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.