MYANMAR/BURMA — While I’m a fan of Dave Letterman’s top 10 lists, Amartya Sen, an Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, has a most unfunny list for Myanmar.

From The Nation:

No 10: Call for an international Commission of Enquiry on Burma, possibly led by the United Nations.

No. 9: Make the framework of sanctions and embargos more effective by replacing general sanctions that hurt the Burmese people with those that isolate the military rulers by targeting their business activities and their financial transactions overseas.

No. 8: Embargo the trading of arms and armaments of all kinds.

No. 7: Impose sanctions on those natural commodities – such as minerals, gems, timber, and oil and gas – that yield huge profits for individuals in the regime.

No. 6: Prohibit large financial transactions from Burma.

No. 5: Ban foreign travel by the generals at the head of the regime.

No. 4: Remind neighbouring countries, particularly China but also Thailand and India – which provide support to the military regime in exchange for their own commercial gains – that they have a special responsibility. The tyrants of Burma will, sooner or later, fall – as all tyrants eventually do. However, the memory of the betrayal of the Burmese people will last a long time, just as the intense anti-Americanism in Latin America today draws on the history of US support for the brutal South and Central American regimes of yesteryear.

No. 3: Withdraw from lucrative Burmese business.

No. 2 End the sense of dejection and hopelessness that is so dominant among the Burmese people. The fight, we have to remember, is for the beginning of democracy in Burma, not for tiny concessions from an entrenched military government.

No. 1 Start thinking about how a post-military government will deal with the culprits of the past.

For my money, No. 8 is the most important, not just for Myanmar, but for every single nation on the Earth, including, and maybe specially for, the United States.

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

From my dad, of course…

MYANMAR/BURMA — Kyaw Zwa Moe runs down a short list of individuals (and groups) he would select for Burma’s 2010 Person of the Year. He dismisses the usual suspects and obvious choices with good reasons before settling on the person he thinks best deserves that honor. It’s not who I might pick, but he’s not wrong either.

From The Irrawaddy:

Unfortunately, if one is honest, only one person fits that bill: Snr-Gen Than Shwe.

It was Than Shwe that directed Burma’s two biggest dramas of 2010: the election and Suu Kyi’s release. With respect to the election, he carefully selected the actors and actresses, including those he wanted and excluding those he didn’t. He also carefully wrote and got the players to follow his own personal script, and the drama culminated in a Hollywood ending for the junta when the USDP won by a landslide.

This did not happen quickly or by accident: Than Shwe has been planning the events of 2010 for almost two decades. By orchestrating the approval of the new Constitution in 2008 and the election result in 2010, Than Shwe automatically eradicated the results of the 1990 election in which Suu Kyi’s NLD party won more than 80 percent of the seats contested, and guaranteed that his regime will remain firmly entrenched as the real rulers of Burma, possibly for decades to come, behind the facade of a civilian government.

Then, by setting Suu Kyi free in a calculated move, he was able to distract international attention away from the sham election and onto the fact that Burma’s pro-democracy icon was now able to meet with foreign leaders and the press. Amazingly, despite the negative long-term implications of the election for the country, within a week after the polls Than Shwe managed to manipulate the people of Burma and the international community into feeling not just satisfied, but euphoric.

Unfortunately, but without a doubt, Than Shwe is Burma’s 2010 Person of the Year.

Remember, Time honored both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin as their Man of the Year.

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

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.

From my dad, of course…

MYANMAR/BURMA — Aljazeera is broadcasting a nearly 30-minute interview with Aung San Suu Kyi on her views of democracy and how it might be brought to Myanmar. She speaks with Maung Zarni, a Burmese dissident and an academic research fellow at the London School of Economics, Mary Kaldor a professor and co-director of Gobal Governance and Timothy Garton Ash is a historian, political commentator and regular colomnist for the UK newspaper The Guardian.

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

From my dad, of course…

MYANMAR/BURMA — As the generals exchange their dress uniforms for bespoken suits and silk ties, their business agenda (aka we all want to be billionaires) becomes clearer every day and their business cronies are coming out of the woodwork.

Meet U Zaw Zaw, the owner and managing director of the Max Myanmar Group of Companies, and one of a clutch of Myanmar companies to be targeted by United States financial sanctions.

From the Asia Times:

The 44-year-old Zaw Zaw’s business activities were closely examined in a June 2009 US Embassy in Yangon cable recently released by WikiLeaks. In the confidential document, he was mentioned as “one of several mid-level cronies attempting to curry favor with the regime and to use his government ties to expand his commercial enterprises”.

