flickering pictures

Burmese ex-pat women are taking advantage of their ruling military leaders’ anti-panty superstitions to turn subjugation into subversion, resulting in one of the neatest political write-in campaigns I’ve ever heard of. So far, women across Europe, Brazil, Canada, the Philippines and Singapore are taking part.
From the Panties for Peace Canada website:

The Panties for Peace […]

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United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon seems to have finally convinced Burma’s government to allow aid workers into the country, three full weeks after Cyclone Nargis killed at least 134,000 people and made 2.4 million people destitute.
From the Guardian:

The junta will accept relief flights into Yangon from many countries, including the United States, its fiercest […]

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To put things into perspective, the nuclear strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II killed about 220,000 people.
The world continues to criticize the Myanmar government for stalling aid supplies while it stamps its leaders’ names on the crates, and for refusing to allow foreign aid workers to distribute food, medicine and other supplies. […]

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Three days ago, I posted on the cyclone that wrecked much of Myanmar, killing thousands while the country’s government twiddled its thumbs.
Today, the UN believes that the death toll could hit 100,000 — about 286 times the Myanmar government’s initial public estimate of 350 deaths. Fearing a loss of control over its people if […]

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MAY 9 UPDATE: The UN now believes that the death toll could hit 100,000, about 286 times the Myanmar government’s initial public announcement of 350 deaths. Fearing a loss of control over its people if the international community intervenes, the ruling military has refused to allow most aid organizations to enter the country — […]

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A profile of a Phra Kru Ba Neua Chai, a monk who rides his horse around the Thai-Myanmar countryside fighting drugs. The former law student also happens to be a professional muay thai boxer covered in tattoos, who lost just three fights in his 15-year career. From Malaysia’s Star:

At 29, he told his […]

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Seems like the Myanmar government is more scared of the “Rambo movement” than I thought. The Southeast Asian newspaper Irawaddy reports today that:

Burma’s Press Scrutiny and Registration Board has ordered all journals and newspapers in the country to publish a government article criticizing the movie, Rambo, this week, according to a source close to […]

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(Is it just me, or are fishing commandos the latest craze?)

Fresh off the success of Rocky Balboa, Sylvester Stallone has just released Rambo, a.k.a. Rambo 4, a.k.a. Rambo: Pearl of the Cobra, whatever that means. Normally I wouldn’t give two whits about this sort of thing, but somewhere behind the blood and gore of […]

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“Everybody is terrified that there could be a hit list from the Burmese military circulating around Thailand of people to be killed.”
- Aung Naing Oo, of the Washington-based Burma Fund

Pado Man Sha, one of the leaders of Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement, was assassinated at his home in Thailand today. Two gunmen apparently shot him once […]

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Following massive peaceful protests and a brutal, much-publicized government response, Myanmar’s military-run government has finally set a date for its long-promised elections. It’s not clear, though, whether the 2010 election would be contingent on the adoption of an army-drafted constitution, set for a public referendum in May.

While any kind of public input is a […]

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