Before we say goodbye :)

So now you've learned a bit about the conditions in Burma. When we first leared about all this we were surprised that censurship at this level even excisted. Were you surprised? Let's hope for the best in the future. Lots of people put a lot of efford into helping the people of Burma. One of the organisations is called OD (Operation Dagsværk/Operation Day's Work) and they give students the chance to work one day for Burma this year. The date is the 3rd of November. If you are not a student there are lots of other ways to help out. You can help the volunteers find jobs, or you can donate money for Burma yourself on this website: http://www.od.dk/ - if you can't read danish, OD also exists in other countries, just search 'Operation Day's Work' on Google.

The natural disaster you never heard of

Okay, so first of all – a little update on how you really define a cyclone, in case the phrase puzzles you as much as it did us: Tropical cyclones are very powerful tropical storms that take their beginning above seas with a temperature exceeding +26,5 Celsius degrees. The heat arises, while cold air is being dragged in from below. BIG thunderclouds are formed around the eye of the cyclone (the eye of the cyclone is completely windless, but around it the speed of the winds can exceed 250 km/h!). When moving over a sea the cyclone can create enormous waves, and when the cyclone reaches land the waves can cause floods and destroy areas.

This is exactly what hit Burma the 2^nd of May 2008. The devastations were massive, and as described big areas were flooded. It was estimated that up to 100.000 Burmese people died.
The government guarded the infected areas, and some of the areas that were in the worst condition were not getting the help they need by the government, which made the monks help instead.

People were afraid of the government. Thitinan Pongsudhirak, who is the director of the Institute of Security and International Studies, said: “A lot of people had some hopes, some dreams, speculations about a broad-based uprising, that Nargis would be the beginning of the end of the military. I think the opposite is taking place.”

People were weakened and couldn’t fight the government and to make things worse: The 22^nd of October 2010 cyclone Giri struck western Burma!

It is still too early, though, to know what access international staff will have to the hardest-hit-areas – but what do you think? Will Burma have learned by now? Will the government stop censoring their country and accept help? And will the people be ready to fight?

If you are wondering why you weren’t bombed with information about this cyclone from the Medias back in 2008, you aren’t the only one. Why wasn’t it blown into gigantic proportions like when the tsunami hit Thailand in 2004?

After what you’ve read in our previous posts, it will probably not surprise you that is has to do with the Burmese government and the military regime.

The Burmese government confiscated the help coming from other countries, giving the reason that they wanted to distribute the food, clothes and so on themselves – most of the things from the aid-organizations ended up in stocks in the airport, and the General Secretary from FN, Ban Ki-moon, tried to convince the Burmese government that passivity could end up killing a lot of people.

Eventually some aid-organizations were allowed to go into areas that had been hit by the cyclone, which was really great, because people were missing clean drinking water, plastic for tents and clothes – the Burmese people actually started taking clothes from the dead, and the aid-organizations became aware that they would have to remove the corpses to avoid diseases spreading.

The government wasn’t too happy about the aid-organizations and they would check the volunteers' background and so on, and if they turned out to be members of any political party, they government would take them away and they would be put into prison – so being a volunteer was definitely not a safe job.

The Saffron Revolution

The Saffron Revolution took place in 2007. Thousands of monks gathered to protest against the government, many wore saffron colored robes. The saffron color is very precious in Buddhist belief. In Rangoon, Moulmein and Mandalay the people of Burma walked the streets. They never intended to take use of violence, this was supposed to be a peaceful revolution. However, the military regime got involved and never hesitated to use weapons. The government of Burma aims to control the people so as this revolution took place against their will they decided to stop it immediately. This choice would cost 15-30 people their lives. The reason of the inexact numbers is that they differ according to who you ask. The regime claimed that only 15 people died during the revolution. The truth is that it's very likely that more than double the number gave their lives.

