http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i6SiGNfxE886okoP3bPUqB6Ku3oA

ONGs acusam Mianmar de expulsar os desabrigados dos refúgios

Várias Organizações Não-Governamentais (ONGs) acusaram neste sábado a junta militar birmanesa de obrigar os sobreviventes do ciclone Nargis a abandonar os refúgios e regressar para seus povoados devastados, quatro semanas depois da catástrofe que deixou 2,4 milhões de flagelados.

O secretário de Defesa americano Robert Gates também criticou a 'obstrução' da junta à ajuda internacional, afirmando que esta atitude custou milhares de vidas.

A Human Rights Watch (HRW) denunciou que os militares começaram a expulsar os sobreviventes de dezenas de acampamentos levantados pelas autoridades depois do ciclone, deixando-os desamparados em aldeias isoladas pela catástrofe que deixou 133.600 mortos e desaparecidos.

As Nações Unidas afirmaram não estar em condições de confirmar a denúncia, mas se declararam contrárias a qualquer deslocamento forçado da população.

In the days after Georgian and Russian troops marched into the separatist province of South Ossetia, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon frantically telephoned key leaders and offered the United Nations' diplomatic help in stemming further violence. But Russian President Dmitry Medvedev refused to take his calls for more than a week, say senior U.S. and U.N. officials.

The rebuff highlighted Russia's displeasure with Ban, who had clashed with Moscow over Kosovo's independence drive and riled it again by issuing a statement supporting the territorial integrity of Georgia, a nation Russia intended to carve up. It also provided another example of the humbling struggles of the world's top diplomat to prod foreign leaders to embrace peace.

After more than 20 months in office, Ban is straining to make his mark as a diplomatic peacemaker as his efforts to stem bloodshed in Sudan's Darfur region have faltered and Burma's political players refuse to meet with his special envoy. The United Nations has been relegated to a supporting role in many of the world's diplomatic flare-ups, including in Kenya and Zimbabwe.

Ban convened a meeting of key foreign ministers Saturday on the sidelines of the General Assembly session to energize efforts to press Burma's generals to democratize the country and to secure the release of nearly 2,000 political prisoners, including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

But the meeting, which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did not attend, produced no breakthrough, and Ban canceled plans to speak to the media. Instead Ban issued a statement, pressing Burma to release the prisoners.

Behind the scenes, Ban has resisted calls from the United States, Britain, Singapore and other countries to travel to Burma to meet with military ruler Senior Gen. Than Shwe in December, fearing it might end in failure. There is a risk of Ban "going and coming back empty-handed," a close aide said.

"No one is going to make a case that we are in the middle of a big diplomatic breakthrough on some of these cases you've mentioned," said Robert Orr, a special adviser to Ban. "But the fact is that is not the nature of this business. These things move quietly until they break into the open. The secretary general's style is to work very hard, persistently, behind the scenes" to achieve that.

Orr and other U.N. officials say Ban has had far greater success in prodding governments on some long-term threats such as climate change and the global food and energy crises and in helping to secure billions of dollars in commitments to fight poverty during the world's worst financial crisis in a generation. They say his persistence paid off after Tropical Cyclone Nargis in May, when he traveled to Rangoon, the former Burmese capital, to persuade Than Shwe to pry open the borders for relief workers.

But Ban has been pushed into the background in Africa, where local powers have taken the lead in solving regional problems. South Africa effectively blocked a U.S. and British initiative to grant the United Nations a more central role in mediating an end to an election crisis in Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe cracked down on opposition leaders to prevent his more popular rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, from winning the election.

Ban's low-profile diplomatic style contrasts with the activism of his predecessor, Kofi Annan, a Ghanaian national who sought to expand the authority of the office. At a similar stage in his tenure, Annan had carried out a high-profile trip to Baghdad, where he temporarily averted a U.S.-led air war by persuading Saddam Hussein to open his presidential palaces to U.N. inspectors. That peace was short-lived, and the United States and Britain launched Operation Desert Fox, a four-day air war against Iraq, several months later in 1998.

When violence erupted in Kenya after a disputed presidential vote, the African Union recruited Annan to help restore calm. He assembled a team of former aides and helped hammer out a power-sharing deal.

In Darfur, Ban has been in control, cultivating a relationship with Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to help secure support for a U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission and a political settlement. But fighting has resumed, political talks have stalled, and the peacekeepers' deployment is months behind schedule.

The setbacks have begun to take a toll on Ban, who lashed out at his senior advisers during a retreat in Turin, Italy, for failing to make the organization more responsive to the challenges of the day.

"Our job is to change the U.N. -- and through it, the world," Ban told his staff members last month. "This is the big picture. I am frustrated by our failure, so often, to see it."

To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

Ultraviolet rays perforate early sunrise

Doomsday an avert in tone

Penetrates upon layer ozone

Hurricanes impregnated with yellowish whoop

Misery strangulates constrains of loop

Sea level up by meters six

Layers of carbon emit

Latest say news update

Manhattan m.a.y. inundate

Rising of temperature in twos and threes

Little leaves but to peril foresee

Fact common for both West and East

Monster to devour upron sumptuous feast

Does Nargis of Myanmar no siren raise

Wall of water eighteen feet glaze

Katrina a mind blowing threat

To pick upon cars, residential nests

Dimensions of peril in constant rise

Attention of whole world invite

Responsible are we, whole lot

Countries in global resort

Stop, put end to encliched blame game

Accusation no more, on each other claim

Collect, resolve, in pledge unite

Once again towards zero carbon ride

Deforestation shun, avoid, detest

Engagement pet of countries in west

Before big mouthed dragon attains quantum

Rich countries, nannies to underprivileged become

Together to march in much awaited drive

More for generations, from tortures save

Nadia Mujra

Use these links below if you would like to see the more mujra

• Mujra
• Pakistani Mujra
• Nida - mujra
• Saima Khan - sexy mujra
• Deedar - stage show
• Sheza - desi drama mujra
• Nargis - pakistani mujra
• Shazadi - desi dance
• Nadia - desi mujra

இந்திய லிஸ்ட்.

1. 1919, காளிய மர்தன். தாதா சாகேப் ஃபால்கே இயக்கம். ஊமைப் படம். கிருஷ்ணன் காளிங்கன் என்னும் பாம்பை அடக்கிய கதையாக இருக்கும்.
2. 1925, பிரேம் சாயஸ். ஹிமான்ஷு ராய் இயக்கி நடித்தது. ஊமைப் படம். புத்தரைப் பற்றியது.
3. 1935, தேவதாஸ். கே.எல். சைகல் நடித்து பி.சி. பரூவா இயக்கியது. ஹிந்தி. சைகலை ஒரு சூப்பர்ஸ்டார் ஆக்கிய படம்
4. 1936, அச்சுத் கன்யா. அசோக் குமாரின் முதல் படம். தேவிகா ராணி நடித்தது. ஹிந்தி. பிராமண அசோக் குமார் தலித் பெண்ணான தேவிகா ராணியை காதலிப்பார்.
5. 1936, சந்த் துகாராம். வினாயக் டாம்லே இயக்கியது. மராத்திப் படம் என்று ஞாபகம்.
6. 1939, புகார். சோரப் மோடி இயக்கி நடித்தது. சந்திரமோகன் உடன் நடித்தது. ஹிந்தி. ஜஹாங்கீரின் காலத்தில் நடக்கும் கதை.
7. 1939, தியாக பூமி: கல்கியின் கதை, கே. சுப்ரமண்யம் இயக்கி, பாபநாசம் சிவன், எஸ்.டி. சுப்புலக்ஷ்மி, பேபி சரோஜா நடித்தது. தமிழ்.
8. 1948, கல்பனா: உதய் ஷங்கர் நடித்து இயக்கியது. ஹிந்தியா, வங்காளமா என்று தெரியவில்லை. நடனக் கலைஞனின் கதை.
9. 1948, சந்திரலேகா: டி.ஆர். ராஜகுமாரி, எம்.கே. ராதா, ரஞ்சன் நடிப்பு, எஸ். வாசன் தயாரிப்பு, இயக்கம். தமிழ்.
10. 1951, ஆவாரா: நர்கிஸ், பிருத்விராஜ் கபூர் நடிப்பு. ராஜ் கபூர் நடித்து இயக்கியது. ஹிந்தி. இந்தியாவுக்கு வெளியே புகழ் பெற்ற படம் இதுதான்.
11. பதேர் பாஞ்சாலி: சத்யஜித் ரேயின் முதல் படம். வங்காளம். உலக அளவில் தலை சிறந்த படங்களில் ஒன்று எனக் கருதப்படுவது.
12. ப்யாசா: குரு தத் இயக்கி நடித்தது. வஹிதா ரஹ்மான் உடன் நடித்தது. ஒரு கவிஞனின் போராட்டங்கள்.
13. மதர் இந்தியா: நர்கிஸ், சுனில் தத், ராஜ் குமார், ராஜேந்திர குமார் நடித்து, மெஹ்பூப் கான் இயக்கியது.
14. மொகலே ஆஜம்: திலிப் குமார், மதுபாலா, பிருத்விராஜ் கபூர் நடித்து, மெஹ்பூப் கான் இயக்கியது. அனார்கலி கதை.
15. சுபர்ணரேகா: ரித்விக் கடக் இயக்கியது. வங்காளம்.

