[…] Aftermath, listing many blog feeds, twitter accounts and news posts. New Mandala compiles the academic commentary of the cyclone Nargis, “As the humanitarian response to the cyclone continues I expect that experts, of all sorts, […]
Should the West decide to intervene in Myanmar (a terrible error in my view), all background information will be valuable, as there is a dearth of detail about the country. Lonely Planet, Myanmar (Burma) will become a valuable source of information, updated as it is by regular feedback from travellers. The Junta are seriously bad guys, albeit incompetent, but if you swallow HMG propaganda you are being deceived. Following the cyclone, aid agencies will need to work with the military government, so trying to score political points by using the former colonial name will only serve to antagonise the very people whose co-operation you need. What’s the percentage in that? So switch to Myanmar HMG, and the rest of you, stop this childish Lonely Planet boycott immediately. You are just making yourselves look ridiculous. Visit the country before you respond, then you might have slightly more of a clue than you do now.
Perhaps I should just emphasise that readers who come across other commentaries can feel free to post an extract, and a link, here. The more the merrier, in these sad times.
I wonder how the two most anti-monarchy correspondents at NM – Republican and Somsak – think about the upcoming launch of the book by Patrick Jory and Michael Montesano at the Princess Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre? Given that the book is on the South and that the monarchy has played such an important political role in that region, what does this launch at a royal institute say about the book?
(I have to say that I haven’t seen the book yet, and a quick search of bookshops didn’t turn a copy up for me).
I think the withdrawal from Somalia was not actually a good thing for the US to do. I don’t support the Asia Times’ position unreservedly, but it’s an interesting option to consider.
While not academics, per se, I would recommend an additional two commentaries on the Cyclone.
Yet the generals apparently have a different agenda in their handling and distribution of international aid, which has been widely criticized for not allowing foreign aid workers to assist with distribution. While the first priority was clearly solidifying their rule through the referendum, they are also haunted by an almost pathological fear of a split inside their own ranks… From the junta’s perspective, the group that needs to be fed first is the 400,000 strong military, rather than the desperate civilian survivors of the crisis.
If what the generals are now doing, in effectively denying relief to hundreds of thousands of people at real and immediate risk of death, can itself be characterised as a crime against humanity, then the responsibility to protect principle does indeed cut in.
I agree with my old lecturer Andrew O’Neil, that certainly there are grounds for intervening – but what are the moral implications for imperialism and cultural hegemony? Maybe liberalism is a universal, but I think many Westerners (who are inadvertantly liberals) don’t communicate it very respectfully so as to remove cultural pretext from communication which subsequently fosters this ‘down with the imperialists’ attitude that has fueled the Junta for so long.
Surely the best way to resolve the situation whilst maintaining maximum moral integrity from all angles is to engage with the Junta and buy them out with praise, pay them lip service – that they are right, we are horrible bastards and they can have all the face and jewls — like U Po Kyin from Burmese Days — that they can imagine. We can have a ‘faith’ (ooh the -other- F word) that their karma will see them return as the drain pipes for the new Yangon sewage system. I don’t mind being called names, or calling myself names so that people in Burma/Myanmar have a better standard of living- why does the UN? It is a contest of legitimacy from both sides, not a concerted effort to have people drink clean water.
Hi Dave
I remenber Martin…….as french it was not easy for us to understand his english. Our english was poor and his accent was strong as i remenber…..we was always asking him…..”could you repeat please”…..details….details ….God bless his memory.
To Charles F…..so many occidental people are looking the resistance to SPDC or SLORC or what they want as a subsidiary option…..but did they understand the meaning of warlords or the Confucian way of live (even if they are Christian), or the meaning of cast in oriental societies…..most of the people have references from their own culture and it is not easy for them to project a conflict in different cultures .
Karen soldiers are between the best fighters in the world as the Hmongs or the Gurka (people from the montains)…..but most of the hight rankings are warlords as Burmese from SPDC are…It is just a twin face from the same problem.
Somebody told me they thought this whole affair was really very surprising and unpredictable, and I asked them what they thought was unpredictable, the hurricane or the response afterwards by the Burmese government?
