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FREE BURMA

Free Myanmar - Birmania Libera - Burma Frei

[The following is copied in full from here, which I found via a Technorati search on Burma.]

Help the People of Burma — Post this on Your Blog!

Note: This is a new kind of online protest that uses blogs to spread a petition globally. To participate, just add your blog by following the instructions in this blog post.

This not an issue of partisan politics, this is an issue of basic human rights and democracy. Please help to prevent a human tragedy in Burma by adding your blog and asking others to do the same.

By passing this meme on through the blogosphere hopefully we can generate more awareness and avert a serious tragedy. As concerned world-citizens this something we bloggers can do to help.

How to participate:

1. Copy this entire post to your blog, including this special number: 1081081081234

2. After a few days, you can search Google for the number 1081081081234 to find all blogs that are participating in this protest and petition. Note: Google indexes blogs at different rates, so it could take longer for your blog to show up in the results.

THE SITUATION IN BURMA AND WHY IT MATTERS TO ALL OF US

There is no press freedom in Burma and the government has started turning off the Internet and other means of communication, so it is difficult to get news out. Individuals on the ground have been sending their day-by-day reports to the BBC, and they are heartbreaking. I encourage you to read these accounts to see for yourself what is really going on in Burma. Please include this link in your own blog post.

The situation in Burma is increasingly dangerous. Hundreds of thousands of unarmed peaceful protesters, including monks and nuns, are risking their lives to march for democracy against an unpopular but well-armed military dictatorship that will stop at nothing to continue its repressive rule. While the generals in power and their families are literally dripping in gold and diamonds, the people of Burma are impoverished, deprived of basic human rights, cut off from the rest of the world, and increasingly under threat of violence.

This week the people of Burma have risen up collectively in the largest public demonstrations against the ruling Junta in decades. It’s an amazing show of bravery, decency, and democracy in action. But although these protests are peaceful, the military rulers are starting to crack down with violence. Already there have been at least several reported deaths, and hundreds of critical injuries from soldiers beating unarmed civilians to the point of death.

The actual fatalities and injuries are probably far worse, but the only news we have is coming from individuals who are sneaking reports past the authorities. Unfortunately it looks like a large-scale blood-bath may ensue — and the victims will be mostly women, children, the elderly and unarmed monks and nuns.

Contrary to what the Burmese, Chinese and Russian governments have stated, this is not merely a local internal political issue, it is an issue of global importance and it affects the global community. As concerned citizens, we cannot allow any government anywhere in the world to use its military to attack and kill peacefully demonstrating, unarmed citizens.

In this modern day and age violence against unarmed civilians is unacceptable and if it is allowed to happen, without serious consequences for the perpetrators, it creates a precedent for it to happen again somewhere else. If we want a more peaceful world, it is up to each of us to make a personal stand on these fundamental issues whenever they arise.

Please join me in calling on the Burmese government to negotiate peacefully with its citizens, and on China to intervene to prevent further violence. And please help to raise awareness of the developing situation in Burma so that hopefully we can avert a large-scale human disaster there.

The day Burma was silenced

Tags: Burma, Myanmar

(Times Online) Burma’s generals silenced the Buddhist monks yesterday morning.

For a week and a half, the monks had been on the streets of Rangoon in their tens of thousands, and their angry calm gave courage to the people around them.

But overnight, they were beaten, shot and arrested, and locked in their monasteries.

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Soldiers clubbed activists in the streets and fired warning shots Friday, moving decisively to break up demonstrations in Myanmar before they could gain momentum. Troops occupied Buddhist monasteries and cut public Internet access, raising concerns that the crackdown on civilians that has killed at least 10 people was set to intensify.

If American interest in this story were to be judged by the blogosphere and other social media (digg, reddit, etc.), you might not even know what was going on there. Apparently the Left hasn’t figured out how to blame Bush for the crackdown yet.

But wait! Here’s an article about Burma that mentions Bush–I wonder how they’ll spin it?

YANGON, Myanmar - At least nine people, including a Japanese national, were killed Thursday when Myanmar soldiers fired on protesters, leading to new international condemnation that included U.S. economic sanctions against 14 military junta officials.

The U.S. Treasury Department said the action was being taken after President Bush on Tuesday announced the strategy before the U.N. General Assembly.