யுனெஸ்கோவின் முழு லிஸ்ட் இங்கே.

நான் இவற்றில் சந்திரலேகா, ஆவாரா, ப்யாசா, மதர் இந்தியா, மொகலே ஆஜம் ஆகிய படாங்களை பார்த்திருக்கிறேன். ஆவாரா தவிர மற்ற படங்கள் பார்க்க வேண்டியவைத்தான். ஆவாரா கேட்க மட்டும்தான். ஆனால் தியாக பூமி? இது கப்பலோட்டிய தமிழனை விட சிறந்த படமா? வீரபாண்டிய கட்டபொம்மனை விட, நாடோடி மன்னனை விட பெரிய மைல் கல்லா? மிஸ்ஸியம்மா, மாயா பஜார் போன்ற ஒரு தெலுங்கு படம் கூட இல்லையா? யார் இந்த லிஸ்டை தேர்ந்தெடுத்தது?

எனக்கு இன்னும் ஒரு poll set செய்ய தெரியவில்லை. தெரிந்தால் உங்கள் சாய்ஸ் என்ன என்று கேட்கலாம். என்னுடைய ரசனையில், ரொம்ப யோசிக்காமல் உடனே தோன்றும் படங்கள்:

சிறந்த 5 படங்கள்:

1. கப்பலோட்டிய தமிழன்
2. தண்ணீர் தண்ணீர்
3. நாயகன்
4. தளபதி
5. தேவர் மகன்

6 மைல் கல்கள்:

1. சந்திரலேகா
2. நாடோடி மன்னன்
3. வீரபாண்டிய கட்டபொம்மன்
4. பதினாறு வயதினிலே
5. நாயகன்
6. ஜென்டில்மன்

5 பொழுதுபோக்கு படங்கள்:

1. சந்திரலேகா
2. ஆயிரத்தில் ஒருவன்
3. தில்லுமுல்லு
4. மைக்கேல் மதன காம ராஜன்
5. பஞ்ச தந்திரம்

நான் முன்னமே சொன்ன மாதிரி இது ரொம்ப யோசிக்காமல் உடனே தோன்றும் படங்கள். நாளை நான் மாற்றலாம். உங்கள் சாய்ஸ் என்ன? படிப்பவர்கள் எல்லாம் எழுதினால் உங்கள் கருத்துகளை நான் கூட்டி கழித்து வேறு ஒரு போஸ்டில் பதிக்கிறேன்.

အျပင္မွာေတာ့ လုံၿခဳံေရးအတြက္ ရဲကား ၁၀ စီးနဲ႔ အခ်ဳပ္ကား ၂ စီးရွိတယ္။ ရန္ေတြဘာေတြ ျဖစ္မွာ ဘာမွ ေၾကာက္မေနနဲ႔။ စစ္ေဆးေရး သုံးဖြဲ႕ရွိတယ္။ ကားေတြကေတာ့ အသင္းတုိက္ကေန သုဝဏၰလမ္းဆုံ မီးပိြဳင့္ႏွစ္ခု ေတာင္ေက်ာ္ေသးတယ္။ သေဘာေပါက္ ။ ေရသန္႔ေတာ့ ၂၄ ဘူးတြဲေလး ဝယ္သာသြား မမွားဘူး။

I recreated the image using these seeds: barley, canola seeds, corn, flax, golden flax, millet, oats, safflower, sunflower seeds, and wild rice. You can see my Sanjay Patel inspired Ganesha recreation in person in the Ag-Hort building at the MN State Fair through labor day. I would like to think that some people will do a little puja in front of my Ganesha of seeds.

I found Sanjay Patel's excellent Ghee Happy website back in early 2007 while looking around for Hindu god images. When I saw Patel's super cute deities I immediately thought: crop art! If you don't already have it, I recommend his book The Little Book of Hindu Deities to you. It's not only adorable, but also a clever, fun, and informative read. How could I choose from the dozens of ultra cute deities to recreate in seeds? I decided since the RNC is coming to Minnesota during the time of the fair, that it would be nice for a very different kind of elephant to welcome that RNC elephant. Maybe Ganesha's divine energy could help out the Republicans.

I did contact animator extraordinaire, Shree Sanjay Patel, via email to tell him about my crop art and to let him know that I may be infringing on his copyrighted material. It seems that the copyright doesn't cover seeds, so I should be safe from a lawsuit. Mr. Patel graciously responded to my email and was so very kind. Thank you Shree Patel!

When my Ganesha was completed and delivered to the state fair, I got back on the happy Bollywood train. The first movie waiting for me was the 1955 classic Shree 420. The Shankar-Jaikishan soundtrack is awesome, but I was particularly taken by one song for obvious reasons: Eechak Dana Beechak Dana, picturized on Nargis and Raj Kapoor, with playback singers Lata Mangeshkar and Mukesh. The Bollywood universe knew I was heavily dedicating myself to seed work during my purdah and rewarded me with this gem of a tune. Just look at the seed related lyrics!

I know what Nargis is talking about, one little seed, two seeds, seed on seed!

Thanks to Sharikazoid for the video with the English subtitles.

If you'd like to hear it again, Dr. Chadhury did a remix of the song.

I'm certainly not the first to recreate Sanjay Patel's images. Check out this impressive stuffed Kali inspired by Patel's image. For further reading of the art of seeds, consult David Steinlicht's excellent CroptArt.com site as well as Colleen Sheehy's book, Seed Queen: the Story of Crop Art and the Amazing Lillian Colton.

"I wanted to buy a flat in Bombay and it wasn't given to me because I was a Muslim and I read the same about Saif (Ali Khan). Now, I mean, if Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi cannot get a flat in Bombay because they are Muslims, then what are we talking about?" - 17 Aug 2008, 0037 hrs IST, TNN

Shabana, you should be ashamed of yourself for making such a bigoted statement. Are you planning to join Hurriyat Conference in Kashmir? Only traitors like them could make such an outlandish statement. Whom are you trying to sell this trash to? From Mahboob Khan and K Asif to Shahrukh Khan, you are the first Muslim celebrity in Bombay to have accused the city of such discrimination. A couple of years back, Shabana Azmi had a conversation with Charlie Rose (an American talk-show host) in which she counted the virtues of Indian democracy. You may watch the video below, half-way (at 35.20 minutes) onwards. What happened in the meantime that a virtuous democracy suddenly became a discriminatory society? Or, is it that Shabana is basically a hypocrite? You judge her for yourself.

