THE MONKEY-SEE,MONKEY-DO PRINCIPLE AS APPLIED TO INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL BEHAVIOR AND MISBEHAVIOR

A simplistic argument supporting Darwinism and Reverse Darwinism.

PREMISES: History repeats itself, trends are cyclical, humans evolved from an ancestor that also produced other primales, humans and other primates therefore share some DNA-influenced societal characteristics.

[WARNING: The account name "Babes for McCain was an intended sarcasm campaign. Long story. Ask me if you really want to know.]

U.S. Trade Policies Sponser Terrorism:

We buy enourmous amounts of goods from China, in return China is the largest arms supplier to Burma. Making Burma the 12th largest military in the world. So, we do indeed fund the regime in Burma, we fund their campaigns of genocide against the ethnic Karen in eastern Burma, we fund thier systematic use of mass rape against women and children, we fund forced labor, we fund arbitrary imprisonment.

It was American policy that was the reason China's economy grew at the fastest rate (and still growing) than any other nation in History.

It is not just the US who has ties with the junta in Burma, other democracies, Israel and Australia, also help train Burma's security personnel.

We are all connected and in the words of Vaclav Havel "we Must be reponsible for out actions" - I contend this includes trade policies.

I was idly going through the articles on Truthout this evening, and a NYT piece about the cyclone relief efforts in Burma caught my eye.  Apparently, it is the monks who have been able to help the most.

Kun Wan, Myanmar - They paddle for hours on the stormy river, or carry their sick parents on their backs through the mud and rain, traveling for miles to reach the one source of help they can rely on: Buddhist monks.

It seems that the international relief workers have encountered many impediments in the efforts to reach those who need the help most, while the monks, who are already there, can do the most if they have supplies and donations.  Luckily, Avaaz.org has set up a way to donate directly to the International Burmese Monks Organization.

You can contribute here.

cross posted from The Dream Antilles and docuDharma

Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi

Enough is enough.  The NY Times reports that the Myanmar government has yet again extended Aung San Suu Kyi's dentention:

This is a fairly broad ranged diary but I think all of the parts will tie together well. In 17 conflicts spanning the globe there are children who are more than simple victims of war. These children are forced to be active participants in war. They are forced to fight and forced to kill.  These children are taken from their homes and their families to fight in these horrific conflicts. Sometimes they are pressed into service after the worst of disasters. I choose to highlight this now because the use of child soldiers has political relevance in this primary and because it is illustrative of the difference between Barack Obama and John McCain. This topic is something that needs to be addressed as a human rights issue and only one candidate for president has a record that stands out on this topic.  The issue of child soldiers also highlight the dangers of disaster capitalism in a rather horrid way.

Just to flog the appeasement dead horse a bit more, because the GOPers seem determined to keep trying this against Obama with the hope that it sticks. It certainly does nothing to help that Joe Liarbemen (hint - letters jumbled) is trumping that to try and add credence to the GOP attacks on our most likely nominee and most likely next POTUS! Below is part of the article on NPR.

An Israeli official says two of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's senior advisers are currently in Istanbul with their Syrian counterparts; they have been holding indirect talks through senior Turkish diplomats since Monday.

Israeli officials say the goal is to restart direct talks and reach a comprehensive peace deal with Syria. A statement released simultaneously today in Israel and Syria said the two sides are committed to "serious and continuous" talks.

Talking of Lie berman, didn't senator Reid say that there was a threshold he could cross to lead Reid to strip him off his duties. Surely has he not now certainly crossed that threshold, dear sir Mr. Reid? Link to story on UN secretary General's appeasement of the military Junta in Myanmar below the flip
NPR Israel Appeasement story

Today marks the first of three official days of mourning in China for the victims of the (newly-uprated) 8.0 earthquake in Sichuan. All "public entertainment activities" are suspended, as is the Olympic torch relay.

As the search for survivors has now turned into body recovery and burial, China is fast becoming "old news." More significantly, and more sadly, is that news about the on-going Burmese typhoon tragedy has been "old news" for several days now for the majority of American news outlets. The Sudan? Zimbabwe? Palestine? India? A google search will have to suffice.

We need to take a minute to mourn with those who mourn this day.

Recent 'acts of God' have gone unclaimed by US televangelists

If you have watched any news programming or read a newspaper over the past two weeks, you would know that a recent spate of natural disasters so far this month have plagued residents in separate areas of the planet.   On May 2nd, Cyclone Nargis assailed the nation of Myanmar (formerly Burma).  This storm had sustained winds of 135 miles per hour (comparable to a weak Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale) and swept just south of the capital of Yangon (Rangoon).  It is estimated that over 100,000 people may have lost their lives due to this cyclone.  

Does the U.S. need to invade Myanmar to save it?

The Washington Post is rightfully attacking China's refusal to allow international experts into Sichuan to help in relief experts, arguing correctly that such refusal not only endangers its own citizens, but provides ideological shelter for the Burmese Junta's similar approach to Monsoon relief:

Yet China is contributing to the mounting man-made disaster in Burma even as it rescues its own citizens. The communist government has adopted the position that it will welcome international aid for earthquake victims, but not foreign aid workers -- the same xenophobic stance that Burma's military junta has taken...

