What a fantastic insight sexyslut, thank you.
Some can speak in authority if they were there at the time of the events. This gives an insight into another perspective only.
However, this insight can be tainted by what is seen. For example, locals are insulted by the BBC still refering to the country as Burma. All locals? Or just the ones that support the military junta? Why do Burmese still boycott this new name if they are so insulted? Why would the BBC call Burma another name when this country does not recognise the name change?
So I would love to hear a different insight, but all that has been said is that national papers report things differently. This is something that has always happened through history and will never change. That is why Joe Public has to look at all the information so they can come to their own informed decision why they hold that view, but be open to new information and be ready to change their view if this information is accurate.
Dave_Notts
The term "Burma" is a British made moniker based on the majority ethnic group, the Bamar. The country was called "Myanmar' by the natives at least as far back as Marco Polo's time and was formally renamed Myanmar by the government in 1989 because it is more inclusive of all the ethnic groups who live there and to distance it from the colonial period. Every one of the several locals (including members of the Bamar ethnic group) to whom I spoke in the three months I was there told me that they did like their country being referred to for these reasons.
I am no defender of any government frankly, but I have travelled extensively in Asia and South America and I have seen and experienced many things which totally changed my perception of a great deal and as a result have formed many conclusions. The world, it seems, is split in to two camps. One is led by America and includes Britain and the rest of the EU and several other countries such as India. This camp is the camp of international capitalism and "freedom of the individual" (what a misnomer).The other camp is led by China and includes North Korea, Cuba, Venezuala, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Syria and the other 'rogue states'. This is the camp of so-called socialism.
The two camps of course loathe each other and this is reflected in the media of the countries concerned.
We are, for example, told by our media all kinds of terrible things about Myanmar, and all kinds of nice things about own experiences (and I have been to India twenty times, each time for several months) don't corroborate what the media tells us India I have seen things which would make some Westerners Rajahstan, for example a group of Untouchables, living among the carcasses of dead camels and buffaloes which they skin for a living. They are not allowed to come into town because their work is 'unclean' and whilst they open their doors onto bloodied fly-infested carcasses, a few miles away, rich Indians develop Western neuroses about being overweight and spoilt rich kids spend a fortune on imported cosmetics. In Bihar, a sixteen year old girl with scars where her nipples once were because one of the sixty men who gang- her bit them off, her crime being to have a romantic dalliance with a boy from another caste. Filth and squallor everywhere, and children with horrible afflictions sleeping on the streets and keeping themselves warm by burning piles of plastic. In Myanmar, on the other hand, I saw schools for the deaf, dumb and blind, and teachers taking children with Downs Syndrome on outings to the beach-none of that in that great democracy India, I can assure you. And I saw no filth and squallor anywhere. But they have forced labour! Our papers scream. Yes, in that villagers have to "beautify' their villages once every so often by painting their houses and keeping them clean, and yes in that convicts have to work. But what's wrong with 'village beautification"? and don't convicts have to work here (or do 'forced labour' in the form of Community Service?
With regard to China, yes, they execute people (and I witnessed the execution there of a convicted murderer and ) but so does the USA. But the difference is that the Chinese don't execute people under 18 whereas the Americans regard to Tianamen Square, we were told that 'the people' were 'rising against communism'. They weren't. Some students were demonstrating because they wanted some reforms, and when someone tipped paint over a bust of Mao the student leaders themselves handed him over to the PSB (the Police). Some students died, as some demonstrators in this country have such as Kevin Gately in 74 and Blair Peach in 79 and I do not condone this,but I can tell you that any traveller in those days would have said that China was the safest country to travel in-especially for women.
Incidentally, the Police in Calcutta take bribes from all the Western paedophiles who work for the Mother Teresa PSB in China shoot paedophiles.
Probably not in the bit you visited 20 times for several months then
The thing about the human race is that the majority of the population just "gets on with it", with no regard with who is in charge. In fact they do not give a monkeys who the political leaders are as long as they have a roof, food and drink. Thats life.
I could go on holiday in Somalia and have a thoroughly delightful time, meet the locals and leave with a smile on my face. Still doesn't mean that it is not safe and full of pirates.
I am glad your travels have shown nothing but glorious revolution, but did you ever sit down and have a chat with any of the anti-reveloution people who live or lived in that country and tell them that it is all made up by the British papers what they went through? You may get different answers from them.
Dave_Notts
When I was a young man I had a teacher ---the kind you never forget.
At the time I was young and foolish and inclined to take media reports at face value.
