New Mandala

Readers looking to continue chewing over the issue of Burmese politics and foreign “intervention” may find some satisfaction in this article from The Christian Science Monitor.  It is part of a series they have been running over the past week that highlights conditions one year after the September 2007 uprising.

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In response to the Distributed Denial of Service attacks that have, in the past few days, disabled a number of prominent Burma news websites, Irrawaddy editor Aung Zaw has hit back.  His article in The Wall Street Journal will be of great interest to anyone who watches developments in Burma.  More details on the current campaign [...]

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New Mandala readers who have followed this conversation may find a weekend article from The Wall Street Journal is worth a look.  Burma is the subject of sustained discussion about half-way down.

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Over at the Lowy Institute’s Interpreter “blog/zine hybrid”, Andrew Selth has a neat overview of recent events in and around Burma.  Selth’s take-home message comes right at the end:
Increasingly…it is being understood that foreign powers are likely to have only limited influence in Burma. Real and lasting change will have to come from the Burmese [...]

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Over the past couple of days a few people have written to ensure that George Packer’s recent article for The New Yorker does not escape the attention of New Mandala readers.  With the title “Drowning: Can the Burmese people rescue themselves?”, it is a wandering 12,000-word account of the trials and tribulations of contemporary Burma.  Much [...]

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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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