Yes, Big Brother Is Watching

 

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The regime insists the poverty that "saboteurs" and "neo-colonialists" keep carping about is exaggerated. "In Myanmar, perhaps, they cannot sometimes afford expensive foods, but they will never go hungry," a writer named only "Shwe" thunders in a rambling, rather baroque editorial in The Myanmar Times. The writer evidently has never visited Mandalay's Mingun Jetty Place, where scores of families live in shacks, scratching out a living and endangering their lungs by using raw coal as fuel. And Shwe surely could not be aware of a stretch of road between Amarapura and Sagaing that is postcard-idyllic—except that many Burmese live in haphazard lean-tos, using nearby woods and streams as their toilets.

The generals prefer to blame the misery on sanctions imposed by the United States, European Union and others, ignoring the incompetence and kleptomania that have hobbled the economy and left the country owing the World Bank and International Monetary Fund some $3.5 billion.  And never mind the fortunes the generals spend on vanity projects and the military apparatus. The standing army alone is said to number a half-million, even more than Burma's 400,000 monks. "There is no pretense that [the junta] is doing anything for the people," says a Western diplomat. "They talk about what people can do for them." The government and its proxies have taken to referring to Burma, which they call the Union of Myanmar, as "the motherland" and exhorting citizens to have "Union spirit" in the face of foreigners trying to "destabilize" the nation. The rulers also talk about uplifting the nation's education standards. But most people say they instead have steadily eroded Burma's once-admired school system. Relatively few people still speak English in this former British colony, and residents say there is little effort to teach it in schools. "The teacher writes an English word on the board and then repeats, several times, the same word in Burmese," says a university graduate. "What sense does that make? Of course, they don't want people to know English." The University of Rangoon was a regional powerhouse in the 1950s, but the generals shuttered it after crushing the 1988 uprising, which was led by university students. The main campus on University Avenue, not far from the brand-new U.S. Embassy, is now rundown, used only for some postgraduate programs; satellite campuses operate in other parts of the city.

Even those lucky enough to go to university have few prospects after graduating, unless they boast government connections. A doorman at a top Rangoon hotel tells me he has a degree in history. The young man delivering room service at my Mandalay hotel recently graduated with a degree in physics. Physics! And on his business card my Mandalay taxi driver has printed in parentheses, "B.Sc. Chemistry." "Not much you can do with a degree except hang it on the wall," the 42-year-old says, not without humor.

© 2007

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Member Comments

  • Posted By: Southern boy @ 12/17/2007 9:52:43 PM

    I hope the author is being very careful under such frightening circumstances.

  • Posted By: BurmeseLady @ 11/28/2007 12:47:22 AM

    TO pinkpanther87413 and cingi, stop discussing ur "American" issues here...what we're discussing here isnt about the states..its about burma...and pinkpanther, go back to ur jungle and stop saying "give the military a chance"...why dun u give urself a chance to use ur brains and see what this brutal military is all about?? Americans chose a president with an equivalent intelligence as them and now they're complaining bout him...well, see who are the laughing stocks here...

  • Posted By: cingi @ 11/24/2007 1:54:17 PM

    ATTENTION

    The Issue:

    Thirty-four Senate Republicans is all that is keeping the United Nation???s ???Law of the Sea Treaty??? from being ratified and delivering a potential death blow to our nation???s sovereignty, security and prosperity!

    Rejected by Ronald Reagan nearly 25 year ago, the treaty remains an albatross that is now only a breath away from an unnecessary law that would place the U.S. under the governing authority to an unaccountable international body???the UN!

    After receiving great pressure from the White House the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the treaty by a margin of (17-4) on October 31, leading to speculation that a final ratification vote will take place very soon.

    Grassfire.org Alliance has launched a nationwide petition strongly opposing the Law of the Sea Treaty, and has plans to deliver 100,000 citizen petitions to the Senate prior to the ratification vote. The petition states that the Law of the Sea Treaty is a dangerous threat to our nation???s sovereignty, places the U.S. under an international authority, subjects our nation to direct taxation by the United Nations, and may hamper our military.

    CONTACT YOUR U.S. SENATORS TO OPPOSE THIS PROPOSED LAW

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The junta has stopped the protests. The big question now is where have all the monks gone?

He was jailed and forced out of his traditional robes after Burmese soldiers arrested him during the junta's crackdown. A monk's tale.