The action will freeze any assets that the targeted individuals have in U.S. banks or other financial institutions under U.S. jurisdiction. The order also prohibits any U.S. citizens from doing business with the designated individuals.

Bush himself issued a statement Thursday saying that “every civilized nation has a responsibility to stand up” to Myanmar’s regime.

Oh no! Warmonger!

In all seriousness, does anything matter to the media and the Left (I know, same thing) any more if it doesn’t serve as an indictment (in their small, confused minds) of the Bush administration?

More photos from Burma here.

Also see:

Thoughts by Seawitch–People Everywhere Just Wanna Be Free
Caltechgirl–In Quest of Democracy
Blogburst-petition to support democracy in Burma

No smoking while driving in the UK!

Nanny-statism at its finest.

Lighting-up at the wheel has been added to the list of “distractions” which police and lawyers can cite in court when seeking a conviction for a traffic offence.

It joins eating and drinking, “inserting a cassette or CD or tuning a radio”, “arguing with your passengers or other road users”, trying to read maps, and - even playing loud music - most, if not all, of which have featured in successful prosecutions.

What. The. Hell!

I suppose this means using the Crackberry while driving would also be illegal? Can they even use a cell phone?

Is this for real?!

Friday Lounge Lizard

Literally.

lounge lizard
[photo from manmadepants]

You really have to see it in the larger size and read about it–the photographer “swears on his life” that this is real.

I was walking down the street looking for stuff to photograph and this guy is just sitting outside a coffee shop with this 80 year old woman and he is taking these little sofa things out of a bag. Then he opens another compartment in the bag and there are about five lizards like this guy. Then he would pose them and they would just sit there like this. Don’t really know why.

Taking the train in Mumbai

Think your commute sucks? This is insane.

Does-Nothing-o-Matic

Cool.

:clap:

Tuesday rally at the UN

From what is assumed to be a Zombie operative (since Zombie is from San Francisco, not NY):

The Rally is Tuesday, September 25, 2007 across from the United Nations at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (47th Street and 1st Ave), 11:00am to 2:00pm.

I was in the city to watch football and stopped by to check it out, they were setting up and promoting the rally.

These are pixs of signs and banners, along with other information and displays from the set up.

Here is their website:

Committee Against Ahmadinejad: http://jointostopahmadinejad.blogspot.com/

More details at the YouTube link.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Tourist in the Big Apple

The only thing missing here is Khatami. Oy.

Oh, but Ahmadinejad is at Columbia because Lee Bollinger believes in free speech, of course!

From Fars News Agency:

Ahmadinejad is also set to use a speech at a leading US university to challenge George W Bush at a time of high tensions with Washington over his country’s pursuit of nuclear technology.

The invitation by New York’s Columbia University to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is attracting growing criticism from the US hawks [LOL! --Ed.] ahead of his arrival on Sunday.

Meetings with the survivors and bereaved families of the 9-11 incident, journalists and critics of the Bush administration are also included in Ahmadinejad’s itinerary.

If that isn’t enough, that little trip to Ground Zero he had planned apparently IS STILL on his itinerary:

PELLEY: Mr. President, do you intend to press your request to visit the World Trade Center site in New York?

AHMADINEJAD: Well, it was included in my program, if we have the time and the conditions are conducive, I will try to do that.

PELLEY: But the New York Police Department and others do not appear to want you there. Do you intend to go there anyway?

AHMADINEJAD: Well, over there, local officials need to make the necessary coordinations. If they can’t do that, I won’t insist.

PELLEY: Sir, what were you thinking? The World Trade Center site is the most sensitive place in the American heart, and you must have known that visiting there would be insulting to many, many Americans.

AHMADINEJAD: Why should it be insulting?

State sponsor of terrorist groups? Holocaust denier? “Death to America, death to Israel?” Any of that ring a bell? How about the execution of homosexuals for the crime of existing? And of course, there’s that little matter of Iran giving a friendly helping hand to the bloodthirsty Shi’ite militias in Iraq, killing our people. But I guess when you’re welcomed at one of the nation’s most prestigious (should that be in past tense now?) universities, you probably do think you’re a pretty charming dude. I’m sure the New York Times lovefest doesn’t hurt, either. (Really, the NY Times has become a shopworn cliché. A bad joke.)