MYANMAR/BURMA — I confess that my heart skipped a beat when I saw the Time magazine lede:

The Irrawaddy, considered the most influential English-language magazine covering events in military-ruled Burma, indefinitely suspended publication of its print edition this month because of financial difficulties.

I quickly surfed over to the Irrawaddy site and found the page intact and functioning with this note:

Time magazine has reported the suspension of the print edition of The Irrawaddy, saying that the magazine has stopped its publication of 5,000 copies per month due to the global recession and international donors’ shifting policies. The Time report quoted Bertil Lintner, an influential author on Burma, as saying that following the country’s election in November, some international donors started cutting funds to exile groups on the grounds that real change is finally taking place within the country and resources should be shifted there. “That’s a lot of hype. Nothing has really changed,” says Lintner.

Clearly there is a lot more going on here and I’ll be monitoring what I consider to be my best source on Myanmar closely. Deciding to stop printing 5,000 copies is probably not significant as long as the staff and electronic version remains intact.

The idea that international donors would think anything has change in Myanmar is ludicrous.

Do what you can to make this a good morning, Myanmar.

From my dad, of course…

This is pretty neat! See how you do with the colors. Have fun. It takes an average of 5 tries to get to 100%. Follow the directions. (It would also be neat to see how young kids do on it.) It’s harder than it seems, as it should be. A brain waker-upper for each day!

I got a 63 percent on the first try, 100 percent on the second.

Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it. Neil Gamen

Ten rules for writing fiction from The Guardian.

Found in my electronic chapbook.

MYANMAR/BURMA — I haven’t written about the Association of South East Asian Nations and Myanmar in around 10 months. The 10 members of the regional political and economic association continue to better the prospects of their constituents through cooperation and enticements. Just who those constituents may be is a matter of debate, but the members’ on group prosperity is not.

At a meeting of foreign ministers in Indonesia, international sanctions on Myanmar were one topic for discussion.

From the BBC:

The Indonesian Foreign Minister, Marty Natalegawa, described the elections as “conducive and transparent” in remarks at the informal meeting of Asean ministers, held on the Indonesian island of Lombok.

Asean, which includes Burma, would like to see “the immediate or early removal or easing of sanctions that have been applied against Myanmar by some countries,” Mr Natalegawa told reporters.

He described the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi as “some part of the solution not the problem,” in Burma.

“Asean leaders again urge, especially after the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and the elections, that the policy on sanctions against Myanmar be reviewed as they have an impact on development in Myanmar,” Mr Natalegawa said.

While I agree that presents sanctions have failed to achieve their goal, I don’t think removing all sanctions and allowing corporate rapine to run free is a solution. The more I consider them, the more I find myself in agreement with India’s Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen.

Do what you can to make this a good morning, Myanmar.

From The Root:

This photo is floating around Facebook. (Obviously, whoever merged these images is slick with his or her Photoshop skills.)

As we prepare to celebrate the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, take a moment to write a caption for this photo. Or tell us what these two men might say to each other. Leave your words in the comments section.

I could not deem to put words in either man’s mouth but this conversation would be nothing like the Jeff Stetson’s fictional conversation between Dr. King and Malcolm X as peers in The Meeting.

My favorite caption so far come from Charles Reed:

As I sat in the Birmingham jail and a new administration was being usher in, I was ask why I did not wait and give them a chance, and I think these last two years explain why waiting is not within our interest. I assume that your interest lie with the same forces as your predecessors, but I as President of Southern Christian Leadership Conference operating in every southern state and know that Injustice anywhere is a threat to everywhere.

So my question for you brother, is how in heaven name can 5 million black & Hispanic disqualify for a federally insured mortgage were they never used a FICO score what so ever? I am to understand that even if a person had a zero FICO score they could have a 5% rate 30-year FHA mortgage, but my people were taking a 10% adjustable to 16% loans just because? I was born at night Barack but it just was not last night!

At many levels the photo isn’t fair. President Obama could not speak peer to peer with Dr. King if he still lived. President Obama could not be president if he did not stand on the shoulders of those who fought, sacrificed and died for the cause.

And if you need a playlist for today, The Root has that too.

0924: Clichés

From my dad, of course…

This is a quiz for people who know everything! I found out in a hurry that I didn’t. These are not trick questions. They are straight questions with straight answers.

1. Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.

2. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?

3. Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons. All other vegetables must be replanted every year. What are the only two perennial vegetables?

4. What fruit has its seeds on the outside?

5. In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn’t been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside the bottle?

