Link
April 22, 2013
3 notes
Burma’s chance to do right by all its people
The country has made progress, but vicious prejudice still thrives.

By ,

Desmond Tutu is archbishop emeritus of Cape Town and a Nobel Peace laureate.

In Myanmar, the word “kular” is an insult that you hear shouted at Muslims. You can see it printed in vicious pamphlets about the Rohingya, Myanmar’s largest Muslim ethnic group, calling for them to be kept away from towns, kicked out of the country or murdered.

Kular is a slang word for “dark-skinned” — a form of abuse I know something about. And I, like millions of South Africans, know that such abuse can never last. God did not create us for such hatred.

Tags: Desmond Tutu burma myanmar

Video
April 19, 2013
4 notes

The Lady (2011) Trailer 

I watched the film in my class, after we discussed The Lady and the Peacock: The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi by Peter Popham. The film has given me a lot of feels, so here they are. Spoiler alerts, possibly.

The trailer pans this film out to be political, with instances of family life shown. I was disappointed to see that, especially in the latter part of the film, the viewer was led over and over through a heart wrenching journey over her family (love) life. I mean, I will be honest. When we were discussing this in class, many of my peers pointed out that the emotional aspect of the film is what gets the viewer to empathize with the figure of Aung San Suu kyi, but the film seemed so heavy on her family life (with empty detail) that I think the film took away her political agency, and not just in that aspect. We see her thrust in to this movement by other men, there is a remarkable lack of Burmese feminine presence throughout the film, especially feminine political presence. Her mother is portrayed in the beginning of the film, but she is shown as an invalid, without agency. Aung San Suu Kyi is herself portrayed as someone who was pushed into this decision by men, she is constantly surrounded by men, and except for one or two political speeches by her, we never really see her political activity. There is an absence of Ma Thanegi, who recorded diary entries of Suu Kyi’s activist life when she first began in 1988. The only other real female presence that we see are Dr. Aris’ sister in law (I think she is his sister in law? Or perhaps sister), and Daw Su Kyi’s maid who stayed in her house through her mother’s illness and house arrests. Both of them are still devoid of any real agency - Dr. Aris’ sister in law is around and the only reason she is there is for the concern of the family. Outside of that, she seems to have no concern. Same for Daw Su Kyi’s maid. All she does is bring letters to Daw Su Kyi or announce her visitors. She is not shown to have any feelings about politics (except when NLD won by a landslide), and that’s it. For a film that is about a huge female political figure, I found female agency considerably lacking in the film. 

It was also really annoying when at the end (serious spoiler alert now), the Saffron movement is portrayed and the monks all simply march to her house and start chanting her name. That was not the Saffron movement. The Saffron movement was not about Aung San Suu Kyi, and though a long line of monks did pass by her house, and she did come by her gate to greet and bow to them, they did not simply collect in front of her house and chant her name. That was a gross misrepresentation of a political history in the making, and it was so, so annoying.

I also think that Burmese oppressive history under the junta was also oversimplified, but I will give concession here that perhaps the filmmaker and scriptwriter did not have adequate film space to portray that. But the whole emotional conflict she seems to be constantly having in the film (what to choose, family, or country) was, I think, just over played. The film maker too away not only Daw Suu Kyi’s political agency, but a lot of political agency of many worthwhile Burmese activist in this saga, both male and female. I hope when the next movie comes out to portray Daw Suu Kyi, it delivers better. 

Here’s the New York Time’s review if you are interested in reading other opinions. 

Tags: burma Myanmar aung san su kyi aung san suu kyi the lady own film review

Link
April 16, 2013
12 notes
Muslims in Myanmar in constant fear | Bangkok Post

themindislimitless:

Ashin Pum Na Wontha is a 56-year-old Buddhist monk with a long history of political activism dating back to 1988. He now belongs to the Peace Cultivation Network, an organisation established to promote understanding between different faiths and communities.

In a recent interview conducted at his monastery in Yangon, he told Spectrum that Ashin Wirathu is a merely a puppet ”motivated by his vanity and thirst for fame”.

”Wirathu and the 969 movement receive financial support from the cronies,” he said, referring to a group of about 30 rich men linked to the military and the government who control the nation’s economy. Several Muslim businessmen have huge assets and, according to Ashin Pum Na Wontha, the cronies would like to get their hands on them.

He said he also believes the military is involved in the violence, as a way to destabilise the country and have the chance to present itself as the sole institution capable of re-establishing the law and order. According to his analysis, the military does not want to recover full power, as it had following the 1962 coup of Gen Ne Win, but to ”go back to 1958”.

That the cronies want assets belonging to Muslim businessmen isn’t without precedent. When Ne Win took power, he did set off strong hate for desi people in Burma— as well as Chinese people. Most people owned a building, which would consist of a store on the ground floor and housing above, and they came around the seized the stores— which would include all the supplied, inventory, essentially, the very livelihood of those people. That property was handed over to “true” (Bamar Buddhist) Burmese.

This entire article is extremely detailed as far as commentary on the latest attacks against desis (mostly Muslims, ethnicity and religion in Burma is tightly knit together because of Ne Win’s work too) and I strongly recommend reading it through.

