What are all these endless and unpleasant fantasies about ethnic/religious/cultural “purity” in the geographical space known as modern Burma?!
There is NO ethnic/religious/cultural “purity” in modern Burma…NONE. No “mono-culture”, no “genetic race”, no “one belief system”, no “one god”, no “one anything”. In fact, quite the opposite, endless and infinite “diversity”. Which could be a tremendous asset if “embraced”.
It seems the only thing most “Burmese” have in common other than “diversity” is a very high level of intolerance, racism, and negative feelings about their fellow humans living in the geographic space they all share by various accidents of history, empires, wars and serendipity.
Get your facts straight.
“5) Bengalis have been coming into Arakan, yes, many of them…they all come under junta’s special plan. All of those Benglis are Mogh-Buddhists. Get the facts before you bark non-sense.”
So, now in your analytical fortitude Benglis (get your spelling correct) are of Tibeto Burman lineage!
Aren’t you barking nonsense? Bengalis in Maungdaw, Nakhura, Boli Bazar, Taungbro on the Rakhine side of Naff River have been living since 13th century? Oh, my mistake, they are Rohingyas! Spare me my “Lord” Arkani.
Are you just so ashamed to be Bengali? They’ve had Nobel Prize winners, great poets, famed historic figures, and contributed the global society.
The Rohingyas call the Rakhine indigenous people as Maghs (please see all Rohingya publlications and socalled histories written by such dubious historians as Dr Yunus [not a history doctor, but a physician]. This alone proves that they are none other than Bengalis. Bengalis as interpreters helped the British colonialists believe that these people are Maghs. Even many place names of Rakhine state have been Bengalized with the arrival of the British colonialists. The British brought in hundreds of thousands of Bengali labourers from Bangladesh. Now if these same british colonialists say and support the fake history of the Socalled Rohingyas … there will be more gross manipulation of fact. The Burmese citizenship law demands a citizen of Burma whose ancestors could be traced to pre-British colonialists intrusion into Burma. Is this unfair? If this is unfair why does not the British colonialists demand Saudi arabia to recognize anyone who comes into Saudi Arabia to be Saudi nationals in five years’ time?
There were some Bengalis even in pre-British Arakan. Remember they were Bengalis, and not Rohingya. The name Rohingya is a Bengali word for Rakhine or Arakanese. Why these fake rohingyas have hijacked the name? To establish a Muslim Bangla in Arakan soil? And what role are the western colonialists playing to create this fake identity and incursion into the history of Burma?
It is time the world conscience to ponder over the matter.
According to the statistics, Royal Projects cost Thai taxpayers approximately 2,400 million Baht per year. If you want to evaluate whether these projects are ‘successful’ or not, you should ask how much “return” these projects produce? Are the returns more than THB 2,400 million? If the answer is no, then the projects are faulty, and should be corrected to yield better returns. If the project is unable to become profitable, then it should be scrapped completely.
The Royal Projects have been on for almost half a century. Yet they still need taxpayers’ fund to “inject” into it annually. And I never heard of any villager who could become ‘rich’ because of these projects. I hate to compare, but OTOP programme is the example of a successful project. The money generated from OTOP now far surpassed the original money the government invested in this project. Now OTOP can stand on its own, without any need for taxpayers to keep ‘funding’ it endlessly. I have heard numerous stories of people whose lifestyles have changed significantly for the better because of OTOP.
I honestly believe that these Royal Projects are of very little benefit to the Thai people. The only people benefitting from them are the Royals themselves, being that these Royal Projects helped to create an image that they ‘spend their own money to help the poor’. Whilst in fact it is not their money. It’s Thai taxpayers’ money, and these projects did very little to help the poor. They are there to promote the ‘selfless’ image of the Royals only.
I think you are answering your own question. Rakhine in Bangladesh (once around 1 million or more, now dwindled to less than 50,000) and Rakhine in Rakhine State are the same people. All are proud to be called Rakhine Tha/Thama.
