Burma

Bloggers Unite for Refugees

Submitted by mgifford on

Refugees Unite Blogger ChallengeNovember 10th marks another BlogersUnite day.  There are thousands of bloggers out there and the blogosphere is a great place to help inform and influence popular opinion.  Previously they have chosen to focus on other important issues such as human rights, encouraging acts of kindness, mobilizing against abuse & promoting organ donation.  This time they chose to discuss refugees, and challenged bloggers to learn about refugee issues, post an image/link back to the BloggersUnite page and to help raise awareness about the millions of displaced people around the world. 

A friend of mine is in Thailand now for Inter Pares working on this issue, so I thought I would try to spend a bit of time talking about what little I know about refugees in this area.  I've also been aware of what is happening in Burma for a while and have previously blogged about the red shirt campaign and efforts to organize opposition online. October 4th, 2007 there was also an international campaign to get bloggers to raise awareness about Burma.

Top 10 Reasons to Boycott the 2008 Olympics in Beijing

Submitted by mgifford on

I've been thinking a lot about Burma lately (for obvious reasons) and have been concerned that despite a great outpouring if concern online, there haven't been a lot of concrete steps for things that people can do to intervene against the atrocities committed in this country. China seems to have the most political leverage to influence Burma's State Peace and Development Council, and yet with all of it's own human rights violations it seems unlikely to intervene in improving those in another country. Perhaps launching a boycott of the Olympic Games in Beijing would catch their attention though, as leaving a good legacy with the games seems to be important with the Chinese leadership.

One blogpost for Burma - A Campaign for Democracy

Submitted by mgifford on

Re Shirt for BurmaWent to a protest last night in solidarity with the pro-democracy protesters in Burma. I was partly brought to the protest by facebook as I got a number of invites to events in the coming days with it.

'Support The Monks' Protest in Burma' - Facebook group has certainly been useful. It's been interesting to see the circulation of news items being re-posted on Facebook on this issue as people are desperate to find out what is happening in Burma. Interesting to see the celebrity involvement as Jim Carry's video pleads the case for action. Not sure why it would be beneficial to email inquiries@un.org, but there is a hope that it may get noticed.

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