August 2005 Archives
Oh dear! Oh dear! Oh dear! - But they need help!
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Global AIDS fund quits Myanmar, cites restrictions
19 Aug 2005 11:13:33 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Darren Schuettler
BANGKOK, Aug 19 (Reuters) - The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has pulled its funding for programmes in army-ruled Myanmar, blaming travel and other restrictions imposed by the junta, the Fund said on Friday.
The Fund, which agreed in 2004 to spend nearly $100 million over 5 years fighting all three diseases, said its decision was regrettable given the serious epidemics threatening the impoverished Southeast Asian nation.
The former Burma, ruled by the military since 1962 and seen as a pariah state by the West, has up to 610,000 people living with HIV/AIDS and one of the highest rates of tuberculosis in the world.
But travel curbs on U.N. staff overseeing the implementation of Fund-financed programmes and bureaucratic hurdles in procuring medical and other supplies had forced the Fund to terminate its agreement with Yangon.
"The travel restrictions appear to be the most recent manifestation of a gradual change in the government's attitude towards international and national humanitarian efforts in Myanmar over the past few weeks," the Fund said in a background document obtained by Reuters.
"The Global Fund has now concluded that the grants cannot be implemented in a way that ensures effective programme implementation," it said, adding that all activities would cease by Dec. 1.
It is with sadness today that I remember one of the most tragic events in Burma: A bloody massacre that occurred on August 8th, 1988.
I almost did not remember it because I didn't know what the date today was but I was at the post office today filling out forms and it hit me as I wrote: 8/8/05. It is the 17th anniversary of this tragic day where the Burmese government brutally crushed the hopes and dreams of the peaceful protestors that filled the streets of Burma.
I can't fully explained it because I did not fully witness it. I've only seen the aftermaths of the destructions and the whispered stories. I was barely 8 years old.
However, from reading rebound88.net, i know that they decided that on 8,8,88 that they had had enough and decided to kill whoever was on the street protesting.
This did not stop people from spreading the word about Democracy. You think a little killing was going to stop the progress, no no!
The government then stopped for one month. Burmese people are stubborn. Killing them did not stop the rest from protesting, so the rest who were not dead continued to protest in fervor.
So in September, the government brought out the big guns.
Some excerpts from rebound88.net:
"There was joy and hope once the troops withdrew from the streets (In Augut).People from all walks of life demonstrated, demanding an end to 26-years of one party military rule.In September 1988, these hopes and dreams were dashed.Thousands of army trucks and tanks rolled into the cities and towns. The sound of gunfire day and night made it seem like the country was in the midst of civil war.
Hospitals were filled with dead bodies and injured demonstrators. Smoke came out from chimneys at the city crematoriums almost continuously. That left permanent scars among many citizens of Burma. I left a note to my parents, saying that I'll be gone for few months.Then I left my home immediately.From Rangoon to Thailand, it took me about two weeks: first by bus, by foot, then by boat and then by bus again."
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I still remember driving by the Children's Hospital in Rangoon - where my mother used to always point out - "This is where you were born, Darling" - as we drive by. But when we drove by there, sometime after September, my mother didn't point the hospital out to me. I looked at it anyway. The Hospital was riddled with bullet holes.
I kept hearing someone's whispers in my head that nurses had to keep running out to carry the dead and the injured into the hospital that day because so many people were outside, lying dead/ nearly dead. Then the soldiers started shooting into the hospitals/ at the nurses, warning the nurses not to come get the demonstraters or else they would end up like them too.
I also remember trying to play the Burmese version of the "Ouijee" board later on that year at my grandmother's house - a place near the city central - and a main campus of the main University in Burma - a central place where the killings took place.
My grandmother stopped us at once. "Are you being silly?" She stopped us. "Do you know, how many were freshly killed months ago? So many ghosts would be trying to talk to you, you do not want to contact that world right now."
But I always wanted to know how it happened. I wanted to know what they had to say. I wanted to tell them, I'm so sorry you had to die in vain and that the governement is still in control. But I have faith. One day. One day, they will be overthrown.
According to a recent study done by the United Nations, 1 in 3 children in Burma was found to be malnourished.
Imagine this. Pick 3 children in random in Burma and make them stand next to each other and 1 of them would be malnourished. I know this is bound to happen in poor parts of the U.S or other poor cities, but the thing is, everyone, please look at the photos of the governments of the third world countries, including Burma. These people are fat. I mean, jesus, fucking share!
On a second note, since I've stopped being a tomboy at the age of 13 and started looking myself in the mirror, I've had eating disorders. I still can't look at myself in the mirror and think I look ok. Because I grew up with my family telling me I was fat. After reading the recent study on Burmese kids being malnourished, I also realized that I didn't grow up in Burma after I was 10. I grew up in SIngapore, the land of consumption with a weird fetish on image (much like the U.S, Ha!). I also took comfort in food after not fitting in in Singapore and thus - my size. and the result in my Burmese family thinking me to be fat.
