They Call It Myanmar: Lifting the Curtain (film)

Wisdom Quarterly; Photosynthesis Prod; NewYorkerFilms; VOA

  

The Saffron Revolution 2007-2012 (R.A.)

This is the story of the most Buddhist country in the world (with 89% of the population as adherents), Burma. 

  

The military coup that took place a half century ago led to the creation of an Orwellian nightmare -- a police state ruled by General Than Shwe and an elite junta of criminal military men, who changed the name of the country to "Myanmar" as they embezzled its wealth, enslaved its people, and aligned with corrupt totalitarian China over corrupt democratic India. 

  

FREE BURMA from police state oppression: Saffron Revolution (gawker.com)

Orwell, who was a colonial British subject born in Burma, wrote 1984 in 1948 with Burma and England in mind.

Told with stunning footage that was shot clandestinely over a two-year period by filmmaker Robert H. Lieberman, the film provides an astonishing and intimate look inside at what has become one of the most isolated countries on the planet. Lieberman lifts the curtain on the everyday life of the people in what was once the Golden Land now held hostage by a brutal and superstitious military regime for 48 years.

Aung San Suu Kyi freedom mural (AFP)

A revealing interview with Nobel Peace Prize winner Lady Aung San Suu Kyi conducted just after her most recent release from house arrest is interwoven with extensive interviews and interactions with Burmese people from all around this incredibly diverse Southeast Asian nation.

  

Burma is the home of the modern emphasis on insight meditation (vipassana) in Buddhist practice thanks to its extraordinary monastic system that has produced such luminaries and scholars as Mahasi Sayadaw and the accomplished Pa Auk Sayadaw.

(Kaye Lin) Burma is going through a transition, reform Associate Producer Harold Dinkins says makes this film more relevant than ever before because the film portrays many sociological aspects in the country from health and education issues to the problem of child labor. It is now screening in select theaters across America.

  

The film, culled from over 120 hours of striking images, is an impressionistic journey that leads viewers across the vastness of Burma. It traces the history of Burma from its beginnings in the ancient city of Pagan (Bagan), through colonial times, the rule of Daw Suu Kyi's father, Aung San, recent uprisings by Theravada Buddhist monks called the Saffron Revolution after the color of their robes, the devastating Cyclone Nargis that killed 150,000 people, up to the present day.

Buddhist monk faces off with police (dvb.no)

During Lieberman's time in Burma he shot video constantly, even though it was forbidden and a risky thing to do in a totalitarian state, which could have led to him being thrown irretrievably into Insein Prison. Now this rare footage forms an unexpected and deeply expressive portrait of a place the world now calls "Myanmar."

Actor Ellen Page explains who dictator Than Shwe  is to Burma

• John Kabat-Zinn's Science of Mindfulness
• AUDIO: Late night Buddhist radio on KPFK
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Suu Kyi to decide Burma's political future

Aung San Suu Kyi's party to decide Myanmar political comeback

RANGOON (AFP) - The opposition party of Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi is expected to announce its return to the official political arena on Friday after years of marginalization by ruling [totalitarian] generals.

Senior members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) are to gather in Rangoon to decide whether to re-register as a political party, after boycotting elections last year -- the first to be held in Burma for 20 years.

• US Campaign for Burma
  
• AUDIO: Burma to Chair ASEAN (The World.org)
• Burma calls for sanctions to be lifted (WSJ), which explains why the military is making a show of treating Suu Kyi well.

Democracy in Burma? The US military would sooner force our version of democracy on Afghanistan through the barrel of a gun -- as Family Guy's Stewie and Private Brian find.

The NLD won a landslide victory in polls in 1990 but the win was never recognized by the then-ruling [military dictatorship] junta.

The party refused to take part in last November's vote mainly because of rules that would have forced it to expel imprisoned members. Suu Kyi was under house arrest at the time.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who has spent most of the last two decades in detention, was released a few days after the polls and now appears to be planning an entrance to the mainstream political process.