More below the fold...

As if the devastation from Cyclone Nargis on May 3 was not enough. As if the inability of the government to help the victims or allow international aid organizations to feed and shelter the millions in need was not enough.  As if the people of Myanmar had not suffered enough death, disease, hunger, thirst, cold, and fear.  An estimated 2 million survivors of the storm are still in need of emergency aid.  To date, U.N. agencies and other groups have been able to reach only 270,000 people.

Bottlenecks, poor logistics, limited infrastructure and the military government's refusal to allow foreign aid workers have left most of the delta's survivors living in miserable conditions without food or clean water. The government's efforts have been criticized as woefully slow.

Souce

The situation is about to get much, much worse.  Forecasters are now tracking another tropical low that is expected to become another cyclone and track into the already devastated Irriwaddy delta.

"Communist China".

I've been hearing those words ever since I can remember--often linked together just that way.  It used to run a distant second to "Communist Russia".  But there's no question who the new big kid on the block is these days.  There's no question who the next superpower will be, if the world as we know it makes it that far.

Thus has China become the new great American bogeyman, the new rising empire that, in years to come, some of our leaders (especially our good Republicans) will attempt to incite us to hate and fear.

History tells us something about the handoff of global power from one state to another: it very rarely comes without a greal deal of bloodshed between the old power and the new one.  

With that, please come with me across the jump...

Across the blogs I am hearing talk of the US Military 'invading' Myanmar by sending our Helicopters to drop aid directly to those in a humanitarian crisis there. This would require our military planes to cross into Myanmar airspace without permission.

The thought of these people trying to survive amongst the total devastation makes me want to 'rescue' them. Then I think of the consequences of such an act and my memory of the reaction of to US Military helicopters in Somalia, Vietnam...yada come to mind. Then thoughts of our troops already paying the price for other bad decisions, they will be welcomed as liberators, are ever present.

I think I may have found the birth of this idea. BANGKOK...

My sister Daphne studied Burmese music in Yangon. She is in touch with teachers and students at the music school Gitameit. They are organizing relief aid. Daphne wrote this:

Small and local aid agencies are best equipped to help the victims of cyclone Nargis because they are already operating on the ground. Donations to these agencies are more effective since big aid organizations are still struggling to access the affected areas. Local relief groups such as the Music School Gitameit, are providing the most urgently needed first-aid supplies.

For two years I lived in Yangon, studying Burmese traditional music and teaching classical flute at the Gitameit Music Center, a private school founded by the American pianist Kit Young in 2003. I returned to Berlin in December 2007 to finish my masters in Musicology and Southeast Asian Studies.

My friends, former colleagues, and students all tell me that Yangon, the old capital, is widely devastated and that the fertile delta of the Irrawaddy River is still flooded.

Since the disaster struck, I have been so disgusted and appalled at what is happening in Burma, especially after reading this article that the generals are not just hampering relief, but they are starting to hoard it for themselves.  Yes, they are.  The little they give to the people they take the precious time to re-label the containers to it looks like it's coming from them.  Huh?

One sliver of good news is the EU is threatening that if they do not accept the aid, they could be held accountable for crimes against humanity, of which they are already complicit.

Please, if you are able to help them, here is a link through avaaz.org to send help DIRECTLY to the monks who are doing everything they can, and NOTHING goes throught the government.  They are risking their lives to do this.

Thanks for reading

Read what the Republicans Wish You Wouldn’t

Today's Daily Flipper - McCain Flips on Environment and Abortion Edition you will read:
If You Don’t Like John McCain’s Environmental Position, Just Wait Five Minutes
McCain Advisor Forced To Resign
Here Comes The Exodus
Another Installment Of McCain 2.0

Read all the detail and take action on the flip. Flip it good.

Of course the military dictatorship in Myanmar deserves utter condemnation but they are only following their self-interest much like their anti-democratic counterparts in Washington DC, i.e. George and Dick, have done all these years.

While politics shouldn't be inserted into this unfolding tragedy of biblical proportions, someone nevertheless needs to tell George Bush to shut his mouth.  George Bush has lost his right to say anything to anyone about slow responses to natural disasters for the rest of his life. He needs to leave such criticism to people that haven't themselves caused widespread death due to cronyism, corruption, and ineptitude.

Everything George McBush says here can and should be held against the Republicans in the fall:

"Either they are isolated or callous," Bush told CBS News radio in an interview. "There's no telling how many people have lost their lives as a result of the slow response."

He said the "world ought to be angry and condemn" the junta, which has been widely condemned for stalling the disaster relief effort.

http://news.yahoo.com/...

My stepson Jeremy Paster was a co-founder of Burma Humanitarian Mission. He was among a team of activists that trek across the Thai border to bring medical supplies to the camps holding the Karen people, an oppressed minority within Myanmar. His trip there in 2006 was the last action he participated in before being diagnosed with the cancer that killed him the day after Thanksgiving last year.

I have kept our connection to the world of activists that was Jeremy's second family. I just got an email from Dang Ngo, an activist and photographer who has documented the beauty and tragedy of Burmese life and who accompanied Jeremy's team. He was forwarding important information for those who want help through local NGO's already on the ground.