The same situation applies to the “Rohingyas.” Those in Bangladesh and those in Rakhine (minus the Kaman) are the same Bengalis – for that matter mostly from Chittagong/Cox’s Bazar. FYI, the small communities of Bengali Hindus in Maungdaw and Sittwe don’t seem to have any problems with being termed as Bengalis, and they are proud of it.
Also, if you go to Bangladesh’s Nakyangchari District that borders with Myanmar you will see barbed wire fence erected by Myanmar to hold off illegal Bengalis from entering. Over the years there has been a lot of encroachment of Bengalis from Chittagong/Cox’s bazar districts area to simply go over the border where land is plentiful and fertile. So, these Bengalis in Myanmar side are now suddenly Rohingyas, whereas their relatives left in Bangladesh are still Bengalis. Go figure!
Rahmat, your comments don’t hold water.
Neglecting the most important fact that Bamar, Kalar and over 100 ethnic groups constitute citizenry of Myanmar.
ALL Myanmar citizenry are suffering under the yoke of military brutality as well as west useless careless responses and measure. This article is here proof.
Without commenting on the author Sai Latt’s intent, this article has exposed the plight of Kalar in Myanmar, specifically the Rohingyas in Yakhine state at the same time reveal many here @ New Mandala and Yakhine that are misguided by faux nationalism, racist tendency and bigotry.
Even though this article does not encourage racism, it does expose who to look out for in the future especially the benefit to the whole citizenry is concern. BBC is not one such institution.
An article posted a few years back (2009) concerning Tamadaw (4 cuts strategy) atrocious method of gaining upper hand against Karen resistance, New Mandala managed to exposed the true color of most white posters, with mercenary tendency, that equate:
killing Bamar= helping the Karen,
albeit neglecting the obvious fact that both groups are brothers.
Instead of realizing and identifying the root causes of this specific conflict:
1) Deprivation and
2) Subsequent actions by the SPDC, and west inappropriate responses.
in order to justify both parties respective ongoing actions.
Neither causes take the whole citizenry well being of Myanmar into consideration.
History has prove again and again conflicts among different ethnic groups within a peaceful community will arise during ‘periods of hardships’ with the smallest and most weak, most vulnerable groups usually being made the scapegoat, to suffer the most.
Deprivation due to:
1)Nature/weather
2) lack of education
3)lack of economic opportunity and
4)lack of heath care
over decades surely qualify as ‘periods of hardships’.
The first can not be controlled, however the latter 3 factors are made worst by the west useless careless policy of relentless sanctions and vilification of present regime. Purely human induced.
Myanmar citizenry consist of many races in which Kalar in Yahkine state known as the Rohingyas, is but one group.
Schism, obviously encourage by SPDC as well as the west, here the BBC, to continue the status quo of last 3 decades.
You know the Buddhist Chakma of the Chittagong Hill Tracts are not Indo-Aryan but Mongoloid like the Ahom in Assam. The Buddhist Marma in the CHT are descended from Burmese captives taken to the Arakan by King Rajagree after his conquest of Pegu in the 16th C. Another wave of Rakhine immigration to Chittagong occurred in 1784 when the Burmese king Bodawpaya invaded the Arakan.
Copying and pasting what a scholar frustratingly wrote
after the history fabricators accusations to him as a racist
for stating truth.
‘(1) Do you want the list of [all] ethnic groups of Burma in
[her British] colonial days? I have “The Ethnography of
Burma,” Government Publishing House, 1900. [There is
no “Rohingya”]
(2) How is about Burma Gazetteers (Akyab, Kyaukpyu and Sandoway District[s])? [There is no mention of “Rohingya”]
(3) Do you want District Settlement Reports of Arakan
Division since 1871 to 1931? [Again, no mention of “Rohingya”]
(4) Can you show me any Rohingya population in the census
reports or any administrative records of the whole colonial
days? [FYI] I have all of them.