They said both, but if someone had had the forsight to project this sort of thing, which is within the realm of possibility of disaster planning, British Gazetteers from the colonial period mention devastating hurricanes along the Bengal coastline and Michael Charney’s 2000 PhD dissertation discusses about the historical ecological impact of hurricanes and other natural disasters in Arakan.
Given that it could be predicted, the response by this government could also be predicted, as numerous people have pointed out beforehand, the mindset of the leadership of the country could be likened to an **irrational paranoid hunkered down in a foxhole suffering from a siege mentality**, an extreme defensive position, someone who could care less what the world thinks or even what their own people, who have been rebelling pretty much continually during the 60 years (since 1948) of the post-WWII era, think.
**Western policy continues to isolate the country and push it ever further into the hands of their protector China**. This little bit of political realism has been a major force shaping the current crisis.
Of course, blaming that isolating policy of the West for what happened would be ridiculous, but one can counterfactually imagine other possible worlds in which the leadership of the country had been **drawn adroitly out of their foxhole through accomodating policies, for the greater long-term benefit of the greater population that lives outside the foxhole, exposed to the elements, and one benefit would be surviving disasters like this. Who knows maybe Aung San Suukyi would have been elected Prime Minister a couple of times already. It has been 20 years of isolating and punitive western policy. The time to punish the immoral leadership of the country is after the lives and livelihoods of the people in the country are secured.
What I can’t really understand is why they just don’t go ahead, use the United Nations “right to intervene,” and enter the country and supply aid. They must be worried about the Chinese response.
This is the time to strike the SPDC with everything that can be shot, fired, launched, thrown or swung. Rally the people. Find the food aid and supplies. Spread the word the SPDC should be punished.
Not a bad plan Charles. Now that Burma’s military aircraft are done for it should be a no- brainer. If you have a plane, I have a pilot. 🙂 The US government is worried about getting involved in another major mission when it can not afford the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is a lot they could do but don’t for fear of pissing off china. Well now China has 10,000 of it’s own people to help so maybe they will drop the ball when it comes to supplying Burma’s dictators with weapons. God may be shaking things up for these countries in order for things to be brought to light and remedied by the rest of the world.
At the very least we could drop some rice to the needy.
Perhaps, maybe… regime change is always going to be a ‘hopefully its going to happen’ situation while the Junta is in control. Of course we can say “this tragedy is one step closer to a mass of people seeing utter incompetence in order to demand change”, but speculation can just be a foundation for dissapointment as you have mentioned. I don’t want to be dissapointed at what is going on in Myanmar anymore. How can anyone take what is said at the hairdressers (or wherever) seriously? – it just boils the emotions until it overflows in a highly irrational handbag bout. Maybe there will be a civil war — well rip the bandaid off quickly then and get it over with.
I don’t know what to do with the fire that is fueled by this sort speculation. This is a good peice nonetheless, so thanks for probing my thoughts.
P/S Do you think crocodile leather would sting more?
The SPDC is stealing the food meant for the people hurt in the cyclone. Stealing it for themselves and the army fighting in the north. The very same army that is killing the civilians just to put a highway thru other people’s property. The food the people are getting is only enough to make it look like they are passing some of it out and get the international community to relax just a bit. Come on guys, this is not right, it’s time to stand up and hold them responsible.
Thank you for your views on the situation with the KNU/KNLA. You put into words something I have been thinking about for a long time, ever since I got interested in the plight of the Karens.
I have long thought that Thailand controlled the spigot on the border, turning it off and on as it suited them.
When Thailand wants to show displeasure with Burma, they open the spigot a little bit, and allow the KNLA to mount operations. Then turn it off when they’ve made their point.
A guy who spent some time with the KNLA wrote that from time to time the Thai’s would show up at the various KNLA camps for inspections. He was told to stay out of sight while they were there. Had the Thai authorities spotted him, the KNLA would have had hell to pay.
Your writing goes a very long way towards explaining the attitude displayed by the KNU towards my friend when he spoke to them.
You are exactly correct in your statement that, “Independance start by controling his asset and his finance…….after it is just technical.”
