BurmaNet News: October 12

[strider@xxxxxxxxxxx]

************************** BurmaNet **************************
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
**************************************************************

BurmaNet News: Wednesday, October 12, 1994
Issue #32

*************************************************************
Contents:

BURMANET: BURMANET NEWS GOES DAILY
BURMANET: SPECIAL BURMA SURVEY TODAY
BURMANET: READERSHIP FIGURES AND MONTHLY HOUSEKEEPING ANNOUNCEMENT
BURMANET: LIST ETIQUETTE
BURMANET: A COUPLE OF WORDS ON PRIVACY AND SECURITY
REUTERS/NATION: BURMA PREPARES FOR WIDE-SCALE  PRIVATIZATION

*************************************************************
BURMANET: BURMANET NEWS GOES DAILY
As of today, the BurmaNet News is shifting from a `several times a week' to
a daily format.  The News will be distributed daily by 10:00a.m Eastern
Standard Time (9:00p.m in Bangkok).  Please allow for some delay depending on
how long it takes the news to propagate to your site.

*************************************************************
BURMANET: SPECIAL BURMA SURVEY TODAY
A special edition of the BurmaNet News is being distributed along with this
issue.  The survey is a collection of recent articles about Burma, most of
which have not been on the net before.  Due to its size (over 140k), it is
being broken into three separate files.  If you don't receive all four of
today's files, contact BurmaNet for a replacement.

*************************************************************
BURMANET: READERSHIP AND MONTHLY HOUSEKEEPING ANNOUNCEMENT
Since the BurmaNet News mailing list began three months ago, the number of
subscriptions has climbed to ninety one with eleven additions in the past
month.

Subscriptions by domain as of:

     August 10      Sept. 10  Oct. 10

com:      11        16        18
edu:      15        22        23
gov:      1         1         1
net:      2         3         4
org:      6         9         9
au:       7         5         8
ca:       2         2         2
de:       1         1         0
lv:       0         1         1
jp:       2         2         2
nl:       1         1         1
no:       4         5         5
th:       7         7         12
uk:       4         5         5


Total:    62        80        91

com=commercial providers, mostly in the US
edu=universities in the US
gov=government agencies
net=networks
org=non-profit organisations, mostly in the US
au=Australia
ca=Canada
de=Germany
jp=Japan
nl=Netherlands
no=Norway
th=Thailand
uk=United Kingdom
lv=?


If you have announcements or news articles of interest to the on-line Burma
community, you can send them to BurmaNet at strider@xxxxxxxxxxx or post them
yourself.  If you want an article included with the BurmaNet News, please
indicate whether you want to be credited as the contributor or would prefer
to remain anonymous.

If you would prefer to post news articles or announcements directly, then by
all means do so.  Here are the addresses you will need.

For the BurmaNet News:                  

          reg.burma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

For the soc.culture.burma newsgroup:    

          soc.culture.burma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

For the seasia mailing list [see note about subscription below]:

          seasia@xxxxxxx

If your article has anything to do with Thailand, the soc.culture.thai group
should be included as well:

          soc.culture.thai@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


The soc.culture.burma newsgroup has an approximate readership of 2,000 at
sites all over the world.  The soc.culture.thai newsgroup has a readership of
about 10,000.  The seasia mailing list has a subscription of over 500 and is
echoed as a newsgroup to several thousand more.  With all of these however,
it is impossible to tell how many people read any given article.  



*************************************************************
LIST ETIQUETTE

If you are going to post articles directly, there are some things you should
keep in mind.  First, soc.culture.burma and the other USENET newsgroups are
anarchical and anyone can post anything to them.

The BurmaNet News mailing list however is semi-private and a couple of
conventions should be adhered to.  First, a number of subscribers prefer that
the list volume remain low because they have to pay for each message received
over the Internet.  If you are distributing news articles, it will save these
subscribers some money if you pack several articles together in one message
rather than send them separately.  If you put several messages together,
putting an index at the beginning is also helpful.  Also, keep in mind that
some mailers on the Internet will choke if a message is over 50,000 bytes. 
If your message is over 50k, please break it into two or more smaller
messages.

