it gets out of hand, or until some stronger form of supranational governance comes along, violence between nations, spawned and nurtured by feelings of vengefulness, will likely continue to be a fact of life,” McCullough adds.
posted by The Editors at 1:54 PM
Sunday, November 16, 2008
How Bush Iraq Invasion Boosted Burma's Junta
Freedom to Fund & Arm Democratic Foes?
http://arisfreedomswitch.blogspot.com/2008/11/freedom-to-fund-arm-democratic-foes.html
President George W. Bush's administration faces another test as it winds down. Russia announced its intention to buy Israeli made military drone planes. The Russian military was impressed with the performance of such drones in their conflict with Georgia. Haaretz reported:
In the clash, the Israeli-made drones, the Hermes model manufactured by Elbit, were used by the Georgian army. The Israel Aerospace Industries-manufactured Heron model is also vying for the tender. The Israeli drones are made entirely of locally manufactured parts, and therefore do not require U.S. authorization prior to being sold to foreign countries.
While it may not require American authorization, there could be consequences to such a decision. America supplies over $2.5 billion in annual military aid to Israel. But penalties won't come from Tzipi Livni hugging George W. Bush.
President Bush sided with Chevron-Total's freedom to provide capital, i.e. millions of dollars, to the oppressive military junta of Burma. Treasury looked ready to approve a Russian firm's acquisition of a Carlyle Group steel maker. The worldwide financial implosion killed the deal.
George W. recently gave a rousing speech on free markets and free trade. He failed to notice the Wall Street omelet frying on his head. It had a dash of Fannie & Freedie, AIG deal 1 & 2, commercial paper purchase program, TARP, direct capital injections into banks, extending TARP to nonbanks, and approving a potpourri of big names as banks to loot the Treasury, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and American Express.
The point is George W. Bush sides on the behalf of corporations. He chooses businesses over people living in democratic and undemocratic countries. What will his successor do? How might Obama's right hand man, Rahm Emmanuel influence such a decision? Rahm claims service in the Israeli military. He rarely clarifies it for its true nature. Emanuel served as a civilian volunteer, working on military vehicles during the first U.S. Gulf War.
So many veneers, so many conflicts of interest, and so little progress toward peace on behalf of the little people. Will Russia, the enemy of democratic Georgia, soon fly Israeli drone military planes? Stay tuned...
Posted by PEU Report/State of the Division at 7:18 AM
Hundreds Attend Memorial for "Mama Africa"
http://voanews.com/english/2008-11-16-voa2.cfm
By VOA News
16 November 2008
South African musician Hugh Masikela plays a trumpet in tribute to South African singing legend Miriam Makeba, at a memorial service in Johannesburg
Hundreds of mourners attended a memorial service for South African recording star and anti-apartheid champion Miriam Makeba Saturday.
Poets and musicians performed tributes to the woman known as "Mama Africa" at the Johannesburg Dome, a popular venue for concerts.
South African President Kgalema Motlanthe delivered a video message from the G-20 summit to an audience of mourners which included former president Thabo Mbeki.
Makeba collapsed from a heart attack seconds after leaving the stage after a concert in Italy on November ninth. She died later at a hospital in Naples.
She was forced into exile in 1959 after appearing in an anti-apartheid documentary. Makeba did not return to South Africa until after Nelson Mandela's release from prison in 1990. During that time, she became a leading voice against apartheid.
Makeba called for an international boycott of South Africa during testimony before a U.N. special committee against apartheid in 1963. The South African government responded by banning her records, including hits like "Pata Pata," "The Click Song" and "Malaika."
Makeba was the first African woman to win a Grammy - the music industry's highest award. She won a folk music award in 1965 for an album she recorded with Harry Belafonte.
Makeba was married to South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela and later to U.S. black activist Stokely Carmichael. Her autobiography "Makeba: My Story" was released in 1988.
Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Russian crisis could slip from Kremlin's grip: experts
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/International_Business/Russian_crisis_could_slip_from_Kremlins_grip_experts/articleshow/3718980.cms
MOSCOW: The ruble is losing value, thousands of jobs are being cut and Russia's oil boom is over: after years of economic and political stability,
the Kremlin could be losing its grip, experts said.
Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin this week admitted that lower oil prices meant Russia's financial reserves could run dry next year, while Kremlin economic aide Arkady Dvorkovich conceded the ruble could slip further.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has meanwhile been berating the country's banks for not passing credits granted by the state on to ailing banks and companies in the wider economy, accusing them of "corporate egoism".
For ordinary Russians lulled into a sense of greater security - at least compared to the upheavals of the 1990s - by the sound economic management under ex-president Putin, the financial crisis has come as a shock.
Opinion polls in recent days show more and more people are feeling the effects of the crisis as Russian industrial giants suffer from the slump in global demand and credits that helped fuel Russia's boom dry up.
The All-Russia Centre for the Study of Public Opinion said on Thursday that seven times as many Russians saw their quality of life deteriorating in November as in September, and five times as many had noted unemployment rising.
In a poll in October, the Levada Centre found that normally sky-high confidence in the government had gone down from 66 percent to 59 percent since September, and Medvedev's popularity was down from 83 to 76 per cent.
And just as economic worries rise, President Dmitry Medvedev is pushing a constitutional reform through parliament that he says will boost Russia's political stability but that analysts say is paving the way for Putin's return.
The reform involves extending presidential terms from four to six years. Analysts say it could lead to early elections that would be won by Putin and some accuse the Kremlin of a power grab that could not come at a worse time.
"The Kremlin does not realize the seriousness of the situation and lacks a plan for dealing with the financial crisis," said Nikolai Petrov, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Centre, writing in the Moscow Times newspaper.
"The authorities are preoccupied with something they personally find much more important - planning out a change in leadership," he said.
Vladimir Ryzhkov, a liberal commentator, said in a recent editorial: "The Kremlin wants to rush legislation to extend the presidential term to make sure the Constitution is changed before the financial turmoil snowballs."
Yulia Latynina, a commentator on political and economic affairs, said the financial crisis would now be blamed on Medvedev, who would be forced to resign and leave the path wide open for Putin's return to the presidency.
"There is going to be a major devaluation, then Medvedev is going to take responsibility and resign and the saviour will step in," Latynina said, referring to the much-discussed possibility of further ruble devaluation.
"The authorities are quite worried. I think Medvedev is being put in a role in which he will have to answer for everything. The main thing is who is to blame. Medvedev, America and the liberals are going to be guilty," she said.
Referring to the recent problems encountered by the authorities in getting state money to ailing banks and companies, she said: "They're not in a condition to control what's happening to the money. There's no trust.
"There's a Soviet economy where you can command. There's a market economy where you can't. The hybrid only survives if oil prices are high."
Russia still relies strongly on export revenues from oil and gas and has taken a hit as oil prices have fallen to a low of around 50 dollars per barrel. The Russian budget is balanced when the oil price is around 70 dollars.
Russia's constitution is set to change, to its former president's advantage, by Biodun Iginla @ BBC News and @ the Economist
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/1797595-russias-constitution-is-set-to-change-to-its-former-presidents-advantage-by-biodun-iginla-bbc-news-and-the-economist
by Biodun Iginla, news analyst for BBC News and the Economist. Research by Maria Ogryzlo in Moscow, and by Moira Tamayo in Puerto Rico
AFP
RUSSIA’S constitution is sacred, Vladimir Putin always insisted when he was president. No, he would not amend it to remain in office beyond 2008, despite sycophantic urgings for him to scrap the limit of two consecutive presidential terms that meant he had to step aside. It seems, however, that Mr Putin and his henchmen may have hit upon a way of honouring his promises, while making it possible for him to reclaim his old job almost immediately.