I think if I were to go home today, which I am doing in a matter of weeks, and returning to Burma in a matter of months, in fact. I will still be considered fat. But I just realised that - this means 1 thing - I'm not malnourished.
But in my head, even though I'm a size 4, I'm fat. - in the weird culture that is Hollywood, and image driven and the weird capitalistic and image driven world that is Singapore - that skinny is in and since I was 13, I've been trying to be skinny like the Burmese girls, skinny like the Singapore girls, then skinny like the Hollywood girls - and hating myself because I'll never be those girls because I'm born to please and I can't please - it's vicious - it makes me sick.
And then there are kids who are malnourished in Burma, who will never understand.
I'm going off on a tangent.
But the point of the blog is - Kids in Burma are malnourished. The Burmese government needs to feed them. I'm so cynical, I started to laugh as I type this because, that's like asking Satan to stop being mean.
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Aug. 5 (UPI) -- One-third of the children in Myanmar are malnourished and the government must do more to help its hungry millions, says a senior U.N. official.
James Morris, executive director of the World Food Program in Bangkok Friday urged the government to reform policies that impede humanitarian efforts, such as food distribution to combat growing hunger and poverty. The international community also needs to give more support, he said.
"Myanmar's severe and wide-ranging hunger issues cannot be solved without fundamental changes that promote the socioeconomic well-being of the population, which is the preserve of the government," said Morris, who recently returned from a four-day mission to Myanmar.
"The humanitarian issues are serious and getting worse. I made very clear that the primary responsibility for making things better rests squarely with the government," he said.
The U.N. agency helps feed Myanmar's most poverty-stricken citizens, including HIV/AIDS sufferers and former poppy growers.
Copyright 2005 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
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Report accuses Myanmar army of genocide (June 23, 2005) -- An undercover report into alleged human rights abuses in Myanmar is to form the basis of an appeal for action against the country's military ... >
http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20050623-09183900-bc-britain-myanmarkillings.xml
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I've had a mobile phone since I was 16. More because my parents wanted to keep track of where I was. In Burma, the internet was just available a few years ago and it's mostly still dial up. Most people still do not have telephones in their homes and mobile phones are just status symbols.
Why, you ask? It's a control issue. The military government does not want you to be able to talk to each other freely. lol. I'm putting it in very simple words. There are other issues such as the money that should be used for the progress of the country is being used on Military intelligence to torture people, etc.
I thought it would be interesting for most people to read the article below. Enjoy.
Myanmar's mobile phone blues Print this page..
Indo-Asian News Service
Yangon, Aug 3 (IANS) Asia may be witnessing a communications boom, but owning a mobile telephone remains a distant dream in military-ruled Myanmar where some people have still not even heard a dial tone.
Myanmar has only a few hundred thousand telephones (including landlines and mobile phones) and even in this capital city mobile telephones are a rare sight, according to Mizzima news agency.
"A mobile phone is a status symbol in Yangon," said Daw Nu Nu, who runs an ivory shop at the Pabedan Township here.
"Mobile communication facilities are in the hands of the military and the police along with the elite. The common people cannot afford a mobile phone. Moreover, it takes years to get a connection," said Nu, who has been waiting for a mobile connection for three years.
The number of cellular phone users in Myanmar, which has a population of 50 million, is around 150,000 while there are 397,000 direct line subscribers.
According to a Myanmar Times report, state-run Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications, the regulatory authority for Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) phones, has sold only 100,000 mobile phones (in Yangon and Mandalay) since March 2002.
Sky-Link Communications of the British Virgin Islands was asked to supply 135,000 GSM phones to the country in 2000.
"The expenditure discourages the common people from buying a cell phone even in urban areas, where mobile network is available," said Win Myint, a hotel industry professional.
"A handset in Myanmar will cost a minimum of $500 with a connection charge of around $1,000. And one has to wait for years after applying for a connection. However, an active SIM card can be purchased for $3,000-$5,000 in the black market," added Myint, who got his mobile from the black market.
Apart from Yangon and Mandalay, some other major cities like Myitkyina, Moulmein, Bhamo, Taunggyi, Sittwe and Prome have also been brought under the cellular network in the country that has been tightly controlled by the military junta for four decades.
Myanmar posts and telecommunications launched the public phone system in Yangon and Mandalay as late as September 2001. Around 2,000 fixed line phones were installed in the city.
There are small landline telephone booths all over the capital city. However, these are open only during the day. And phone calls can be made only to cities, not to rural areas.
But while the cities can boast of some kind of telephone network, most villages in this largely rural country are deprived of even fixed line telephones.
However, the ruling State Peace and Development Council claims it has made "all-out efforts" for development of the telecom sector.
A teacher summed up the situation: "The restriction on cell phones is not because of technical problem or inefficiency, but is primarily a political conspiracy. The junta does not want many people to avail of mobile phone services.
"Perhaps, the military rulers feel that more cell phones will lead to greater communication and usher in awareness among people, which may inspire the pro-democracy movement led by (imprisoned leader) Aung San Suu Kyi," he added.
http://www.eians.com/stories/2005/08/03/03mob.shtml
