Burma

Now i know this is a little out of character for MissItalianCutie and hey, may even make me come across as somewhat intellectual, but i felt it necessary to write a post on a topic quickly taking the interest of my teenage girl brain..... Burma.

It is a country in South East Asia surrounded by Thailand, Laos, China and Bhutan. It isnt a large country with 657,740 sq km (about the size of texas), the estimated population is 42,510,537 but that is quite inaccurate wen u take into account the disturbingly high mortality rate from AIDS and the fact that a lot of new babies born are not recorded.
Something ironic is that this is a land of fear today and a land of conformity yet 89% of Burmese ppl are Buddhists, one of the most peaceful religions of the world. Burmese as ppl are lovely placid, simple ppl with living in peace as their main objective....it is the work of 'The Generals' that is keeping Burma in a state of turmoil.
These Generals lead the country and either they or family or friends own every major industry there. So the possibility of a loop hole to bring the government to their knees is minimal. They control the 2 internet servers in Burma and have blocked numerous sites from view as they will convey opinions these generals do not want the public to have. They claim that they dont support the drug trade industry and even built a Drug Prevention museum to shield ur eyes from the truth. Burma is rich in Opium and these men know it, it brings sooooo much money to them why would they stop???

Burmese ppl are jailed for years on end for expressing an opinion that is not the opinion of the government (SPDC) or protesting. One man has been jailed for 20yrs for writing a poem about freedom....in Aus u could get less for murder!!!
Restaurants are bugged so u can not talk freely anywhere and wen a UN official came in to talk of peace and change he left within 2 days as he found that the government were having him followed and his room was bugged.

Before this military regime came into power a man by the name of Aung San was ruler and found Burma's independence earlier in the 20th century. He was a peaceful man who believed in the life that the Burmese ppl wanted, a democracy, this was until he was assassinated.
Now technically the Generals should no longer be in power, in the 1988 elections Aung San's daughter Aung San Suu Kyi won an amazing amount of votes at 89%. Now due to the wealth and power these Generals had, they didnt want to give it up and so didnt. They refused to hand over power to her and instead put her under house arrest and jailed most of the ppl in her political party (NLD).

She was under house arrest from 1989-95 in which time her husband in England was dying. She asked whether she was allowed to be set free to be by his side and the Generals stated that if she left for him she was to never return. She was given the ultimatum and made the worst sacrifice a wife and mother should have to make, she stayed...she stayed for her ppl.
In 95 wen Suu Kyi was released she went around Burma speaking to the ppl about change, and that it wasnt goin to come easy. This stayed this way for 5 yrs until one day at one of her speeches the government had organized thugs to start a riot and kill innocent by standers so they had a reason to put her away again. She was then put under house arrest again until early 2003...she was released for a few months but was yet again taken back into custody and that is where she resides today. Pretty unfair considering that she is actually the leader of the country....

Life in Burma is disgusting for the ppl, there are 1 million refugees living in slums on the Thailand border because it is a better life than back home, women are rarely allowed to leave the country as the government see them as potential sex slaves, prostitutes and drug dealers....and im not joking, they are encouraging it! The illegal adult industry in Burma is huge! This has caused rape to become a huge issue with women in Burma as young as 10!
soldiers are treated well but not that well, they still steal food from villagers, rape their daughters and wives and set fire to their houses simply because they can.

So if these Generals have all the money and power and if something like 40-50% of the national budget goes on armed forces how can the country overthrow its own government???

They cant, its as simple as that!

The only way that this government is goin to crumble is the same way it happened in India during the apartheid. Foreign trade sanctions need to come into place.
Majority of western countries like America and Europe have frozen all legal trade with Burma. Some still choose not to, not because they agree with the happenings in Burma but because the money coming into their country is too great to give up. Like France which has a prominent oil company in Burma will refuse to cut ties in order to rid the country of its current fascist state.
Unfortunately Australia is one too. We make no real financial gain from Burma but unlike America and Europe we are very close to South East Asia and therefore do not want to tarnish our reputation with those countries. We arent actually part of ASEAN but we are close with many countries in it. For us to turn our back on Burma would mean trouble for us, and hey if its to save our butts then why not sacrifice the freedom of quite a few million Burmese?
My favourite part is how Australian officials are trying to make themselves feel a little better about supporting such a sadistic regime that we would not generally support. We have sent about 15 representatives into Burma to talk to about 100 of the 45 million Burmese ppl about change and how to come upon it....are we teasing them?? Giving them a false sense of hope?? And im sorry isnt that the most piss-weak effort u have heard from a country that has the resources to do more?

Boys jump on the end of the queue!!! UN officials, peace keeping forces and organizations such as Amnesty are trying the same thing...not to mention Suu Kyi's efforts! What a lame stratergy to rid ourselves of a guilty conscience! If we were really supporting the country we would be encouraging the public or even refusing to fly any Australians over there because sending tourists is only supporting the regime.... Even Suu Kyi has said dont come....not now....come wen Burma is a land of peace and beauty again....

This is only the icing on the cake, but this situation is not goin to improve quickly and the immoral support from countries like France and Australia is not helping...Only one day can we hope that Burma will be free, that Aung San Suu Kyi can lead her ppl into happiness and that the million refugees can cross the border and come home....