The Knu/Knla fail to perform during the years after the 1988 burmese revolution because they was exactly in the same position than the other resistances in the thai border (as exemple the laos resistance). When you have your asset in the Thai Military Bank it is not easy to be free in his own strategy. You just follow the order of those who control your cash and who allow you to buy weapons..and i don’t speak about those who buy your logs and ore.
You can do what you want as “rodomontade” and “political blabla”….you will follow the orders. It is really simple…at the time we inform them about what was the futur for KNLA if they follow the track from other resistances in the area……and the answer was clear….they cannot move….politically and technically…..politically because they was inside deep “trade” at the border with teck, tin and refugies and technically because at the time foreign financial service was restricted to operate in thailand (only one as foreigner was authorized. It was the only one free option possible)….. To plan an offensive you must to be free to invest in equipments, in training, in logistic,etc…..if you don’t have this liberty or if you have it under control you will never reach your proper goal……you will work just for the other….you will never reach the negociation….the other will finish it for you but with is own goal…you will never be in time….
Starting from the day they tell us it was not possible for them to be “free” on this field and as consequence it was not possible to plan major offensive. We stop to send our technicians…..we was very sad for all our karen friends and for all our KIA in the field but at the time we have already the experience from other areas…..and the knowledge of some endings.
At the time the 3 generals (BoMya, Hla Htoo, Taru) understood the situation very well and from both side we knew how the future was already darked by clouds.
It is impossible to save people from themself. We was just people cheering to much liberty and if the karen people was brave and proud……so many high ranking was stuck with Thai handcuff they lock themself.
Independance start by controling his asset and his finance…….after it is just technical.
A unilateral – and potentially United Nations-approved – US military intervention in the name of humanitarianism could easily turn the tide against the impoverished country’s unpopular military leaders, and simultaneously rehabilitate the legacy of lame-duck US President George W Bush’s controversial pre-emptive military policies.
Facebook 
Twitter 
Soundcloud 
Youtube 
Rss
Academic commentary on Cyclone Nargis
[…] Aftermath, listing many blog feeds, twitter accounts and news posts. New Mandala compiles the academic commentary of the cyclone Nargis, “As the humanitarian response to the cyclone continues I expect that experts, of all sorts, […]
Call for Lonely Planet boycott
Should the West decide to intervene in Myanmar (a terrible error in my view), all background information will be valuable, as there is a dearth of detail about the country. Lonely Planet, Myanmar (Burma) will become a valuable source of information, updated as it is by regular feedback from travellers. The Junta are seriously bad guys, albeit incompetent, but if you swallow HMG propaganda you are being deceived. Following the cyclone, aid agencies will need to work with the military government, so trying to score political points by using the former colonial name will only serve to antagonise the very people whose co-operation you need. What’s the percentage in that? So switch to Myanmar HMG, and the rest of you, stop this childish Lonely Planet boycott immediately. You are just making yourselves look ridiculous. Visit the country before you respond, then you might have slightly more of a clue than you do now.
Prominent Thai websites in the firing line
Khon Kaen?
What exactly is to be gained by having everyone of Thailand’s numerous provinces come up with their own lese majeste policy?
Shouldn’t this sort of policy be centralised and made at a national level?
Prominent Thai websites in the firing line
Nicholas, you didn’t read about it earlier because it is news not fit to print at The Nation.
Academic commentary on Cyclone Nargis
Thanks Stephen,
Perhaps I should just emphasise that readers who come across other commentaries can feel free to post an extract, and a link, here. The more the merrier, in these sad times.
Best wishes to all,
Nich
The electorate and the “acute state of Thai politics”
I wonder how the two most anti-monarchy correspondents at NM – Republican and Somsak – think about the upcoming launch of the book by Patrick Jory and Michael Montesano at the Princess Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre? Given that the book is on the South and that the monarchy has played such an important political role in that region, what does this launch at a royal institute say about the book?
(I have to say that I haven’t seen the book yet, and a quick search of bookshops didn’t turn a copy up for me).
Protection from all kinds of danger
I think the withdrawal from Somalia was not actually a good thing for the US to do. I don’t support the Asia Times’ position unreservedly, but it’s an interesting option to consider.
Academic commentary on Cyclone Nargis
While not academics, per se, I would recommend an additional two commentaries on the Cyclone.