In May, Mr Putin installed Dmitry Medvedev as his successor, and became prime minister himself; now Mr Medvedev is apparently going to change the constitution for him. In his first—and conceivably last—presidential state-of-the-nation address Mr Medvedev said that he wanted to extend the presidential term from four years to six. The Kremlin then submitted the relevant legislation to parliament and three days later, on Friday November 14th, the Duma, the lower house, passed the bill on its first reading.
This would not amount to a reform of the constitution, Mr Medvedev insisted; rather it was merely a clarification. Before the change becomes law, it must also be approved by the upper house and by two-thirds of Russia’s regional legislatures. But since these bodies, like the Duma, are controlled by the Kremlin, their acquiescence will be automatic.
Russia’s post-Soviet constitution has not been changed since it came into force in 1993. The Kremlin’s ostensible argument for doing so now is that, to implement reform in a country as big and complex as Russia, a president needs a longer term. The new six-year rule would not apply to Mr Medvedev’s current term; but the overall limit for his successors would in effect become 12 years. (The term for parliamentarians is also to be extended, from four years to five).
The question is, why the rush? Mr Medvedev’s hasty manoeuvre is reminiscent of the changes made to Russia’s governance arrangements in 2004, after the terrorist outrage at a school in Beslan, North Ossetia. Then, Mr Putin scrapped gubernatorial elections in Russia’s regions. The explanation favoured by many in Moscow now is the same as the real reason in 2004: to cement Mr Putin’s grip on power.
There no longer seems to be much doubt, as there was when Mr Putin first took up his new and nominally inferior prime-ministerial post, about where power truly lies in Moscow. Mr Putin’s highly visible involvement in the summer war in Georgia, and his pivotal role in the government’s response to the financial crisis, have made it clear that Mr Medvedev remains essentially an aide.
Mr Putin’s problem is an excess of accountability. As president, he was insulated from public anger and disappointment by the government: he relied heavily on the old Russian myth of the good tsar (responsible for everything that goes right) and the bad advisers (responsible for everything that doesn't). As prime minister, he is directly responsible for the management of the economy—at a time when the falling oil price and the drying up of international credit threatens seriously to undermine it.
The potential consequences are not only a worry for Mr Putin. The entire highly lucrative system of government over which he presides relies on his personal popularity and authority. Mr Medvedev, meanwhile, may not be a weighty enough figure to face down publicly the discontent, among both the greedy elites and the wider population, that the financial crisis may eventually cause. The constitutional changes could solve both problems: there is speculation in Moscow that Mr Medvedev could use them as a reason to call a snap presidential poll, perhaps as early as next year—in which Mr Putin could be a candidate.
So the term-limit ruse may be best understood as an unusual Russian form of anti-crisis measure. If that is indeed the course that Mr Putin and Mr Medvedev pursue, it is unlikely to encounter much resistance among the electorate: voters would doubtless again be presented with a highly limited choice of candidates and swayed by propagandistic television coverage.
There is at least a small risk, however, that some in Russia ’s ruling caste might feel uneasy about the shenanigans. The speech in which Mr Medvedev advocated the reforms was timed to coincide with the presidential election in America. But compared with the drama of Barack Obama’s victory, the spectacle of an ersatz president urging the gerrymandering of his country’s constitution made Russia look backward, nervous, slightly pathetic. Even some of those whose main concern is the revival of Russian greatness, and the cultivation of international respect, might be starting to worry about that.
Colors of freedom: Works of Burmese artist, a Fargo transplant, on display
http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=93222§ion=homepage
J. Shane Mercer, The Forum
Published Saturday, November 15, 2008
FARGO
The watercolors in Saw Win Tun’s paintings blend on the canvas like the hues of a sunset sky.
Works by Burmese refugee artist Saw Win Tun are on display at the Hjemkomst Center in Moorhead into mid-January. The exhibit is being held in connection with today’s “Pangea – Cultivate Our Cultures” festival at the Hjemkomst. (Photos by Dave Wallis / The Forum)
There is a joy about these works. Purple bleeds into yellow, and brown lends texture to green. The playful colors and loosely drawn black pen lines form images that are part courtroom sketching, part artistic study, part cartoon.
A collection of his watercolor paintings, ink and watercolor pieces and his charcoal works will be on display at the Hjemkomst Center in conjunction with today’s Pangea Festival. Tun’s show runs into mid-January.
But if much of Tun’s work has a lightness about it, it’s not because the 39-year-old recent transplant to Fargo hasn’t seen difficulty.
Tun was born in Burma, also know as Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia that the U.S. CIA says “suffers from pervasive government controls, inefficient economic policies and rural poverty.” The BBC recently reported that 14 activists were “given jail sentences of up to 65 years over their role in anti-government rallies last year.”
Tun, himself, has felt the pressure of the strong-handed Burmese government. He was involved in pro-democracy activities and took part in an exhibit marking the 10-year anniversary of a 1988 uprising in Burma in which protesters called for democracy. Thousands of demonstrators were killed and arrested. The exhibit showed images from the events.
Tun drew the suspicious eye of the country’s military government. Some of his friends were arrested. And he was warned by some who knew him that he should “be careful,” he said.
He knew the prospect of being a political prisoner under the Burmese government was a frightful one. He believes he would have been incarcerated for at least 20 years had he been arrested.
Around 1999 he got a one-day visa to Thailand, and that was all it took. He lived there for years until his move to the U.S.
“We’ve bad government in my country,” Tun says via e-mail. “If I stay longer I’ll be political prisoner because I could not close my mouth, want to tell about democracy and public power.”
He says he applied for and received refugee status from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
So how does a Burmese refugee in Thailand end up in Fargo? Well, it’s all about a woman.
During his time in Thailand, Tun moved to a refugee camp. He began teaching children as part of the Burma Border Children’s Art Project. And he continued to work on his art, sometimes donating pieces to help raise funds for organizations.
But in 2005, at an art gallery in Thailand, he met a woman from Fargo named Aryca Myers. She’s a volunteer coordinator in Thailand.
“He’s just such a lovely guy, and he’s really funny and kind and talented, and he’s just great,” Myers says in a phone interview from her home in Mae Sot, Thailand.
The two were married Feb. 21 in Thailand.
Tun is currently living in Fargo with his mother-in-law – a situation they both say is temporary – as he waits for Myers to finish up in Thailand and return to the U.S. He’s been here since July.
“I really, really miss him,” Myers says. “He’s just so lovely and fun, and I love to be around him, so it’s a little bit lonely.”
But that’s only temporary. Myers will be in the U.S. for Christmas. Then it’s back to Thailand to finish her work there before returning to the States to be reunited with Tun in early March.
Tun holds a degree in geography, but is interested in getting more education and entering a field related to the arts – perhaps graphic design.
Not surprising. In the words of his wife, Tun’s art “is really a part of him.”
---
If you go
- What: “Pangea – Cultivate Our Cultures”
- When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today
- Where: Hjemkomst Center
- Info: A multi-ethnic showcase of music, dance, culinary arts and children’s activities. Handmade items and food will be for sale. Artist Saw Win Tun will meet with the public. Call (218) 299-5511 for more information.
- What: Exhibit of work by Saw Win Tun
- When: Runs into mid-January
- Where: Hjemkomst Center, Moorhead
- Info: Call (218) 299-5511 for more information.