"On the whole I think the great majority of our people will go in for re-registration," 66-year-old Suu Kyi told the BBC on Thursday. More

Kim and the Kardashians for Burma

Latest on Burma (Myanmar) Earthquake

(NewsyVideos) By Tracy Pfeiffer with anchors Chance Seales. "Asia is on edge after another earthquake hit the southeast Asian country of Myanmar, also known by its former name of Burma. ABC has more." ABC Anchor Juju Chang: "It measured 6.8, shaking across hundreds of miles. So far more than 70 people have died, but the toll is expected to rise. Hundreds of homes, Buddhist monasteries, and government buildings have been damaged." The quake occurred in what's known as the "Golden Triangle," a region where Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand border one another. As a result, shaking and aftershocks were felt in these countries as well as China and Vietnam. An article from the BBC says, even though the Burmese government has released information about the death toll and injuries, it might be some time before the rest of the world gets an accurate picture of the damage. "Burma is ill prepared to deal with natural disasters. ... Communication systems and infrastructure are poor and the military government, still in charge until the handover to a new civilian-led administration, tends to limit the flow of information." And a writer for TIME notes, the current government has a history of questionable crises responses. "During the last natural disaster to hit Burma -- Cyclone Nargis in 2008 -- the government was criticized for placing state security over humanitarian concerns... During the 1980s, a large section of the city of Mandalay was destroyed by fire, but news did not reach the outside world until a Western journalist traveled there nearly five years later." But a writer for Christian Science Monitor focuses on the potential economic impact of the quake and says, financial consequences will be limited. "...[A]side from agriculture and limited tourism, the only other industry of note in the so-called Golden Triangle is opium, and that has been in decline for more than a decade. What remains of the drug industry serves Asia... Illegal though it may be, the industry would feel the same effect as legitimate manufacturers would." A volunteer on the ground tells Sydney Morning Herald, "unhappy information" will likely come out of the rural areas of Myanmar as the recovery progresses.

"Burma VJ" (film)

"Burma VJ" (trailer)

The trailer introduce the film. A "video journalist" (VJ) visits the closed police state, now renamed Myanmar by the military dictatorship, with a hidden video camera. He catches scenes of shocking brutality against peaceful Buddhist monks demonstrating (in what came to be called the Saffron Revolution) in support of the Burmese people and jailed democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi (pronounced "Sue Chee"). She is the daughter of a great Burmese revolutionary hero, Aung San.

Ellen Page introduces dictator Than Shwe

She was thrust into a position of leadership by his assassination. Having married a British scholar living in England, Suu Kyi is kept in the country because if she leaves, she will not be allowed to return. However, she is allowed to say only under house arrest, while the people are systematically exploited and destroyed by "Big Brother" come to life in the form of Than Shwe and his military junta.

Full theatrical version of "Burma VJ" (in equal segments)

The Lady: Burma's Democracy Leader

US condemns Burma over Suu Kyi verdict
The US has criticized Burma's Supreme Court for not releasing Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, with one lawmaker saying the time had come...

My impossible task making Oscar nominee "Burma VJ"
It was at the end of 2004, before the Saffron Revolution, before the cyclone and before an American decided to swim across a lake to visit Aung San Suu Kyi...

• Canada condemns rejection of Suu Kyi freedom bid (AFP)
• Suu Kyi's appeal dismissed (The Hindu)
• Detention appeal by Suu Kyi rejected (Irish Times)
• UN Envoy Denied Meeting with Burma's Suu Kyi
  (VoA) Khin Maung Swe says party members are eager to meet with detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi before officially deciding whether to participate.
• UN envoy presses Myanmar ministers on Suu Kyi (AFP)
• UN envoy leaves Burma with very modest gains (CSM)
• Burma jailed monk during UN envoy's visit (WP)
• MediaWATCH: How the world sees Thai Verdict
• Senate fails to pass unemployment extension
  A high court in Burma today rejected an appeal by Burmese pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi. She had appealed to end her recently extended house arrest... (FSRN)
• Suu Kyi deputy tastes freedom after seven years
  RANGOON — Burma opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi's second-in-command relished his first taste of freedom for seven years Sunday after the ruling junta... (AFP)
• UN envoy arrives in Burma (Aljazeera.net)
• Burma frees NLD leader Tin Oo (BBC News)
• Suu Kyi supporters jailed (News24)