By any assessment, Zaw Zaw has impeccable connections to the ruling junta, including ties to former Lieutenant General Tin Aung Myint Oo, ranked number four in the junta and recently elected to parliament. He is also known to maintain personal relations with Senior General Than Shwe, the country’s authoritarian military ruler.

In September, Zaw Zaw was included in a select group of individuals chosen to accompany Than Shwe on a state visit to China. The entourage included the general’s family and senior junta officials. He also accompanied Than Shwe on a tour led by Chinese officials of the Shenzen Special Economic Zone.

This month, Zaw Zaw was granted a major state construction contract to develop the new deep-sea port and future SEZ at the southern port of Dawei. The project, which is being led by Italian-Thai, Thailand’s largest construction firm, is worth around US$8 billion.

When government and business become partners, everyone else suffers. We know of what we speak here in the United States.

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

It’s been a busy week in Wally World: the Universe’s source of cheap plastic crap. On The Writing On The Wal — the blog USA Today says should be on its readers’ radar — Jonathan Rees and I continue our work dedicated to drawing back the curtain on the Bentonvile Behemoth’s corporate disinformation and other flackery.

WE WANT WALMART…! NO WE DON’T…! Staten Island, strike one. Queens, strike two. Brooklyn? I’m on record as saying it’s all over but the shouting boy oh boy is there going to be a lot of shouting. Barring full employment anytime soon, the political will just isn’t there. Keep reading…

WALMART JACKS UP NEARLY 2,000 TOY PRICES… Ho, ho, ho. Guess what Walmart did only days after Black Friday? It jacked up the prices on nearly 2,000 toys. I guess that the Grinch decided that the sales figures were just too low and that he had been do something quick or risk losing his stock options. Keep reading…

MULLANY TO SIT OUT FOR A WHILE… On Saturday I wrote that Hank Mullany had hit a snag in his move to the CVS Pharmacy chain because of a pesky non-compete agreement. A Delaware judge ruled yesterday that Mullany has to sit tight until trial. Knowing Walmart, that could take years. Keep reading…

CHEAP PLASTIC CHINESE CRAP = DANGEROUS… Families faced with energy bills they can’t pay turn to portable heaters to warm the spot where they, or their children are and turn down the thermostat in the rest of their dwelling in hopes that the cost of one won’t exceed the savings of the latter. Until tragedy strikes. Keep reading…

THE REVENGE OF THE SMARTER SHOPPER… There was a time when shoppers carried long lists and sheafs of slick, four-color advertisements and flyers in their hands as they went from store to store in search of the best bargain. Now they’re more likely to be like Tri Tang who simply whipped out his Android. Keep reading…

WHAT DO WE SAY TO VINNY…? Vinny wants a Walmart in his neighborhood. He wants less of his paycheck to go to buying food so that he has more money for, well he doesn’t tell us that. It is clear, however, that Vinny is angry. Do we dismiss Vinny or engage him in the conversation? Keep reading…

WALMART COVERS ITS GOLDEN ASSHOLE… Parody and satire are not protected in Canada as they are in the United States. This difference has allowed Walmart to inconvenience a website run by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union of Canada with a frivolous lawsuit. Keep reading…

HIGHER REVENUES, LOWER PROFITS… Walmart and Exxonj have been going back and forth for several years vying for the No. 1 spot on Fortune Magazine’s annual Fortune 100 list of America’s largest corporations. Walmart topped out the list leaving Exxon at No. 2 and Chevron at No. 3. Keep reading…

BIG BROTHER WALMART GETTING BIGGER… I’ve written before about the massive amount of computing power and storage maintained by Walmart in its data bunker near Jane, Missouri. In the more than four years since I wrote the piece, I’m sure it’s grown. It’s about to get really bigger. Keep reading…

0839: Bicycle Safety: What are the rules & does anyone know them?

0811: A new Time magazine to be aimed at adults

In the days following the attacks of 11 September 2001, then President George W. Bush told the nation that we were attacked because our enemies hated us for our freedom. I didn’t buy that then and nearly 10 years, billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of deaths later, I still call bull shit.

The 19 men who hijacked those four planes never gave our freedom a second thought. Instead, they were concerned for the damage and threat of continued damage from the United States to their freedom to live their lives. That threat has taken, and still takes, many forms, but one form can be found in the Washington organization known from the outside as The Fellowship, but called by its members: The Family.

In Junkets For Jesus, Jeff Sharlet writes of the religious Crusade waged by this christianist cult in our national capital:

[A]s followers of Jesus who also still adhered to their religions, they could serve as spiritual double agents. To those who were ready, however, the true leader would be introduced:

[The Family] will teach the mentors to confess their sins (known or unknown and to ask the Holy Spirit of Christ to live in them, and to tech them how to live, what to think, what to say. We will teach them to ask the Spirit of Jesus to teach them as they read God’s word.