If you can show me the name “Rohinhya” appearing any record,
I will worship all of you [by] touching my forehead with your feet. And I will apologize for what I have written. If you cannot show
what whould you do? Let me know.
Don’t be tricky, guys. I know you are trying to catch me in a trap.’
My wife has a friend who makes the liquid stuff they use for that stuff, and she markets it along the lines of “drink this, it is good for all that ails you now or ever could”, along the lines of Dr Feelgood’s Snake Oil Medicine,and pour on garden refuse to make compost, etc, etc…
Take a look at what Vutichai said above and think of what might be said in a Katoey Bar. 🙂
Andrew, I lived in Fang and taught English at Fang Chanupathum High School from 1996-2000,and they did not have rum, woulda been Lao Khao, the local rotgut whiskey, and she woulda said Chan Panya-ara Falang.
I wish I could stay away from this senseless mess but I couldn’t since this mess do not hold either moral or legal ground. Furthermore, I rather feel ashame than proud of those who claiming to be patriots of Burma for their both inconsistencies and illogical arguments.
For the first part, I do not have much trouble with the show of anger in this case by Rakhine ethnic people since they are directly involving in a bitter argument on the ground. However, many Burmese are saying excessive things including “we will not give an inch of Rakhine land” and this is where moral hazard started. Currently, Rakhine people do not have the rights to study and practice their own culture on their own land and most Burmese do not have problem with that. Logically, this imply that Rakhine is a colony like land for Burmese since Burmese won’t give an inch of this land to others while oppressing the people of that land.
Second, BBC has already stated above their (so called) controversial map that “some of the minority groups in Burma” and it does not even use the word like “ethnic minority” which many people are claiming now. What can we ask more from BBC? BBC is not my favorite news agency but it has performed their duty by informing unreachable news for the people of Burma in the last decades. Turning against them for just one presumed mistake that taking out of context doesn’t look justified for me. In addition, I could brought up endless list of other illogical claims but I’ll cut short from annoying other readers.
Does anyone think this mess will stop here? Or is there any expectation that we, other ethnic minorities of Burmese, are the next target/scapegoat of Burmese nationalism?
My assertion my cause some vehement arguments from so call patriotic Burmese which is natural but they might need to bear in mind that I’m just an ordinary ethnic Karen folk who happen to be married to a Burmese woman.
Ernest typically confuses religious intolerance with a natural reaction to religious and /or territorial aggression.
How about the example of Northern Ireland, Christians all the same but conventionally deemed sectarian violence, a typical red herring ? It’s ever so easy to seize the moral high ground when you are rather ignorant of the circumstances on the ground.
It is nothing to do with religious faith nor even immigration or
illegal immigration. This is more to do with fabricating history
and rewriting it. Will a British accept if someone says, Chinese
arrive to London earlier than Romans nor Asians (Pakistanis
and Bangladeshis) arrived Brighton or Birmingham earlier than
Anglo Saxxons? Will Frenchman accept Algerians arrived earlier
to France than Franks? If Turks trying to rewrite Germany history
saying that young Turks did not roam out from central Asia and
later set up sultanate states and purge Constinople converting it
into Istanbul, instead they arrived there with ship wrecks earlier
ahead of Germans. Will you accept it? Then why the heck Burmese
should accept this bull shits nor accepting millions of unskilled,
illiterate folks some of whom have received terrorist trainings.
And they cannot speak Burmese. Will any of your countries
accept it. Cut the crap!