6. Only three words in standard English begin with the letters ‘dw’ and they are all common words. Name two of them.

7. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them?

8. Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.

9. Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter ‘S.’

Click for the solutions Continue Reading »

Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down. Neil GamenTen rules for writing fiction from The Guardian.

Found in my electronic chapbook.

MYANMAR/BURMA — Buried deep within a story under the headline Burma on slow march to democracy are these three delusional paragraphs:

But the biggest surprise – one that diplomats, politicians, and NGOs are only whispering about, fearful of being taken as traitors to the cause – is that the military government itself wants to change.

Not as the people inside and outside Burma desire it. Not as quickly, nor as completely. Dictators have the most to lose when it comes to the dawning of a new age, including their illegally amassed fortunes and their lives. They definitely do not want the clean, heroic, selfless transformation that Mrs. Suu Kyi embodies.

But how about the slightest transformation? An infinitesimal, slow alteration. After all, the ruling generals did permit an election to take place, an interesting development that was overshadowed by Mrs. Suu Kyi’s release from house arrest. It’s true that the regime planned it that way. The generals diverted attention from the rigged November 7 election by releasing Mrs. Suu Kyi from house arrest less than a week later. The Irrawaddy, a Burmese magazine based in Thailand, recently published a sarcastic editorial claiming that the leader of the junta, Sr. General Than Shwe, should be Burma’s man of the year, because by releasing Mrs. Suu Kyi at such a strategic moment, he transformed international condemnation at the vote-rigging into genuine euphoria at the celebrated dissident’s tenuous freedom.

The generals want to retire to enjoy their wealth, to be free to travel the world and enjoy the benefits of being among the world’s wealthy elite, to think otherwise is to hold the halter tight around the neck’s of the people of Myanmar.

Do what you can to make this a good morning, Myanmar.

From my dad, of course…

Jennifer a manager at Wal-Mart had the task of hiring someone to fill a job opening. After sorting through a stack of resumes she found four people who were equally qualified. Jennifer decided to call the four in and ask them only one question. Their answer would determine which of them would get the job.

The day came and as the four sat around the conference room table, Jennifer asked, “What is the fastest thing you know of?”

The first man replied, a thought. It just pops into your head. There’s no warning.”

“That’s very good!” replied Jennifer. “And, now you sir?” she asked the second man.

“Hmmm, let me see a blink! It comes and goes and you don’t know that it ever happened. A blink is the fastest thing I know of.”

“Excellent!” said Jennifer. “The blink of an eye, that’s a very popular cliché for speed.”

She then turned to the third man, who was contemplating his reply.

“Well, out at my dad’s ranch, you step out of the house and on the wall there’s a light switch. When you flip that switch, way out across the pasture the light on the barn comes on in less than an instant. Yip, turning on a light is the fastest thing I can think of.”

Jennifer was very impressed with the third answer and thought she had found her man. It ‘s hard to beat the speed of light,” she said.

Turning to Bubba, the fourth and final man, Jennifer posed the same question.

Old Bubba replied, ‘After hearing the previous three answers, it’s obvious to me that the fastest thing known is diarrhea.”

“What?” said Jennifer, stunned by the response.

“Oh sure,” said Bubba. “You see, the other day I wasn’t feeling so good, and I ran for the bathroom, but before I could think, blink or turn on the light, I had already shit in my pants.”

Bubba is now the new greeter at a Wal-Mart near you!

Write. Neil Gamen

Ten rules for writing fiction from The Guardian.

Found in my electronic chapbook.

MYANMAR/BURMA — These are a few of the people against whom Myanmar’s newly conscripted troops will be marshaled in the fast approaching emergency.

From the Shan Herald:

Ko Than Khe, Chairperson of the All Burma Student’s Democratic Front.

To achieve the federal democratic union in Burma, we need to change the current military rule through [nonviolent] pressures including the people power movement, in combination with the armed struggle. This does not mean that the ABSDF is against the so-called national reconciliation. National reconciliation has been urged for two decades by the opposition and the international community, including the UN. But it has not worked and it is not likely to come to the surface in Burma as long as the State Peace and Development Council clings to the 7-Step Road Map.

Brig Gen Hsar Gay, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Karen National Union.

Although the KNU was against the general election because it was based on wrong principles, it did bring something new — a split within the Democratic Karen Burma Army with the defection by Na Kham Mui and his followers in August. We don’t know if they will rename themselves or not.

The election didn’t change anything in particular. What it did achieve was that when the Burmese junta asked the DKBA to transform itself into the Border Guard Force, this forced Na Kham Mui to defect. It also resulted in the fighting that erupted in Myawaddy and at Three Pagodas Pass on November 8.