The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead and the Herald are Forum Communications Co. newspapers.
Bangladesh, Myanmar start talks to defuse sea row
http://in.reuters.com/article/southAsiaNews/idINIndia-36525720081116
Sun Nov 16, 2008 1:20pm IST Email | Print | Share| Single Page[-] Text [+] DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh urged Myanmar on Sunday to refrain from oil and gas exploration in disputed areas in the Bay of Bengal until they are able to sign an agreement to resolve the issue.
The call came at the start of talks in Dhaka between experts from both countries to try to demarcate the sea territory between them following a week-long stand off early this month, officials said.
"Myanmar should restrain explorations in the disputed areas in the Bay of Bengal until signing final agreement between the countries," M.A.K. Mahmood, leader of the Bangladesh side, said in his opening remarks.
Tension between the two countries rose last month when Yangon started exploring for gas and oil in the disputed area.
Bangladesh pulled back naval ships from the disputed water after Myanmar stopped the exploration, following intense diplomatic efforts by Dhaka.
But both countries deployed troops at strategic points along their 320 km (200 mile) common border, partly demarcated by the river Naf.
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
China's growth threatened by social divide
http://africa.reuters.com/business/news/usnJOE4AF071.html
Sun 16 Nov 2008, 11:06 GMT
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's growth prospects are clouded by a gulf between rich and poor, deterring consumption and dragging down productivity, said a report released on Sunday.
The U.N.-sponsored "China Human Development Report" appeared a day after Chinese President Hu Jintao told a summit in Washington that his nation's continued fast growth was its "important contribution" to steadying the global economy.
But the report warns that skewed policies reinforce social divisions and threaten growth by giving the richest Chinese cities European-like levels of development while the poorest rural regions struggle at levels similar to African nations.
The resulting mobility barriers, stagnated skills and dampened consumer spending could stifle growth unless the government channels more resources to poor groups and regions, said the report's authors from the China Institute for Reform and Development and other think-tanks.
"Inequalities that have emerged during rapid growth have widened to levels that pose additional obstacles (to development)," says the report, published in English and Chinese.
"Equalisation of basic public services is an important condition for expanding domestic demand and maintaining steady and rapid economic growth," a chief author of the report, Chi Fulin, told a meeting to mark its release.
"LEVELS COMPARABLE TO BOTSWANA AND NAMIBIA"
The report praises China's achievements in narrowing inequality. But it also lays bare the domestic pressures that may deter China's leaders from taking a leading role in efforts to revamp international finances, preferring instead to focus on problems at home.
Using the U.N. "human development index" (HDI) as a key measure, the researchers found that China has made big gains in lifting the incomes, living standards and health of citizens.
From 1990 to 2005, China climbed from 101st to 81st in global HDI rankings. Its performance in healthcare "surpasses developing country averages by wide margins," the researchers found.
But the gains have been far from even, leaving China and its more than 1.3 billion people exposed to sharp imbalances in social welfare, education funding and old-age care.
While urban residents enjoy relatively high levels of government spending, farmers must largely fend for themselves.
Human development levels in the richest major cities, Beijing and Shanghai, are comparable to poorer Western European economies such as Portugal and Cyprus. But the "worst performing Chinese provinces like Guizhou, on the other hand, have HDI levels comparable to Botswana and Namibia", the report said.
Restive and mountain-bound Tibet has the lowest HDI level (0.616) of China's provincial-level administrations, compared with top-performing Shanghai at 0.911.
The report urges faster steps to give rural residents public services similar to urban residents', and to extend welfare to 200 million migrant workers leaving farms.
Otherwise, it warns, the "imbalances between consumption and investment could pose risks to macroeconomic stability".
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has said a huge economic stimulus package announced by the government this month will focus on improving rural infrastructure and services.
But lifting China's 750 million farming population to levels of school, medical and welfare support near to urban levels would be much more costly. Chi estimated that equalising basic services nationwide by 2020 would cost at least 5-8 trillion yuan over the next 12 years.
But achieving equal access also needs more effective and transparent government with much less waste, he said.
"The main conflict is not one of finances but of institutional arrangements," said Chi.
© Reuters 2008. All Rights Reserved. | Learn more about Reuters
Japan's seniors to workplace fore as population ages
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081115/lf_afp/lifestylejapanseniorseconomy_081115192331
by Miwa Suzuki Miwa Suzuki – Sat Nov 15, 2:23 pm ET AFP/File – A Big Mac is displayed at a Tokyo McDonald's in 2007. As Japan's population rapidly ages, a growing … TOKYO (AFP) – At age 68, virtually everyone in Japan is retired. But not Setsuko Katayama, who is dishing out crisp, golden French fries at a Tokyo McDonald's.
As Japan's population rapidly ages, Katayama is one of a growing number of elderly people finding themselves in new roles -- everything from working in fast food to being wooed by the cosmetics industry.
"I want to continue working as long as I'm physically fit," Katayama said as she prepared to start her morning shift.
"If I stayed at home, I would just be watching TV all day. I could take some lessons every day or see friends to chat, but it would be boring," she said, sporting a hat with the Golden Arches of the fast food giant.
"Since I have no children, I hardly see young people around me," she said. "It wasn't until I started working here that I understood what they are like."
Japan long rigidly enforced a retirement age of 60, hoping to let the next generation of workers fill the corporate ranks.
But as the workforce shrinks, people are staying at their jobs for longer, mostly in part-time or advisory roles.
Katayama is one of 3,500 part-timers aged 60 or older at 3,700 McDonald's outlets across Japan. Some outlets have employees in their 80s.
"Some workers in this store are older than me. I think I'm still young," she said.
One in every five Japanese is aged 65 or older and the ratio is expected to rise to almost one in three by 2025 as the country's birth rate is among the lowest in the world.
Japanese women, thanks partly to a traditionally healthy diet, are the world's longest-living people with an average lifespan of more than 85 years.
McDonald's Co. (Japan) Ltd. believes senior workers have special attributes.
"We have regular customers who come in at the same time of the day. Senior workers are good at having chats with them," spokeswoman Miwa Yamamoto said.
The chain's youngest employees, aged 15, are also picking up good habits from their older colleagues, she said.
Other industries are also recognising the crucial contribution that older workers can make, both to businesses and the retail economy.
At 60, Bibari Maeda may have thought that her modelling days were over. But not in Japan. The country's top cosmetics maker Shiseido this month mobilised Maeda -- a poster girl for the company 42 years ago -- to promote its skin-care brand Elixir Prior for women in their 60s.
"Many senior people have hearts strikingly younger than their actual ages and are leading fulfilling lives physically and mentally," Shiseido president Shinzo Maeda said as his company unveiled the new product line.
However, he is also no doubt mindful of commercial realities in his industry that saw Japanese women aged 60-69 spend 670 billion yen (6.8 billion dollars) on cosmetics in 2007. This was up four percent from the previous year and now accounts for nearly one-fifth of the total market, according to Shiseido.
Targeting seniors also makes commercial sense as those born in the late 1940s baby boom are entering their 60s at a time when Japan's overall population is shrinking.
Convenience store giant Seven-Eleven last year doubled the size of price tags on shelves of its 12,000 branches across Japan to help its rising number of elderly customers read them more easily. The company also delivers calorie-controlled health-conscious meals to elderly customers.
But Japan's ageing society has also raised massive problems for the government. The country's pension scheme has been under intense pressure with more payouts and fewer younger contributors. Medical costs are also rising, an issue that helped bring down a prime minister earlier this year.