In Alethangyaw Conference (1946) they called themselves Arakani Muslims, calling for partition of Arakan. Before that they sent a mission to Karachi to ask Ali Jinnah to incorporate Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships in East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh). Why? The share the same language, culture and religion of the Bangladeshis from Chittagong District. Why the term”Arakani Muslim?” Because they had not invented the false ethnic identity, “Rohingya.” How it is racial to call a Bengali as Bengali? They rose in rebellion when Burma gained independence. The Arakanese (Rakhine) villages were razed. Rakhine women were raped. The monasteries were burnt down too. Buddhists and Rakhine villagers were killed. Rakhine Village Community was totally destroyed. Is it true or not? There are daily newspapers, published in Rangoon and Calcutta in the libraries. Who are racists?
I am glad that you can still stick to your “yellow shirt” attack on Yingluck govt in a very very bad natural disaster time in Thailand. Sad to say, though, you have offered nothing constructive.
Please also note that your “masters” at Democratic party or “yellow shirt” HQ has offered nothig as well.
This flood is simply too great a problem, and everyone is struggling to help and cope. If you can’t and do not want to, please **..* up
It’s always a little surprising to Western “New Age” Buddhists how close to the “need to ethnically cleanse” and “religiously intolerant” mindset some of the “real” Buddhists and the cliques that rule so-called “Buddhists” countries can be.
For instance in Bhutan where 10% or more of the entire population who were ethnically Nepalese were forcibly expelled without passports or papers, their property and worldly goods entirely expropriated by the “gentle” Bhutanese Buddhists to increase their “Happiness Index”, despite having the ethnic Nepalese having been born and raised in Bhutan for 100’s of years.
Or many of the “Buddhists” who run and inhabit Sri Lanka and their views and actions towards their fellow residents of the sun-drenched island who are ethnically Tamil and Hindu.
I wonder what Buddha would make of this aspect of his legacy? Probably just an “illusion”…….
With all due respect, Mr Roth, plenty of the people you encountered were probably sincere in their expressed thrall to the Big Guy, but one would be deceiving oneself to believe that most of the discussions between a foreigner (even one who speaks some Thai; good on you, by the way) and a Thai person (especially a Thai person who hasn’t spent much time with “real, live” foreigners, and therefore sees us even more as freaks of nature than a worldly Thai might) is entirely candid and earnest from the Thai side. Thai people are not by nature duplicitous; rather, the world-view chasm between themselves and “the other” frequently influences their behaviour with foreigners. They might be thinking of us: Why are those people wandering around here? Why would they travel so far from their homeland, their parents, their extended family, the food they’re used to? Why do they (some of them) bother to learn Thai language? Are these foreigners trying to take advantage of me, my people? Are they social pariahs in their homeland, and hence free to travel so far from their homes, and therefore untrustworthy? Why do so many of young foreigners dress like slobs and wash rarely and hang about places like Khao San Road; don’t their parents care about them and what they’re doing? We frequently seem downright bizarre to many Thai people…often, rightly so! 😉 In other words, sometimes people say what they think we expect them to say, what’s the “correct Thai” thing to say, and as you probably know from your time studying Thai language and culture, a smile here can mean many, many things aside from happiness.
Thanks, AW. I would have thought these EM thingies are only meant for external applications. Scientifically, I can’t see how this ‘black box’ is applied with all a-to-z boasted results when no proper characterization is usually done on the mixed culture inside the black box itself.
But if the Chaiphathana Foundation is the producer of these ‘balls’, it probably does’t matter.
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BBC under fire on Rohingyas
What are all these endless and unpleasant fantasies about ethnic/religious/cultural “purity” in the geographical space known as modern Burma?!
There is NO ethnic/religious/cultural “purity” in modern Burma…NONE. No “mono-culture”, no “genetic race”, no “one belief system”, no “one god”, no “one anything”. In fact, quite the opposite, endless and infinite “diversity”. Which could be a tremendous asset if “embraced”.
It seems the only thing most “Burmese” have in common other than “diversity” is a very high level of intolerance, racism, and negative feelings about their fellow humans living in the geographic space they all share by various accidents of history, empires, wars and serendipity.
BBC under fire on Rohingyas
Good fences make good neighours.
