Unsurprisingly, things in Burma have not turned out well. I watched a lot of CNN World and BBC this weekend, and they’re covering it pretty thoroughly. From nytimes.com it seems like American media is doing the same — any thoughts from American readers who watch the TV news or read other papers?
And as our eyes are turned that way, it’s worth noting that the injustices in Burma extend far beyond the violent suppression of peaceful protests; Burma/Myanmar is also home to hundreds of thousands of displaced people. The current situation is Burma is a large-scale version of what’s been happening on smaller stages for years: Pro-democracy agitators are routinely harassed, jailed, and attacked.
Details are sketchy because the military junta has shut down nearly all access to the outside world, but Burmese bloggers are taking the incredibly brave step of writing about what’s happening on the streets of Rangoon. And citizens are doing more than blogging — they’re recording their own footage and sending it to the news media, which has been barred from entering the country. It’s a potentially momentous turning point for citizen media, and a testament to how powerful individual access to technology can be. Mainstream journalists, too, have risked everything to report on the situation, with Japanese photographer Kenji Nagai shot and killed by the military.
As international outrage grows, perhaps things will turn around. But I’m not too optimistic.
Interestingly, the Catholic Church has decided not to get its hands dirty with this little mess.
As for the cries of “Well what can we do?,” one option is to put pressure not only on China (although that’s important too), but on the multinational firms that are competing for Burma’s resources and bankrolling its military government. (Oil? Who would have guessed?).