This demonstration was held in the wanting of democracy and to support the leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The demonstration was also meant to awake the surrounding world and spread the word. Sadly it was prohibited to bring cameras. To speak one's mind in public is rather dangerous in Burma as you can get punished if the government doesn't agree with you. Anyhow, illegal videos of the demonstration are available on

This Saffron Revolution was of paramount importance although it got stopped. It was indeed the largest revolution during two decades and the monks have fortunately not given up their hope.

youtube.com. If you check out the photos that have made their way to the internet you might also notice some monks sitting in front of the military soldiers with bowls turned upside down in their hands. This gesture is very strong. Usually when you put something in their bowls you get blessed. By holding the bowls this way the monks show that the soldiers are not able to get blessed since their ruling is against the Buddhist beliefs.

Democracy or democrazy?

It all started in 1988 when the people of Burma marched, demonstrated and protested against the government. The uprising was caused partly by the government, which had closed universities in Burma. There were around 3000 deaths and unknown numbers of injured. During that time Aung San Suu Kyi became an icon and Burma gained worldwide media attention. State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) - that later became State Peace and Development Council - stated in their Declaration No. 1 among other things that the military would not "cling to power for long". In May 1989 the Burmese government reopened the universities that had been closed and a date for the election was set to May the following year. The reason for the government's sudden change was maybe caused by pressure from the outside world after the political situation in Burma became illuminated.

Than Shwe - Leader of the Military Regime

The election in 1990 was by the government said to be democratic, but was it really? Aung San Suu Kyi's party, NLD (National League for Democracy), won 392 of the 492 seats in the Burmese Parlament. So the people's choice was pretty clear, they wanted Aung San Suu Kyi to lead Burma. Still, the government chose to ignore the results and retook the power. The government thereby censored the people's utterance. They stated that the reason for their annulment of the results were to prevent a breakup of the Union.

Aung San Suu Kyi's popularity in the election was due to her continuing resistance against the government. Her speeches speak the mind of the people and she is one of the government's greatest threats.

You can read her well-known speech 'Freedom From Fear' from 1990 here: http://www.famous-speeches-and-speech-topics.info/famous-speeches/aung-san-suu-kyi-speech-freedom-from-fear.htm

Aung San Suu Kyi - the hope of the people

So ... who is this lady anyway?
The story of Aung San Suu Kyi is far from simple. But we're going to do our very best trying to simplify and summarize her story.

Aung San Suu Kyi was the daughter of Aung San, who was the founder of Communist Party of Burma and Union of Burma. He is furthermore recognized as the leading architect of independence - he was a big part of freeing Burma from the british colonial rule in 1947.
Aung San was assassinated the 19th of July 1947 - therefore the past tense in 'was the daughter of'.

Aung San Suu Kyi is not very different from her father - she has not been assassinated, no, but she has also been (and still is) an important proponent for democracy.

She is the former General Secretary of the National League for Democracy, but now she leads the Burmese Democracy Movement. She has also recieved the Nobel Peace Prize for the effort she has put into making Burma a democratic country, where everybody can speak their minds without being censored.
The people of Burma link her to her father, therefore she has become a symbol of hope to them.
The government knew that Aung San Suu Kyi was a threat to their regime, so they placed her in house arrest the 20th of July 1989, and she has been in and out of house arrest (sometimes lasting several years!) ever since.

When the government puts her into house arrest it is their way of censoring the voice of the people and thereby keeping control of the country - and that does indeed not lead anywhere in our opinion.
Aung San Suu Kyi is now 65 years old and is still being kept captured in her own home. She is expected to be released in November this year - but who knows if it's for good this time?

Hey Burma - what's going on?

This is interesting:

Okay, we got you reading - keep reading for a while.

Have you heard of Burma? Burma is a country. If you haven't heard about it, we're not surprised.
This country has been hidden and isolated from the rest of the world during decades of governmental surpression.
It all started in 1962 when the military regime committed a coup and took over the control of the country. The military regime quickly started neglecting the development of the country - they didn't want people to educate themselves because educated people are harder to control.
The government is calling itself 'State Peace and Development Council' (or 'SPDC') - the reliability of the name is pretty poor taking the actions of the government into consideration.
Burma is being subjected to a great deal of censorship. Therefore we're going to expose some scenarios that have been taking place over the years. A post for each area.

You'll be surprised.