BBC under fire on Rohingyas
Shah Arkani #8, 18
Get your facts straight.
“5) Bengalis have been coming into Arakan, yes, many of them…they all come under junta’s special plan. All of those Benglis are Mogh-Buddhists. Get the facts before you bark non-sense.”
So, now in your analytical fortitude Benglis (get your spelling correct) are of Tibeto Burman lineage!
Aren’t you barking nonsense? Bengalis in Maungdaw, Nakhura, Boli Bazar, Taungbro on the Rakhine side of Naff River have been living since 13th century? Oh, my mistake, they are Rohingyas! Spare me my “Lord” Arkani.
Are you just so ashamed to be Bengali? They’ve had Nobel Prize winners, great poets, famed historic figures, and contributed the global society.
BBC under fire on Rohingyas
The Rohingyas call the Rakhine indigenous people as Maghs (please see all Rohingya publlications and socalled histories written by such dubious historians as Dr Yunus [not a history doctor, but a physician]. This alone proves that they are none other than Bengalis. Bengalis as interpreters helped the British colonialists believe that these people are Maghs. Even many place names of Rakhine state have been Bengalized with the arrival of the British colonialists. The British brought in hundreds of thousands of Bengali labourers from Bangladesh. Now if these same british colonialists say and support the fake history of the Socalled Rohingyas … there will be more gross manipulation of fact. The Burmese citizenship law demands a citizen of Burma whose ancestors could be traced to pre-British colonialists intrusion into Burma. Is this unfair? If this is unfair why does not the British colonialists demand Saudi arabia to recognize anyone who comes into Saudi Arabia to be Saudi nationals in five years’ time?
There were some Bengalis even in pre-British Arakan. Remember they were Bengalis, and not Rohingya. The name Rohingya is a Bengali word for Rakhine or Arakanese. Why these fake rohingyas have hijacked the name? To establish a Muslim Bangla in Arakan soil? And what role are the western colonialists playing to create this fake identity and incursion into the history of Burma?
It is time the world conscience to ponder over the matter.
Royal politics and the floods
CT’s point is well taken. Hope Thai people too are wise to royal ruses.
Royal politics and the floods
According to the statistics, Royal Projects cost Thai taxpayers approximately 2,400 million Baht per year. If you want to evaluate whether these projects are ‘successful’ or not, you should ask how much “return” these projects produce? Are the returns more than THB 2,400 million? If the answer is no, then the projects are faulty, and should be corrected to yield better returns. If the project is unable to become profitable, then it should be scrapped completely.
The Royal Projects have been on for almost half a century. Yet they still need taxpayers’ fund to “inject” into it annually. And I never heard of any villager who could become ‘rich’ because of these projects. I hate to compare, but OTOP programme is the example of a successful project. The money generated from OTOP now far surpassed the original money the government invested in this project. Now OTOP can stand on its own, without any need for taxpayers to keep ‘funding’ it endlessly. I have heard numerous stories of people whose lifestyles have changed significantly for the better because of OTOP.
I honestly believe that these Royal Projects are of very little benefit to the Thai people. The only people benefitting from them are the Royals themselves, being that these Royal Projects helped to create an image that they ‘spend their own money to help the poor’. Whilst in fact it is not their money. It’s Thai taxpayers’ money, and these projects did very little to help the poor. They are there to promote the ‘selfless’ image of the Royals only.
BBC under fire on Rohingyas
Rahmat #15,
I think you are answering your own question. Rakhine in Bangladesh (once around 1 million or more, now dwindled to less than 50,000) and Rakhine in Rakhine State are the same people. All are proud to be called Rakhine Tha/Thama.
The same situation applies to the “Rohingyas.” Those in Bangladesh and those in Rakhine (minus the Kaman) are the same Bengalis – for that matter mostly from Chittagong/Cox’s Bazar. FYI, the small communities of Bengali Hindus in Maungdaw and Sittwe don’t seem to have any problems with being termed as Bengalis, and they are proud of it.