Dear All,

I hope you are doing well. Please publicize the information provided
through this window as widely as you can. While the information coming
out of the media here is alarming, in Iran the atmosphere is calm.
There is even hope that a joint proposal by Russia and Iran would find
a way to would to the lifting of the U.N. Sanctions and the halting of
the enrichment. Despite celebrating the anniversary of the revolution,
the Iranian government has been sending a conciliatory message
basically: give us a chance and we will negotiate.

Let me share a fun discovery I made only last week! Iranians are one
of the top ten blogger nations in the world.

With that, let us attend to our Window on Iran - 19.

Current Issues

* A chilling article Charging Iran with Genocide before Nuking it, Gary
Leupp, Professor of History at Tufts writes predicts a U.S. nuclear
strike on Iran by this April. "Within weeks from now," he writes
quoting a Russian military analyst, "we will see the informational
warfare machine start working. The public opinion is already under
pressure. There will be a growing anti-Iranian militaristic hysteria,
new information leaks, disinformation, etc."  My comment:  there will
be visual warfare as well using images of flag waving Iranians
celebrating the 27th anniversary of the 1979 Revolution  as proof of
national support for Ahmadinejad and evidence of mass anti-western
hysteria. Leupp's article is available here: An Existential Threat: Charging

Iran with Genocide before Nuking It by Gary Leupp.

* All the flag waving youth will line up behind President Ahmadinejad if
there is a war on Iran. Take a look at this article in the Guardian
"Only the US hawks can save the Iranian president now" sent to me by
Jamal Rostami:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2001703,00.html

* The American Public still wants the government to directly talk with
Iran, say 71% of the Republicans and 81% , a wide ranging analysis by
WorldPublicOpinion.org of polls from numerous organizations reveals.
According to a wide range of polls, there is substantial agreement
across party lines on many of the most contentious issues facing
policy makers today:
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/home_page/295.php?nid=&id=&pnt=295&lb=hmpg1

* Certain tendencies within the media work to change the above
consensus. An unlikely contributor to that is he History channel. On
Friday, Feb. 9, the History channel aired a program called "Iran : The
Next Iraq?" Adding disclaimers such as "perhaps" and "may be," the
show described Iran as "perhaps  the most clear and present danger to
American security." The program "explored" claims as laughable as
Iran's attempt "to gain a place among the world's super powers." And
looked at "evidence" for Iran's secret pursuit of a nuclear weapon
which it "may intend to use on the United States or its allies." The
fact is that Iran is nowhere close to becoming a World's super powers,
the IAEA reports reveal no evidence for any weapon's program . All
they say is that the absence of such a program cannot be proven
(sounds familiar?).
* Very important: Last week, Iranian authorities arrested two al-Qa'idah
suspects who were trying to cross Iran on their way out of Pakistan.
Shouldn't this be a positive sign?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/09/AR2007020902294.html?referrer=emai

Finally please note that  the Iraqi government has distanced itself
fully from the American accusations against Iran's involvement in
Iraq, the major newspaper asharqalawsat  reports (in Arabic)
http://www.asharqalawsat.com/details.asp?section=4&issue=10303&article=406005

Cultural/Social/Aristic

We all need a break from all the above, don't we? Here is a second
slide show of the small, ancient, and beautiful city of Yazd in
central Iran. Please circulate the slide show as widely as you can.
Bleak and frightening images of Iran are distributed, to present the
country as a suitable target. Click here: Ancient and Beautiful City of Yazd. Enjoy!

Here, I have another break for you from political myth making and scare mongering: The Iranian Annual Film Festival Fajr. The award for the best director went to my favorite director, one of the grand ladies of the Iranian Cinema: Rakhshan Bani Etemad.  Bani Etemtmad is most outspoken screen writer and director whose films highlight the problems of poverty, gender, and social inequality. She became known with Nargis the story of a young girl from a disadvantaged family who got involved with a trio of two thieves and a prostitute. For slide show of the final night of the Fajr Festival, click here: Iranian Annual Film Festival Fajr.

Scientific

No, it is not about nuclear technology. On Monday February 5, Iranian Scientists at the Spinal Cord Injury Treatment Center announced the use of a new technique in treating spinal cord injuries. According to Houshang Saberi, director of the center, while in case of full paralysis the recovery has been about 15 percent, in partial injuries up to 85 percent recovery has been achieved: http://tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=2/5/2007&Cat=5&Num=001

Have a great week!

Best,
Fatemeh
===================================
Fatemeh Keshavarz, Professor and Chair
Dept. of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures
Washington University in St. Louis
Tel: (314) 935-5156
Fax: (314) 935-4399
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Realism in cinema refers to the objective portrayal of subjects as they appear in our everyday lives, where the depiction is free of personal interpretations, even if it implies depicting an aesthetically unpleasant sight. Realism is a technique, not a movement or style. It is a device a filmmaker can use to achieve a desired effect. This technique gained prominence in the Italian Neo-Realist films, which were characterized by narratives set in Italian cities, amidst the poor or working class, being filmed on location, using a largely non-professional cast, and post-production dubbing. Cesare Zavattini, a screenwriter who worked with Vittorio De Sica, maintained that the greatest achievement of Neo-Realist cinema was that it brought to screen the daily lives of the ordinary people. As such, before the late 1940's, when new generic strands of the sentimental comedy, called 'pink Neo-Realism' and melodrama called 'popular Neo-Realism' overtook orthodox Realism at the forefront of the commercial resurgence of the domestic product, the aim, then, of Neo-Realist films had to be to rediscover, without embellishment or dramatization, the dailiness of peoples' lives. At least that is what films like Umberto D and Ladri di Biciclette by Vittorio De Sica, Roma città aperta and Paisà by Roberto Rossellini, La terra trema and Ossessione by Luchino Visconti aimed to achieve.

In Indian cinema, from its advent, social realism was seeped in melodramatic elements, almost always following narratives containing rural agrarian families affected by migration to the cities, where they are treated to the harsh realities of urban life. At the heart of the early Realist films made in India, lay a firm attachment to the patriarchal society's feudal roots. The film that introduced the Indian spectator to 'social realism' in an Indian context was Dharti ke Laal made by K. A. Abbas in 1946, which focused on the human dimension of the Bengal famine of 1943 and sought to be a part of the nation-building effort on the eve of India's independence. In an emulation of the model Soviet collective, the documentary viewpoint is apparent, as well as in the representation of the rural masses and their starvation. The film, just like the others of its kind that followed, celebrates peasant solidarity and harmony, placing it in contrast to urban cruelty and ugliness.

Mother India, made in 1957, directed by Mehboob Khan, successfully shows the conflicts of an agrarian society and the role the Indian woman plays in the survival of the family. There are also elements of intense melodrama throughout the film, especially when Radha, the protagonist, played by Nargis, is driven to kill her own son. Again, in 1953, Bimal Roy's classic Do Bigha Zameen, although fresh in terms of its depiction of the peasants and their fear of the city, it was not free of melodrama: when at the end of the film, Shambhu, the protagonist loses all his land, the underlying implication is that he will now migrate to the city and join the ever-increasing proletariat. Even the great Satyajit Ray could not diverge from the conventional melodramatic depiction of peasant urban migration. In 1955, the same year as Raj Kapoor's Shree 420, which is another film that concentrates on rural-urban migration, Satyajit Ray's first film, Pather Panchali, was released. Shot on location, the film ends with the oft-recurring migration of the peasant family to the city.

