Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Reports of UN election monitors leave primary Mon political parties unmoved; boycott remains
http://democracyforburma.wordpress.com/2009/03/07/reports-of-un-election-monitors-leave-primary-mon-political-parties-unmoved-boycott-remains/
2009 March 7
tags: 2010 Election, Burma, Human Rights, Junta, Mon, world focus on Burmaby peacerunningThe two primary political parties representing Mon people say they will not participate in Burma’s 2010 elections, in spite of recent reports indicating that international observers will be invited to monitor the process.
Monitoring is not likely to make the elections free and fair, spokesmen for the New Mon State Party (NMSP) and the Mon National Democratic Front (MNDF) told IMNA, nor will it resolve underlying problems with country’s constitution.
Few details on the monitoring have been publicized, raising questions about the extent of any monitors’ mandate. To date, Burma’s State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) government has made no official public statement; save for a few paragraphs in the Bangkok Post on March 1st and a follow-up story by the Irrawaddy the next day, the story has received little to no international coverage.
According to the Bangkok Post, Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein recently told Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva that Burma would welcome observation by UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, UN staff and other western observers. The Post based its story on a statement by Thailand’s deputy government spokesman Suphachai Jaisamut.
Nai Ong Mange, NMSP party spokesman, cautioned that the UN has made no official announcement regarding monitoring, let alone provided details about how, where and what monitors would be allowed to observe. “The UN has not officially announced how they will observe the 2010 election,” Nai Ong Mange told IMNA. The NMSP is the largest Mon political party and has officially controlled a small amount of territory in Mon State since agreeing to a ceasefire with the SPDC in 1995.
“If the UN monitors, it will only be able to do and see what the SPDC says to do and see,” continued Nai Ong Mange. “They will not come to the ethnic areas – they will not make the election free and fair.”
Media, human rights and democracy groups have widely reported poll tampering during a constitutional referendum held in May 2008. Reported abuses – particularly in primarily ethnic rural areas – include voter intimidation, pre-filled ballots and result fabrication. Official figures, meanwhile, say the country’s new constitution was confirmed by a vote of more than 90%.
“Although UN Monitors might join the election now… they can do nothing,” agreed MNDF spokesman Nai Hong Dein. The MNDF is another respected Mon political party, which won 5 seats in Burma’s later-annulled 1990 elections.
“The SPDC will not change, they will not review the constitution,” explained Nai Hong Dein. “The constitution is not for the ethnic nationalities; it is for strengthening the SPDC. Although there may be monitors, we will not participate. Even if they monitor, Burma will not become a democratic country. It will not become a federal country.
Both the NMSP and MNDF have announced that their refusal to participate in the 2010 election is primarily predicated on opposition to Burma’s constitution. According to the groups, the constitution provides insufficient protection for ethnic minorities and is too difficult to amend.
Nai Ong Mange also highlighted the SPDC’s continued failure to provide details on how the election will be conducted. Details explaining how political parties can be officially formed have not been released, he said, nor have rules explaining how poll stations and voting areas will be allocated. Indeed, though rumors indicate that the election is tentatively scheduled for March 2010, there has been no official SPDC statement.
In the past, at least one Mon politician interviewed by IMNA has criticized the lack of clarity regarding election rules as a deliberate strategy to weaken opposition parties.
But though both the MNDF and NMSP appear firm in their refusal to join the election, both spokesmen said their parties would not oppose the formation of political parties by other Mon groups. “If the NMSP and MNDF don’t join, a Mon political party will appear,” said Nai Hong Dein. “I won’t say that this political party is good or bad.”
“If a 3rd party appears… the NMSP will not bother this party. They can do what they want to do. If the people and monks support them, it is good and they have a right to participate,” agreed Nai Ong Mange.
The NMSP stance appears to mirror that of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), which will require KIO members to leave the party if they contest the election. “If an NMSP member wants to form a political party, they can go – it is their choice,” said Nai Ong Mange. “But the NMSP will not back these members. We will not support them and we will not bother them. But they will have to leave the party – they cannot use the NMSP name.”