Also, if you go to Bangladesh’s Nakyangchari District that borders with Myanmar you will see barbed wire fence erected by Myanmar to hold off illegal Bengalis from entering. Over the years there has been a lot of encroachment of Bengalis from Chittagong/Cox’s bazar districts area to simply go over the border where land is plentiful and fertile. So, these Bengalis in Myanmar side are now suddenly Rohingyas, whereas their relatives left in Bangladesh are still Bengalis. Go figure!
Rahmat, your comments don’t hold water.
BBC under fire on Rohingyas
Congratulates New Mandala
Neglecting the most important fact that Bamar, Kalar and over 100 ethnic groups constitute citizenry of Myanmar.
ALL Myanmar citizenry are suffering under the yoke of military brutality as well as west useless careless responses and measure. This article is here proof.
http://www.newmandala.org/2011/11/03/bbc-under-fire-on-rohingyas/
Without commenting on the author Sai Latt’s intent, this article has exposed the plight of Kalar in Myanmar, specifically the Rohingyas in Yakhine state at the same time reveal many here @ New Mandala and Yakhine that are misguided by faux nationalism, racist tendency and bigotry.
Even though this article does not encourage racism, it does expose who to look out for in the future especially the benefit to the whole citizenry is concern. BBC is not one such institution.
An article posted a few years back (2009) concerning Tamadaw (4 cuts strategy) atrocious method of gaining upper hand against Karen resistance, New Mandala managed to exposed the true color of most white posters, with mercenary tendency, that equate:
killing Bamar= helping the Karen,
albeit neglecting the obvious fact that both groups are brothers.
Instead of realizing and identifying the root causes of this specific conflict:
1) Deprivation and
2) Subsequent actions by the SPDC, and west inappropriate responses.
in order to justify both parties respective ongoing actions.
Neither causes take the whole citizenry well being of Myanmar into consideration.
History has prove again and again conflicts among different ethnic groups within a peaceful community will arise during ‘periods of hardships’ with the smallest and most weak, most vulnerable groups usually being made the scapegoat, to suffer the most.
Deprivation due to:
1)Nature/weather
2) lack of education
3)lack of economic opportunity and
4)lack of heath care
over decades surely qualify as ‘periods of hardships’.
The first can not be controlled, however the latter 3 factors are made worst by the west useless careless policy of relentless sanctions and vilification of present regime. Purely human induced.
Myanmar citizenry consist of many races in which Kalar in Yahkine state known as the Rohingyas, is but one group.
Schism, obviously encourage by SPDC as well as the west, here the BBC, to continue the status quo of last 3 decades.
BBC under fire on Rohingyas
Rahmat #15
If you know history, you will know that Cox’s Bazar (old name Panwa meaning yellow flower in Burmese) in Chittagong used to be a Rakhine majority town from the reign of Arakanese kings in the region until British times.
You know the Buddhist Chakma of the Chittagong Hill Tracts are not Indo-Aryan but Mongoloid like the Ahom in Assam. The Buddhist Marma in the CHT are descended from Burmese captives taken to the Arakan by King Rajagree after his conquest of Pegu in the 16th C. Another wave of Rakhine immigration to Chittagong occurred in 1784 when the Burmese king Bodawpaya invaded the Arakan.
BBC under fire on Rohingyas
Copying and pasting what a scholar frustratingly wrote
after the history fabricators accusations to him as a racist
for stating truth.
‘(1) Do you want the list of [all] ethnic groups of Burma in
[her British] colonial days? I have “The Ethnography of
Burma,” Government Publishing House, 1900. [There is
no “Rohingya”]
(2) How is about Burma Gazetteers (Akyab, Kyaukpyu and Sandoway District[s])? [There is no mention of “Rohingya”]
(3) Do you want District Settlement Reports of Arakan
Division since 1871 to 1931? [Again, no mention of “Rohingya”]
(4) Can you show me any Rohingya population in the census
reports or any administrative records of the whole colonial
days? [FYI] I have all of them.