As India progressed to a new awareness of herself, in the following decades, 'social realism' gave way to romance and action of the 1960s-70s. Realism was lost to grand international locations, ornate sets, Westernized villains, scantily clad actresses. Even the 'angry young man' phenomenon, which aimed to empathize with the working class, made intensive use of fantastic melodramatic techniques of the bereaved mother, the rags-to-riches fairytale, the lost brother, the one-against-the-world story, et al. The nation bought it. Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna, and Amitabh Bachchan became immortal. But where in all the glitz and glamour, we now know very well of, was the story of the common man lost?

One oft-used argument is: when the entire nation is already hunger-struck, and living below poverty line, who wants to see more agony on-screen? The celluloid is an escape mechanism. Magic becomes real on screen: it is probably the only time people can witness a kid polishing shoes on the streets of Bombay, become one of the most powerful men in the underworld. The screen is probably the only place where a coolie at the docks can defy the system and come out victorious. The screen is probably the only place, where a cook can marry a princess. The screen is the only place where the audience can be in Utopia.
They say, nothing sells like aspiration. It holds absolutely true for Indian cinema. Independently, I would like to add to that. Nothing sells like a scantily clad woman. The wet clinging saree, the waterfall dances, the 'item numbers' is something we all are well aware of. When a schoolboy peeks behind bushes to see his teacher changing her clothes in Raj Kapoor's Mera Naam Joker, the entire country shares his voyeuristic gaze. Combine the elements of fantasy and eroticism, and one finds oneself looking at a superhit. Certain films even through these decades made use of realism, but even in these, the elements of fantasy and eroticism were far more overbearing than realism. One English language film made in 1992 revisited Indian Realism. This film was called City of Joy, directed by Roland Joffé. This film, remaining true to the never-questioned conventions of Indian realism, also told the story of a migration worker who gets a job as a rickshaw-puller in Calcutta. Majority of the film is shot on location, in the slums of Calcutta.

In the 21st century, Realism in Indian cinema borders around creating a mass involvement of sorts. This kind of realism, although sometimes using elements of fantasy, aims to address the collective psyche of the people. There are always the predominant elements of fantasy, melodrama, and romance. However, there is also a new element that has surfaced in the last decade: a sense of duty towards our country. Be it complimentary to the new nation-building efforts that the youth today is involved in, be it the economic boom and a new-found pride – for whatever reason, these films aim to involve the masses, generally the youth, to be not just the catalysts in the process of change, but the change itself. For example, films like Yuva, Rang De Basanti, Lage Raho Munnabhai, Halla Bol, all echo the same message. If there is something wrong out there, don't wait for someone else to do something about it, but please do it yourself. Of the four films mentioned above, two were massive blockbusters. The message in Yuva is clear: join the system to change it. RDB was a bit was radical, but the message was the same. Lage Raho Munnabhai expressed a revered philosophy, that we seem to have forgotten, and it's implications in the 21st century. Halla Bol took a real case that happened in Mumbai last year, and created a narrative around it, once again focusing on a mass insurgence to achieve an end.

The individual stories of these films are irrelevant; what is important is the fact that all these films (and there are many more of the sort) take their inspiration from 'real life' situations and construct a tale around it, in the hope of getting the people to come out of their comfort zones. There is realism in the film because the 'hero' does not fight back when he is getting beaten up at the beach in Halla Bol as opposed to him continuing to fight villains despite numerous bullet wounds (Sholay). The realism in these films lies in the reality of the events they are inspired by. The realism lies in the reality of the thought they create. RDB inspired candle light marches in Delhi. Lage Raho Munnabhai sold millions of “Get Well Soon” cards all around the country. This phenomenon is not just limited to films. Look at the advertisements around us. For example, the television advertisement of a Hindi newspaper called Dainik Bhaskar shows Dhoni urging the spectator to “Zidd karo, duniya badlo” (Make demands, change the world).

While the orthodoxies of Neo-Realistic elements have died out in recent years in Indian cinema, it has given rise to a new technique, a new form, a new element to ensure the participation of the masses.

And they seem to have got it right: this is youngistaan, meri jaan!

By Vipul Ralph Shah

I Zeichen setzen

"Schnell nochmal Burma/Birma /Myanmar in den Focus der Presse rücken, und Zeichen setzen" schien die gestrige Parole des amerikanischen Präsidenten auf seiner Asien- Rundreise gewesen zu sein.                                                       "Noch einmal Flagge zeigen, bevor es zu spät ist, und der Focus verrutscht. "

--

Than Shwe antwortet auf diese Zeichen, und stellt klar: An der klaren Linie seiner Politik lässt sich nicht rütteln. Auch wenn der olympische Gedanke über den Globus getragen wird, und  gerade weil sein Land  am nächsten Tag einen Gedenktag hat: 20 Jahre Studentenunruhen.                                                         So liegen an nur einem Tag in dieser unseren globalisierten Welt Solidaritätsbekundung  und Abschreckung nah beieinander.

II Solidarität

a) Worte im Trocknen

So traf sich George Bush mit burmesischen Dissidenten in Bangkok/Thailand. Nett, dass er dafür Zeit hatte, liest sich das Programm seiner Asienrundreise doch sehr dichtgedrängt.(White House)

In Gesprächen und einer anschliessenden flammenden Rede sicherte er den Freiheitskämpfern zu,

"mit China über die Probleme in Burma zu sprechen", denn die USA,wolle sich  für  "ein Ende der «Tyrannei» in Burma einsetzen." Er rief das Regime auf, die seit Jahren unter Hausarrest stehende Friedensnobelpreisträgerin Aung San Suu Kyi und alle anderen politischen Häftlinge freizulassen."(Aargauer Regionalportal)

Bush träfe am Wochenende, ebenfalls zu Gesprächen politischer Natur mit Präsident Hu Jintao, Ministerpräsident Wen Jiabao und Vizepräsident Xi Jinping zusammen.

Ein Mann, ein Gespräch, ein Versprechen:                                                               "We seek an end to tyranny in Burma,"(World News, Australien)

b) as close as...

Indes zeigt sich die First Lady praktischer veranlagt- und wird durch den Regen an der thailändisch-burmesischen Grenze nass.                                                  The "outspoken critic of the junta" (BBC)  besuchte das mit 35 000 Karen-Flüchtlingen besetzte Flüchtlingslager Mae-La an der  thailändisch-burmesischen Grenze.                                                                                              " So nah an Burma dran war sie noch nie" schreibt die Washinton Post ,  nicht ohne Stolz im Reporterstift, und Begleit-Video auf der Webside, und berichtet über ihren Besuch wie folgt:

"There Laura Bush carried out some first-lady-like activities, sitting in on English and math lessons for students in the Mae La refugee camp..."

USA Today ergänzt:

"Student Saw Aung Nay Lin shyly approached the chalkboard and wrote, a bit ungrammatically: "My life in refugee is better than Burma but I don't have opportunity to go outside my camp."

Danach besuchte sie das Krankenhaus des Camps unter der ärztlichen Leitung von  Cynthia Maung, "                                                                                  described by many as the Mother Teresa of Burma, and learned how doctors there treat thousands of poor Burmese for cataracts, missing legs and other problems." Der Besuch sei Teil einer Kampagne des Weissen Hauses, um den Druck Amerikas auf die Militärregierung zu demonstrieren.

Befragt nach der Situation in Burma, 20 Jahre nach den Studentenunruhen  sagte sie:                                                                                                                           "Twenty years have gone by -- everything is still the same or maybe worse in Burma," she said. "We know that Burma is a very rich country, rich in natural resources. And the junta uses those resources to prop themselves up for their own benefit, not for the benefit of the people of Burma."