Imna Mon News
from → Burma
Burmese Writers Offered Asylum in Maldives
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=15251
By MIN LWIN Friday, March 6, 2009
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The president of the Republic of Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, has offered asylum for Burmese writers and opposition journalists from other countries, in an effort to promote freedom of expression.
A press release from the President’s Office of the Republic of Maldives issued on Thursday said the offer was made during a meeting with Frank La Rue, the UN Special Rapporteur on Opinion and Freedom of Expression.
President Nasheed said that he is promoting freedom of expression in the Maldives and wants to support freedom of expression in all countries.
The exiled-based Burmese Media Association (BMA) welcomed the move.
“It seems that as he is a writer. He has sympathy for the plight of the Burmese media,” said Zin Linn, a vice chairman of the BMA. “I believe he wants to encourage Burmese writers.”
Nasheed also called for the release of Burma’s opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and an estimated 2,000 other Burmese political prisoners.
Nasheed sent a letter to UN special Burma envoy Ibrahim Gambari last month in which he expressed concern for the political situation in Burma.
“As a former political prisoner myself, it is especially distressing to see so many political prisoners languishing in Burma’s jails without hope of freedom,” Nasheed said in the letter.
Nasheed was named an Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience in 1991, when he was being held in prison for writing articles calling for political change in his country.
He left the Maldives in 2003 and co-founded the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP). In exile, he stayed in Sri Lanka and Britain. He returned to the Maldives in 2005 and was elected president in 2008.
US and British diplomats frequent visitors to Myanmar opposition
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/258830,us-and-british-diplomats-frequent-visitors-to-myanmar-opposition.html
Posted : Sat, 07 Mar 2009 05:23:52 GMT
Author : DPA
Yangon - Myanmar's state-run media on Saturday accused the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) of taking instructions from the United States and Britain, noting that the countries' embassy officials had visited the party's Yangon headquarters 21 times last month. "During their visits, they met with central executive committee members of the party and gave large and small envelops and parcels to the latter," said The New Light of Myanmar newspaper, a mouthpiece of Myanmar's military-run government.
Washington and London have made no secret of their support for the NLD, which won the 1990 general election by a landslide but has been blocked by the military junta from taking power for the past 19 years.
The two governments have also been among the most outspoken in calling for the release of NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since May 2003 and has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention.
Western diplomats based in Yangon, Myanmar's former capital and largest city, have difficulty obtaining permission to visit Myanmar government officials, most of whom are now based in Naypyitaw, the military's new capital, 350 kilometres north of Yangon.
To date, no embassies have moved to Naypyitaw.
Access to NLD headquarters, is considerably easier.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi is kept under house arrest in Yangon in her family compound a few kilometres from from the US embassy.
She has been detained in near-complete isolation for nearly six years with occasional visits from her private doctor.
On Thursday, Suu Kyi was allowed a visit by her regular doctor, Tin Myo Win, and an eye specialist, who declared her in good health, officials said.
Tin Myo Win was last permitted to visit Suu Kyi on January 1.
Copyright, respective author or news agency
Global warming
http://www.educate-myanmar.com/2009/03/global-warming.html
Thursday, March 5, 2009
ကမၻာၾကီး ပူေႏြးလာတာ လူေတြ ေၾကာင့္ စက္ရုုံ ေတြေၾကာင့္ ျဖစ္တယ္လိုု ့ ေျပာလာတာ ကိုု
ျပန္လည္ ေခ်ပ ၾကပါတယ္။
ကမၻာေပၚမွာရာသီဥတုု ေျပာင္းလဲတတ္တာ သဘာဝ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။
အေၾကာင္းမရွိအေၾကာင္း၇ွာ ျပီး အစိုုးရ ဆီ က ေထာက္ပန္ ့ေငြေတြရေအာင္ ဖန္တီးေရးသားၾကတာ ကိုုတင္ျပထားတာ ဖတ္ရပါတယ္။
Topic: Global Warming
Global Warming Man Made or Natural Cycle?
