Myanmar: Why It Should Fear Us - Others see us as the enemy because we are the enemy

[Mika]

Myanmar: Why It Should Fear Us
Others see us as the enemy because we are the enemy
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=3&no=382558&rel_no=1

In the chaotic "west," it is often difficult to gain the attention of the public, but one must be committed to trying due to the severity of our current existential crisis.

We are psychotic as a society; we have become so dumb and manipulable that we are truly being led toward digging our own grave and smiling while working. We cannot go on like this.

We cannot pretend that we are a decent society with good intentions any longer. We are not!

The west as a civilization is corrupt and decrepit. "We" are not the bearers of morality in the eyes of the "other" peoples. We are not an exemplary civilization that people admire and adulate. We are too arrogant and ignorant to realize that we are seen by the others as the enemy because we are the enemy.

The west believes itself to be the holder of the truth, the one that understands what is good for the world. This west doesn't exist. It is a figment of our imagination, a division that has been indoctrinated to make us feel we are superior -- through "our" education systems, "our" media, "our" governments, "our" corporations, "our" art.

We are so indoctrinated in industrialized information societies, that we regurgitate to each other the propaganda that is fed to us on a daily basis. This situation must change because we are collapsing and it can only be reversed by the collective strength of the whole population. Otherwise, we will be bombed out of our homes by those we so love to call terrorists. They are terrorists, but terror is what "we" are bringing to their lands and their homes, and that is why they are terrorizing "us."

As peoples in industrialized information societies, we are looking at the world as if it were a big videogame in which we can solve everyone's problems because we are civilized. We are not!

We have huge internal problems. Inside "our" walls, big CEOs are earning $400 million for their exploits in the oil of other countries, while illegal immigrants are scrambling for work inside "our" factories. We have millions of people losing their homes, while banks are being saved thanks to our taxes.

If inside our walls we are leaving our own people behind, we are watching our neighbors lose their jobs and doing little to help them. How can we expect those outside of our walls to trust us when we tell them we are going to help them?

How can we expect the evil military dictatorship of Myanmar to feel comfortable accepting our help? After all, the last time Cuba offered Americans help with Katrina, their help was rejected and the "world" accepted it as normal. Normal, while American people were dying and there were not enough professional hands to help.

We in the industrialized information society believe that while "they" have evil dictators, "we" have benevolent democratic institutions that are the choice of the people. But we are blinding ourselves from the reality that we are blatantly living.

Our democratic institutions are in the hands of very powerful organizations. Our corporations are not ours; they belong to very powerful groups. Our legal system is built to defend those interests, and the media is one of their many propaganda tools. Even our churches are infested with blood money, yet many go to church to feel good about themselves.

How can Christians, for example, feel good when they see the cross blessing western soldiers going to kill in Iraq? We have destroyed that country; we should all be confessing our guilt, not blessing our soldiers. The biggest blessing those innocent young "killing machines" could have, is to be brought back to their land, with all their limbs in place, and given some therapy. They need it after having been manipulated into committing such terrible crimes against the people of Iraq.

How can we honestly believe that while our governments have done such a horrible thing in Iraq, their intentions are good everywhere else? But that is a very difficult question to ask oneself and therefore only the bravest make the effort. The answer is not a pleasant one.

In the industrialized information society, we should all go to bed tonight trying hard to see our own reality. We must understand that we are the oppressors holding the rest of the world hostage in order to maintain our power.

In Iraq last week, our media announced that while the whole country is in ruin, a Disneyworld will be built outside of the Green Zone, and nobody reacted. After the Tsunami in 2004, five star beachfront resorts for the rich were built where once laid the foundations of fishermen's homes, and nobody reacted.

Yet we do react when Myanmar rejects our help. I would reject it, looking ahead at the consequences for the country.

In the industrialized information society we only have two ways of going to help. Either we come with the barrel of the gun backed by fake diplomacy, destroying countries to borrow their resources, or we go to help with our NGOs and then our companies follow for the reconstruction, building factories and offices for our companies, resorts for the rich and retirement homes for the old. Either way, the locals always end up working for us.

I have seen it with my own eyes; I do not need the television to tell me.