When faced with criticism of religion based on the religious atrocities found in recorded history, apologists attempt to argue that we live in a different world where nations don’t go on Holy Crusades. What else do you call The Family’s grand strategy?

Muslims, writes [former United States Congressman Mark] Siljander in his book [A Deadly Misunderstanding] can keep their religious affiliation so long as they bow before Jesus.

[Christianist converts] make every effort to be as normal as possible and not stand out.

Messianic Muslims, not unlike Jews For Jesus, well be able to pass as Muslim Muslims and thus win the support of their countrymen. The Family doesn’t require public loyalty; it wants back channel connections.

Some, but far from enough, Christians see The Family’s power grab for what it is.

If Jesus had adopted the philosophy of The Family, Chuck Warnock, a Baptist pastor critical of the organization, observes dryly, he would have worked with Herod, and taken Pontius Pilate to lunch.

While Sharlet focuses on The Family’s subversion efforts outside of the United States, it is clear that in its grander christianist fantasy, American citizens would also submit.

The God-led government [The Family] wants… is not theocracy, an idea nearly every fundamentalist denounces, but the conflation of democracy with authoritarianism. It’s a Father Knows Best vision, the authority of the Father-God manifested through his chosen, men and even the occasional woman who are to society as they believe fathers should be to their families, both loving and stern. Look through this lens, and dictators become brothers; power becomes love; profit becomes charity.

And war is peace.

From my dad, of course…

MYANMAR/BURMA — Nations do not like it when the military forces of other countries cross their borders for anything other than a celebratory parade. Typically, such action results in declarations of war and the mass expenditure of munitions.

Not so in Myanmar. From the Hindustan Times:

Indian security forces can enter Myanmar to hunt for terrorists after taking due permission from Myanmarese authorities, it was decided in Aizawl on Monday. And to boost their crackdown on Indian separatists hiding in Myanmar, it was also decided that Myanmarese security officials have promised to learn English or Hindi to overcome communication problems.

The decisions to curb trans-border movement of terrorists, arms smuggling and prevent drug trafficking came at a meeting of officers from the Indian home ministry and Myanmar’s Chin state.

Both sides agreed to improve border security and share information on cross-border terrorism, a Mizoram home department official said.

The meeting took place in eastern Mizoram’s Champhai town on Friday.

The official said: “Myanmar authorities have agreed to allow Indian security forces to enter Myanmar territory along the border after getting permission from the (local) army post commander.”

The Indian delegation was led by home ministry’s joint secretary S. Singh and the Myanmar officials headed by U. Nay Wing, the army commander of Chin state.

According to Indian officials, several militants from the northeast have taken shelter in Myanmar and Bangladesh and have set up bases and training camps.

The two regional antagonist superpowers — India and China — are Myanmar’s neighbors. Why can’t Myanmar’s own forces deal with the revolutionaries? Are Myanmar’s military dictators attempting to walk a tight rope between the two tigers?

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

From my dad, of course…

MYANMAR/BURMA — Bronte Moules, presently Australia’s deputy head of mission to Thailand will, become her nation’s ambassador to Myanmar at the first of the year.

While she is a carrer diplomat with Boules is remembered for her cental role in exposing the kickbacks paid by the Australian Wheat Board to then President Saddam Hussein’s government.

From The Age:

In 2000 Ms Moules investigated complaints by the Canadian government about the way AWB was operating in Iraq.

She later sent a secret cable to Canberra alerting the government to allegations that the wheat exporter might have been making illicit payments to Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Her career spans 20 years. From her official government resume:

Bronte Moules has been Deputy Head of Mission at the Australian Embassy in Bangkok since September 2006.

A senior career officer, Ms Moules joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 1990.

She has previously served overseas as Second Secretary at the Australian Mission to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva (1992-1995), Counsellor (Political) at the Australian Mission to the United Nations New York (1999-2001) and acting Deputy High Commissioner at the High Commission in New Delhi (2002).

In Canberra, Ms Moules has worked in a range of positions. She was Assistant Secretary of Executive, Planning and Evaluation Branch, (2004-2006), Assistant Secretary of International Organisations Branch (2003-2004), Director of the Ministerial and Executive Liaison Section (2002-2003), and Departmental Liaison Officer in the Office of the Minister for Foreign Affairs (1996-1998).

I don’t write enough about the relationship between Australia and Myanmar here. As the only Western European nation in the region, Australia is unique and its role important both as a democratic influence and a model. I wish Moules the very best in her new year.

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