The Deproliferator The development of nuclear weapons can be a significant source of national pride. When Pakistan successfully detonated five nuclear devices during its first underground test in 1998, it was reported: […]
Like Iran, Burma muddies the waters for negotiations
It might surprise you to know that Southeast Asian political humor is on a par with America’s best like Maureen Dowd, Lee Camp and the Onion. For example, visit Thailand’s English-lanuage Not […]
Burma's rulers s**t on their own people, spit at the West
Aung San Suu Kyi probably knew she was courting danger when she allowed “that wretched American,” as one of her lawyers called John Yettaw, to sleep overnight in her home. He’d exhausted […]
'Burma VJs: Reporting From a Closed Country': Filmmaking at its incendiary best
Technically, Burma’s 2007 Saffron Revolution wasn’t saffron. The term was coined out of deference to the saffron-yellow robes that Buddhist monks in Asia usually wear. The robes of Burmese monks’ robes are, […]
Do sanctions just add insult to injury for the Burmese people?
If you look up the word sanction, the definition that occupies pride of place in most dictionaries is permission or approval for a specific course of action. But, one of those words […]
Twin-track talks in Burma raise peace hopes
Thailand seeks to mediate peace talks between Burma’s ruling junta and the Karen ethnic group that it’s been trying to wipe out for 60 years. Norway, meanwhile, hopes to heal the rift […]
World's longest-running war for independence — or exercise in futility? (Pt. 5)
U.S. Special Forces to Burma: Help or Hindrance? With Afghanistan and Pakistan hot spots, and Special Forces still used in Iraq to train Iraqi commandos, the United States is in no rush […]
World’s longest-running war for independence — or exercise in futility? (Pt. 4)
The Limitations of Humanitarian Aid When a people are, as the U.S. Committee for Refugees describes the Karen, “one of the most ignored groups in one of the most difficult humanitarian emergencies,” […]
World's longest-running war for independence — or exercise in futility? (Pt. 2)
A Flip Through the Karen Annals The Karens, as well as other ethnic groups, actually arrived in Burma before the majority group known as the Burmans (as opposed to the Burmese, all […]
World's longest-running war for independence — or exercise in futility?
The Karen independence movement in Myanmar has entered its seventh decade. Episode 1 Three years before she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi emerged as a national […]
Progressive Culture | Scholars & Rogues 