While the State Peace and Development Council (aka, Myanmar’s military dictators) prepare for the a maybe-election in the fall, Myanmar’s ethnic minorities brace for oppression and, in the case of the Kachin, civil war. I have to ask, which will come first, free elections or bloody war?

From the BBC:

The sharp sound of loading and unloading weapons and the barked orders of the sergeant-major cut through the mountains of northern Burma as the young cadets are put through their morning drills.

Their discipline is good, their uniforms smart and there is little doubting their sense of purpose or patriotism towards the red and green flag with crossed machetes they proudly wear on their right shoulders.

They are the next generation of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), and say they are not afraid to be the generation that fights in a civil war many fear may soon be upon them.

“The Union of Burma was formed on the basis of equality for ethnic people, but there has been inequality throughout history and we are still being suppressed,” said cadet Dashi Zau Krang.

He is 26 and has a degree in business studies, but says inequality has stopped him getting a good job and driven him to join the military.

But he is not afraid.

“The Burmese army may be the strongest in South East Asia, while we are very few, but God will help us to liberate our people to get freedom and equality. This is our responsibility,” he said.

It is a war the Kachin people do not want and one they cannot win.

But their generals believe a 17-year ceasefire could soon end as a Burmese army deadline approaches, demanding the forces merge or disarm.

To disarm means to trust the untrustworthy. Better to die standing than live on your knees.

Roldo Bartimole writes:

Hey, a magazine – The Nation – with an article on Cleveland that”s positive and hopeful – about the Evergreen Cooperative Laundry and its promising help for our city. Headlined “The Cleveland Model,” it suggests a possibility for other hard-pressed cities, too. With Cleveland as the model.

The article notes, “Something important is happening in Cleveland: a new model of large scale worker – and community – benefitting enterprises is beginning to build serious momentum in one of the city”s most dramatically impacted by the nation”s decaying economy.”

Take note Forbes magazine editors!

The enterprise has received some notice here but The Nation article puts it in a broader economic picture.

The laundry is worker-owned, of industrial size and environmentally motivated. The Cleveland Foundation and other foundations have put money into the venture along with the city and banks.

The aim is to give distressed neighborhoods an opportunity to have a workplace jobs along with ownership and provide a needed service by serving the health care industry with something it requires.

It”s a start with possibilities of other ventures mentioned by the authors.

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog video excursion I present: From My Dad.

0614: $1 Land O Frost Lunchmeat at Wal-Mart

Found in my electronic chapbook.

There is a line to be drawn between legitimate and illegitimate theft, between simple and creative plagiarism. The acid test, it seems to me, is whether the plagiarist contributes something significant of his own devising to what he has borrowed. Milton made essentially this distinction three centuries ago in Iconoclastes. “For such a kind of borrowing as this,” he wrote. “if it be not bettered by the borrower, among good authors is accounted Plariaré.” p. 124

From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.

The number of political prisoners locked away by a sham justice system controlled by the State Peace and Development Council (aka, Myanmar’s military dictators) has grown by one as yet another Buddhist monk guilty of working for freedom is locked away from sight and sound. That must not be allowed to stand.

From the Voice Of America:

Reports from Rangoon say the military government of Burma quietly sentenced a Buddhist monk to seven years in prison during the visit this week of a United Nations human rights envoy.

A lawyer said Saturday that U Gaw Thita was arrested last August as he returned from a trip to Taiwan. He was convicted at Burma’s notorious Insein Prison Wednesday on three charges including unlawful association.

The lawyer said the monk was also convicted of failing to declare possession of foreign currency and for violation of immigration laws for taking the trip.

One of the reasons why I continue to post about Myanmar is that I cannot conscience the quiet sentencing of anyone.

Roldo Bartimole writes:

How pathetic can you get? Brent Larkin Sunday uses quotes from four City Council members to tell us that Cleveland is in serious, serious trouble.

And as a center piece of the argument he uses the city”s $350-million mistake on the lake – Browns Stadium – to highlight somehow Cleveland”s problems.

As Mike Polensek points out it has no roof. Does he think with a roof it would be filled with activity? The city now has the right to use the stadium it pays for NINE times a year. Do you see it being used? No way.

Cleveland – with Brent Larkin, who actually wanted to be the PD sports editor – and the Plain Dealer, paid close attention to sports in the last two decades. To the neglect of so much. Even now the sports pages are the largest section of the paper. And typically with fewer ads than other sections.

Dumbing down the dumb is tradition at the newspaper. It excels at it.

Anything the sports moguls wanted they got Continue Reading »

This afternoon Cleveland blogger and new media conversationalist George Nemeth takes his turn at the Phoenix Forum. George will be at the Phoenix Coffeehouse on West 9th at 2 p.m. conversating about recipes for new conversations.

