New Mandala

Robert D. Kaplan is a journalist who loves to take on the over-the-horizon issues that are just starting to be absorbed by popular appetites.  He has the connections, and the time, and the energy to chase down important stories.  And he has decided that future American involvement in Burma is now one of those stories.  Today [...]

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The regime survived 1988 as it had those earlier dangerous moments; now it hopes that the coincidence of the opening of the Beijing Olympics will divert the world’s attention from the 8-8-88 anniversary. But the Burmese people, supported by Burmese demonstrators around the world, won’t let it be forgotten. They know that this is a [...]

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If you don’t have a great deal of time today, but still want to read about Burma on this sad anniversary, I strongly suggest finding a moment to digest this reflection from Dominic Faulder.  He was a journalist in Burma during that tumultuous period, filing stories for Asiaweek.  If New Mandala readers find other great coverage in their [...]

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New Mandala readers who focus their energies on contemporary life in Burma will want to see this report about an exhibition and conference being held in Canberra.  Showcasing art made by refugees living along the Thailand-Burma border, it seeks to highlight their plight and give greater exposure to their experiences.  It looks very worthwhile.

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Now in their 40s, most of the group’s founders were first rounded up as hotheaded university students who helped steer a failed pro-democracy uprising in 1988. Bound for professions in medicine, engineering or law, many never graduated. The prisons became their university.
- Extracted from “Burma’s Prisons a Caldron of Protest Fury”, The Washington Post, 3 [...]

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To honour the twentieth anniversary of the August 1988 uprising in Burma The Irrawaddy is, as one would expect, releasing a special edition.   It should be well worth a close read.  In the meantime, The Telegraph reports that:
The regime appears determined to stop any attempt to mark the date, which with four eights – 8.8.88 – is of [...]

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With both Mizzima News and the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) subjected to recent Distributed Denial of Service attacks it makes sense to draw some more attention to the excellent work of their journalists and editors. 
Earlier in July the DVB carried an outstanding report on the Burmese government effort to modify radios donated by the Chinese [...]

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So, today I learned that Noam Chomsky has come out and endorsed the moral case for an armed uprising against the Burmese military government.  And The Irrawaddy’s Kyaw Zwa Moe has added tentatively that:
Armed struggles have had an impact on Burmese politics in the past—positively and negatively.
If an armed uprising could be sustained—one which focused [...]

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I asked to speak to the manager and minutes later, I’m being directed outside the building, along the road and back inside another building, that backs onto the same building I have just left. I sat and patiently waited. Finally, a man dressed in army uniform entered from the street. He asked, “Why do you [...]

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I have been separated from my daughter for nearly ten months. A midnight knock at our door in August last year changed our lives dramatically. The military junta’s security forces took my husband Kyaw Min Yu (also known as Jimmy) on the night of August 21, 2007. He is a leader of the prominent dissident [...]

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