Tags: burma myanmar

Photo
April 08, 2013
6 notes
This picture was taken in Kandawgyi Nature Park, Yangon, Myanmar just a few days before Cyclone Nargis wreaked devastation on the city and the low-lying delta areas around the Irrawaddy River. The area suffered further damage due to the governing junta’s refusal to allow foreign aid to operate in the country. During this time, a constitutional referendum was also held as scheduled in the country (except in the disaster hit areas) despite vehement protests. Established in 1915, Kandawgyi Nature Park is still a protected forest area.The site suffered extensive damage as a result of the cyclone, for which little survey exists. It further displaced many who were dependent on this park for housing and other economic opportunities. This post may not be reblogged except with explicit permission. 

This picture was taken in Kandawgyi Nature Park, Yangon, Myanmar just a few days before Cyclone Nargis wreaked devastation on the city and the low-lying delta areas around the Irrawaddy River. The area suffered further damage due to the governing junta’s refusal to allow foreign aid to operate in the country. During this time, a constitutional referendum was also held as scheduled in the country (except in the disaster hit areas) despite vehement protests. 

Established in 1915, Kandawgyi Nature Park is still a protected forest area.The site suffered extensive damage as a result of the cyclone, for which little survey exists. It further displaced many who were dependent on this park for housing and other economic opportunities.

This post may not be reblogged except with explicit permission. 

Tags: burma myanmar kandawgyi nature park own

Photoset
April 06, 2013
3 notes

The armed forces are meant for this nation and this people, and it should be a force having the honor and respect of the people. If instead the armed forces should come to be hated by the people, then the aims with which this army has been built up would be in vain. 

- Aung San, requoted by his daughter Aung San Su Kyi (pictured above) in her first public address of August 26, 1988 outside Shwedegon Pagoda. Her public address was in response to government’s mass massacre of student protests of 1988. Her demand was simple, and unwavering. Speaking as “the mouth piece of the people”, she demanded for a multiparty democratic system in Burma, and said she was committed to a “second independence of Burma.”

On 27th March, 2013, Aung San Su Kyi accompanied Major General Zaw Win during Burma’s 68th Armed Forces Day parade. The Burmese army has been accused of committing genocide against the Burmese Rohingiya and other Burmese Muslim population in recent days, and committing other human rights atrocities including conscripting children into the army.

picture credit 1

picture credit 2

Tags: burma myanmar aung san su kyi own

Text
December 10, 2012
3 notes

Where possible, I will use the name “Myanmar” instead of “Burma”. That does not mean that I agree and side with my country’s military government, but it is an acknowledgement to the fact that Myanmar houses more than just the Burman (or B’ama) people. And that’s important to me. 

Tags: own burma myanmar

Photoset
September 16, 2012
33 notes

themindislimitless:

A generation of street artists have risen in the streets of Yangon where graffiti has become a new form of expression, drawing inspiration from underground Burmese hip hop and punk scenes in the city. The walls and streets of the city of six million people provide many canvases, particularly Kaba Aye Pagoda Road with its high traffic and thus, option for high visibility for these artists.

Certain images have become highly symbolic. The artist Aung’s winged television set [above], often accompanied with the words “FOR UR RIGHT” protest media censorship and has spread through the city. That of a washing machine next to initials of well known banks refers to their role in money laundering.

Graffiti of an electrical socket trailing a wire, usually accompanied by the slogan “Plug the city”, became common in Yangon in May, when frustration over chronic power shortages led to nationwide protests.

“We didn’t do it on the people’s behalf, but because we ourselves were affected by the lack of electricity,” says Twotwenty, 27, the pseudonym for a member of the collective Yangon Street Art, known by its plump, multicolored tag “YSA”.

Only 25 percent of Myanmar’s 60-million population has access to the national grid, according to the World Bank.

[…]

Like critics of graffiti everywhere, ordinary residents of the already run-down city find it hard to distinguish between street art and vandalism. “Most people don’t know much about this art and the owners of the places where we graffiti are still very sensitive about this,” said Aung.

So far, he says, no street artists have been jailed, although some have been briefly detained and let off with warnings.

Graffiti artists also fought a paint war against an unpopular Yangon mayor. A brigadier general in the army, Aung Thein Linn won a seat for the junta-created Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in a fraudulent 2010 election.

By way of protest, street artists defiantly tagged the wall of his official residence on Kaba Aye Pagoda Road.

“All of us try to draw on this wall,” says Aung. “It’s painted over the next day.”

Aung Thein Linn was replaced as mayor last year by another retired brigadier-general, and the graffiti war on the residence wall continues.

Another coveted target is the Yangon mansion of self-styled billionaire Tay Za, a U.S.-sanctioned business crony of the former junta. But its walls, which hide a fleet of top-end sports cars, remain unsullied.

“A security guard is always watching,” explains Aung.

[Andrew R. C. Marshall]

The 50 or so artists in the city all have an unwritten code of conduct- schools, hospitals, and religious places including pagodas, temples, churches and mosques are kept free of graffiti.  As the artist Twotwenty says; “We may be regarded as destroyers, but […] We don’t destroy these places, we destroy places we don’t like, the places that were taken by force.” A reclaiming of public property for the people again, a reclamation of their right to voice their dissent.

