Why nothing will be done about Burma

It was a picture that shook my senses. A Japanese journalist lay wounded on the floor after the military of the Burma Government opened fire on a crowd of protestors without warning. Kenji Nagai, the journalist was later confirmed as one of the nine people confirmed dead after the violence. In the background you see many people fleeing for their lives in a stampede.

And yet I know that there is nothing the rest of the world can do. I am not writing this article because I believe anything can be done. I feel sorry for all the people of Burma who are risking their lives, some of them sending us information through the internet at a huge peril to their lives. I wish I, or even the leaders of the world could help them but I know it won’t happen.

By the violent reaction of the military top brass to a peaceful protest by their revered Buddhist monks, they have shown a heart that will not be turned. They are determined to rule their people with brutality and oppression, no matter the opposition. They have ceased to think like humans…or at least like normal human beings and have become ‘gods’ to themselves. It will not matter what the people do or say or how many of them die; nothing will change. In 1988, a protest by students saw 3000 people killed. It makes these times seem like better times.

So will the ‘policemen’ of the world rise up? Will the US, Britain and more recently France, seek to topple this useless government and restore democratic rule. Probably not! Britain and especially the US have lost so much credibility by engaging in an unjust war with Iraq and failing to ‘win the peace’. Any mention of military action by the US and its allies only sends scorn into our hearts now. Yes, the Government of Burma are behaving like animals but we definitely don’t think Bush and America can teach them better ‘humanistic’ governance anyway.

Will the diplomacy of the EU and UN work? Well, the least said of that the better. It gives me shivers down my spine to believe that we have really put so many livelihoods in the hands of these white-washed tombs. These institutions are full of dead men’s bones and are mere talk shops controlled by people who don’t even bother to attend its meetings. The greatest insult to the rest of the world is the Security Council and the veto powers of its permanent members.

And that introduces China and Russia. Will they rein in their brothers-in-blood? China is the single largest supporter of the illegal government in Burma and of all other illegal governments around the world. I am not one for democracy, especially the type advocated in Washington and made as ‘one size fits all’, but neither do I believe in the supremacy of one man or a group of men over a nation because they think they know what is best for all. So I really don’t care what China or Russia does, and I believe that will be nothing in particular in these circumstances. If the world should want to get rid of governments like Burma, it must first get rid of governments like Putin’s Russia and the Red China. But unfortunately, they have the veto for that action.

God help us all, especially the people of Burma.