The military government of Myanmar – formerly known as Burma – has literally cut off Internet access – blaming a “damaged underwater cable” – after an unprecedented sea of images of Myanmar’s brutal crackdown on protesters leaked out to the world through the Internet. Burmese bloggers are now afraid for their lives. “When things were hot on the streets, we were not the main worry. But as the situation cools down, they will follow us. They know who we are, they know we are bloggers, and I am afraid,” said Myanmar blogger Lo Katt.
The current military government of Burma changed the name from Burma to Myanmar in 1989.
The recent round of aggression began when the Myanmar military regime announced an enormous fuel hike, which triggered a fresh round of pro-democracy protests. Local Buddhist monks joined the cause, and eventually the protestations swelled to what are being called the largest anti-regime, pro-democracy protests in Myanmar in 20 years.
The military government of Myanmar has taken harsh action – including against the monks, who are revered as holy and peaceful people in Myanmar. As the brutality and death toll mounted, a rush of images began flooding the Internet, showing up on blogs, in Facebook groups, and elsewhere.
As the images – many of them taken with bystanders’ camera phones – began filtering out to the Internet, they helped to spark a worldwide outcry against the brutality with which the Myanmar government treats – and at this very moment is treating – its citizens. While the Myanmar government claims that 10 people have died in the recent clashes between protestors and government forces, independent agencies and inviduals are putting the death toll in at least the hundreds.
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Myanmar has now all but stopped all Internet access from the country, but that barn door was closed too late, as the horse is already all over the Internet. Thank goodness.
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Yes, and while this may be true, who is going to cause anything to be done in response?
About the only thing we may end up seeing is more TV infomercials for some “Feed The Victims” campaign. People, and especially their “governments” are too unconcerned to do anything; plus the business of business and politics is to “stay in business and politics”, so the survival of business and politics are far more demanding than the survival of (how many???)men, women, and children.
The U.N. will send envoys and anything else cheap to grab headlines, but they won’t stop anything. I’ve been around since 1948 and one thing I have learned. Nobody really cares – not if it costs time, energy, or anything else people want. They’ll say something like, “something ought to be done”, or “I’m praying for those poor people way over there”, or “the president should do something”, but that’s as far as it goes or will go. And the blogging community will go on blogging, and the email community will send all kinds of fluff to pretend that people will think they actually wrote it and really care personally.
Sorry, the only real change I have seen in my life is thousands more emails from people who don’t even know me, and have seldom or never written an original sentence yet. In fact, I’ll bet you now that in 5 years, those pictures of which you speak today will be forwarded – after a few years, certainly not during the actual event – for the next 5 years. Included will be pictures of somebody’s “Jesus” holding his caring hand out to help.
Oh yes, we’ll also get a bundle of phishing expeditions to solicit funds for their “relief” efforts. Where’s Rambo when you need him? Discussing the next contract for his next film. Real life Rambos don’t exist – such a shame, too.