Money & Peace

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2007/October/theworld_October670.xml§ion=theworld&col=

Some comments over the article from the link above...

So from this article it seems that the sanctions that the U.S. and the European Union have been putting on Burma's military regime are at least frustrating Junta chief Than Shwe in some way. He is asking Aung San Suu Kyi to stop her support of the sanctions. I would like to ask, why would he need to ask someone, that he has so much power over, if he wasn't a little worried? This could at least be a start for Burma. Of course it is not enough. China and India need to stop supporting Than Shwe in order for anything to really change. They are the major financial supporters of his regime. In order for for these two countries to stop helping Burma's regime, the U.S. and Europe will need to put some pressure on them. I really do not see this happening unless more people in the free world become aware of the situation in Burma, by realizing that nothing can change until China is unwillingly forced to stop their support for Burma's military regime. Now, how in the world will China be forced to stop this support? I do not see the U.S. or Europe putting any sanctions on China and India in the near future. China needs to be threatened in a huge way financially. We should all probably stop purchasing items that say, "MADE IN CHINA". It would be effective, but it really is not realistic. There is something that could really be effective though, a boycott of the August 2008 Beijing Olympics. I have mentioned this boycott in earlier posts and I will continue to mention it. Even though I believe that it is next to impossible to achieve. The only way to threaten China with a boycott would be to get the message to the athletes. They would need to be the ones threatening not to compete unless China stopped supporting the Burmese dictatorship. The olympics are very important to China. These olympics will be a "show" for the world to see that they are as powerful and equal in the modernized world as any other developed country. Well, they are not. It is just a facade. They have more human rights violations within their own country than the world can possibly be aware of. We can not just sit by and allow China to continue on the path it is on. Just because it is a far away country does not mean that what happens there does not matter to the rest of the world. It is the lack of awareness from the general population that is allowing China to become so powerful. Now, with the olympics having been awarded to China, people around the world will be sitting at home watching their television sets seeing the beautiful olympic parks in Beijing not thinking about all of the atrocities happening in the country or other countries that China is responsible for. There should be more talk about China having been awarded the 2008 Olympics. The olympics were originally meant to bring athletes together from all over the world in an effort to promote world peace. Well today we all know what they are really about... money. Well, OK, we can allow the olympics to be about money, but lets at least not forget what they were originally about. I think we can combine the two, money and peace. Why not? Countries that support world peace should be awarded the olympics and countries that don't should not. In saying that China should never have been awarded the olympics, but since they have the world should use it as an opportunity to show them that they need to change. Money can still be made without the expense of innocent lives.

Back to commenting on the link I put above... The article says that Than Shwe has offered to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi, but only if she gives up what he calls her support for ”confrontation, utter devastation, economic sanctions on Myanmar and other sanctions.” The article does not go on to say anything about how crazy this is. Although, I don't know what is crazier, what Than Shwe said or that it is difficult to find any articles that say anything about how crazy the entire situation is in Burma. So I will say it... This is crazy!!! Let's get this straight, this dictator is asking Suu kyi to drop her support for sanctions against him and his regime. The same dictator that put her under house arrest after she won the 1990 elections by a landslide victory. He is saying that her support for these sanctions is what is causing confrontation and utter devastation. Umm, no, his dictating is doing that. He is the one that had his military open fire into a crowd of unarmed citizens protesting his regime.

The article goes on to say, Than Shwe is known to despise the 62-year-old Nobel peace prize winner, but her opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), has said Aung San Suu Kyi will consider the dialogue offer.
Well, of course he despises her. She was elected into office and he didn't like that so he put her under house arrest! I hope that Suu Kyi is not considering to give up her support for sanctions in order to speak with Than Shwe. I hope that it is just a false rumor.