Be with Burma - Wear Red to POP
by Risa Dickens
This weekend coming up is POP Montreal and while we’re making plans, scribbling and circling in our programs and getting happily bombarded by emails and facebook invites for cool parties, we know we’re in a bubble of safety for freedom of expression. A festival like POP is a beautiful thing, it brings huge numbers of artists together and when you do that powerful connection and communication are the natural result. We can amplify the power of this collectivity by using it as a forum for showing solidarity with the people dying in Myanmar - Burma. It’s clear now, though under reported, that high school students and their parents have been murdered - over 100 of them - and that bodies are being burned to hide the evidence. There are reports that injured monks are being burned alive after coming under machine gun fire for making statements like these:
“May we be free of torture, may there be peace in hearts and minds as our kindness spreads around the world.”
The monks asked the people to stay inside to not get hurt, and the people responded by forming human chains to try and protect the monks. Now the protests inside Burma have been hammered quiet with violence, so the world needs to get ever louder in response. October 6 there will be simultaneous demonstrations all around the world. October 6 is also the Saturday in the middle of POP when we’ll be congregating en masse anyway to celebrate art, independence, rock music. On October 6th, and throughout POP keep the Burmese people present and be a part of the global peaceful resistance while putting our rights to communicate and congregate into celebratory action.
Be With Burma. Wear Red. Sign the petition. Do what you can, that’s all.
For up to date info on demonstrations and on what people are seeing inside Burma, and for email addresses of business working in Burma, of the Olympic committee planning Beijing 2008 and more, see the Facebook group which already has over 188 880 members.
Listen to this article
Published on: September 30th, 2007
Terms Used: Blog, burma, monks, peace, pop montreal
About: Risa Dickens
Risa co-founded Indyish with Elran Oded.
Aside from experimenting with these monstrous/sexy formations, producing Indyish events and developing new and existing Indyish endeavors, and trying to figure out how to do it armed[...]
Browse Indyish Content:
Use the tabs above to navigate between Featured Blog Columns, Product Categories, Popular Tags, and Recent Comments.
Dear friends,
Burma’s generals have brought their brutal iron hand down on peaceful monks and protesters — but in response, a massive global outcry is gathering pace. The roar of global public opinion is being heard in hundreds of protests outside Chinese and Burmese embassies, people round the world wearing the monks’ color red, and on the internet– where our petition has exploded to over 200,000 signers in just 72 hours.
People power can win this. Burma’s powerful sponsor China can halt the crackdown, if it believes that its international reputation and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing depend on it. To convince the Chinese government and other key countries, Avaaz is launching a major global and Asian ad campaign on Wednesday, including full page ads in the Financial Times and other newspapers, that will deliver our message and the number of signers. We need 1 million voices to be the global roar that will get China’s attention. If every one of us forwards this email to just 20 friends, we’ll reach our target in the next 72 hours. Please sign the petition at the link below -if you haven’t already- and forward this email to everyone you care about:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/t.php
The pressure is working - already, there are signs of splits in the Burmese Army, as some soldiers refuse to attack their own people. The brutal top General, Than Shwe, has reportedly moved his family out of the country – he must fear his rule may crumble.
The Burmese people are showing incredible courage in the face of horror. We’re broadcasting updates on our effort over the radio into Burma itself – telling the people that growing numbers of us stand with them. Let’s do everything we can to help them – we have hours, not days, to do it. Please sign the petition and forward this to at least 20 friends right now. Scroll down our petition page for details of times and events to join in the massive wave of demonstrations happening around the world at Burmese and Chinese embassies.
With hope and determination,
Ricken, Paul, Pascal, Graziela, Galit, Ben, Milena and the whole Avaaz Team
Posted on September 30th, 2007 at 10:57 am [permalink]
In the fifties, Burmese press was one of the freest in Asia - before the coup in 1962, there were more than 30 newspapers. Now there is just one national newspaper, the New Light of Myanmar, one television station and one radio station which are all state-controlled. In Burma, there is no freedom of expression or association.
The junta has laws against the convening of more than five people, all media is state-controlled and even art exhibits must pass through censorship screening. Restrictions are enforced through an elaborate military intelligence infrastructure and other state-controlled mechanisms. All films, books, and magazines must be presented tot he Press Scrutiny Board before being made public.
Each publication must mention the three “national causes”: non-disintegration of the Union, non-disintegration of national solidarity and consolidation of national sovereignty.
http://www.cfob.org/freedom_expression.html
Posted on September 30th, 2007 at 11:51 am [permalink]
“They burned the injured protesters/civilian people in the
YaeWay Crematorium la la . Er… the staff from crematorium told this, crying, to the people who went to the funeral service. Please let this known to CNN and BBC.”
http://ko-htike.blogspot.com/2007/09/where-is-gambari-where-is-he-going-how.html
Posted on September 30th, 2007 at 12:42 pm [permalink]
thanks for continuing to post information, risa! i know i’ll be wearing red. i’m going to encourage the bands i know who are part of the festival this year to promote this cause and maybe wear red themselves.
Posted on September 30th, 2007 at 4:35 pm [permalink]
thanks lise, that’s great, getting bands and artists to wear red will help a lot! i’m doing more regular updates on open if you’re interested.. http://www.openjournalmontreal.com/
Posted on October 1st, 2007 at 12:58 pm [permalink]
This is a good idea. A red wristband to show your support for Burma. Have a look at the site:
http://www.redbandforburma.com
It’s not always easy to wear red and not obvious why you are wearing it! These bands make it pretty clear. I hope the idea catches on. Only by keeping Burma in the public eye and not letting the international community forget what is happening there, can there be any hope of a solution. Every little bit we can do counts!
Posted on November 3rd, 2007 at 7:33 am [permalink]