Burma

A lot of people were surprised when the Shrubbery started talking about Burma, making it a major part of his UN speech. I heard wonder in people’s voices, as to the reason for this interest. Some opined that he might actually be concerned about human rights. Silly rabbits, what do all of the countries that the Shrubbery knows anything about have in common? Of course there’s oil in Burma.

For background you can read the country profiles of Burma at the BBC, the CIA World Factbook, and Wikipedia.

The BBC also provide articles on Burma junta’s bunker mentality, and Aung San Suu Kyi, the woman who was elected to lead the country, but is under house arrest.

The Junta changed the international name of the country to Myanmar, which made sense, as that is the name of the country in the majority language, but opposition groups oppose the change because it wasn’t approved by the parliament. The US and UK stick with Burma, which is an anglicized version of the colloquial name of the country.

Like most war lords the military “took control of the country to save it and dedicated themselves to the betterment of the people.” They went so far as to put the “gear and grain” symbol of socialism on their new flag, which looks like the ROC/Taiwanese flag, i.e. a red flag with a blue canton and the “gear and grain” inside a circle of 14 stars, versus a 12-pointed sun symbol, in white.

Having changed Rangoon to Yangon, they recently decided they had to move their capitol inland and built Naypyitaw [city of the kings], so people would understand how committed they were to “the people.”

Burma is considered to be one of the least developed countries in the world with most of the infrastructure dating to British colonial rule. This is despite the fact that the country exports oil, natural gas, teak, gemstones [jade, pearls, rubies and sapphires], rice, and opium. Needless to say “the people” are protected from the corruption that would result from such wealth if it were shared.

Multicultural doesn’t begin to describe Burma: there are 135 ethnic groups covering four major language groups recognized by the government.

The current unrest is a result of out of control inflation, making the hard life of most people even harder. The major difference is that this time the Buddhist monks are leading the protests. The country is devotedly religious and attacking the monasteries in Burma is about as popular as attacking the Catholic Church in Italy.

The only voice the military junta is apt to listen to is China. The Chinese are Burma’s biggest customer and the source for the military’s weapons. If the Chinese started baring down, the generals might back off, but there are no guarantees. Getting China to do something is another problem, as they don’t like to interfere in the atrocities committed by other countries.

I do wonder why the Shrubbery hasn’t said anything about the nuclear reactor the Russians are building for Burma.

They have shut down the Internet in Burma, so it will take a little time for the ‘Net to establish new routes around the blocks, but it will happen. No one is accepting the official government death toll of 10. Things will get worse and the world will stand around talking and the Senate will probably pass a resolution.