[Sources for images: 1, 2, 3]

Tags: graffiti burma myanmar street art art protest images personal news yangon rangoon

Link
July 28, 2012
11 notes
The Mind Is Limitless: (28 July, 2012) Currently in Burma

Tags: burma myanmar news links

Text
July 26, 2012
49 notes

Since this is legitimately driving me nuts: the civilian-media/blogger frenzy over the Rohingya killings and how it may very well make the situation worse

Hello everyone, especially those outside of the Burmese/Rhongiya/Burmese Muslim community,

HI! *waves*

Let me preface this whole thing by saying that I am a Muslim who was born and spent considerable of her life in Myanmar. Or Burma. However you recognize the country. So, well, you know, here is the answer for “who are you talking” as you read the rest of this post. 

Recently, both here on Tumblrsphere and, I have noticed, on Facebook and other places on the interwebs, a lot of people have tried to bring awareness to the killing of the Rohingiya that is happening in Myanmar. Certainly, the news that is coming from within is very distressing, especially for me, because I have family and friends in the country (don’t worry, everyone is fine there, thank you for asking). 

And I appreciate people who have posted the articles, and have talked about the issue, that is certainly very kind of them, because the outside world needs to know about the atrocities that is happening within, because certainly, silence only helps the oppressors. 

But to my horror, a few things have happened which to me are very horrifying. First are the fake pictures circulating around trying to (I suppose) hit people’s nerves to get them moved to do something. And then there are the political cartoons. You know, look at those bad, bad Buddhist people killing the Muslims ohmygod the barbarians. 

Btw, that last sentence above was sarcasm, in case you didn’t catch it. 

I know that the monks have come out against the Rohingya. I know that the UN has put pressure on the Burmese government to let the Rohingya stay, that Human Rights Watch are saying that the those people are not being treated right etc. etc etc I know that thee situation is bad, okay? Okay. Glad we got that cleared, but let me tell you something. 

Let me tell you that this sudden media frenzy, this sudden in pouring that I see from bloggers and facebook statuses (especially from the Muslim community  - I say “espcially the Muslim community” because I network within it more, for obvious reasons) your showing a one handed story isn’t going to help. Your demonizing of Burma, and of Burmese monks isn’t going to help. Your frenzied “ohmygod we should do something this is so sad” isn’t going to help. Why? Because this is not how it all is, this is not a homogeneous community which thinks with a single mind, and there isn’t an easy, magical solution to the whole situation.

Believe it or not, even within the Buddhist Burmese community, there are diverse opinions, too. 

Let me tell you a story. Back when I was in fourth grade and there were riots happening against the Muslims by the Burmese, other Burmese families that lived in the apartments above, and blow us, other Burmese families that lived in the neighboring area, assured us Muslims that we need not worry about being defenseless. At that time, many monks came out in support of the Muslims and clearly, and heatedly stated that those monks carrying out atrocities against the Muslims were not monks, were people disguised as monks, and if they weren’t, they were violating a lot of Buddhist principles. 

People, please, please, please, I beg of you, clam down, this isn’t a simple story. You want to help? Go educate yourself. Start here. Read up the history. Read up why there is such a huge conflict in the first place. Think rationally, outside of media gimmicks. You want your government involved? Great. But think rationally and don’t be stupid about it, don’t jump in with savior complexes. Heck, I am worried that the Taliban, and the Jihadis are all chiming in. Yes, the violence definitely needs to be stopped, but sending around emotionally charged youtube videos and graphic pictures isn’t going to help. It reduces my beautiful country to a mass of barbarians, which is equally offending to me, a Burmese Muslim. 

So please, with all due respect, please stop with the graphic images, the youtube videos, the charged political cartoons. It isn’t going to help. It just eggs on those who hate the Rohingiya so much anyway, it pushes people within Burma who are genuinely trying to help up against a wall, it just creates a whole lot of mess. 

Please be a grown up. 

Tags: burma myanmar media coverage media frenzy own

Text
July 15, 2012
7 notes

Since I have been busy with school. . .

I have recently seen a sudden spike in interest in the protests that are (are? were?) happening in Myanmar. A lot of misinformation seems to be floating around on tumblr a lot, such as fake pictures.  It’s good that people are interested in what’s happening in there - the more awareness there is, hopefully, the lesser chance that governments and other third parties fuck up the place in the interests of lining their own pockets. 

Here is a post that I wrote about it sometime ago. But with school etc., I have not had the chance to keep up with unfolding events as they occur. If you are interested in commentary, and the place in general, I would strongly recommend you following her ‘Myanmar’ tags, and also this blog. I am not going to say that they are completely impartial, I don’t think anyone can truly be, but I do believe that they are attempting to give as fair and balanced a picture as they humanely can. 

By all means, spread awareness. But please don’t jump on the bandwagon after five minutes of internet research. This hurts the people you are genuinely trying to help.  

Tags: own burma myanmar