“Why Myanmar’s junta steals foreign aid,” Asia Times Online, May 14th 2008.
“Facing up to our responsibilities,” Gareth Evans, The Guardian, May 12th 2008.
Academic commentary on Cyclone Nargis
I agree with my old lecturer Andrew O’Neil, that certainly there are grounds for intervening – but what are the moral implications for imperialism and cultural hegemony? Maybe liberalism is a universal, but I think many Westerners (who are inadvertantly liberals) don’t communicate it very respectfully so as to remove cultural pretext from communication which subsequently fosters this ‘down with the imperialists’ attitude that has fueled the Junta for so long.
Surely the best way to resolve the situation whilst maintaining maximum moral integrity from all angles is to engage with the Junta and buy them out with praise, pay them lip service – that they are right, we are horrible bastards and they can have all the face and jewls — like U Po Kyin from Burmese Days — that they can imagine. We can have a ‘faith’ (ooh the -other- F word) that their karma will see them return as the drain pipes for the new Yangon sewage system. I don’t mind being called names, or calling myself names so that people in Burma/Myanmar have a better standard of living- why does the UN? It is a contest of legitimacy from both sides, not a concerted effort to have people drink clean water.
Volunteering to fight in Burma
Hi Dave
I remenber Martin…….as french it was not easy for us to understand his english. Our english was poor and his accent was strong as i remenber…..we was always asking him…..”could you repeat please”…..details….details ….God bless his memory.
To Charles F…..so many occidental people are looking the resistance to SPDC or SLORC or what they want as a subsidiary option…..but did they understand the meaning of warlords or the Confucian way of live (even if they are Christian), or the meaning of cast in oriental societies…..most of the people have references from their own culture and it is not easy for them to project a conflict in different cultures .
Karen soldiers are between the best fighters in the world as the Hmongs or the Gurka (people from the montains)…..but most of the hight rankings are warlords as Burmese from SPDC are…It is just a twin face from the same problem.
Perversions and soothsayers in Burma today
Somebody told me they thought this whole affair was really very surprising and unpredictable, and I asked them what they thought was unpredictable, the hurricane or the response afterwards by the Burmese government?
They said both, but if someone had had the forsight to project this sort of thing, which is within the realm of possibility of disaster planning, British Gazetteers from the colonial period mention devastating hurricanes along the Bengal coastline and Michael Charney’s 2000 PhD dissertation discusses about the historical ecological impact of hurricanes and other natural disasters in Arakan.
Given that it could be predicted, the response by this government could also be predicted, as numerous people have pointed out beforehand, the mindset of the leadership of the country could be likened to an **irrational paranoid hunkered down in a foxhole suffering from a siege mentality**, an extreme defensive position, someone who could care less what the world thinks or even what their own people, who have been rebelling pretty much continually during the 60 years (since 1948) of the post-WWII era, think.
**Western policy continues to isolate the country and push it ever further into the hands of their protector China**. This little bit of political realism has been a major force shaping the current crisis.
Of course, blaming that isolating policy of the West for what happened would be ridiculous, but one can counterfactually imagine other possible worlds in which the leadership of the country had been **drawn adroitly out of their foxhole through accomodating policies, for the greater long-term benefit of the greater population that lives outside the foxhole, exposed to the elements, and one benefit would be surviving disasters like this. Who knows maybe Aung San Suukyi would have been elected Prime Minister a couple of times already. It has been 20 years of isolating and punitive western policy. The time to punish the immoral leadership of the country is after the lives and livelihoods of the people in the country are secured.
What I can’t really understand is why they just don’t go ahead, use the United Nations “right to intervene,” and enter the country and supply aid. They must be worried about the Chinese response.
Is the junta done for?
It’s time for the generals to pay a long overdue to the people of Myanmar.
I really those crooks will be overthrown and punished.
Is the junta done for?
This is the time to strike the SPDC with everything that can be shot, fired, launched, thrown or swung. Rally the people. Find the food aid and supplies. Spread the word the SPDC should be punished.
