[Reader-list] Burma

[Yousuf]

Eddie Woods <metal.dragon at hetnet.nl> wrote:  

Hello People,

We're concerned about Burma, right?
But no one can do anything.
Except talk. And make useless threats.
The UN. The EU. The USA. The UK. Etc.
Sanctions. Travel restrictions. Blah-blah-blah.
The generals don't care.
They never did, they're not going to now.
Yet a nation is in pain. And people are dying.

We know China COULD do something. But it won't.
They do too much business with the corrupt Burmese
regime.
Nearly two billion dollars' worth annually.
More than 400 companies.
And Burma's biggest arms supplier (along with India &
Russia).

Well, there are organizations that can do something.
To force China to do something.
Sports federations.
Beijing is hosting the 2008 Olympics.
(Which it never should have been awarded. With its
godawful human rights
record. Its polluted air. And all the crap they'll be
selling, made by what
practically amounts to slave labor.)

Urge your national sports federations to boycott the
Olympics!
The message is simple: "China, wring the generals'
necks. Stop selling them
guns. Insist they step down NOW. And release Aung San
Suu Kyi IMMEDIATELY.
Make them give political power back to those they
stole it from, the people
of Burma. Or we won't come and play with you, China.
We'll skip the Olympics
till 2012. Your stadiums will be empty. Your cheap
trinkets and t-shirts
will rot. And you can go back to flogging poisoned
toys to the world."

Will they do it, the sports federations? Probably not.
But YOU can tell them
to anyway. You can find most of the international ones
at
http://www.agfisonline.com/vsite/vnavsite/page/directory/0,10853,5148-176060
-193278-nav-list,00.html
and then Google for the rest. Know any athletes? Talk
to them, twist their
arms. To twist the arms of their federations. Sports
is business, too.
France's Total (gas & oil company) is not about to
quit Burma, but maybe a
handful or more pole-vaulters will.

Ah, and all of you in cricket-playing countries:
pressure your cricket teams
and federations to boycott India. Until they cease
arms sales to Burma's
dictators. "You need gas, India? I'm sure any future
democratic Burmese
government will be more than happy to do business with
you."

I haven't a clue about what anyone might say to
Russia. But two out of the
big bad three would be great for starters.

Oh yeah, the BBC, CNN, et cetera could also stop
running tourism ads for
China. You know, the folks who execute more of their
citizens than any other
nation; and then charge the poor sods' families for
the bullets.

[The attached poem (with thanks to Rudyard Kipling for
the title + first
line) is appended below as well as attached; this for
the benefit of those
on my mailing list (there are a few) who cannot open
attachments.]

Go for it, eh!

Amen, EDDIE


MANDALAY

On the road to Mandalay,
Where Buddhist monks march and pray
With their begging bowls turned upside down,
Their fear of reprisals flung to the ground,
A brutal regime strains to hold sway.
Yet in the grim face of tyranny
It is the Sangha, and the people,
Who must seize the day.

On the streets of Rangoon,
Even yesteryear was not too soon
For those murderous generals
To be thoroughly swept away.

Common soldiers, hold your fire!
Turn your weapons on the liars!
Build a pyre, enormously tall!
Set it alight, let it burn bright
With the sizzling corpse
Of oppression overthrown!

Flames of freedom, please prevail!
As Burma valiantly seeks to sail
Into a new and fragrant dawn.
Burma oh Burma,
May the spirit of Buddha
Guide your future for evermore.


EDDIE WOODS
September 2007
 



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