Auf die Frage, warum sie und ihr Mann dennoch zur Eröffnung der olympischen Spiele in ein Land fahren, das international als der grösste Unterstützer und der burmesischen Regierung gelte, antwortete sie:

"As you know, the Chinese depend on a lot of energy imports into China. . . . We urge the Chinese to do what other countries have done -- to sanction, to put a financial squeeze on the Burmese generals....The best solution would be if General Than Shwe's regime would start real dialogue," (BBC,Washington Post)

Sprach´s und reiste wieder ab- der Flieger nach Peking wartete.

III  Abschreckung als  Dialogbereitschaft

Derselbe Tag in Burma. Angesichts des bevorstehenden Gedenktages "20 Jahre Studentenunruhen im Land" ist für die burmesische Führung Anlass genug gegeben, zu zeigen was von einer "Dialogbereitschaft" wie von Laura Bush gefordert, gehalten wird- nichts.                                                                         Abschreckung ist besser.

Unruhen hatte das Militär erwartet, und bereitete sich zeitig vor. Der britische Telegraph schreibt bereits am 03.08.:

"Thousands of heavily-armed Burmese security forces have been moved to the outskirts of Rangoon days before the twentieth anniversary of an uprising which came close to bringing down the military regime." Ein westlicher Diplomat beschrieb  die Lage auf den burmesischen Strassen so:

"They are keeping large numbers of security personnel inside the city, out of sight. If they see a single protester in the street he will be picked up in minutes."

Als diese Absicherung organisiert war, verkündete die Militärführung,              "Prime Minister Thein Sein will attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in China." (Radio Australia)
Zuerst die Arbeit, dann das Vergnügen.

Ein öffentliches Vorzeige-Opfer, das am Pranger der Militär-Justitia steht, gibt es dann pünktlich am Vorabend des Gedenktages.

IV Maung Thura,  genannt Zarganar

Denn an diesem Tag wurde dem regimekritischen Künstler Zarganar(übersetzt: die Pinzette), seit 1986 kritischer Beobachter und extremer Kritiker der Regierung,  der Prozess gemacht. Just an diesem Vorabend des Gedenktages. Verhaftet zu werden war für das Ehrenmitglied des P.E.N. (BNU berichtete)und praktizierenden Kämpfer für die  nichts Neues, doch hatte  er in  Vergangenheit immer mehr oder weniger "Glück gehabt", die Strafen gemildert, und so wieder frei gelassen.

Jetzt statuierte die Regierung ein Exempel, und erreichte Abschreckung im Volk.Dazu die Times:

"The repressive and secretive junta released no details of the trial of Maung Thura, which took place in a closed court, deep inside the country's most notorious prison.                                                                                                    His sister-in-law, Ma Hdway, said that the comedian, film director and activist, better known as Zarganar, was charged with five crimes, including unlawful association and creating public unrest."

Was war geschehen? Nachdem der Zyklon Nargis Anfang Mai in Burma wütete organisierte der unumstritten  beliebteste Comedian und Schauspieler des Landes ein Hilfsnetzwerk für die  Zyklon-Opfer im Irrawaddy Delta auf. Mit Hilfe von Spendensammlungen sollten die dort lebenden Opfer zumindest das Nötigste zum Überleben erhalten: Essen, Trinken, Decken und Moskitonetze. Unterstützt wird er von 400 Freiwilligen. Hilfslieferungen wurden ins Delta gebracht, und überdies auch Filme über den Zustand der Region gedreht- und per Email und DVD verbreitet.                                                                                                   "These gave the lie to the Government’s claim that the disaster was under control and added to anger at its refusal to allow foreign emergency workers into the delta.", (Times).                                                                                                    Die Militärs fühlten sich bedroht. Doch Zargana ging weiter und gab der Zeitung The Irrawaddy am 02.Juni ein ein Interview über die Arbeit im Delta(unbedingt lesenswert !!)                                                                                                       Daraufhin durchsuchten Soldaten des Militärs sein Haus, Hilfsgelder in Höhe von 1000 $ wurden beschlagnahmt, der burmesische "Charlie Chaplin" festgenommen. (BBC) Doch wieder freigelassen. Und er fuhr wieder ins Delta, um  dort zu filmen. Wieder werden die Filme verbreitet. Als er zurückkehrt wird er verhaftet.

His films included                                                                                                  "scenes in some of remote villages stricken by the storm — heartbreaking, stomach-turning images of rotting bodies, desperate people and government neglect."(Times)                                                                                                       Eine erneute Verhaftung erfolgte, als er aus dem Delta zurückkehrt. Gestern der Prozess. Ein Schauprozess an geheimen Ort?

"This time, it seems, his luck has run out. It could be years, even decades, before the junta decides to free him."

Am gleichen Tag, wie bereits erwähnt,  in Bangkok. Präsident Bush, seine Rede vor den Dissidenten.

"Er rief das Regime auf, die seit Jahren unter Hausarrest stehende Friedensnobelpreisträgerin Aung San Suu Kyi und alle anderen politischen Häftlinge freizulassen."(Aargauer Regionalportal)

Sprach´s, und flog nach Peking. Olympia wartet, diesmal mit dem Leitmotiv: "One world, one dream"

VII zum Schluß

Zum Schluß- Zeilen aus Zangarnar´s Feder- ein burmesischer Witz,  mit bitterem Geschmäckle. Voilà.

George Bush, Hu Jintao (Präsident der VR China) und der burmesische Militärdiktator gingen zusammen zu Gott.
George Bush fragte Gott: "Wann wird die USA die mächtigste Nation der Welt werden?"
Und Gott antwortete:"Während Deines Lebens nicht mehr !"                         George Bush begann bitterlich zu weinen.

Darauf fragte Mr. Hu, wann China das reicheste Land der Welt werden würde.   Und Gott gab ihm die gleiche Antwort.Ebenso wie Bush begann Hu Jintao an zu weinen.
Zum Schluß fragte ,  Than Shwe, selbsternannter "Vater der burmesischen Nation" Gott, wann Burma endlich wieder genügend Wasser und Elektrizität für sein Volk haben würde.

Diesmal war es Gott, der in Tränen ausbrach:                                                          "In meinem Leben nicht mehr."

(orginal text at Everyone needs therapy)

In diesem Sinne: Free Zarganar!!

Lakdi ki Kathi ( Masoom, 1983 )

Lalla lalla lori ( Mukti, 1977 )

Thande thande paani se ( Pati, Patni aur woh, 1978 )

Phoolon ka Taaron ka ( Hare Rama Hare Krishna, 1971 )

Mere Paas aao Mere Doston ( Mr Natwarlal, 1979 )

Ichak Dana Bichak Dana ( Shree 420, 1955 )

Chanda Mama door ke ( Vachan, 1955 )

Meri Maa ( Taare Zameen Par, 2007 )

This article looks particularly at one of the song sequences “villagers don’t abandon the land of your birth, mother earth calls out to you with imploring hands” showing a complex cyclical experience of a village surviving on the brink of famine and floods and appears half way through the film. .

At its best, the song sequence is an integral part of the narrative and mise-en-scene of popular Indian film not merely a musical interruption of action.

 “The songs in the India film are not mere musical interludes in an otherwise pedestrian film – at least not some of the best films. They are integral to telling the story in a fantastical and enchanting way. The songs express the inner world of a character – his or her identity, longings, dreams and dilemmas. Song Pictorisation* is the high point of Indian film and every film enthusiast has a galaxy of memories, an amalgam of image and song indelibly stained in their mind and hearts…”  E. Johnson; Musical Movies Artrage No.19

The ‘conventional’ western view of Indian cinema can be seen in John Russell Taylor’s article on Satyajit Ray, “Ray is a great director (it is a prerogative of all great artists, to take us constantly by surprise – Ray is still a solitary figure, a unique talent in Indian Cinema… Background was highly literate and artistically sophisticated”. J R Taylor on Ray – Cinema a critical dictionary.