In another trend that is often overlooked, crime by the elderly has risen four-fold from a decade ago because of money worries, loneliness and difficulty caring for elderly, sick relatives.
Japan to seek to take lead in creating new financial order: Aso
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081116/ts_afp/financeeconomyg20japan_081116054719
by Shingo Ito Shingo Ito – Sun Nov 16, 12:47 am ET AFP – US President George W. Bush (right) and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso at the G20 Summit on November … WASHINGTON (AFP) – Prime Minister Taro Aso has made an ambitious bid to take the lead in creating a new global financial mechanism, as Japan announced its fresh commitment to tackling the global economic crisis.
Aso wound up his visit here to attend a summit of the world's top leaders, which ended on Saturday by adopting an action plan to boost flagging global growth and prevent future financial upheaval.
"Throughout this summit, I felt high expectations to Japan," Aso told a news conference.
"The world is now entering a new era," Aso said. "I think Japan should take concrete action. We would like to continue taking the initiative in establishing an economic system that can correspond to the new era."
During the summit, Japan announced a plan to lend up to 100 billion dollars to the International Monetary Fund to help provide financial lifelines to crisis-hit emerging countries.
Japan separately agreed to invest two billion dollars in a new World Bank fund to help recapitalize banks in smaller emerging markets.
Aso also stressed that Tokyo has an "outstanding experience" of overcoming its own financial crisis triggered by massive bad debts in the late 1990s, like the current turmoil which began in the United States.
Analysts say Aso has a window of opportunity to boost Japan's presence on the world stage and match its clout as an economic power during a series of upcoming talks with political leaders.
Tokyo is the second-largest donor after Washington to many global institutions, including the International Monetary Fund, but its attempts to raise its voice in the geopolitical arena have often ended in failure.
Shortly after the Washington meeting, Aso will head to a summit with other Asia-Pacific leaders in Peru, where he is expected to hold talks with US President George W. Bush and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
"I would like to proceed with our action to help strengthen financial cooperation in Asia and support self-reliant development of the region," Aso said.
On the sidelines of the Washington summit, the finance ministers of Japan, China and South Korea agreed to consider increasing the size of bilateral currency swap arrangements among the three countries.
Aso may also meet US president-elect Barack Obama on his way back from Lima.
"I had an impression that he is interested in Asia," Aso said, referring to his telephone talks with the incoming president following his election. "It is important for us to have a person with interest in Asia."
Aso's close aides held talks here with former secretary of state Madeleine Albright and a former Republican lawmaker who visited the US capital to pursue contacts with top G20 players on Obama's behalf.
For Aso, the flurry of diplomatic events will be a key test of whether he can boost his support at home as the nation prepares for general elections due by September next year at the latest.
Public support for Aso's cabinet was above 50 percent in opinion polls after he took power from his troubled predecessor Yasuo Fukuda two months ago, but has since declined and is now nearing 40 percent.
RECOGNITION OF BURMA’S PROLIFERATION
http://www.dictatorwatch.org/articles/proliferation.html
By Roland Watson
November 13, 2008
Zee News India recently reported that at the request of the United States a North Korean cargo plane was denied permission to fly through Indian airspace to get to Iran. This incident, which occurred on August 7th, was also covered in a Wall Street Journal article in the edition of November 1-2nd. According to the Journal, the U.S. request was “part of the Bush Administration’s Proliferation Security Initiative, which aims to block the spread of weapons of mass destruction. Any action under the initiative would be ordered only if the plane was suspected of carrying nuclear materials, long-range missile components or other potentially lethal cargo.”
The only cargo possibility that was mentioned, by either Zee News or the Journal, was missile components. We believe it is naïve to suggest that cooperation between Iran and North Korea is limited to this extent. More likely, there is nuclear cooperation as well, which the intelligence community has either been unable to document, or which, for whatever reasons, it wants to keep secret.
The last scenario is the most likely, since North Korea was caught helping Syria build a nuclear reactor, which facility Israel destroyed. It would be surprising if the same type of cooperation with Iran – assistance with its program to develop nuclear weapons – were not underway. (Impoverished North Korea is an aggressive arms merchant.) Also, it seems clear that the U.S. has an effective intelligence capability, directed at the North, since it was able to identify this particular flight.
The Journal article was notable for what it didn't mention: the role of Burma in the developing nuclear and ballistic missile proliferation nexus between North Korea and Iran. The flight had proceeded from Pyongyang to Mandalay, from where its departure to Iran was blocked. It would also be naïve to think that this was simply a refueling stop. The flight repeats a pattern of naval shipments from Pyongyang, which were unloaded under top secrecy at Rangoon Thilawa Port at night, and which ships we understand in at least one case then proceeded onward to Iran.
Dictator Watch has previously reported, based on information from our own sources, that Burma is pursuing a nuclear development program with atomic weapons as the ultimate objective. The principal partner in this program is Russia, which has agreed to supply a 10 MW reactor, and which is now being constructed. This is a repeat of the proliferation that the Soviet Union orchestrated with North Korea in the 1970s and 80s, and North Korean technicians are reportedly involved in the Burmese project, if not directing its on-ground activities.
China played an important role in Burma’s proliferation. In May 2001, former Foreign Minister Win Aung together with General Maung Aye spoke to Burmese State Scholars who were to study in Russia. Win Aung said: “China wants us to work with Russia on a nuclear program and to try to develop nuclear weapons in the future.”
Cooperation between Burma and Russia soured in 2006, because the Burmese scholars were not dedicated to their education and the military junta, the SPDC, failed to pay the program’s costs. At that time, and even though cooperation with Russia subsequently was resumed, Burma approached North Korea and Iran for assistance with its nuclear initiative.
Burma further has short-range ballistic missiles, acquired from North Korea. We believe these are Scud variant missiles, not the more sophisticated devices that have been tested by the North within the last year.
Burma also has commercial uranium deposits, which the regime itself has admitted. Our sources inform us that uranium mining and milling is in progress, and that the end product, yellowcake, has been sold to both North Korea and Iran. Regarding the former, the most contentious disarmament issue for the United States has been the extent of the North's uranium enrichment program, and such program's decommissioning. Similarly, there is great concern about Iran's enrichment program. We believe Burma is supplying both programs with the raw material, and further that it has its own enrichment effort (with centrifuge facilities near Kyauk Kyi village in Tha Beik Kyin township, and Naung Hlaing village in Pyin Oo Lwin township).
Section Ten of the Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE (Junta's Anti-Democratic Efforts) Act of 2008 requires the Secretary of State to prepare a report, not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of the Act (July 29) on military and intelligence aid to Burma. This includes “the provision of weapons of mass destruction and related materials, capabilities, and technology, including nuclear, chemical, or dual-use capabilities.”
The report is therefore due by the end of January, and it is to be submitted to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate. It will have unclassified and classified forms, the first of which will be placed on the Department of State's website.
This past summer, the resistance forces in Eastern Burma intercepted Burma Army communications that unmanned drones had been spotted in the Toungoo area of the country (near the junta's capital, Napyidaw), on three separate occasions, and which the Army unsuccessfully tried to shoot down. It seems clear that there is a significant effort to ascertain fully the extent of Burma's proliferation programs, in part to prepare for the Secretary's report. We are fully supportive of this effort, and hope that the Obama Administration will use its results to press for a proper examination of Burma and the risk the SPDC poses to international security and peace.
For the last eight years, the Burma pro-democracy movement has looked to President Bush for assistance. However, other than some comforting words, he did nothing. Congress initiated all the substantive freedom and democracy initiatives for Burma.
