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 magical importance in Burma’s calendar and of huge significance to protesters who two decades on are still trying to bring down a military government in power under a different dictator.
Obviously it is on 8 August that China also begins its Olympics. Auspiciousness and all that. With President Bush soon to arrive in Thailand, and with Laura Bush set to visit Mae Sot, Burma issues will be right back on the mainstream agenda this week.
So If there are New Mandala readers who have reflections on any of these events they would like to offer as a guest post please don’t hesitate to get in touch. In this world, there are many conversations that tend to get drowned out by Presidential pomp and Olympics excess. We are happy to host them here.
1 response so far ↓
1 Nicholas Farrelly // Aug 13, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Readers following President Bush’s recent visit to Thailand will want to read this personal reflection from Aung Zaw, the editor of The Irrawaddy. Aung Zaw, and other Burmese “activists”, ate with the President during his stay in Bangkok. The resulting article is well worth a look.
Best wishes to all,
Nich
Leave a Comment
Please note: New Mandala encourages vigorous debate. However, for the moment we will only be publishing high-quality comments that make original contributions to discussion. There will, of course, still be space for pithy, humorous, eccentric and cheeky input. Short and sweet will usually trump long and involved. Repetitive ranting, unimaginative point-scoring and idle abuse will not be entertained. Comments which carry a real name are also more likely to be approved. Thank you for your ongoing interest and contributions.