Although Taylor’s view of Indian cinema is considered to be outdated, critically, not may commercial Hindi films have been appreciated by non-South Asian audiences, despite the huge success of Hindi films at the box office in the UK.

Mehboob’s Mother India was a ground breaking film and can be seen as a departure from subjects being dealt within the Bombay film industry at the time. The film explored the relationship between farmers and their landlords. The storyline is very simple: an ordinary village life exploring the complexity and simplicity of such a life along with the communal pain and joy shared by all. The only outsider is the moneylender.

Mother India was shown in countries such as Spain, Greece, Egypt, and the Soviet Union and was extremely popular. In Spain, the film has been reported to run in the theatre for months: “This international dimension is revealing in terms of shared experiences of many societies in transition from peasant culture with their oral-folk tradition to industrial city based state and the anonymity of urban life. In Spain for example Mother India did good business in Andalusia where the power of the landlords over illiterate day labourers is similar to that portrayed in Mehboob’s masterpiece.” E. Johnson Artrage No.19

The story of Mother India is of Radha, the central character played by Nargis. She marries at a young age and is a peasant from a peasant community which is in constant debt and depends largely on the land. Her husband, played by Raj Kumar loses both arms in a farming accident and leaves the family in shame as he can no longer provide for them. Mehboob cleverly tackles the element of masculinity of man as head and provider for the family by showing the woman, Radha, who has to bear the shame and tries to sustain the dignity of the family as a whole. She is constantly in debt to the moneylender and faces a lifetime of hardship and struggle against poverty.

The film itself is a flashback. In the opening sequence we see Radha as an old woman who is requested to open the irrigation ditch. We see a close-up of her aged and wrinkled face which is followed by a dissolve of her memories of her wedding day. In the sequence at the end of the film, we see Radha, as we go back to the opening shot of the film, Radha as an old woman/the mother of the village, lifting the barrier to the water through. As the water rushes out, it turns into blood that has been shed in her past and flows out to water the fields.

In the song “villagers don’t abandon the land of your birth, mother earth calls out to you with imploring hands”, the sequence expresses the central themes of the film:

1. The earth as the “mother” of its people – Radha’s appeal to the villagers not to abandon the flooded land. The village is seen as the foundation stone of Indian society at the climax of the sequence where the villagers form a map of India with the harvested millet and at its heart is a direct reference to the Congress party’s slogan of the period “the village is India”.

2. Radha in turn becomes the mother of the village and by extension a symbol of rural virtues – not just rural virtues but feminine virtues where women can be relied upon to sustain the family; the community and by extension the whole of society. Radha is the woman who struggles against all odds to keep the family together, enduring hardship and suffering while resisting the importuning of the moneylender. Radha herself pulls the plough when there is no Ox.

3. The internal time-scheme of the song sequence is very complex: dissolves are used to superimpose continuity in a sequence which shifts between the past and an idealised view of the past/present/future. One dissolve contains a transition from Radha pulling the plough guider helped by her infant sons to the roles reveres and we see Radha who guides the plough while her fully grown sons pull it. They are now able to support her and the point is made visually clear as they lift her up and carry her on their shoulders.

4. The recurring shots of a wheel suggests the cycle of the season, from the sowing of the seeds to reaping the harvest and the cycle of human life from childhood to old age. Dissolves are used to depict the progress in time, past and present as opposed to a cut which would signify a break in the progress of the characters and disturb the smooth transition achieved by using dissolves.

In the sequence we see Radha’s past life, her lost husband, the progress and development of her children and finally we come to the present: ““villagers don’t abandon the land of your birth….” Sung by Radha after the village has been destroyed by floods. In the song Radha begs the villagers to stay and work on the land. Radha cannot leave as she is certain her husband will return to her. The character of Radha is ‘Mother India’. She is the land and the harvest – she gives and finally takes life.

In the beginning of the sequence we see Radha feeding the children with some roots she had gathered, this dissolves to a field, flooded, and an early morning sky. She is approached by villagers to leave, but refuses. We see a cut to her face against a clear sky and is singled out. Here Mehboob uses dissolves to create a rhythm of visuals – we see Radha looking at the villagers, a superimposition of her head on the villagers leaving, her head is the sky – she is both the sky and the earth. At this point she is visually separated from the villagers. These shots of her clearly involve the symbolism of Soviet posters.  This slowly dissolves to the villagers who turn back and she is surrounded by them, becoming a part of them and they work together to clear the land. Radha is at one and the same time the poorest and least significant member of the community and symbolically its leading figure.

There has been progress, the family has bought an Ox, so Radha does not need to push the plough – nevertheless she is there in the field, feeding her sons as they work and not eating herself, depicting motherly love and self-sacrifice. The villagers in unity plough the land, with fast and hard cutting we quickly move to the harvest time. Mehboob takes us to the wheel and a flashback. Again we see poster like images. Radha and Shamu (her husband) are together again, dissolves are used to set the rhythm, Radha holding the millet, becoming a symbol of fertility. Several shots of men and women in the fields holding axes and sickles, becoming moving posters – Mehboob takes us back to the wheel, back to the future, again we see poster like images, new relationships being formed.

The suggested ‘leadership’ of the village is Radha holding the millet backed by her sons with the villagers in the background and a dissolve to the map of India at Harvest time, with the millet in the middle of the map representing the heart of India. Here Mehboob’s political stand becomes clear that of a Congress Party supporter. Mehboob helped to propagate political ideology and the famous songs of the Congress Party “the village is India and India is the village”, which in the 1970’s was grotesquely echoed when “Indira” became India and India became “Indira”. Ironically Sunil Dutt who played Birju, one of Radha’s son’s also became a successful political with the Congress Party (and was also married to Nargis).

In the final dissolve to the village we see more circular motions. We finally come back to reality at the end of the sequence by the arrival of the moneylender, suggesting inevitable suffering and hardship.

Clearly Mehboob has portrayed and reinforced the status and ideological image of womanhood, fixing it within the tradition of the sub-continent: “a virtuous village woman who faces extreme hardship so that her family can survive in dignity. In the character of Radha we see strength, determination, devotion and virtue. Radha becomes a model of the mother figure for the entire village because of her courage and sense of honour. Mother India is also important for its portrayal of the tribulations of rural life”. Channel Four publicity for their Indian Cinema season in the 1980’s.

We see one of several shots suggesting unity, a unity of men and women, but only on the fields; of men and women walking parallel in the Mela (village fair). At the Mela we see more wheels. The Mela here represents collective and individual happiness and celebrations. In the Mela, Shamu and Radha are walking around with the children. Radha walks directly under a plough and Shamu walks ahead and stops to stroke a bull, signifying the loss and hardship to come.

In an extraordinary dissolve, a generation passes. Mehboob uses dissolves to move time forward. Radha is pulling the plough helped by her infant sons. We see the transition in time when Radha falls down and the children rise from the earth as adults lifting Radha up. The roles are reversed; she is no longer the provider and supporter. Mehboob uses music to suggest triumph – overcoming hardships. Again Mehboob uses dissolves to suggest the shift in seasons and the continuity/solidness in the relationships. Through a series of dissolves, the sequence capitalises on the wheel as a symbol of time.

*The concept of pictorisation – 1) not an interruption of action, it compliments the action 2) can provide an emotional gloss on the narrative, a subjective point of view, which cannot be contained within the narrative

This article first appeared as an essay in 1987 as part of Film and Video degree at LCP – Essay year 1 – Term 2: “analyse the relation between cinematic (mise-en-scene, editing, lighting, framing etc) and meaning in a sequence from a film of your choice”.  