Now we have a new administration. President-elect Obama, at his first news conference, said of Iran, its “development of a nuclear weapon, I believe, is unacceptable… We have to mount an international effort to prevent that from happening.”
We believe it is essential that he extend this policy to Burma, in the first instance by personally disclosing the results of U.S. intelligence. The SPDC has an active nuclear program – there have been high level visits with North Korea and China in the last two weeks. The full extent of what is known about this program must be revealed.
The President-elect also said, in his second debate with Senator McCain, that he would provide logistical support for the peacekeeping forces in Darfur, Sudan, including by setting up a no-fly zone. We would ask the new President to take similar action with respect to Burma, by imposing a naval and air blockade of all arms shipments to the SPDC. This would leave only the land border with China as a transit point for military materiel.
The big question for Barack Obama is if he can live up to his words, if he can fulfill the hope that he offers. To do this, he must confront a world that is complex, challenging, and dangerous. He is now in the major leagues, and to be successful, and for the world to improve, he must effectively manage such issues as Iran, North Korea, Burma, and Sudan. To do this, though, he will have to be strong and decisive with the backers of these regimes, and through which backing such problems have proved to be intractable. He will have to stand up to Russia and China, and find some way to get them to relent.
US ban and economic meltdown hits jade trade in China
Written by KNG
Thursday, 13 November 2008 19:27
Jade businessmen in China have been dealt a body blow by the current global economic meltdown and the US ban on import of Burmese gems, said jade traders. The US banned import of Burmese gems on Oct 27, 2008.
A Burmese jade trader who arrived in Guangzhou in China's southwest Guangdong (Canton) province, the biggest Burma's Hpakant jade business centre in the country told KNG today, "Every jade exhibition here in Guangzhou is cold. The exhibitions are being visited by very few traders from domestic and international markets."
Starting from early this month, some small jade companies in Shiqiao city in Guangdong have begun to close down because of the fall in domestic and international customers, said a Burmese jade trader.
The residents of Shiqiao rely on Burma's jade business by producing the finished products like different types of jade sculptures whose value starts from 10 Yuan and goes up to millions and millions of Yuan. They also sell raw jade, according to a Burmese jade businessman.
At the same time, other main jade business in Guangdong like Guangzhou and Jieyang has also been affected. The illegal jade market in Yingjiang in China's southeast Yunnan province is also suffering with no customers, according to Burmese jade traders in Yingjiang.
Jade traders in Guangzhou said, Chinese jade companies mainly used to sell their products -- the Hpakant jade to domestic buyers and those abroad such as in gem markets in the United States of America, European countries and Australia. However both jade markets showed a decline early this year, before the Beijing Olympic Games in August.
A Kachin jade businessman in Guangzhou did not feel the Hpakant jade markets in China would recover without political progress in Burma. He was referring to the US ban on import of all Burmese gems at the moment.
He also added that the Burmese junta may face increasing economic sanctions from the US and the international community if there are no political changes.
14.11 - Burma : Female journalist gets two years for taking photos of Nargis victims
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=29295
Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association are outraged by the two-year sentence passed today on Ein Khaing Oo, a 24-year-old woman journalist employed by the weekly Ecovision Journal, for taking photos of Cyclone Nargis victims. She was arrest in Rangoon last June.
“This unjust sentence comes amid a wave of unprecedented sentences for journalists and activists,” the two organisations said. “We appeal to Burma’s military authorities to free Ein Khaing Oo, whose only crime was to cover the humanitarian disaster in the Irrawaddy delta.”
According to Mizzima, The sentence was handed down today by a Rangoon court at the end of a trial held behind closed doors with no defence lawyer. She was accused of taking photos that could be used by foreign news media. Arrested on 10 June while covering a demonstration by Nargis victims outside a UN building in Rangoon, Ein Khaing Oo has already spent five months in Insein prison.
Another journalist, Zaw Thet Htwe, and a blogger, Zarganar, are also being held for helping Nargis victims. Zarganar was arrested after giving an interview to a BBC television reporter. Verdicts are expected in their cases in the coming days. The toll from Cyclone Nargis’ passage across Burma in May was around 130,000 people dead or missing.
Shock tactics in Burma
http://www.bangkokpost.com/151108_News/15Nov2008_news07.php
What started as an outcry against sudden, ill-thought-out fuel price increases by the Burmese junta in August last year, culminated in thousands of people massing in central Rangoon a month later chanting "Democracy, democracy!" and demanding an end to 45 years of military rule and economic decline.
Their chants were answered by weapons fire and a brutal crackdown which left more than 30 people dead, at least a hundred missing and thousands in prison. This week the dissidents, some already detained for more than a year, learned the price they must pay for that protest.
Fourteen leading Burmese activists from the 88 Generation Students group, including five women, were each sentenced to a mind-numbing 65 years in jail. Nine others received the same severe sentence and five monks were given more than six years each for "disturbing public tranquillity".
Such harsh prison terms were the latest in a series of lengthy sentences the Burmese authorities have imposed in recent weeks as they slammed cell doors shut on artists, journalists and lawyers. Well-known labour activist Su Su Nway received 12-and-a-half years in prison for putting up anti-government posters while her colleague was given eight. Blogger Nay Phone Latt, 28, who posted a cartoon of military leader Than Shwe and possessed a banned video, was jailed for 20 years. Three defence lawyers were imprisoned for between four and six months for contempt of court after complaining of unfair treatment, and four other defence lawyers were barred from representing their clients.
The list is as depressing as it is long.
These are brutal shock tactics. Clearly the junta is determined to ensure that the elections it plans for 2010 as part of its "roadmap to democracy" suffer no disruption and that the population will be sufficiently cowed not to repeat what happened in 1990. That was when it organised multi-party elections but refused to honour the results after Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won an overwhelming victory. It also shows there is little likelihood of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate being released anytime soon from the house arrest she has endured for more than 13 out of the past 19 years.
Now that the junta has disqualified Daw Suu Kyi from participating in elections because her late husband was a foreigner, prolonging her detention still further seems illogical and cruel. Surely the authorities must realise that by continually courting international condemnation and inflaming public opinion, they are taking a greater risk than that entailed in granting this courageous lady the freedom which is her right. Such behaviour has already led to the country being ostracised by much of the world, condemned to economic sanctions and regarded as Asean's greatest embarrassment.
The onus is on the junta to refute the widely-held belief that the 2010 elections merely raise false hopes and are a sham designed to further entrench the military in power. If the generals would truly have us believe that they intend to switch the country to a democratic system, then packing the prisons with a new generation of political prisoners is hardly the best way to start.
How refreshing it would be if Asean would look beyond smokescreens about roadmaps and constructive engagement, and do some serious table-thumping.
There could be no better place for a statesman-like discussion of the benefits Burma would gain by instituting genuinely positive reforms than at the Asean summit in Chiang Mai next month. It would be worth the effort.
Mobile school for Myanmar kids
Safe school: The cabin that will be converted into a school for Myanmar’s cyclone victims.
http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2008/11/15/central/2500806&sec=central
Story and photos by STUART MICHAEL
A Malaysian company that makes portable cabins has stepped forward to give child survivors of Myanmar’s Cyclone Nargis a chance for formal learning again.
As part of its commitment to education for children, VBM Distributors Sdn Bhd has donated an Expandable Mobile School (EMS) unit worth RM222,500 to Unicef recently.
The donation is in support of Unicef’s efforts to create child-friendly spaces that can serve as a makeshift school for children affected by the devastating cyclone which hit Myanmar in May this year.