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog video excursion I present: From My Dad.

Found in my electronic chapbook.

I can”t be certain that anything”s going to come along to broaden the base of my experience if I spend a few hours riding around in the squad car with my cop friend, or go sit on a bench in St. Vincent”s emergency room, or rub elbows with drug dealers and three-card-monte hustlers in Washington Square, or take in the scene at the Port Authority Bus Terminal. But I can be fairly sure nothing much is going to happen if I stay home and watch reruns of I Love Lucy. p. 122

From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.

George Orwell served as an imperial policeman in Myanmar, then the British Colony of Burma. Was there something in the environment that led him to write his best known work 1984? I ask because I continue to be amazed at the Orwellian nature of that nation’s current military dictatorship, known as the State Peace and Development Council.

My reading this afternoon introduced me to yet another bit of Orwellian nomenclature: The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, which despite its name acts in the interest of Myanmar’s military dictators.

From The Irrawaddy:

An illegal Burmese migrant was was returned by Thai authorities was shot dead by Democratic Karen Buddhist Army soldiers on Tuesday at Zero Gate in Myawaddy Township opposite Mae Sot on the Thai-Burma border, according to a witness.

Zero Gate, a border crossing point on the Burmese side, is controlled by the DKBA, an ally of the Burmese regime.

“DKBA troops shot the man after they tortured him because he tried to escape from Zero gate,” the witness said.

The man, about 17 years old, was a Burmese Muslim who was arrested by Thai immigration officials at Mae Sot and returned back to the Burmese side to DKBA Zero Gate during the second week of February, according to the source, who said he witnessed the incident.

That this all occurred at something named the Zero Gate is particularly hellish, don’t you think?

The false hope created among the tortured loved ones living with coma victims by quacks and scam artists who think their 21st century version of a Ouija board is convincing ought to be criminal.

What makes those involved, no matter how sincere and well-meaning, quacks? Simply this, they could have easily tested their hypothesis before (as they did after-the-fact) alerting anyone of what they thought was going on. By not doing so, they put their own egos before the well being of either the patient or the family.

Two election cycles ago the name Russo was gold in Cuyahoga County. Not any more. A few weeks ago when I was circulating petitions to get Tim Russo on the fall ballot as County Councilman for County District 7, the No. 1 question I heard from Democrats was: “Russo? He’s not related to Frank Russo is he?”

Even after I assured the person I was talking to that Tim was not in Frank’s family — beyond the connection that all Russos (like all Hesses) have common ancestors somewhere back in history — the reaction was universal: “I’m not voting for anyone named Russo.”

That’s why I applaud Tim’s deployment of head-on humor here and submit that the Good Russo is far better looking than the other guy we all have to stare at when we’re pumping gas in Cuyahoga County.

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog video excursion I present: From My Dad.

Found in my electronic chapbook.

Stay out of ruts. Look where you”re going. Don”t stop learning. Hang out. p. 121

From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.

Aung San Suu Kyi is the face of democracy in Myanmar. I understand that, but I’m beginning to agree with Amnesty International that she is becoming more than just the face of her country, to the detriment to the other oppressed souls. She afterall is under house arrest and not imprisoned at hard labor or subject to military slaughter.

The manner in which AFP plays up a United Nations envoy denied access to Suu Kyi while down playing a meeting with the recently freed vice chairman of the National League for Democracy, Tin Oo, and the incarceration of Buddhist Abbot Gaw Thita for seven years is just one example of this.

A UN envoy met ministers from Myanmar’s junta Friday to press for a meeting with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and discuss human rights ahead of elections this year.

The talks came as the opposition said a senior Buddhist monk had been jailed for seven years, underscoring the military regime’s crackdown on dissent ahead of the first national polls for two decades.

On the fifth and final day of his trip to Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana flew to the remote capital Naypyidaw for talks but was not meeting the regime’s reclusive supremo, Senior General Than Shwe, officials said.

Quintana met Foreign Minister Nyan Win and was due to see Myanmar’s home affairs minister, chief justice, attorney general and police chief, officials said.

“He will not see our senior general,” a Myanmar official said on condition of anonymity. Details of Friday’s talks were not immediately available.

Members of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy said Quintana had told them at a meeting late Thursday that he had asked to meet Suu Kyi but had received no answer yet from the junta.

Quintana has not spoken publicly since arriving in Myanmar but said in a statement a week ago that “I hope that my request to the government to meet with… Aung San Suu Kyi will be granted this time.”

He was due to address the media later in the former capital Yangon before flying to the Thai capital Bangkok.

Quintana met Thursday with Tin Oo, the elderly vice chairman of the NLD, who was freed from house arrest on February 13 after a total of seven years in detention.

Suu Kyi is important as a symbol, but we ought not to wrap ourselves too tightly in her.