Letters From Burma

When I began my webpoll of the most deserving winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, I endorsed Aung San Suu Kyi as my nominee. I did not expect her to defeat Martin Luther King and the Dalai Lama. Evidently more people know who she is than I anticipated. She is a World Hero of Democracy. Her political party was democratically elected to run the country of Burma, and the Military Junta in power refused to recognize the overwhelming results of the vote. Aung San Suu Kyi was then placed under house arrest as a political prisoner where she lives today. She refuses to leave Myanmar, but I want this shinning light of Democracy to live for all to see.

When I first read the book Letters From Burma, I was 18 years old as a Freshman at the University of Guelph, 20th Century World History. Our term paper was to be about Burma, which was renamed Myanmar by the twisted Knights of the Roundtable. The thesis of my term paper was that countries buying their resources (predominantly China) were funding the suppression of Democracy. To do what the Junta is doing requires one of the highest military per capita's on the planet. That costs money. Whoever was sending money to Burma for the resources the Generals were exploiting, were funding the oppression.

An over-zealous TA gave me a C- because I called it Myanmar throughout my essay. I brought it to the Prof, and he bumped me up to a B+ because it was a solid essay. Grad students in the Arts are wasting time and money. Burma has been on my radar for some time. Rambo jumped in later in the game.

Remember that Typhoon 2 years ago? India warned the government of Myanmar that the storm surge was coming, and they did not even issue a storm warning. It was projected to hit the hardest in the hot bed of the pro Democracy movement, and so they did not warn the people. Tens of thousands died in failure of governance that dwarfs Katrina. We need to do something about these assholes in power and suppressing the will of the people. But China props them up, and according to Iggy, we should lick China's ass when it comes to human rights...