88 Generation Students (Exile): East Timor president visits Bradford to start Burma campaign

Friday, March 5, 2010

East Timor president visits Bradford to start Burma campaign

Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta will visit Bradford tomorrow to start a world-wide petition for people demanding democracy in Burma.

The president of East Timor received the Nobel prize for his peacemaker role in East Timor, which is plagued by poverty and divided communities.

And he has chosen to launch the petition at Bradford University as part of the university’s prestigious PeaceJam event, now in its fifth year.

The petition will call for the release of fellow Nobel Peace Laureate and Burmese Prime Minister-elect, Aung Sun Suu Kyi, before the Burmese elections in October.

PeaceJam organiser Fiona Macaulay said: “We are delighted to have the President of East Timor joining us at the university for this year’s PeaceJam event.

“It is a wonderful opportunity for young people from across the UK to hear about his own experiences and work with him to explore the issues around peace and poverty.”

Pro-democracy leader, Ms Suu Kyi, under house arrest for 17 years, was refused her latest appeal for release by the Supreme Court last month.

PeaceJam is an educational programme which started in America ten years ago.

Bradford is the only place in Europe to host PeaceJam, which is led by Nobel Peace Prize winners, including Ramos-Horta and Aung San Suu Kyi.

President Ramos-Horta will be at the university for three days. About 250 young people from across Yorkshire, the UK and Europe, will be spending the weekend debating issues.

On Saturday they will be working in groups with university student mentors, doing voluntary work designing products to make and sell to raise money for Haiti, clearing a nature reserve, reconditioning carpentry tools to be sent to artisans in Africa, and helping unite homeless cats with elderly and disabled people.

On Sunday the young people will be exploring a range of issues such as racism, homophobic bullying, poverty, political oppression in North Korea and poverty in the UK.

Also on Sunday the young people will be taking part in workshops to design their own peace projects.

No comments:

Post a Comment

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"I am disappointed by the unwillingness of the government of Burma to deliver on its promises for democratic dialogue and the release of political prisoners."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"I would like to make an appeal to President Bush: Please take pride as a President who has worked hard for Burma to achieve something before his term expires.”

-U Gambira, a leader of the All-Burma Monks’ Alliance that spearheaded nationwide protests in Burma in September---

—

U WIN TIN

Because we refuse to bow to these unjust election 'laws,' our party will be abolished by the regime soon. Still, the NLD will not disappear. We will be among the people, with the people. We will continue to fight for democracy, human rights and equality among all ethnic nationalities, by peaceful means. —

Win Tin, a member of NLD Central Executive Committee

From Stalin to Burma, a history lesson

They may wear different cloaks, but under the surface all dictators are similar. As the memory of dictators like Joseph Stalin fades, mistakes of the past repeat themselves with a vengeance in forgotten places like Burma.One writer said of Stalin: “He had found Russia working with wooden ploughs and left it equipped with atomic [stock]piles.” But perhaps the true question doesn’t regard Stalin’s undisputable impact on humanity, but whether the legacy justified all the human sacrifice. To Stalin, the millions killed as a consequence of his ambitious drive were simply stepping stones along the road to national prosperity. However, such a Machiavellian frame of mind can neither be justifiable nor ethical.Stalin utilized numerous harsh methods in attempting to meet his ‘utopian’ goals. Collective farms were prevalent, while each Five Year Plan sought to leapfrog Russia ahead of competing nations and systems. Toward this end, virtually every industry fell under the direct control of the government and its de facto and shackled workforce. And the sad truth, more often than not, was results never met by an increasingly impoverished population.Stalin’s principle instrument for maintaining control over his country was his secret police. Through this institution, fear was instilled in the hearts of the people. The final death toll from Stalin’s regime is indeed staggering, with estimates ranging from 10 to 20 million people having perished.Stalin was under the belief that all his actions, extreme or otherwise, were necessary in order to pull Russia into the industrial age. Yet, ultimately, the major flaw in Stalin’s reasoning was that he claimed all sacrifices were necessary and for the future of Russia. “Life has improved, comrades. Life has become more joyous,” he once remarked. And while he was thinking about the future of the country and the generations to come, the standard of living within Russia had plummeted.Today, forgetting that dictatorship is a self inflicted wound, some intellectuals and humanitarians reason that simply sending more aid and increasing engagement are starting points to improving the political situation in Burma. But when they begin to regard the active opposition, as symbolized by Aung San Suu Kyi, as increasingly irrelevant, the time has come to refresh their memory about Joseph Stalin and the enormous price of dictatorship. It is one thing to want to bring Burma into the international community, but it is another to coddle and nurture tyrants without speaking out against their inhumane acts.So far, newly elected U.S. President Barack Obama and Foreign Secretary Hillary Clinton have taken a cautious and slow approach toward Burma. But in a world of competing interests and ideology, it will be a great tragedy if they fail to take a firm stand against the dictators in Burma.After all, the United States and its allies helped reform the militaries in Indonesia and Turkey within democratic transitions and transformations. Now, the U.S., United Nations, ASEAN and the European Union need decisive and effective leadership to help Burma. Obama and Clinton have a great chance to seize this mantle…if they are willing to seriously take on the leadership role.Today, even as Burma’s generals tragically act more and more like Stalin, could it not be that the army as an institution in Burma was originally inspired by similar beliefs to those of countries such as Indonesia and Turkey? This should offer an important clue as to where to begin with Burma.

88 Generation Students (Exile)

Friday, March 5, 2010

East Timor president visits Bradford to start Burma campaign

No comments:

NeoCounter

ONLINE COUNTER

VISITOR COUNTER

About Me