"Paranoid, insular and inept"

This is a recent description of the military junta in Myanmar. They continue to rule in the same way they have ruled since quashing the 1988 rebellion through brute force and placing Nobel Peace Prize Winner (1991) Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest after she won elections. Recently, they cut off the internet, and are now restricting visitors to the country.

The part I find most fascinating about all of this is the influence of the monks. When I went to Myanmar, there were monks everywhere. They are constantly interacting with the people, although they didn't really seem to say much, other than an 8 year old monk who told us that his parents wanted a monk in the family and he was the one chosen to join. Their moral support really invigorated the protests, and now the military has basically occupied the monasteries to prevent more of this sort of behavior. Myanmar is Theraveda Buddhist, a minority part of the Buddhist family, and is a very devout country. It would seem that the junta has decided not to kill the monks in the protests, as they are currently killing the civilian protesters, because of the public uproar it would cause.

There's not much about President Bush's policies that I like or admire. There's not much to admire. But at least someone is paying attention to Myanmar now - certainly no one was in 1988. The scale of poverty in that country simply breaks your heart. It's about time they got a better deal than they have been, but petty dictators seem to have a way of holding on long after they ought to have been gone.