If you can show me the name “Rohinhya” appearing any record,
I will worship all of you [by] touching my forehead with your feet. And I will apologize for what I have written. If you cannot show
what whould you do? Let me know.
Don’t be tricky, guys. I know you are trying to catch me in a trap.’
So now you know who is bluffing.
EM balls – a flood hoax?
My wife has a friend who makes the liquid stuff they use for that stuff, and she markets it along the lines of “drink this, it is good for all that ails you now or ever could”, along the lines of Dr Feelgood’s Snake Oil Medicine,and pour on garden refuse to make compost, etc, etc…
Take a look at what Vutichai said above and think of what might be said in a Katoey Bar. 🙂
Andrew, I lived in Fang and taught English at Fang Chanupathum High School from 1996-2000,and they did not have rum, woulda been Lao Khao, the local rotgut whiskey, and she woulda said Chan Panya-ara Falang.
BBC under fire on Rohingyas
I wish I could stay away from this senseless mess but I couldn’t since this mess do not hold either moral or legal ground. Furthermore, I rather feel ashame than proud of those who claiming to be patriots of Burma for their both inconsistencies and illogical arguments.
For the first part, I do not have much trouble with the show of anger in this case by Rakhine ethnic people since they are directly involving in a bitter argument on the ground. However, many Burmese are saying excessive things including “we will not give an inch of Rakhine land” and this is where moral hazard started. Currently, Rakhine people do not have the rights to study and practice their own culture on their own land and most Burmese do not have problem with that. Logically, this imply that Rakhine is a colony like land for Burmese since Burmese won’t give an inch of this land to others while oppressing the people of that land.
Second, BBC has already stated above their (so called) controversial map that “some of the minority groups in Burma” and it does not even use the word like “ethnic minority” which many people are claiming now. What can we ask more from BBC? BBC is not my favorite news agency but it has performed their duty by informing unreachable news for the people of Burma in the last decades. Turning against them for just one presumed mistake that taking out of context doesn’t look justified for me. In addition, I could brought up endless list of other illogical claims but I’ll cut short from annoying other readers.
Does anyone think this mess will stop here? Or is there any expectation that we, other ethnic minorities of Burmese, are the next target/scapegoat of Burmese nationalism?
My assertion my cause some vehement arguments from so call patriotic Burmese which is natural but they might need to bear in mind that I’m just an ordinary ethnic Karen folk who happen to be married to a Burmese woman.
BBC under fire on Rohingyas
Ernest typically confuses religious intolerance with a natural reaction to religious and /or territorial aggression.
How about the example of Northern Ireland, Christians all the same but conventionally deemed sectarian violence, a typical red herring ? It’s ever so easy to seize the moral high ground when you are rather ignorant of the circumstances on the ground.
BBC under fire on Rohingyas
It is nothing to do with religious faith nor even immigration or
illegal immigration. This is more to do with fabricating history
and rewriting it. Will a British accept if someone says, Chinese
arrive to London earlier than Romans nor Asians (Pakistanis
and Bangladeshis) arrived Brighton or Birmingham earlier than
Anglo Saxxons? Will Frenchman accept Algerians arrived earlier
to France than Franks? If Turks trying to rewrite Germany history
saying that young Turks did not roam out from central Asia and
later set up sultanate states and purge Constinople converting it
into Istanbul, instead they arrived there with ship wrecks earlier
ahead of Germans. Will you accept it? Then why the heck Burmese
should accept this bull shits nor accepting millions of unskilled,
illiterate folks some of whom have received terrorist trainings.
And they cannot speak Burmese. Will any of your countries
accept it. Cut the crap!
