CHAPTER VIII TERMINATION OF SANCTIONS
20. The sanctions imposed under this Act shall apply until the Committee determines and certifies to the State Peace and Development Council and/or the Government of Union of Myanmar that all sanctions and embargoes against Union of Myanmar and its entities have been removed.
CHAPTER IX MISCELLANEOUS
21. Rule of Construction: Nothing in this section may be construed to prohibit any contract or other financial transaction with any entities engaged in the humanitarian and developmental efforts in Union of Myanmar.
22. REGULATORY EXCEPTIONS
For the following purposes, the Minister of Foreign Affairs may, by regulation, authorize exceptions to the prohibition and restrictions described in subsection (a), and the Minister of Home Affairs may, by regulation, authorize exceptions to the executions of penalties under this Act -
(a) to permit the other countries and Myanmar to operate their diplomatic missions, and to permit Union of Myanmar to conduct other official Government business at home and abroad.
A Tool Of Revolution
The failure of a Facebook protest in Egypt common to new technologies that seem ready to change the world, but not yet.
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On April 6 in El Mahalla, Egypt, thousands of people showed up for a demonstration in solidarity with striking textile workers to protest skyrocketing food prices. It gave many participants a nostalgic whiff of the bread riots of 1977, but what enabled that unexpected return to the past was a phenomenon of the future: a Facebook group for the event numbering more than 75,000 members. The precedent emboldened activists to start another Facebook group to stage a second protest to coincide with Hosni Mubarak's 80th birthday on May 4.
With tens of thousands flocking to the Facebook page, activists were anticipating another day of triumphal havoc. On May 4, however, the streets of Cairo were quiet.
What happened? Facebook was supposed to be a revolutionary tool of organizers, a powerful new way of tapping a global support network of dissidents and uniting them in opposition to harsh governments. In Egypt, however, the agitators are a disillusioned bunch. The failure of their "click-here activism," says a Cairo human-rights expert who spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of the issue, has shown "the limitations of social-networking sites as a tool for organizing real-world protests."
This kind of disappointment is common to new technologies, which often seem to change the world and at the same time leave it much like it was before. As the Egyptian activists learned, a social network, just by virtue of being online, can't always hold together a "real world" movement. Facebook creates opportunities—it gives people the chance to write their own golden ticket—but it is not to be confused with the tickets themselves. So what exactly is Facebook good for, and what are its limitations?
When what you want is exponential growth for your cause, nothing beats Facebook: the network is designed for a good idea to spread faster and farther than a single person can ever fathom. Think of a Facebook group as a growing body of water. For that water to accumulate pressure, it needs more infrastructure—the better constructed the conduit, the more directed and powerful the flow. While 19-year-old Alex Bookbinder's group supporting Burma's persecuted monks swelled to more than 300,000 members, the organizers sought additional channels for their cause. Partnering with formal advocacy groups Amnesty International and the Burma Campaign UK, they successfully coordinated marches worldwide last fall, sending thousands onto the streets in London, Paris, Melbourne, Seoul, Taipei, Vienna and Washington, D.C. Mark Farmaner, who directs the Burma Campaign UK, affirmed that the Facebook activists transformed the global effort: "They're able to do things that we can't."
At its core, Facebook is built on information exchange, or, as founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg will tell you, "relationships." When it comes to solidifying already existing relationships, it can be invaluable. This was exactly what a Canadian group of small investors needed. "Canaccord and Other ABCP Clients," popularly known as "grannies on Facebook," lost their retirement savings when their brokers blew their investments on asset-backed commercial paper. Their Facebook group helped them share grievances and make an informed argument. In April, "300 raging grannies" crashed a financial-restructuring meeting in Vancouver, reported Brian Hunter, the group's creator, where their opponents "got their heads handed to them." Canaccord and other investment brokers pledged to reimburse the grannies in full.
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