Unicef Malaysia Advocacy and Policy specialist Dr Rudi Luchmann said reopening the damaged schools could do more harm than good to the children.
“This is why Unicef welcomes VBM Distributor’s mobile school unit.
“If these children can’t come to the school, we plan on taking the school to the students. This gift offers children who have suffered so much a safe environment to learn and play.”
“The devastation of Nargis has left so many children physically and emotionally traumatised by what has happened.
“Going back to school is therefore a crucial part of their recovery process because it helps them establish a sense of normality and support, while at the same time assists them in overcoming their distress.
It’s official: Mohd Yusof (second from right) presenting a mock key for the cabin to Hishammuddin (right). Looking on are (from left) VBM Distributors managing director Lam Kay Wah and Dr Rudi Luchmann.
“Most importantly, schools allow children to just be children again,” added Dr Luchmann.
Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein launched the event.
VBM Distributors chairman Mohd Yusof Isa said the company wanted to work with an established and respected humanitarian agency skilled in providing education to children in difficult situations. Unicef’s 60 years of experience in emergency work speaks for itself.
The mobile school unit consists of a classroom which can fit up to 40 students, a canteen for safe preparation of food as well as separate toilets for boys and girls.
The unit can be expanded to form more classrooms if necessary.
The easy-to-set-up school is also fire and water resistant and includes safety features that protect against natural disasters such as earthquakes.
The unit will be transported to the Unicef office in Myanmar where the necessary arrangements for its setup will be made.
The school will complement a range of other services provided by Unicef to get children back to learning.
These include the distribution of over 230,000 essential learning packages to primary schoolchildren in 1,427 schools, installation of 435 safe temporary learning spaces benefiting 43,000 students and supporting the repair of 919 damaged schools in affected areas.
More than 18,500 children are also now benefiting from psycho- social activities in 104 Child Friendly Spaces.
ASEAN Turns Blind Eye to Burma Rights
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1825357,00.html
A new charter for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was signed on July 21 with much flourish and a promise to "strengthen democracy, enhance good governance and the rule of law, and to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms." An admirable undertaking, except that the person formally ratifying the charter was Nyan Win, the Foreign Minister of Burma, a country with one of the world's most appalling human-rights records. Indeed, Burma's signing of the document during this year's ASEAN ministerial meeting in Singapore threatens to render meaningless the lofty humanitarian goals set by the organization's 10 member nations.
More Related
Burma’s Faceless Leaders
The UN Envoy Trying to Save Burma
Burma’s Military Solution
Burma's economy limps along with help from its regional neighbors, including ASEAN members such as Thailand and Singapore as well as non-members India and China. Critics of ASEAN say the forum has not done enough to pressure Burma to end human-rights abuses. Although Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines indicated earlier that they might delay their own ratifications of the charter until Burma cleans up its human-rights record, they have been less publicly forceful in their demands since then. While the U.S. and the European Union have tightened sanctions against Burma's ruling military junta since it violently crushed monk-led protests last year, ASEAN has continued with a "constructive engagement" approach that it hopes will, through dialogue and investment, convince Burma's leaders to treat its people more kindly.
A new charter for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was signed on July 21 with much flourish and a promise to "strengthen democracy, enhance good governance and the rule of law, and to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms." An admirable undertaking, except that the person formally ratifying the charter was Nyan Win, the Foreign Minister of Burma, a country with one of the world's most appalling human-rights records. Indeed, Burma's signing of the document during this year's ASEAN ministerial meeting in Singapore threatens to render meaningless the lofty humanitarian goals set by the organization's 10 member nations.
More Related
Burma’s Faceless Leaders
The UN Envoy Trying to Save Burma
Burma’s Military Solution
Burma's economy limps along with help from its regional neighbors, including ASEAN members such as Thailand and Singapore as well as non-members India and China. Critics of ASEAN say the forum has not done enough to pressure Burma to end human-rights abuses. Although Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines indicated earlier that they might delay their own ratifications of the charter until Burma cleans up its human-rights record, they have been less publicly forceful in their demands since then. While the U.S. and the European Union have tightened sanctions against Burma's ruling military junta since it violently crushed monk-led protests last year, ASEAN has continued with a "constructive engagement" approach that it hopes will, through dialogue and investment, convince Burma's leaders to treat its people more kindly.
So far, the approach has failed. Since Burma's junta took over the country, also known as Myanmar, in 1962, its people have gone from some of the richest in Asia to among its poorest. An election won by the opposition was duly ignored. Political prisoners crowd jails. The most recent example of the generals' callousness came in May when Cyclone Nargis devastated the country's Irrawaddy Delta, leaving 138,000 people dead or missing and causing $4 billion in damage, according to an international assessment released on July 21. Yet instead of promptly accepting offers of help from around the world, the regime spent weeks refusing visas to foreign aid workers and setting up roadblocks to stop international agencies from delivering relief supplies. Even today, after Burma promised in an ASEAN-brokered deal to stop impeding foreign aid groups, non-Burmese still have to apply for special permits from the country's Ministry of Defense to visit the delta.
So for ASEAN's nine other members not to at least arch an eyebrow when Burma signed the charter is nothing short of willful ignorance. Yes, ASEAN did speak forcefully on July 20 when Singaporean Foreign Minister George Yeo said the bloc's members felt "deep disappointment" that Burma in May prolonged the detention of opposition figurehead and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. But any mention of that negative emotion was excised from the formal communiqué issued by ASEAN the following day. And an initial flurry of excitement caused by Yeo when he said that his Burmese counterpart had told him Suu Kyi might possibly be released in six months' time turned out to be a misunderstanding. A clarification was quickly issued in which the Burmese government was quoted as saying the earliest Suu Kyi might be freed would be after May 2009.
Of course, ASEAN's kid-gloves approach toward Burma isn't unique. Another item on the agenda at this year's meeting? A treaty of amity and cooperation with none other than North Korea. After buddying up to Burma for so long, ASEAN, it seems, isn't too picky about its friends.
Connect to this TIME Story
Burma's junta scorns world opinion
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/14/opinion/edburma.php
Any hope that the military dictatorship in Burma might be mending its vicious ways was crushed this week when the regime handed out 65-year prison sentences to 14 nonviolent democracy activists, and sentences of up to 26 years for 25 others. These are some of the men and women who took part in the Saffron Revolution in September 2007. In many cases, their long terms in Burma's horrific prisons spell a death sentence.
With this display of cruelty, the junta kingpin, General Than Shwe, showed his scorn for the world's good opinion. He was defying innumerable resolutions and statements from the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and human rights organizations. They have called on him to release the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners; to engage in serious dialogue with her National League for Democracy; and to move toward reconciliation and genuine democracy.
The right response for the UN Security Council is to impose an arms embargo on the junta. This means persuading Russia and China to stop blocking such meaningful sanctions.
But there is also something simple and straightforward that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee should do, and that is to confirm President Bush's highly qualified nominee, Michael Green, to the recently created post of special representative and policy coordinator for Burma. His mission - to work for the restoration of democratic governance in Burma - is more pressing than ever.
The Senate currently is in lame-duck session, but if Green is not confirmed quickly, the long list of new appointments coming early next year could delay his confirmation indefinitely. That would be tantamount to telling the gentle idealists rotting in Burma's Insein Prison that, in America, senatorial languor trumps democratic solidarity.