El ministro birmano de Asuntos Exteriores, Nyan Win, había informado por la televisión estatal, tras una reunión con la comunidad diplomática y a representantes de la ONU, que la cifra de víctimas mortales por el ciclón puede llegar a las 10.000 personas, sobre todo en las dos divisiones más afectadas, Irrawaddy y Yangon, ambas cercanas al delta del río Irrawaddy. La televisión estatal había dado ayer un balance de 4.000 muertos y cerca de 3.000 desaparecidos.

Dada la dimensión de la catástrofe, la Junta birmana ha aceptado la ayuda humanitaria de la ONU. Responsables del Programa Mundial de Alimentos se reunieron este lunes en Yangon con miembros del Gobierno y han obtenido una "prudente luz verde" para enviar ayuda y personal. La acción de los trabajadores de agencias humanitarias está muy limitada en Myanmar, ya que desde 2006, la Junta exige permisos de viaje y otros trámites para el personal humanitario, al tiempo que limitó el transporte de suministros y otros materiales.

La ONU, Estados Unidos, la Unión Europea (UE) y otros países ofrecieron ayer su ayuda a Birmania (Myanmar) para auxiliar a las víctimas. El secretario general de las Naciones Unidas, Ban Ki-moon, mostró ayer su tristeza por la pérdida de vidas y ha ratificado la disposición del organismo multilateral de ofrecer toda la ayuda necesaria. Estados Unidos, por su parte, ha abierto un fondo de ayuda a través del Programa Mundial de Alimentos y de otras agencias, mientras que fuentes de la Comunidad Europea han informado de que estaban a la espera de conocer las necesidades en Birmania para empezar a entregar asistencia.

Singapur, Tailandia, India y otros países de la región y de los demás continentes también han ofrecido su solidaridad a los birmanos.

The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 570

“Phnom Penh: From year to year, there are more and more traffic accidents which led to an emergency alert about this catastrophe that is more devastating than AIDS and mines' accidents. During the first six months of 2008, the total number of traffic accidents was 3,511 which killed 903 people; it increased 17%, compared to the same period of the first six month of 2007.

“According to a report from Lieutenant-Colonel Luy Chhin, who heads a road traffic office - General Trey Pho Khan of the Department of Public Order of the Ministry of Interior confirmed this report - which also Khmer Sthapana received on 21 July 2008, the number of traffic accidents of all the 24 provinces and towns increased markedly.

“The report shows that during the first six months of 2008, there were 3,511 traffic accidents countrywide, which killed 903 people – 705 male and 198 female; the number of accidents increased by 519, equal to 17% more, compared to the same period of 2007, when there were 2,992 accidents and only 724 people died. The 3,511 traffic accidents resulted in 903 deaths, 2,856 seriously injured people, 3,390 lightly injured people, the destruction of 306 heavy vehicles, among them 1,154 cars, 3,646 motorcycles, 305 other vehicles; 397 pedestrians were also affected.

“Major Suos Sokha, deputy director of the vehicle registration management office, and of the department for the registration of boats and ships of the Ministry of Interior, reported to Khmer Sthapana on 21 July 2008 the reasons that lead to the increase of traffic accidents in the first six months of 2008: these are driving in violation of traffic laws with 1,560 cases, riding motorcycles without helmets with 778 cases, not obeying priority traffic rights with 502 cases, driving while being drunk with 439 cases, speed racing with each other with 349 cases, and 261 cases of careless driving etc…

“It should be noted that the statistics of road traffic accidents in 2007 countrywide, report 5,870 cases which caused 1,434 deaths, 1,121 males and 313 females were killed; 4,860 people were seriously injured, 5,540 people were lightly injured, 528 heavy vehicles, 1,871 cars, 5,607 motorcycles, and 444 different vehicles were destroyed, and US$2,699,784 was wasted.” Khmer Sthapana, Vol.1, #55, 22.7.2008

Newspapers Appearing on the Newsstand:
Tuesday, 22 July 2008

Chakraval, Vol.16, #2795, 22.7.2008

• As the First Step of Negotiations, Thailand Requested Cambodia to Withdraw the Troops from the Land They Presently Control; the ASEAN President [Mr. George Yeo - simplified Chinese: 杨荣文; traditional Chinese: 楊榮文; pinyin: Yáng Róngwén - Singaporean Foreign Minister and at present ASEAN Chair*] Asked Both Sides to Be Patient and Solve the Dispute Based on Good Relations; the Situation of Having Deployed Troops on Both Sides of the Border at the Preah Vihear Temple Is Still Tense

* “The ASEAN Standing Committee, under the Chairmanship of the Foreign Minister of the country-in-chair, is mandated to coordinate the work of the Association in between the annual ASEAN Ministerial Meetings.”

Kampuchea Thmey, Vol.7, #1699, 22.7.2008

• The 41st ASEAN Ministerial Meeting Was Held in Singapore [discussing the border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand, evaluating the destruction by the Nargis tropical cyclone in Burma, and talking about the integration of ASEAN constitutions, and about regional security – 21 July 2008]
• Three People Were Arrested by Military Police after Chopping a Leader of Workers to Death [after losing money to the victim while gambling – Ratanakiri]
• Ms. Su Kyi Will Be Released Soon [Military Junta of Myanmar informed the ASEAN members that the opposition leader, Ms. Aung San Su Kyi, might be released in about six months]

Khmer Sthapana, Vol.1, #55, 22.7.2008

• In the First Six Months of 2008, There Were 3511 Traffic Accidents and 903 People Died
• The Thai Side Requests Cambodia to Accept Three Principles [during the negotiations on 21 July 2008: 1. Thailand requested Cambodia to withdraw its troops, and Thailand will also withdraw its troops to avoid an armed confrontation. 2. The benefits from the Preah Vihear Temple should be handled as a joint operation, from which Cambodia gets 60% and Thailand gets 40% 3. Cambodia and Thailand should cooperate with each other to clear mines from the Preah Vihear Temple region and from other surrounding areas together]
• US$2,000 Announced Reward to Be Given to Anyone Who Provides Information That Leads to the Arrest of the Criminal Who Abducted a [Swedish] Girl from Her Mother [the six-year-old girl, Alicia, has been abducted by her father, Torgeir Nordbø, from Sweden, when he visited her; he is believed to be hiding in Cambodia]
• [Fishery] Crimes During Prohibited No-Fishing Season Increase [Siem Reap]

Koh Santepheap, Vol.41, #66403, 22.7.2008

• Obama Promises to Withdraw Army from Iraq If He Wins the Election [but he will send 10,000 more troops to Afghanistan to defeat the Taliban]

Moneaksekar Khmer, Vol.15, #3518, 22.7.2008

• [Former Khmer Rough Leader] Khiev Samphan Still Has No New Defense Lawyer

Rasmei Kampuchea, Vol.16, #4647, 22.7.2008

• Police Are Deployed at Gold and Money Exchange Shops because of Security Concerns [Banteay Meanchey]
• Five Outstanding Cambodian Students Went to Take Part in the International Mathematical Olympiad in Vietnam

Samleng Yuvachun Khmer, Vol.15, #3365, 22.7.2008

• Japan Sends 23 Election Observers for Sunday 27 July 2008
• Neak Loeang Electricity Company Still Charges Riel 3,200 [approx. US$0.80] per Kilowatt [in Phnom Penh the price is Riel 610, approx. US$0.15 per kw]

Click here - and have a look at the last editorial - The Cambodian-Thai border crisis develops while the Khmer public is not aware what the Cambodian government representatives had agreed upon, to get the Preah Vihear Temple listed as a World Heritage Site, on a most narrowly defined piece of land.