Maj Gen Dr Timothy Laklem, Head of Foreign and Diplomatic Relations, KNU/KNLA – PC.

The military are very narrow-minded with their Myanmarnization, meaning that the Myanmar people want to dominate. I don’t believe that Aung San Suu Kyi comes with this spirit. However, if she does comes out like that to dominate the country’s politics and democracy, we ethnics will tell her: “Do what you want to do but don’t mess with us.” But if she wants everyone to live in peace and harmony, she has to choose a democratic federal union that gives respect to ethnics and allows them to manage their own affairs and whatsoever. Ethnic indigenous rights have to be recognized by the government.

Raymond Htoo, Permanent Member of the Central Committee of the KNPP.

Neither her release nor the elections will affect our work very much, but we do expect changes in Burma. If we can hold a second Panglong Conference, we can discuss the future of Burma. The people are not interested in what the SPDC is doing. Such a conference can lead to decisions that everybody can accept and that will lead to the Federal Union of Burma.

Saw Kwe Htoo Win, Chairman of the KNU Mergui-Tavoy district.

The election was a fraud. The SPDC used their officials, whether civilian or military, to intimidate and to rig the election in order to win. The SPDC threatened villagers to vote for the Union Solidarity and Development Association, a group that backs the SPDC. In our areas, the villagers didn’t have to go to vote. The village leader or other government officials took the ballots and ticked them for them. This is not freedom and we can’t accept the result.

The election and Aung San Suu Kyi’s freedom won’t alter our group’s strategy. We will continue to fight. The SPDC is using force, so we have to continue fighting and also try to achieve peace by political means.

U Aye Saung, General Secretary of the People’s Liberation Front.

The ethnic groups will continue to fight against the SPDC regardless of the election, which was rigged. We don’t recognize it. The former ceasefire groups are now also fighting against the Burmese military. They are also interconnected with other fighting groups. This doesn’t include the ceasefire and other groups that joined the BGF, they follow the SPDC. They are now armed forces under the SPDC. But the armed resistance groups will continue what they have been doing in the past – to fight.

In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “How will they all hang?”

Do what you can to make this a good morning, Myanmar.

1959: Huck Finn and the n-word

From 1730 today until 1830 tomorrow, I will be off-line. There will be no new posts during this time, nor will I be checking email. Go for a walk. Have coffee with a friend. Read a book.. Appreciate all that is your family.

MYANMAR/BURMA — As the members of the State Peace and Development Council swap their dress uniforms for bespoke suits they naturally want to shift control of all those enterprises they publically controlled as the SPDC to private hands so that they can reap the benefits of the rapine and pillage.

From the BBC:

According to a report in local news media, the government intends to privatise 90% of state-owned enterprises by the end of this year.

If true, it would mark a major shift in policy for the country, which recently held its first election in 20 years.

Until fairly recently it has been the most rigidly state-dominated economy in Asia after North Korea.

So is the report credible? Hard information on economic policy in Burma is almost impossible to obtain.

The notoriously secretive government rarely speaks to Western media.

But within that context, the latest report appears reasonably well sourced.

The reputable Burmese business news magazine Biweekly Eleven quotes the deputy minister for industry, U Khin Kyaw, as saying the government plans to sell most state enterprises into private hands within the next few months.

Do we even have to ask whose private hands those will be?

Do what you can to make this a good morning, Myanmar.

From The Root:

Black Voices is reporting that Arizona’s only black Republican official is resigning in the wake of last weekend’s Arizona shooting that killed six people because of “constant verbal attacks,” including being called a boy and having someone form their hand in the shape of a gun and point it at him. “I wasn’t going to resign but decided to quit after what happened Saturday,” Miller said. “I love the Republican Party, but I don’t want to take a bullet for anyone.”

Miller has been receiving threats since supporting Sen. John McCain over Tea Party candidate J.D. Hayworth. Miller was a member of McCain’s campaign staff last year and is the first and only African American to hold the party’s precinct chairmanship. If you didn’t know it before, you know it now. Some of these people are crazy, and if they don’t agree with you, then their goal is to take you out, not hear you out. This is yet another example of how hateful rhetoric has real-world consequences.

District 20 Republican Secretary Sophia Johnson, first vice chairman Roger Dickinson and former district spokesman Jeff Kolb also followed Miller’s lead and quit. We’re wondering why McCain hasn’t publicly addressed these resignations.

Run Sarah, run…!