Today in Opinion
Global action on a global crisisBurma's junta scorns world opinionDoing nothing as Congo burns
Burma: mapping the challenges and opportunities for dialogue and reconciliation
New approach in US Burma policy? -MIZZIMA
http://www.mizzima.com/edop/commentary/1301-new-approach-in-us-burma-policy.html
by Dr. Sein Myint
Saturday, 15 November 2008 17:44
The nomination by outgoing U.S. President George Bush of Michael Green as Special Envoy and Policy Chief for Burma will likely be swiftly confirmed without hindrance by Congress. The appointment is a long overdue action that should have taken place years ago after the bloody Depayin incident, not to mention following last year's 2007 Saffron Revolution.
However, instead of focusing attention on the need for the U.S. to appoint a Special Envoy to Burma, many Burma campaigners and lobbyists based in Washington, and supported by the NCGUB, lobbied and pushed the US State Department to include Burma on this year's UN Security Council agenda. But, as predicted by many UN experts, this strategy failed.
So, what could Dr. Green achieve regarding Burma before his current boss leaves office on January 20, 2009, and what will happen to his role and position after this deadline?
President elect Obama is likely to maintain a similar stance on Burma to that of his predecessor, taking advice from his senior foreign policy adviser and former Secretary of State, Madeline Albright, who happens to be a strong supporter of democracy in Burma and admirer of Aung San Suu Kyi.
In order, though, to map alternative policies and strategies on Burma , it may be prudent for Dr. Green to seek a wide range of opinions and views, from various leaders, individuals and representatives of the exile Burmese communities residing in the US and other countries, and not just from those lobbyists who are waiting at his doorsteps.
And it would also be prudent for him to directly meet with Burma's military leaders, Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic leaders, taking the opportunity to make a personal assessment of the situation inside the country, and making recommendations to the new US President and Congress concerning any alternative policies that could bring positive change to Burma.
Of course, it would be scurrilous for him to advocate the normalization of relations between the US and Burma, especially after the recent spate of harsh prison terms handed down to democracy and human rights activists inside the country.
One of the key roles of the US Special Envoy for Burma will be to find out the reasons why pressure and selective economic sanctions currently imposed on the Burmese junta have so far failed to produce any positive results, including failing to persuade the recalcitrant SPDC leaders to enter into a dialogue with the democratic opposition.
His role could be similar to that of the Special Envoy for North Korea, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the US's chief negotiator at the 'six party' talks on North Korea. However, in the case of Burma, it is uncertain what kind of format for talks could be achieved, considering the varied group of countries and organizations that would likely need to be included. Certainly, any proposed 'multi-party' effort should include the UN, US, EU, China, India, ASEAN, Japan, Australia and, of course, Burma's military government.
But, most importantly in this scenario, would be the acceptance by Burma's military leaders for the holding of talks on moving the country toward democracy, talks inclusive of all domestic stakeholders.
Therefore, it is vital for the US Special Envoy to find out what pressure buttons would either shock the junta to jump overboard, or to coax the junta to come on-board with the international community, in order for the new US administration to take serious initiatives toward resolving Burma's decades old problems, rather than the current course of political rhetoric and time wasting diplomatic charades.
Dr. Sein Myint serves as the director of Policy Development of Justice for Human Rights in Burma, located in Maryland, USA. He is an Honorary Member of Amnesty International Chapter 22 in Washington D.C.
A Wanted Man in Burma
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/11/a-wanted-man-in-burma/
by Jeremy R. Hammond / November 15th, 2008
Writer Antonio Graceffo has become the target of a disinformation campaign by the ruling junta in Burma for opposing the oppressive regime.
Antonio Graceffo1 is a wanted man. His crime? Supporting the Shan people in their rebellion against the ruling military junta in Burma, known euphemistically as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).
A former successful Wall Street investment banker from Brooklyn turned travel and adventure writer, Antonio has authored numerous books, including about his adventures bicycling around Taiwan, bicycling across the Taklamakan Desert in China, and his time studying with the monks at the famous Shaolin Temple. More recently, he has been involved trying to bring the world’s attention to the plight of the Burmese people suffering under the brutal reign of the SPDC.
Since outside journalists are banned from entering the country, Antonio crossed the border under the protection of the Shan State Army (SSA) and began reporting on conditions in the country, interviewing victims of the SPDC’s war against the people, writing about what he learned, and producing a series of videos featured on YouTube to bring awareness about the plight of the Shan.
Perhaps more well known than the SSA are another resistance group known as the Karen National Union (KNU), and its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), who were featured in the 2008 movie Rambo, starring Sylvester Stallone in the fourth installment in the film series.
But while Stallone played a fictional character, Antonio Graceffo, one could fairly say, is the real Rambo. An experienced martial artist featured on the Discovery Channel and in a number of martial arts films, Antonio was embedded with the Shan State Army and helped train Shan soldiers in the art of close-contact self-defense. Among Antonio’s videos on YouTube are several featuring him demonstrating martial arts techniques and sparring with SSA soldiers.
It is on a purported KNU website that an image of Antonio appears under a heading reading “wanted”, reminiscent of an old Western poster — except, of course, that Antonio is wearing the cap and uniform of the Shan State Army instead of a cowboy hat and leather vest, and holding a Kalashnikov rifle instead of a Winchester.
The website, MyanmarNargis.org, has a few telltale signs of being a false front operation–what is euphemistically known in the field as “counterintelligence”– headed up in fact by the SPDC. Perhaps not least among these signs is the name, “Myanmar”, which is the ruling regime’s name-change for the country that is otherwise known — particularly among opposition groups who do not recognize the regime — as Burma.
And the fact that a “wanted” poster for a man who has helped the rebels on a website of a rebel organization is also more than slightly counter-intuitive. Anti-junta groups Antonio remains in contact with confirmed to him that it is a disinformation site designed by the SPDC to create disunity and infighting among and within opposition groups.
“Fortunately,” says Antonio, “most people working on the Burma issue don’t trust anything written in Burmese. Each of the tribes has its own language and alphabet. Most of them are smart enough to use English on their websites to garner international support. The junta, it appears, is not that smart. But, since General Ne Win forcibly closed all of Burma’s universities, to prevent smart people from meeting and exchanging political ideas, it is no wonder that they are slipping intellectually.”
The text of the website page featuring the “wanted” poster, which requires the proper character encoding to be installed on one’s computer in order to read it, was translated for Antonio by a person he described as “an exiled Burmese intellectual, who had to flee Burma and seek asylum in another country. He hates the junta with a passion and supports the resistance groups.”
The exile noted along with his translation to Antonio, “the KNU has cleared your name and so we cannot sell you by the kilo to them.” (How very disappointing for those of us who know his whereabouts).
The page heading, under the “wanted” poster, reads “The Former Marine Who Would Combine Military Forces with Terrorists.” It describes the KNU, SSA and other resistance groups, as “armed terrorists” (perhaps–just maybe–another sign that the website is a counterintelligence front of the SPDC). It describes Antonio as “a former US Marine Italian race, American citizen”, and as being the head of a small group travelling within the country. It says Antonio’s group “is surely going to have to run and escape for their lives as they go through the Armed Forces’ Offensives” but that “it is more certain they will die violent deaths.”
Not very polite. Fortunately, Antonio is not actually in Burma currently — nor was he during the period of time last month the website alleges he was moving through the country with his “group” — a merry band, no doubt.
As much as the page seems designed to put people on the lookout for Antonio, it also seems intended to sow resentment among opposition leaders. Take, for instance, the insertion of this tidbit: “5th Brigade Commander Baw Kyaw Hair, on his part, was dissatisfied with how the present congress has appointed a central group in which General Tamlabaw’s sons and daughters have important posts in the KNU.”