Over the last hundred years the Earth has been warming. This warming is believed to lead to many issues such as drought, weather extremes and famine. The man made global warming theory states that man made CO2 is causing Earth to warm at an alarming rate; thus, the warming will continue.by Adam Rink
(libertarian)
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Over the last hundred years the Earth has been warming. This warming is believed to lead to many issues such as drought, weather extremes and famine. The man made global warming theory states that man made CO2 is causing Earth to warm at an alarming rate; thus, the warming will continue. While some scientists believe CO2 is the culprit, other scientists believe the world’s warming and cooling happens in cycles due to various factors. Some of these scientists believe that Earth is starting a cooling trend after a long warming trend. Therefore, the trillion dollar question is global warming caused by CO2 or is this Earth’s natural cycle?
Carbon dioxide is the gas that is responsible for global warming under the man made global warming theory. CO2 is also a part of everyday life. Therefore, this gas should not be confused with smog, which creates a low level ozone layer that can be harmful to humans. CO2 is less than 2% of the world’s atmosphere. Meanwhile 93% of all CO2 is stored in the world’s oceans; the rest is stored the biosphere in things like plants. Oceans move CO2 into the atmosphere and then remove it as continual cycle. Warmer waters, like tropical waters, store less CO2 than colder arctic or deep waters. As CO2 increases in the Earth’s atmosphere, the oceans work harder to remove it. CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere have increased 30% since the pre-industrial era. The ocean has also increased its absorption of CO2 from roughly 2.0 Pg of CO2 in the 1980s to 2.4 Pg in the 1990s. Along with the oceans increased CO2 absorption, plants and trees also take in more CO2. This extra absorption of CO2 increases crop yields and plant growth.
The question arises if man is increasing the CO2 significantly or if the oceans are naturally warming and releasing more CO2 as a part of a cycle? Unfortunately, most graphs shown in news articles only go back 120 years, starting in the 1880s. One glance at these graphs and a person could easily deduce that man and industrialization has caused global warming. Many seem to forget that the last ice age was over 100,000 years ago, so looking at the last 120 years for temperature change seems inadequate. Archeologists have found cities under the oceans, such as the one in India that is 9500 years old. This indicates that the Earth must have been warming for some time, possibly including many warming and cooling cycles. Going back 2000 years paints a better picture than the 120 year "hockey stick" graph. In the Middle Ages the temperature deviation was the same as today. This period did not have industry that created man made CO2.
Images are from GlobalWarmingArt.com, red line is the most recent reconstructed model. Darker lines indicate older models.
Another interesting fact is that even though man made CO2 has exponentially increasing from 1950 to today, temperature from 1940 to 1980 decreased. Scientists back in the 1970s believed that pollution was causing global cooling. The real problem is that any model based off a lower point, like 1880s temperature, would make the model appear that the earth is on fire. Instead of using incomplete models, models need to include a couple of temperature cycles to fully understand how the Earth behaves.
At least 70-80% of the Earth’s warming effect comes from water vapor and clouds not CO2. CO2 traps about 10-20% of the world’s heat. Other contributors to warming include high altitude cirrus clouds and sunspots. Cirrus clouds block radiant heat from escaping the Earth’s atmosphere. Sunspots have been known throughout history to have an effect on the Earth’s temperature. From 1645 to 1715 there were very few sunspots recorded. This also was a period referred to as the little ice age. Over the last 60 years, our sun has been very active with a record number of sun spots recorded. This could also be the reason that ice caps on Mars are melting and other planets in our solar system are experiencing warming, like Jupiter.
By studying models that are more inclusive, scientists are now worried about the warming trend reversing. The Antarctic Ice Sheet is growing at a record pace. The media seems to focus on just the Wilkins ice sheet, which is only 0.01% of Antarctica’s ice cover. The rest of the ice cover is returning 60% faster than last year at 4.0 square km. Even Greenland is seeing a 15 year high in ice levels between Canada and itself. In the US this spring has been much cooler than normal for most of the country. These events are leading more and more scientists to believe the Earth is in for a cooling trend. If global cooling occurs, agricultural life could change as we know it. This could lead to a worldwide food shortage and a displacement of millions of people.
Currently, the United States Congress is debating a potential five trillion dollar energy policy. This policy will place carbon caps on corporations. This will raise cost of energy significantly. Money raised from these caps would be redistributed to more expensive renewable energy projects. The poor will suffer the most as they will have to contend with rising food prices, rising gas prices and now rising energy costs. With so many factors causing global warming, the anti- CO2 movement seems very reckless and will cause many people to suffer.