Once in Laos, I saw a group of fat rich and ugly European NGO directors getting drunk inside a posh restaurant discussing the future development of that country. In the meantime, the local chauffer waited outside for hours in his impeccable white uniform with white gloves, in an impeccably clean white luxury 4x4. That pretty much defines through my own experience the way we "developed" peoples like to go around the world helping. It is sad but it is very true.

I understand why the Myanmar government is rejecting our help. This doesn't mean that I agree with dictatorships, it just means that we should look at our own belly before observing that of our neighbor's.

People in Haiti or Gaza would welcome the help we are willing to offer Myanmar. Give it to them; after all, there are so many to help in the world, that we shouldn't be making politicized media events out of the misery of others.

permission granted to post in entirety


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[Homer Wells]

1. Kicked and Recommended!! n/t

[Judi Lynn]

2. -Glad to have seen this. Thank you. n/t

[cliss]

3. The proof is in their actions.

The Military Junta in Myanmar recently made very clear statements: we will accept AID but not AID WORKERS. Very clear. Definitely not American aid workers. How much more clear can you get?

It's my understanding they've let in 7 aid workers, I think they're from the Red Cross. They might be Danish.

Bottom line: we're not welcome in Myanmar.

[struggle4progress]

4. Myanmar's junta really does suck big time

[Hestia]

5. Yes they do suck, but you really need to read the Tsunami Chapters

in Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" - you thought that aid money was going to the victims of the tsunami? Not hardly, it all went to the elite and the resort hotels, who then kicked off the fisherman from their homes on the beaches so the uber rich can have a 5 star hotel room. Those people are STILL living in concentration camps. The Maldives is even worse - they moved the population to a whole 'nother island to hide them; in India, the women are selling their kidney's to get some money.

My first thought when I heard the Junta saying they didn't want the US involved is that they knew first hand what happened in Thailand, Sumatra, etc. They saw exactly what happened and they are not allowing the shock economists into the country. Who can blame them? After what this administration has done to NOLA and Iraq and Asian Rim countries, I wouldn't allow us in either.

[struggle4progress]

6. Myanmar's junta has been cozy with the multinationals for years

Oil in Burma <1992>
Fueling Oppression
by Dara O'Rourke

KNOWN TO HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS as "Asia's new killing fields," Burma is a country violently divided. The military regime which controls the country of 42 million is currently waging battles against more than a dozen ethnic insurgent groups and a student-led democracy movement. The regime, considered illegitimate by most countries in the world, faces international condemnation and pressure from the democratically elected government-in-exile to relinquish power.

The military regime, which calls itself the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), is relying on the exploitation of BurmaÆs natural resources to finance the military battles it is waging against its own people. In 1988, the regime "began to sell BurmaÆs natural resources like fast food," according to the Burma Action Group, a British human rights organization. A main item on this menu is the sale of BurmaÆs oil reserves.

With the critical assistance of multinational oil corporations, the SLORC plans to significantly expand oil production in Burma over the next several years to generate foreign currency to purchase weapons. Between 70 and 90 percent of the profits from oil and gas development will go directly to the military regime. The Burma Rights Movement for Action, an opposition group based in Bangkok, Thailand, estimates oil exploration contracts have accounted for 65 percent of the foreign investment in Burma since 1988.

Michele Bohana, the director of the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Asian Democracy, asserts that "these foreign investments directly support the illegitimate military junta of Burma. The government is bankrupt. They have to get foreign exchange to survive." Further, the SLORC is counting on the large presence of multinational corporations such as Amoco , Unocal , Texaco , Royal Dutch Shell , Petro-Canada and Idemitsu to gain international legitimacy and to fend off proposed international economic sanctions ...

http://www.mediaisland.org/en/chevron-props-myanmar-s-government

Unocal Can Be Held Liable For Human Rights Crimes in Burma, Says Appeals Court
Published Date: 19-09-2002

Washington, D.C., Sept 18, 2002

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals today reversed an earlier Federal District Court decision and will allow a groundbreaking human rights lawsuit against Unocal to go forward. In the Doe v. Unocal case, 11 Burmese villagers allege that Unocal, a California based oil company, can be held liable for human rights abuses associated with its Yadana gas pipeline project in Burma. The abuses include rape, forced labor, and murder.