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DO YOU REMEMBER THAT COMMITMENT ?

Too hot to be outside? Tired of playing video games? Here's your weekend reading, from Africa to Peru, to the Philippines, to Iceland & even Fiji. Enjoy!

Gold Rush Spells Doom to Yaeda

Just a few weeks after the Arabian hunting firm officially pulled out of Yaeda, a new monster is reported to have moved into the vast valley and intends to unleash even worse destruction.

The vast untamed land had since creation been home to a number of indigenous tribes among them the rapidly shrinking population of the Hadza (Singular Hadzabe) bush people.

When a Disastrous Regime Continues

The devastating cyclone Nargis that struck southern Burma two months ago, has revealed to the world that it was even less disastrous than its military regime, which can ignore its own people in urgent needs and even could prevent and restrict relief from international communities for the hundred thousand victims of the disaster with the apprehension that it might create an atmosphere for another people's uprising in the country.

More than 100 Arrested

LIMA – More than 100 people were arrested Wednesday at the start of a nationwide general strike in Peru over the rising cost of living and other grievances, the National Police chief said.

Support for the strike, which has been declared illegal by the Labor Ministry, has been more widespread in the interior, where a 48-hour agrarian protest is being carried out and demonstrations are being staged in a dozen regions to press for the redress of local grievances.

Protesters say that García's free-market economic model has failed to bring the benefits of a recent economic boom to the large number of low-income Peruvians.

Maguindanao, RP Fall Behind Key Indicators for Education

Achieving universal primary education is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that the Philippines has committed itself to achieve by 2015. In its midterm progress report on the MDGs that was released last year, however, the government conceded that this was one of the goals it was unlikely to meet seven years from now.

The Polar Bear Express

So how are those beasts of the Arctic getting there? They are known to unwittingly hitch a ride from nearby Greenland on chunks of sea ice that drift to Iceland’s northern coast. There are over 600 documented cases of polar bears dropping by for a visit, and already this year two bears have made it to Iceland.

Our Future in Obama's World Must be to Solve Putnam's Problem

IT became a shibboleth of sociological truisms after the 20th century’s Second World War that every society in the world benefits by being racially, ethnically, culturally diverse. Multiculturalism, multiracialism are seen as societal barometers of progress and strength. No society has embodied this truism more than the United States.

That was then. At the dawn of this 21st century, new research by Harvard political scientist, Robert Putnam, seemingly challenges this shibboleth. Putnam’s work and findings are based on interviews with almost 30,000 of his fellow Americans. Through their confessions and admissions, Putnam found that ‘the greater the diversity in a community, the fewer people vote and the less they volunteer, the less they give to charity and work on community projects’. Indeed, ‘in the most diverse communities, neighbours trust one another about half as much as they do in the most homogenous settings’. According to one report, Putnam’s study is ‘the largest ever on civic engagement in America’ and the outcome that ‘virtually all measures of civic health are lower in more diverse settings’ has certainly unsettled the orthodoxies of integrationism, multiracialism and multiculturalism that have so long been taken for granted as evidenced in metaphors of ‘the melting pot’ and the ‘salad bowl’ and so on.

Bien souvent ce n'est guère qu'au sujet d'Aung San Suu Kyi et du Triangle d'Or que l'on entend parler de la Birmanie dans les médias. Après le passage du cyclone Nargis, la catastrophe naturelle qui a frappé le pays en mai 2008 et fait près de 134.000 morts et disparus, les frontières de la Birmanie restent encore fermées, pendant que plus d’un million de sinistrés n’auraient toujours reçu aucune aide ni du gouvernement birman ni de l’étranger. Les militaires refusent catégoriquement toute aide humanitaire internationale. Depuis, la Birmanie a été grandement exposée dans les médias et a suscité beaucoup de questionnements concernant la gouvernance de la junte militaire. Pour mieux comprendre la situation actuelle, ce billet traitera l’histoire récente du pays et l’idéologie du régime en place.

Suite au massacre de près de 3000 personnes par les militaires durant la révolte populaire (mieux connue sous le nom « 8.8.88 » ), au coup d’État en 1988 et pour s’assurer la stabilité et diminuer toute possibilité de soulèvement populaire, le SLORC annonce en mai 1990 la tenue d'élections. Contrairement à toute attente, le vote s’est déroulé très librement et sans fraude. La National League for Democracy (NLD) d'Aung San Suu Kyi remporte une victoire écrasante, en obtenant 392 des 485 sièges de l'assemblée, un désastre pour le SLORC qui obtient à peine une dizaine de sièges dans la nouvelle assemblée (Courdy 2004). Malgré cette victoire du NLD, le SLORC refuse de céder le pouvoir et continue de gouverner sous le régime de la loi martiale et assigne Aung San Suu Kyi à résidence, ce qui est encore sa situation aujourd'hui. En 1997, le SLORC entreprend un remaniement et prend le nom de SPDC, mais l'équipe au pouvoir reste globalement la même, avec le général Than Shwe à sa tête.

La Birmanie est dépourvue de constitution depuis que le SLORC a abrogé celle de 1974 lors de sa prise de pouvoir en 1988. Dès lors, le pays vit une crise politico-institutionnelle (Boissier 2007.) La junte militaire contrôle à elle seule les pouvoirs exécutif, législatif et judiciaire, elle a aussi changé le nom du pays de la Birmanie au Myanmar sous prétexte que la première appellation correspondait uniquement aux Birmans proprement dits, à l’exclusion des diverses minorités ethniques. Ce changement de nom n’a véritablement rien changé à la réalité des minorités ethniques qui sont marginalisées et qui ont subi plusieurs déportations qui rentrent dans le cadre du programme de birmanisation. Ce programme a pour but de définir les principes de base d’une culture nationale unifiée et justifie selon la junte la répression des minorités qui ne veulent pas s’assimiler.

L'idéologie de la junte repose fondamentalement sur un nationalisme xénophobe et un refus catégorique des influences extérieures, à la fois extérieures au système politique en place (l'opposition) et extérieures à la Birmanie (l'étranger, et surtout l'Occident). À ce refus des valeurs occidentales est associé un recours à l'asiatisme comme valeur de référence. Cette pensée est très bien illustrée par une citation du lieutenant-général Khin Nyunt, l'une des principales figures de la junte jusqu'à son éviction en octobre 2004 :  «nous ne tolérerons aucune interférence étrangère. Seuls les Birmans aiment vraiment la Birmanie. Aucun étranger n’aimera jamais la Birmanie. Tout cela est très clair, il faut y songer quand des étrangers disent qu’ils aiment la Birmanie» (Buhrer Levenson 2000).

C’est la xénophobie dont nous avons parlé plus haut qui serait derrière le refus de l’aide humanitaire internationale, mais aussi la crainte de la junte à ce que les membres des ONG et les journalistes rapportent les situations politique, économique et sociale désastreuses que vit la Birmanie. Par ailleurs, si le régime accepte d’aider une partie de la population et pas les autres c’est parce que ceux qui sont aidés soutiennent le pouvoir ou sont proches de celui-ci. Tandis que les autres sont punis faute de le faire.

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Références

Buhrer, Jean-Claude et Claude B Levenson. 2000. Aung San Suu Kyi, demain la Birmanie. Arles : Éditions Philippe Picquier

Courdy, Jean-Claude. 2004. Birmanie (Myanmar) La mosaique inachevée. Paris : Éditions Belin.

Olivier, Boissier. 1997. « Birmanie : crise, dictature et réaction de la communauté internationale ». Étude réalisée dans le cadre des travaux de la comission Urgence et post-crise du Haut Conseil de la coopération international.