Fighting emissions from cars and factories is a very noble cause. Pollution can cause all sorts of problems like asthma. To say the world is warming because of humans is a very bold claim. Lots of factors go into warming the Earth. To focus on just one, CO2 is very naïve. It can also be very dangerous as it sacrifices our economic stability and standard of living. Doubling the price of gasoline over the last few years has caused food costs to shoot up; fishermen and truckers to be put out of business; and many low income people to suffer. Now, Congress is debating to do the same thing to electricity prices.
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Posted by May Burma at 6:14 PM
1 comments:
Anonymous said...
Keeping in mind that windmills are hazardous to birds, be wary of the unintended consequences of believing and contributing to the all-knowing environmental lobby groups.
Climate and economy are being linked. Yes there has been warming since the Pleistocene. Climate is a multiple input, multiple loop, multiple output, complex system. The facts and the hypotheses do not support CO2 as a serious 'pollutant'. In fact it is plant fertilizer and seriously important to all life on the planet. It is the red herring used by the left to unwind our economy. That issue makes the science relevant.
Water vapour (0.4% overall by volume in air, but 1 – 4 % near the surface) is the most effective green house gas followed by methane (0.0001745%). The third ranking greenhouse gas is CO2 (0.0383%), and it does not correlate well with global warming or cooling either; in fact, CO2 in the atmosphere trails warming which is clear natural evidence for its well-studied inverse solubility in water: CO2 dissolves in cold water and bubbles out of warm water. The equilibrium in seawater is very high; making seawater a great 'sink'; CO2 is 34 times more soluble in water than air is soluble in water.
CO2 has been rising and Earth has been warming. However, the correlation trails. Correlation, moreover, is not causation. The causation is being studied, however, and while the radiation from the sun varies only in the fourth decimal place, the magnetism is awesome.
“Using a box of air in a Copenhagen lab, physicists traced the growth of clusters of molecules of the kind that build cloud condensation nuclei. These are specks of sulphuric acid on which cloud droplets form. High-energy particles driven through the laboratory ceiling by exploded stars far away in the Galaxy - the cosmic rays - liberate electrons in the air, which help the molecular clusters to form much faster than climate scientists have modeled in the atmosphere. That may explain the link between cosmic rays, cloudiness and climate change.”
As I understand it, the hypothesis of the Danish National Space Center goes as follows:
Quiet sun → reduced magnetic and thermal flux = reduced solar wind → geomagnetic shield drops → galactic cosmic ray flux → more low-level clouds and more snow → more albedo effect (more heat reflected) → colder climate
Active sun → enhanced magnetic and thermal flux = solar wind → geomagnetic shield response → less low-level clouds → less albedo (less heat reflected) → warmer climate
That is how the bulk of climate change might work, coupled with (modulated by) sunspot peak frequency there are cycles of global warming and cooling like waves in the ocean. When the waves are closely spaced, the planets warm; when the waves are spaced farther apart, the planets cool.
The ultimate cause of the solar magnetic cycle may be cyclicity in the Sun-Jupiter centre of gravity. We await more on that.
Although the post 60s warming period appears to be over, it has allowed the principal green house gas, water vapour, to kick in with more humidity, clouds, rain and snow depending on where you live to provide the negative feedback that scientists use to explain the existence of complex life on Earth for 550 million years. Ancient sedimentary rocks and paleontological evidence indicate the planet has had abundant liquid water over the entire span. The planet heats and cools naturally and our gasses are the thermostat.
Check the web site of the Danish National Space Center.
http://www.space.dtu.dk/English/Research/Research_divisions/Sun_Climate/Experiments_SC/SKY.aspx
Human rights in recession
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20090306hc.html
Friday, March 6, 2009
By HUGH CORTAZZI
LONDON — "It's the economy, stupid!" declared Bill Clinton during his U.S. presidential election campaign. He was right then as well as now in emphasizing that economic issues are paramount with voters.
