Eric Margolis on Burma

This is an interesting piece on the ethnic division and other complexities in Burma. Though you wouldn't know it from most news reports, Margolis says getting rid of the junta may be more difficult than we in the west might envision:

"Burma indeed is a nasty police state. Its generals have plundered resources and kept this magnificent nation in direst poverty. Myanmar is often called a `jewel’ and `unspoiled Asia of 1940’s.’ True enough. But that’s because the junta and its predecessor, mad dictator, Gen. Ne Win, turned Burma into a weird hermit kingdom and one of the world’s poorest countries.

But extreme caution is advised in dealing with Myanmar. If things go wrong there, it could turn into an Southeast Asian version of Iraq, Yugoslavia or Afghanistan."

Read the whole thing. It seems as though the choice in all too many places is between a bunch of Very Bad Men (mostly men at least) repressing people or an all-out civil war.

Democracy Here & There

I know that most of my blogging energies these days have been devoted to the referendum in Ontario and my support for MMP. I feel remiss though in not having said anything about what's been going on in Burma. We're trying to better elect our representatives, they're trying to get out from under the jackboots of a band of military thugs.

Part of this silence on Burma is my aversion to getting my hopes up when it's students vs. soldiers. Part of it is my uncertainty about what exactly I can say or do to materially aide the Burmese students. I don't know that having noble feelings about a worthy cause whilst ensconced in the trappings of Western comfort makes much difference. I joined the Facebook group, but since the junta seems to have cut the internet I wonder if the Burmese are even aware of our attempts to express support for them.

This is what I have for now, a quote from Aung San Suu Kyi the context of which I am uncertain but which seems apt for these days:

"This is not the end. There's a long way to go and the way might be very, very hard; so please, stand by."

And so we should.