Thank you, Burmese citizen journalists

“They came and put the flag, gave us 10 candles but no food.”

“They don’t help, but force us to leave. Where should we go, my young man?”

“Nobody comes (to help)! But they have taken away all the donations from us.”

-- survivors expressing their anger at the Burmese government


We are in trouble, help!
We are hungry!
- written on the road after the storm

Enabled in part, and mediated by today’s internet and networking technologies, citizen journalism—or participatory journalism— has become a more permanent element of the media landscape. Whereas before was a clear delineation between author and reader, news maker and audience; today’s social, networking and collaborative-based applications like blogs, wikis, forums, widgets combined with easy-to-use but hi-tech digicams and mobile computing have blurred the lines between ‘amateur’ and ‘professional’ in the world of journalism.

That average citizens can engage in the writing, production and distribution of news and opinion is not an entirely new concept. It has been rooted in many struggles for change in world history and advocated in recent years by development workers.

Thanks to many ordinary citizens who participate as both witness and storyteller of the world around them, even more people like us get to see the world from a point of view other than that of oragnised media industries. More than this, in the midst of danger and conflict, the world is given the chance to see what’s real, raw and unglamorous — reality uncut. Like the plight of Burma.

Burmese citizen journalists
The devastation of Burma in recent weeks was not really unleashed by Cyclone Nargis. It was its military junta who made a natural catastrophe an unbearable tragedy. This I learned thanks to the Democratic Voice of Burma and its group of Burmese reporters and photo-journalists — all ordinary citizens — working covertly to bring the world the real story of the storm. The DVB is based in Norway and comprises a handful of Burmese activists in exile.

Burma's military junta, with its tightly controlled state media, paint a picture of a country quickly recovering, with mostly upbeat images of the country's military leaders handing out aid to survivors. Photo-journalists are not allowed to take photos of the more gruesome reality: hungry survivors squatting on roadsides, stinking corpses floating in flooded waters, injured survivors waiting hopelessly for help. Local relief organisations and volunteers are threatened to not coordinate with monks, who are once have gathered in the streets not in protest, but merely to help the communities.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has claimed that as many as 127,990 people may have died as a result of the cyclone, while the UN says more than 100,000 may have perished. The UN also estimated that between 1.6 and 2.5 million people have been severely affected by the disaster.

As of this writing, the UN is still unable to mount a full-scale relief effort, because Burma has not yet granted visas to dozens of disaster relief specialists. This despite the fact that US and French ships loaded with aid are in the waters close to the country, but without clearance to port. Even Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa has stood up to say that the junta has committed crimes against humanity in its handling of the catastrophe; that the regime had "effectively declared war on its own population."

Thanks to Burmese citizen journalists, we are not kept in the dark and fed false images of recovery Hopefully, the world can repay them with supporting the Burmese people in their struggle not just to survive this natural catastrophe, but also to regain its freedom and a better quality of life.

Excerpts from Burmese bloggers

After about 200 deaths and 6,000 political detainess, it might be harder now for the world to see through the tinted windows encasing Burma, but thanks to Burmese bloggers, we have a record of their stories that we can re-tell.

Dawn 109, Rangoon… I just saw with my own eyes that more than 500 monks... They were chanting: "To the uncountable living beings living in uncountable universes to the east, May they be free of danger, May they be free of anger, May they be free of sufferings, and May their hearts be calm and peaceful. May there be peace on earth."

Kto Hike… On 26 September, a Buddhist monk was beaten to death by plain-clothed thugs while he was praying at the Shwe Dagon Pagoda in the centre of Rangoon. The dead body was carried back to the Sadu Monastery in Kyee Myindine. My part-time duty is working on Emergency YGH... at about 2 pm, 5 patients were coming to our Emergency... for gun shot wounds... 1 patient died on spot on arriving at hospital... 4 r still bad in Diagnosis... The patient's attendant said he was not in d line of protest... they were chatting and watching d protest line and sitting on Cafe Bar near Shawe Dagon Pagoda... Government military car was crossing to d protest line and randomly shot all of them...

Sein Khaloke
Buddhist monks are chanting: "All humans be free from killing and torturing, Our compassion and love spread all over country" and "Peace on earth".

Mya, Rangoon
A monk who took part in the protests came to us and told us about his experiences. He said: "We are not afraid, we haven't committed a crime, we just say prayers and take part in the protests. We haven't accepted money from onlookers although they offered us a lot. We just accept water. People clapped, smiled and cheered us." The monk seemed very happy, excited and proud. But I'm worried for them. They care for us and we pray for them not to get harmed.

Thila, Rangoon
Riot police and soldiers are beating monks and protesters at the east gate of Shwedagon Pagoda. They are starting a crackdown by all means. Regardless of this, just after noon, about 1,000 monks from a nearby monastery started a march to Shwedagon Pagoda.

Yi, Rangoon
I saw a truck full of police with guns, which looked like AK47. The military junta has been making us miserable for nearly two decades.

Eyewitness, Rangoon
Riot police started to chase the monks and beat them up. Then about 200 were hauled off onto the trucks and driven away. About 80 monks were taken away.

Source:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article3001622.ece

Timi's list: four grave issues hounding the Philippines

1. When Arroyo vowed on Rizal’s grave not to run for President
» It was Rizal Day in 2002 when GMA vowed to not run as president. After 279 days, she broke that promise.

2. The Hello Garci-gate scandal
» A political scandal and electoral crisis of immense proportions that involved incumbent president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The Hello Garci phone call recording pointed out that GMA rigged the 2004 national election in her favour.
» Unleashed a tide of protest ringtones which inspired anti-Bush movement in the U.S.

3. Modern day Inquisition on activists, journalists or opposition from the Left
» The imprisonment of Representative Satur Ocampo shortly before the May elections, the imprisonment of Representative Crispin Beltran, and the persecution of the ‘Batasan 5’.
» Daily occurrence of human rights abuse and the culture of impunity in the country that has claimed 800 (and counting) victims of extrajudicial killings.
» The despicable and shameful display of cluelessness of National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales and ARMED Forces Chief Hermogenes Esperon Jr. for lashing out at UN rapporteur Philip Alston, who reported that: “there is a passivity, bordering on an abdication of responsibility, which affects the way in which key institutions and actors approach their responsibilities in relation to such human rights concerns.”

4. Growing hunger
» I won’t even talk about the hunger for justice, human rights and genuine development. I’ll just focus on the most primary form of hunger – literal hunger and the inability to satiate that hunger.
» According to an Inquirer article in 2006, “…almost 700,000 families (about 3.5 million people), 4.2 percent of the population, reported experiencing severe hunger, which was defined in the survey as going hungry often or always in the past three months.”
» In a land where food is so tightly interwoven into the fabric of our social life and cultural expressions, it is truly ironic and heartbreaking that the food-loving Pinoy is falling more deeply into the throes of hunger.