President George W. Bush thought that the war on terror overrode all other issues. After 9/11 this was the dominant factor in Western politics even if the term "war on terror" was inaccurate.
We need to beware of minds that fail to understand the dangers to our way of life other than recession and terrorism. There are real threats to human rights in the developed and developing worlds, and if we fail to confront these threats, we will jeopardize our own future.
President Barack Obama has rightly decided that the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should be shut and has banned the use of torture by U.S. agencies, but efforts are being made by his opponents, and by agencies that feel threatened by the exposure of their methods, to accuse the president of weakness in the defense of U.S. security.
Foreign governments and their agencies, which may have been involved in cases of "extraordinary rendition," have been doing their best to avoid being contaminated in the human rights scandals that tainted the regime of George W. Bush. It's not an attractive picture when governments plead national security as an excuse for a coverup. We also need to bear in mind that even in democratic countries the forces of law and order are sometimes guilty of infringing human rights (as in application of the death penalty).
Still, issues in democratic countries that still need addressing are much less serious than those in countries that cannot claim to be democratic. For example, freedoms are still not protected in China. Political dissidents are persecuted and imprisoned. In so-called autonomous regions, including Tibet, supporters of independence or real autonomy are victimized. Tibet is closed to journalists and most tourists. The situation in other regions colonized by Han Chinese settlers is not much better.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in her recent visit to China, appears to have downplayed U.S. concerns about human rights because she wanted to concentrate on seeking Chinese cooperation in dealing with the economic crisis. This was unfortunate if understandable.
North Korea remains a threat to South Korea and to Japan. While the regime looks after its own henchmen, the population suffers. In negotiations over nuclear issues and other threats, including the fate of kidnapped Japanese nationals, the North Koreans behave with singular deceit.
In Southeast Asia abuses of human rights have been reported from Thailand to Indonesia, but the worst examples have surely occurred under the military administration in Burma (also known as Myanmar). The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has been far too soft toward this odious regime, and the Japanese government's attitude strikes many observers as, at best, feeble.
The situation in parts of South Asia is unsatisfactory, particularly in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Pakistani Islamic extremists, especially in the North West frontier region, have caused a breakdown in law and order, leading to much ill-treatment and violence.
The Taliban in Afghanistan show a total disdain for human rights. In Iran democratic freedoms are restricted by the theocratic regime of the ayatollahs. It remains to be seen whether the Iraqi government can establish a regime that is acceptable to the Kurds and the Sunni minority as well as to the Shiite majority.
The rest of the Arab world varies greatly in its respect for human rights. In particular, the rights of women are severely restricted in many countries such as Saudi Arabia. Many regimes tolerate torture and restrict press freedom.
In Europe the biggest threats to human rights are in Russia and Central Asia. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, formerly of the Soviet secret police, has become increasingly autocratic and ruthless. He will not tolerate opposition and is determined to limit press freedom.
The biggest threat to human rights in Africa comes from the corruption that pervades almost every regime. In some such countries as Kenya and Nigeria, corruption has become endemic. In others, racial tensions have led to civil wars and genocide.
The situation in the Darfur region of Sudan, Rwanda and the Congo remains dire and appalling amid a continuing loss of life and freedom. Attempts by the United Nations to intervene have largely failed to the shame of the Security Council and member states.
Anarchy in Somalia has lasted for decades, with no respect for justice let alone other human rights. Pirates from Somalia have become a menace to shipping not merely in the Gulf of Aden but also off the east coast of Africa. The contagion has spread to the west coast where countries such as Liberia and Sierra Leone still teeter on the brink of anarchy.
Central and South America, by comparison, may seem relatively well governed, but serious blots are soon apparent upon closer look. Cuba remains a one-party state with depressed living standards. Few foreigners would want to live in Haiti or Nicaragua. Autocratic leaders such as Hugo Chavez in Venezuela make life unpleasant for many people.
These are only a few examples of disrespect for human rights. The Japanese government could surely do more to uphold human rights especially in Asia. It can no longer plead that it is inappropriate for Japan to criticize other governments because of its own record on human rights up to 1945.
Hugh Cortazzi, a former British career diplomat, served as ambassador to Japan from 1980 to 1984.
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