Some BurmaNet News subscribers also prefer not to receive messages of the 
"screw SLORC" variety.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Here is one of the complaints BurmaNet has received on the subject:

     "I hate SLORC, you hate SLORC, we all hate SLORC.  So what?  If
     someone is going to say they hate SLORC, then they should at least
     tell us why and if possible, do it in a way that is original."


********
HINT:  In order to post to the seasia list, you must first be a list
subscriber.  To subscribe to SEASIA-L, send an email message addressed to:

     listserv@xxxxxxx

Leave the Subject, Attachment and any other information lines blank.
The body of the message should contain this line:

    SUBSCRIBE SEASIA-L yourfirstname yourlastname

 [note: you can abbreviate SUBSCRIBE to SUB]

To unsubscribe and leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SEASIA-L to
MSU.EDU  Again, this command must be sent to the listserv, not SEASIA-L. 
This command must also come from the same address that you originally
subscribed from.


*************************************************************
BURMANET: A COUPLE OF WORDS ON PRIVACY AND SECURITY

No one except the listowner will know that you are subscribed to reg.burma
list unless you post something.  If you don't want anyone to know you are
subscribed, don't post.  If you have something you want posted but don't want
your name on it, you can either send it to BurmaNet for forwarding or post it
yourself using the anon server.  

For the greatest degree of privacy, learn how to use the anonymous server in
Finland.  Send a message to help@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and it will give you detailed
instructions on how to send e-mail anonymously.

If you have security concerns as well, learn how to use a data encryption
program called PGP (Pretty Good Privacy).  You can find instructions in the
USENET newsgroup alt.security.pgp or contact BurmaNet.

*************************************************************************
REUTERS/NATION: BURMA PREPARES FOR WIDE-SCALE  PRIVATIZATION
October 12

RANGOON - Burma's military government has begun steps towards extensive
privatization of state-owned economic enterprises, the official media
reported yesterday.

Senior junta member and military intelligence chief  Lieutenant-General Khin
Nyunt gave a keynote adders at a meeting to coordinate policy held in Rangoon
on Monday, the New Light of Myanmar (Burma) newspaper said.

The ministers of light industry, forestry, health, economic planning,
information, livestock breeding and fisheries,communicationa, posts and
telegraphs and the deputy minister of transport attended the meeting.

Khin Nyunt said the meeting was to discuss and coordinate ways of
transferring the state's economic undertakings to the private  sector.

First it will be necessary to transfer small  enterprises and factories as
soon as possible while studying the privatisation of medium and large
enterprises for a later date, according to Khin Nyunt.

A number of small food-processing  factories and flour mills have been
transferred  to private ownership since the ruling junta abandoned a unique
brand of socialism in 1988 and declared a mixed economy.

Khin Nyunt said  "systematic and proper" privatization would spur growth in
private investment and lead eventually to an increase in production.





*************************************************************************

ABBREVIATIONS USED BY BURMANET:

 AP: ASSOCIATED PRESS
 AFP: AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
 AW: ASIAWEEK
 AWSJ: ASIAN WALL STREET JOURNAL
 Bt.: THAI BAHT; 25 Bt.=US$1 (APPROX)
 BBC: BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
 BI: BURMA ISSUES
 BIG: BURMA INFORMATION GROUP
 BKK POST: THE BANGKOK POST
 CPPSM: COMMITTEE FOR THE PUBLICITY OF THE PEOPLE'S STRUGGLE IN MONLAND
 FEER: FAR EAST ECONOMIC REVIEW
 KHRG: KAREN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP
 NATION: THE NATION (DAILY NEWSPAPER, BANGKOK)
 S.C.B.:SOC.CULTURE.BURMA NEWSGROUP
 S.C.T.:SOC.CULTURE.THAI
 SEASIA-L: S.E.ASIA BITNET MAILING LIST

*************************************************************************
*                                                                       *
* The BurmaNet News is distributed daily via the reg.burma and seasia   *
* mailing lists as well as the soc.culture.burma and soc.culture.thai   *   
* newsgroups.  For a free subscription to the BurmaNet News, send a     *
* note to:                                                              *   
*                                                                       *
*      strider@xxxxxxxxxxx                                              *
*                                                                       *
*************************************************************************