Many of you will recall that at the time there was a lot of coverage of the situation in Iran and the Ayatolla Khomeni and stuff. He was quite widely held up as a figure of hate I recall and the Shah was held up as a hero and a victim of extremists.
Anyway one day a small group of us were hanging around discussing Iran, the way you do when you are young and full of wisdom and have the benefit of vast inexperience.
Most teachers hearing such a conversation would have just ignored it but Mr F wasn't that kind of teacher and as usual casually joined in with the conversation, as he often did, challenging our thinking and making us think a little more. As he became more encouraging so we opened up more and basically outlined deeply held beliefs and convictions based on nothing more than the media reports.
Mr F was an Iranian refugee it turned out (such a possibility had never crossed our minds in which all light brown people were from pakistan). He told us of the persecution his father had faced under the previous regime, the Shah, in Iran, including torture and imprisonment and how that had led the family to flee and seek asylum in the UK. He told us how the Shah was essentially a US government supported despot. He also explained how his father had subsequently been murdered by the Shahs agents.
Now I don't know if the story was true or if he was simply using hyperbole. That casual lesson that day is one of the reasons Mr F is a teacher I will never forget.
Thank you sexyslut for helping me to think.
I'm with you all the way on that Dave. I've always understood it to have been a student demonstration in which possibly hundreds were killed and still recall the images of the man in front of the tank, which was shown on TV.
Sexysut appears to be saying that was reported here as being a peoples' uprising. I'm sure she will correct me if I'm wrong on that.
The thing is though Max777, is that I agree with sexyslut that each country will report it differently as they are looking at it from a different culture, religion, political persuasion, etc.
Doesn't mean that the reporters or papers are wrong, it is just that the audience have different ways of looking at it.
Dave_Notts
I understand what you are saying Dave and don't disagree with it.........all I'm saying is that I don't recall it being reported here as being a peoples uprising.
Hopefully we can be shown where it was reported then. Otherwise I am going to get very confused, and old age and confusion is not pretty........I'll end up washing the chicken in the dishwasher and cooking the plates again :doh:
Dave_Notts
Or finding a pork chop under your pillow and realising your dentures are in the fridge.
mmmmm. well it's true. you have sussed me out. i'm a guinness swigging, morning star reader who talks revolution in the pub. i'm a conspiracy theorist with no solutions who copies and posts, i have'nt got a clue wot i'm on about. i'm a failed drop out undergrad and no one should take any notice of my alf garnet rantings. everyone should accept all the debt that has been placed on their shoulders and suffer the consequences.
it was all our own doing and we should accept our fate and bury our heads in the sand and look after number one. listen to our leaders and go along with them. they have our interests at heart and they are only looking after us and everything they say is true.
i'm am just a failed drop out 40% tax paying idiot who woke up one morning in a 750 thousand pound house on 120k a year. goodness, life has been good to me. i just woke up one morning and it was all there. dont know anything about banking, credit, debt, fractional reserve, derivitives, collaterised debt obligations, securitised investment vehicles, credit default swaps and all that mallarky. just copied and posted it. invented all that stuff 12 months in advance about debt and soveriegn default. it was all pure coincidence. lucky that.
regardless of what you read on the company of the bank of englands website, the bank of england company limited is a private bank with private shareholders. only its debt was nationalised in 1946. it issues credit (banknotes, coin and computer digits) AT INTEREST that becomes debt at inception.
most other countries on the planet with the possible exception of china, but i would question that, are in debt to the international private banking cartel. iceland has refused to accept the debt forced upon it by the criminal (fraud, lawbreaking) landski bankski's and called for an international moretorium on debt. iceland is not the first. many countries from argentina in south america to malaya in the far east have rejected terms forced upon them by the international private banking cartel's front organisation, the i.m.f. and declared a moretorium on their debt.
would other countries trade with us if we repudiated the fictitous debt of financial instruments like credit default swaps ? of coarse they would. like they have before but more importantly because, they are in the same boat.
the german and french governments have just decided that they are not going to bail out the peripheral economies of the euro zone not because they are dirty rotters, but because they cant. the debt is too big even for them. watch this week as the hedgefund hyenas short irish, greek, portugese and spanish bonds to drive up the return for the increase risk that hangs over those countries.
no amount of increase in taxes and reductions in services or benefits, on top of those already imposed by the i.m.f. and e.c.b. on the populations (tax payers) to repay the debt created by the private banks can stop the collapse but unfortunately, the local politicians will try with all manner of bullshit explanations to cover up where the fraud comes from.
your sincerly and honestly.
ALF GARNET