• Suu Kyi is happy Tin Oo is back
  Detained pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, said she is happy that recently-freed deputy leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD)...
• A First Step Toward Democracy?
  For the first time since 1990 — when officials arrested 2000 people, including the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, after the last general election...
• Fiancee of Burma prisoner "betrayed" by US (AFP)
• Burma's looming election sham (ISN)
• Six on hunger strike in Insein prison (DVB)
• Burmese PM resumes media attacks on Suu Kyi
  In a renewed Burmese regime attack on opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Prime Minister Gen. Thein Sein said on that no Burmese citizen...
• Burma's Suu Kyi undecided on junta's elections
  RANGOON — Burma's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi says that the military-run country's upcoming elections cannot be credible unless... (AP)
• No decision on polls till electoral process is announced: Suu Kyi
• Opposition parties face election uncertainty

Burma: Anniversary of Crackdown

Buddhist monks in western Myanmar march to commemorate anniversary of army crackdown

Members of Myanmar's opposition party, the National League for Democracy, look on during ceremonies Saturday, 9/272/08, in Yangon, Myanmar. About 350 people gathered on today to remember the 20th anniversary of the founding party of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi (AP Photo).

• Key nations call on Burma to release Suu Kyi

YANGON, Myanmar (AP, 9/27/08) -- About 100 Buddhist monks in a western Myanmar city staged a peaceful protest march Saturday to mark the anniversary of last year's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.

Meanwhile, in the country's biggest city, Yangon, recently released political prisoners helped celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of the party led by detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, while police and other security personnel kept a close watch.

No protests directly related to the crackdown anniversary were noted in Yangon, where last year's demonstrations attracted up to 100,000 people. The junta put down the protests with force, killing at least 31 people and detaining thousands.

But in the western port city of Sittwe, about 100 Buddhist monks marched peacefully in a heavy rain for about 30 minutes, according to witnesses who asked not to be named for fear of being harassed by the authorities.

The monks' march took the form of their morning round of begging for alms, but it is widely understood that such a large number of monks marching in an organized fashion represents a veiled protest.

Thein Hlaing, vice chairman of the dissident National League for Democracy Arakan, said one of the monks who organized the march told him it was staged to mark the anniversary of the crackdown and to recall those people killed or detained during it. Buddhist monks spearheaded last year's protests.

Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state in western Myanmar, is known for its strong anti-military sentiment. It was the city where Buddhist monks first joined anti-junta rallies that swelled into nationwide protests last September.

In Yangon, witnesses said three to six members of the National League for Democracy who were walking to the party's headquarters for its founding anniversary celebration were detained by a vigilante group that acts as security auxiliaries for the ruling military junta. Party officials said the members were forced into a truck and taken to their homes. The witnesses and party officials asked not to be named, fearing official retribution.

Wearing National League for Democracy (NLD) cone-shaped bamboo hats, women members gather Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008, outside the NLD's headquarters in Yangon, Myanmar. About 350 people gathered on Saturday to remember the 20th anniversary of the founding party of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi (AP Photo).

Six truckloads of riot police with shields and batons along with three truckloads of vigilantes were deployed near the opposition party offices. The ceremony, attended by about 350 people including party members, diplomats and reporters, was also a homecoming for a senior party member released from jail a few days earlier.

Prominent journalist Win Tin, who with 19 years behind bars had been the country's longest-serving political prisoner, was among seven party members who were released Tuesday in an amnesty granted to 9,002 prisoners around the country.

Another of those released, Win Htein — who was a close aide to Suu Kyi — was re-arrested just 17 hours after being freed from prison in a remote area in the country's northwest. No reason was given for putting him back in detention.

In an anniversary statement, the party reiterated its call for the immediate release of all political prisoners, including Suu Kyi — who has spent 13 of the last 19 years in detention — and her deputy Tin Oo. It also called for the freedom of Buddhist monks and ethnic leaders arrested by the junta.

The party was founded in 1988 after an abortive pro-democracy uprising, and since then has faced nearly constant harassment from the ruling military. When the party's candidates won the most seats in 1990 general elections, the military refused to let it take power.