BBC under fire on Rohingyas
In Alethangyaw Conference (1946) they called themselves Arakani Muslims, calling for partition of Arakan. Before that they sent a mission to Karachi to ask Ali Jinnah to incorporate Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships in East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh). Why? The share the same language, culture and religion of the Bangladeshis from Chittagong District. Why the term”Arakani Muslim?” Because they had not invented the false ethnic identity, “Rohingya.” How it is racial to call a Bengali as Bengali? They rose in rebellion when Burma gained independence. The Arakanese (Rakhine) villages were razed. Rakhine women were raped. The monasteries were burnt down too. Buddhists and Rakhine villagers were killed. Rakhine Village Community was totally destroyed. Is it true or not? There are daily newspapers, published in Rangoon and Calcutta in the libraries. Who are racists?
What’s going on with the Thai Printing Act?
@johninbkk
This is by far the most objective and factual information so far. And wasn’t Prachathai closed down during the Abhisit administration?
Where were all the the voices regarding press freedom, checks and balances, and respect for the constitution then?
The toll of flooding on lives and politics
Vichai #7,
I am glad that you can still stick to your “yellow shirt” attack on Yingluck govt in a very very bad natural disaster time in Thailand. Sad to say, though, you have offered nothing constructive.
Please also note that your “masters” at Democratic party or “yellow shirt” HQ has offered nothig as well.
This flood is simply too great a problem, and everyone is struggling to help and cope. If you can’t and do not want to, please **..* up
BBC under fire on Rohingyas
It’s always a little surprising to Western “New Age” Buddhists how close to the “need to ethnically cleanse” and “religiously intolerant” mindset some of the “real” Buddhists and the cliques that rule so-called “Buddhists” countries can be.
For instance in Bhutan where 10% or more of the entire population who were ethnically Nepalese were forcibly expelled without passports or papers, their property and worldly goods entirely expropriated by the “gentle” Bhutanese Buddhists to increase their “Happiness Index”, despite having the ethnic Nepalese having been born and raised in Bhutan for 100’s of years.
Or many of the “Buddhists” who run and inhabit Sri Lanka and their views and actions towards their fellow residents of the sun-drenched island who are ethnically Tamil and Hindu.
I wonder what Buddha would make of this aspect of his legacy? Probably just an “illusion”…….
Speculation on the popularity of the Thai monarchy
With all due respect, Mr Roth, plenty of the people you encountered were probably sincere in their expressed thrall to the Big Guy, but one would be deceiving oneself to believe that most of the discussions between a foreigner (even one who speaks some Thai; good on you, by the way) and a Thai person (especially a Thai person who hasn’t spent much time with “real, live” foreigners, and therefore sees us even more as freaks of nature than a worldly Thai might) is entirely candid and earnest from the Thai side. Thai people are not by nature duplicitous; rather, the world-view chasm between themselves and “the other” frequently influences their behaviour with foreigners. They might be thinking of us: Why are those people wandering around here? Why would they travel so far from their homeland, their parents, their extended family, the food they’re used to? Why do they (some of them) bother to learn Thai language? Are these foreigners trying to take advantage of me, my people? Are they social pariahs in their homeland, and hence free to travel so far from their homes, and therefore untrustworthy? Why do so many of young foreigners dress like slobs and wash rarely and hang about places like Khao San Road; don’t their parents care about them and what they’re doing? We frequently seem downright bizarre to many Thai people…often, rightly so! 😉 In other words, sometimes people say what they think we expect them to say, what’s the “correct Thai” thing to say, and as you probably know from your time studying Thai language and culture, a smile here can mean many, many things aside from happiness.
EM balls – a flood hoax?
Thanks, AW. I would have thought these EM thingies are only meant for external applications. Scientifically, I can’t see how this ‘black box’ is applied with all a-to-z boasted results when no proper characterization is usually done on the mixed culture inside the black box itself.
But if the Chaiphathana Foundation is the producer of these ‘balls’, it probably does’t matter.