The crisis in Burma

[Bird]

Hi, have you heard about the crisis in Burma?
Burma is ruled by one of the worst military dictatorships in the world.  This week Buddhist monks and nuns began marching and chanting prayers to call for democracy. The protests spread and hundreds of thousands of Burmese people joined in -- they've been brutally attacked by the military regime, but still the protests are spreading.
I just signed a petition calling on Burma's powerful ally China and the UN security council to step in and pressure Burma's rulers to stop the killing. The petition has exploded to over 371,660 signatures in a few days and is being advertised in newspapers around the world, delivered to the UN secretary general, and broadcast to the Burmese people by radio. We're trying to get to 1 million signatures this week, please sign below and tell everyone!
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/tf.php

Maybe if many people sign this, something is moving in the collective subconscious to help those people?

[Sharpe]

Why would monks want democracy, weren't they against the whole materialist thing?

[Doringo]

China stands to gain from the junta being in control of Burma, while it gains nothing from letting it become democratic. Therefore, China isn't going to help and remove the dictatorship. "Pretty pretty please" will not make them change their minds, even if it is said over 371,660 times.

[Bird]

Yes Doringo, thats what I thought too.
Maybe a worldwide boycott of Chinese products or something like that
would be more effective.

Funny that the ' world-sherriff' US and A wont step in against this ' evil dictator '.
Because no oil is involved, they have nothing to gain by stepping in either....

[Bird]

Sharpe, why are the monks protesting?
I don't know. Maybe they got urged by the people?
There is a news article about it,
maybe that can answer your question?
Rarely happens that religion and politics merge like this.

news:

Thousands of monks were still in detention, reportedly held in makeshift prisons around Yangon. It was clear, however, that the people were still looking to them to lead the democracy protests.

In the town of Bago, residents began refusing to donate food to the Kha Khat Waing monastery because the abbot blocked 1,020 monks from joining the democracy protests.

Soldiers erected barbed wire around the monastery, 40 miles northeast of Yangon, to prevent angry villagers from attacking the monks.

"If the monks fear the soldiers, the people will buy sarongs and powder for them to wear," a monastery guide told a visitor Tuesday, referring to items used only by women.

Residents in the second-largest city of Mandalay were equally angry at the abbot of the Masoe Yeain monastery.

"People have come to believe that the junta has sort of bought off the abbots of major monasteries to prevent junior monks from protesting," a resident told The Associated Press by telephone.

At a Buddhist shrine in downtown Yangon, Burmese men in traditional clothes prayed and touched their foreheads on the ground. Two dozen soldiers patrolled outside but there were no barricades along the street.

"I don't believe the protests have been totally crushed," said Kin, a 29-year-old language teacher in Yangon whose father and brother joined the 1988 protests. "We are a prayerful people. ... The monks' influence can't be written off."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071002/ap_on_re_as/myanmar

[Awakened_Mind]

I heard about this on the news on the radio about a week ago, talk back guys were making a joke of monks vs military. I couldn't find anything on it anywhere though. Has anyone seen it on the television?

-AM

[Gandalf]

Bird, The US is not staying out 'because there is no oil'. Actually, Burma contains possibly the highest concentration of gas reserves in SE Asia; that, along with other mineral deposits, makes it of great interest to China, but also to the West. Why do you think that Bush made a statement about it? Other countries affairs are usually no concern of his, unless there is some potential to be had from it.

Unfortunaely the west cannot 'organise a boycot of Chinese goods'.

I'm afraid you underestimate China's growing power. Western countries, including the US, rely on so much of China's products and trade that sanctions are impossible; any action would economically damage the west. Plus militarliy, China is not to be messed with. It has an insanely huge army, and has been a nuclear power for years.

The reality is, the US is no longer in a position to dictate to China. The balance of power is shifting, or rather, its becoming MORE balanced, as America's influence in the world is increasingly more balanced by other states.

By the way, sanctions on burma is a joke as it meant that Burma turned to China to trade instead! Thanks for helping out the Chinese government!

As for the UN security council, China is PART of it! And can veto any action, as they have just done.
You can also forget about the Convention of Human Rights, Geneva Convention etc... China never signed up to it!

Ultimately the regime in Burma is quite safe and has the support and know-how of China behind it. Western complaints concern it very little, apart from issues of image.