Protection from all kinds of danger
Not a bad plan Charles. Now that Burma’s military aircraft are done for it should be a no- brainer. If you have a plane, I have a pilot. 🙂 The US government is worried about getting involved in another major mission when it can not afford the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is a lot they could do but don’t for fear of pissing off china. Well now China has 10,000 of it’s own people to help so maybe they will drop the ball when it comes to supplying Burma’s dictators with weapons. God may be shaking things up for these countries in order for things to be brought to light and remedied by the rest of the world.
At the very least we could drop some rice to the needy.
Is the junta done for?
Perhaps, maybe… regime change is always going to be a ‘hopefully its going to happen’ situation while the Junta is in control. Of course we can say “this tragedy is one step closer to a mass of people seeing utter incompetence in order to demand change”, but speculation can just be a foundation for dissapointment as you have mentioned. I don’t want to be dissapointed at what is going on in Myanmar anymore. How can anyone take what is said at the hairdressers (or wherever) seriously? – it just boils the emotions until it overflows in a highly irrational handbag bout. Maybe there will be a civil war — well rip the bandaid off quickly then and get it over with.
I don’t know what to do with the fire that is fueled by this sort speculation. This is a good peice nonetheless, so thanks for probing my thoughts.
P/S Do you think crocodile leather would sting more?
The Republic of Kawthoolei and Thomas Bleming
The SPDC is stealing the food meant for the people hurt in the cyclone. Stealing it for themselves and the army fighting in the north. The very same army that is killing the civilians just to put a highway thru other people’s property. The food the people are getting is only enough to make it look like they are passing some of it out and get the international community to relax just a bit. Come on guys, this is not right, it’s time to stand up and hold them responsible.
Volunteering to fight in Burma
Taipan,
Thank you for your views on the situation with the KNU/KNLA. You put into words something I have been thinking about for a long time, ever since I got interested in the plight of the Karens.
I have long thought that Thailand controlled the spigot on the border, turning it off and on as it suited them.
When Thailand wants to show displeasure with Burma, they open the spigot a little bit, and allow the KNLA to mount operations. Then turn it off when they’ve made their point.
A guy who spent some time with the KNLA wrote that from time to time the Thai’s would show up at the various KNLA camps for inspections. He was told to stay out of sight while they were there. Had the Thai authorities spotted him, the KNLA would have had hell to pay.
Your writing goes a very long way towards explaining the attitude displayed by the KNU towards my friend when he spoke to them.
You are exactly correct in your statement that, “Independance start by controling his asset and his finance…….after it is just technical.”
Lee’s degree broke ANU rules
What was the outcome of the purported legal challenge to the conferal of the degree?
Volunteering to fight in Burma
The Knu/Knla fail to perform during the years after the 1988 burmese revolution because they was exactly in the same position than the other resistances in the thai border (as exemple the laos resistance). When you have your asset in the Thai Military Bank it is not easy to be free in his own strategy. You just follow the order of those who control your cash and who allow you to buy weapons..and i don’t speak about those who buy your logs and ore.
You can do what you want as “rodomontade” and “political blabla”….you will follow the orders. It is really simple…at the time we inform them about what was the futur for KNLA if they follow the track from other resistances in the area……and the answer was clear….they cannot move….politically and technically…..politically because they was inside deep “trade” at the border with teck, tin and refugies and technically because at the time foreign financial service was restricted to operate in thailand (only one as foreigner was authorized. It was the only one free option possible)….. To plan an offensive you must to be free to invest in equipments, in training, in logistic,etc…..if you don’t have this liberty or if you have it under control you will never reach your proper goal……you will work just for the other….you will never reach the negociation….the other will finish it for you but with is own goal…you will never be in time….
Starting from the day they tell us it was not possible for them to be “free” on this field and as consequence it was not possible to plan major offensive. We stop to send our technicians…..we was very sad for all our karen friends and for all our KIA in the field but at the time we have already the experience from other areas…..and the knowledge of some endings.
At the time the 3 generals (BoMya, Hla Htoo, Taru) understood the situation very well and from both side we knew how the future was already darked by clouds.
It is impossible to save people from themself. We was just people cheering to much liberty and if the karen people was brave and proud……so many high ranking was stuck with Thai handcuff they lock themself.
Independance start by controling his asset and his finance…….after it is just technical.
Protection from all kinds of danger
re: James Haughton
Or it could just be Somaliaredux.