The Saffron Revolution sought a Free Burma (gawker.com).
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called her Burmese counterpart after the Southeast Asian nation released hundreds of political prisoners in a symbolic gesture.The world is paying attention but it seems to be missing the point. The US is moving to upgrade relations after more than 20 years because of Burma's affinity with its only ally, China, and overtures from India.
Clinton spoke with her Myanmar (which is what the military dictatorship calls the country) counterpart, Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin.The US Secretary of State also called on Nobel Peace Laureate and immensely popular opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, to welcome the release of detainees and a cease-fire with the country’s largest armed ethnic group, the Karen rebel separatists.
This compromise by Burmese "leaders" propped up during sham elections must have the approval of the country's all-powerful military dictators. It gives the US the excuse that we only fight for human rights when we do more to ensure earthlings are deprived of them than any empire in the world. The US will again send an ambassador to Burma after a significant absence.It is amazing that we had no ambassador there. When a party from Wisdom Quarterly arrived in the isolated pariah state, we were surprised to see a massive, barricaded but functioning embassy building in the center of the capital, Rangoon (Yangon).
The dictators using citizen slave labor and embezzled funds have built a new super modern super secret capital at Nay Pyi Daw.Sadly, the isolation preserved a very pure form of Theravada, the oldest extant Buddhist school. Happily, it also led to a non-monastic vipassana (insight) meditation movement. Normalized relations with the West are sure to be lost when tourists return and meditation is taken less seriously, which is sure to improve the standard of living while endangering the tradition.
This curse afflicts Korea as well: While everyone supports an end to hostilities on the Korean Peninsula, peace could mean the end of the DMZ (demilitarized zone), an inadvertent world-class wildlife habitat. In every curse there's a small blessing (yin-yang).
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi speaks to an American university in 2011
