New Mandala

Bertil Lintner and Andrew Marshall – who have penned, between them, some of the more interesting books on modern Burma - have both come to the (renewed) attention of the Burmese authorities in recent days.  The Irrawaddy has the details.
On the topic of journalistic access to Burma, I noticed in this Saturday’s The Guardian that Cathy Scott-Clark and [...]

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Would I be willing to accept a son or daughter of a member of the Burmese junta into a course I teach?
Of course.
The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting today that:
Children of some of the most senior members of the Burmese regime are studying at Australian universities… They include the son and daughter-in-law of a minister, [...]

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Anyone planning to join the queue to get a visa to Burma in the coming weeks will want to read this article from over at The Irrawaddy.  In the run up to the referendum the reported clampdown on granting visas (particularly to anyone who looks like a journalist) isn’t all that surprising.  This is especially so after [...]

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A New Mandala reader has recently returned from a visit to Mandalay which included a stint hanging out with the Moustache Brothers comedy troupe.  During the September uprising against the military government, Par Par Lay – “Brother No. 1” – was arrested by the authorities.  I wrote about it here.  He was held for 36 days and [...]

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Reuters photographer Adrees Latif has just won a Pulitzer Prize for his shot of Japanese video journalist, Kenji Nagai, stricken and dying on the ground in Yangon in September 2007.  His account of taking pictures on those tumultuous days is available online.  Rest in Peace Kenji Nagai, and all of the others who lost their lives in the [...]

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“I don’t know why but most of the tourists now are Germans…They seem to think that until they start shooting Germans, it’s still safe to visit”
- Aung Thein Myint, restaurant owner in Burma, quoted in Ed Cropley, “Crackdown Fallout Hits Burma Tourism Hard”, The Irrawaddy, 14 March 2008.

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New Mandala readers looking to understand the ongoing campaigns against the Burmese military regime will find an article in today’s Sydney Morning Herald is worth reading.  It describes Pannya Vamsa, co-founder of the International Burmese Monks Organisation, who is currently in Australia druming up support for tougher sanctions and more pressure on the generals in [...]

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The high levels of excitement over an aging Hollywood star, hacking and mumbling his way through Burma, may be odd to some, but it attests to the power of American cultural hegemony. This is a reality that even diehard anti-American hotheads must accept. So, given the news spreading globally over the lavish red carpet openings [...]

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[Stanley A. Weiss is the Founding Chairman of Business Executives for National Security, a nonpartisan organization based in Washington, DC, and a frequent op-ed contributor to The International Herald Tribune.  In his most recent article he explored the politics of sanctions against Burma and the danger of branding sanction opponents as apologists for the regime.  His interview with Ma [...]

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Even if [UN Special Envoy Ibrahim] Gambari does return to Burma in April, he may have little to do there.During previous visits, he was virtually a prisoner of the government and stayed in isolated Naypyidaw, following a regime-ordained itinerary that included attendance at a rally in Shan State denouncing September’s pro-democracy uprising.Aside from earning him [...]

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