Baw Kyaw Hair’s group “favors having a ceasefire with the present military government and exchange arms for peace”, the website says. (The exiled translator noted to Antonio that “this is an SPDC phrase for complete surrendering of one’s forces and one’s weapons to SPDC — very indicative of an SPDC author”.)
That author adds, “It is heard that 6th Brigade Commander Hsarmi is [also] dissatisfied with Tamlabaw’s circle of family and friends.”
The intent thus seems to try to poison relations among rebel groups as much as to threaten Mr. Graceffo — not that such a warning from the violent SPDC should be taken lightly.
While Antonio always manages to keep his sense of humor, despite the danger and despite the ugliness he has witnessed firsthand, the oppression in Burma under the military junta of the SPDC is no laughing matter. It’s high time the world took notice and took action. Antonio’s courageous work in defiance of the ruling regime has been intended to further that goal.
To close, in the words of Antonio, “please say a prayer for the people of Shan State.”
Adventure and martial arts author, Antonio Graceffo has lived in Asia for many years, publishing four books and several hundred articles in magazines and websites around the world. He has worked as a consultant and writer for shows on the History and Discovery channels and appears on camera in “Digging for the Truth” and “Human Weapon”. Antonio is host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey.” Antonio was embedded with the Shan State rebel army in Burma, documenting human rights abuses, and doing a film and print project to raise awareness of the Shan people. See all of his videos about martial arts, Burma and other countries. Check out his books. Check out his website, Speaking Adventure. To send him an email, click here. [↩]
Jeremy R. Hammond is the editor of Foreign Policy Journal, a website providing news, analysis, and opinion from outside the standard framework provided by government officials and the corporate media, particularly with regard to the "war on terrorism". His articles have also been featured in numerous other online publications. You can contact him at: jeremy@foreignpolicyjournal.com. Read other articles by Jeremy.
This article was posted on Saturday, November 15th, 2008 at 7:00am and is filed under Disinformation, Myanmar/Burma. ShareThis
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Was Myanmar a Weather Warfare Event?
http://peaceinspace.blogs.com/911/2008/11/haarp-as-a-spacebased-weapon-of-mass-destuction-facilitator-of-the-massive-psyops-of-911.html
"After what some people are now calling 9/11 part 2 - hurricane Katrina - can we add the recent Burma or Myanmar devastating hurricane to the emerging evidence of weather manipulation? Alfred Webre from exopolitics.com is interviewed here and lists the suspicions he has. This includes the fact that Myanmar was about to announce a record rice harvest when anyone keeping an eye on current food markets will know that rice is being used as a benchmark crop for world trade. Food is likely to become a weapon as it has been in histories past."
HAARP has 3 major weapons-system components:
Space-Based: HAARP weaponizes the Earth's Ionosphere.
Air-Based: HAARP uses ChemTrails as a frequency reflector from its Ground and Space Base, and as a Binary weapons sysyem against the human population.
Ground-Based: HAARP ground stations energize HAARP (Alaska; Greenland; Norway; Australia)
HAARP: Reported weapons functions:
SDI (Strategic Defence Initiative) Radiofrequency weapon
Environmental warfare - Weather & earthquake warfare
Space Warfare System
Missile Defense System
Scalar energy warfare against land and population targets, including cities, industrial sites, buildings, populations and individuals
ELF weapon with electromagnetic harassment and mood manipulation of target populations and individuals.
Biological & Binary Weapons against populations (with Chemtrails component)
HAARP is a Space-Based Weapon of Mass Destruction. The death toll of two recent probable Environmental Warfare attacks by HAARP is on the scale of Hiroshima. The estimated death toll of the May 3, 2008 Weather Warfare Myanmar Cyclone is 78,000 dead + 56,000 missing as of May 29, 2008. (Ben Fulford estimates 100,000 - 500,000 dead). The death toll of the May 12, 2008 Tectonic Warfare China Earthquake is 68,000 as of May 29, 2008, and expected to rise to 80,000. Official Japanese figures at the time put the Hiroshima death toll at 118661 civilians. But later estimates suggest the final toll was about 140000.
To learn more about the Space Preservation Treaty banning all space-based weapons, visit
http://www.peaceinspace.com
COMING SOON! The Space Preservation Treaty vs. HAARP.
BACKGROUND LINKS
KEY ARTICLE:
Planet Earth As Weapon and Target
LEUREN MORET
World Affairs, The Journal of International Issues v.9, n.4, Winter 2005
http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2006/Earth-Weapon-Moret24feb06.htm
"HAARP is a weapon of mass destruction, capable of destabilising agricultural and ecological systems globally."
Source: Weather Warfare: Beware the US military’s experiments with climatic warfare
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7561
OSS (Forerunner of the CIA) Plans to Trigger Earthquakes & Tsunamis in Japan
http://www.vialls.com/cia/oss_earthquakes.html
Storms & Quakes: Weapons of War
http://stienster.blogspot.com/2008/05/storms-and-quakes-weapons-of-war.html
YOU TUBE: HAARP DOCUMENTARY: Holes in Heaven
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfA9QnHx-MU
ECONEWS SERVICE: Environmental War Desk
http://www.ecologynews.com/cuenewsdesk.html
Is it weather or government terror?
http://onlinejournal.org/Commentary/102205Mazza/102205mazza.html
HAARP DATABASE
http://www.greatdreams.com/haarp_database.htm
VIEW/COMMENT:
http://peaceinspace.blogs.com/peaceinspaceorg/2008/05/haarp-is-a-spac.html
09:36 AM | Permalink
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Myanmar opposition leaders get long jail terms: relatives
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hW1-sT3CP-CppE0yTfJCRybAIDTQ
YANGON (AFP) — One of Myanmar's most prominent activists was sentenced to 65 years in jail along with two other pro-democracy leaders in connection with the 2007 anti-junta protests, family members said Saturday.
Min Ko Naing is considered Myanmar's top activist after detained Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and was a founder member of an opposition group that emerged from a failed student-led uprising in 1988.
Relatives said it had emerged that he was among 23 members of the so-called "88 Generation" who received heavy jail terms on Tuesday this week at the notorious Insein prison on the outskirts of Yangon.
Leading activists Ko Ko Gyi and Htay Kywe were also in the same batch who received the sentences from a closed court at the prison, family members said after visiting the jail on Saturday.
"We got a chance to see them in Insein prison this afternoon after we were told (after visiting another prison) that they were taken back to Yangon," a family member told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"They were sentenced on Tuesday to 65 years imprisonment each," the family member said, adding that they were found guilty on charges including violating the electronic act and for contempt of court."
Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi spent up to 15 years in jail as what rights group Amnesty International described as "prisoners of conscience" for their roles in the 1988 uprising.
"I feel really sorry for them as they have already served at least a decade in prison so now they have to stay there for most of their lifetime," the family member said.
Separately, a female journalist arrested while reporting on Cyclone Nargis in May, Ein Khaing Oo, was sentenced to two years in jail while a male colleague received seven years, legal sources said.
Further details on their cases were not immediately available. More than 139,000 people were left dead or missing after Nargis struck.
Courts in Myanmar in the past week jailed between 60 and 70 people over last year's protests against the military regime, which were followed by a crackdown that the United Nations said left at least 31 people dead.
They include a prominent blogger, a poet, nine monks, and at least 28 members of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party.
Rights groups have accused the generals of trying to curb dissent ahead of elections in 2010 which the junta says are part of its "roadmap" to democracy.
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