"This is a landmark decision," said Richard L. Herz, an attorney with the non-profit group EarthRights International, co-counsel in the lawsuit. "In recognizing that corporations that aid and abet egregious human rights abuses can be held accountable, the Ninth Circuit has affirmed that US corporations cannot violate international human rights with impunity" ...

http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=1630

Global firms provide lifeline to Myanmar's junta
Sep 29, 2007

BANGKOK (AFP) — Despite global outrage over Myanmar's bloody crackdown on dissent, multinational firms are still vying for the country's rich natural resources, throwing an economic lifeline to the military regime.

US energy giant Chevron, French oil group Total and China's top oil producer China National Petroleum Corporation are among companies giving much-needed income to Myanmar, defying activists' calls to pull out.

"All these profits go to the regime. These companies don't care about human rights and what is going on in Yangon," said Debbie Stothard, a coordinator of the Alternative ASEAN Network on Myanmar, a regional pro-democracy body ...

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jono5w9ykIWMyXNPZgt4JiKLKDTg

I find your comments about the tsunami credible ... but the problems in Burma go back decades and the behavior of the junta is entirely indefensible

[Auggie]

9. I thought the same thing, though it's possible the Junta learned too well

from the West and is engaging in their own shock doctrine.

[MattSh]

7. This collapse cannot be reversed.

This situation must change because we are collapsing and it can only be reversed by the collective strength of the whole population.

Disagree. The situation can only be changed by collapse. Only then will the whole population have the collective strength to do what must be done.

[Billy Burnett]

8. Kick.

:kick:

[MinM]

10. DownWithTyranny!: MYANMAR-- THE McCAIN CONNECTION

DownWithTyranny!: MYANMAR-- THE McCAIN CONNECTION

Last December when I was in Myanmar, I did some posts at my travel blog and here at DWT about how some shady GOP lobbyists and PR hacks were behind a white wash of the brutal and fascist dictatorship that rules Myanmar with an iron fist. They knew all the right buttons to push and all the right palms to grease and-- lo and behold!-- the Bush Regime and its enablers in Congress became a bit too kissy-poo with these monstrous brutes. Allow me to quote myself:

If you were a brutal fascist dictatorship and you wanted to appear less brutal and less fascist, where would you turn? DCI Group, LLC is where the junta turned. It's a very Republican, very Bush-connected public relations and lobbying firm in Washington. Their website boasts about their political connections. “We are a political firm and all of our partners have political campaign experience. We thrive in competitive circumstances, and are used to fluid situations and tight deadlines." They specialize in corporately-funded deceit, establishing bogus "grassroots" groups to make it appear that third parties favor their clients' nefarious goals (like cigarette smoke, junk food, pollution... dictatorship... you know, the whole GOP song and dance).

“Corporations seldom win alone. Whatever the issue, whatever the target-- elected officials, regulators or public opinion-- you need reliable third party allies to advocate your cause. We can help you recruit credible coalition partners and engage them for maximum impact. It’s what we do best." What more could a junta ask for?

The sleazy outfit's managing partners, Tom Synhorst, Doug Goodyear and Tim Hyde, are all right out of Big Tobacco. In recent years Syndhorst, the chairman, has donated tens of thousands of dollars to every wingnut who's come asking, from Billy Tauzen, Tom DeLay, Tom Feeney, John Sununu, George Bush, Ernest Istook, to Jon Kyl, Thad Cochran, Elizabeth Dole and all the way down in to bottom of the barrel territory with Patrick McHenry and Mark Foley. Ditto for Goodyear, the ceo, who has favored such right-wing fanatics as DeLay, Kyl, Mike Enzi, John Ensign, McHenry, Santorum, Cubin, McCain, Bush, et al...

McCain: The Myanmar mess - First Read - msnbc.com
John Tepper Marlin: McCain and Myanmar - Politics on The Huffington Post
YouTube - TPMtv: McCain's Lobbying Pals: Vol. 57

[Sequoia]

11. What, a Disney World outside the Green Zone? I never head of that.

Sick, sick, sick. And yes, if we go into a country we will never leave. EVER! The whole world belongs to the USA.