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Lion



Dear List readers,

  First, my apologies for the message you will have received from an 
address in Indiana flaming someone in the UK with the user ID of Lion.  
I will write to the author of the letter asking him to refrain from 
posting like that to the entire list.  

  As not everyone is familiar with how the BurmaNet mailing list is set 
up, let me post this reminder.  The BurmaNet list is set up to exchange 
information and opinions about Burma.  If you post articles about other 
subjects, I will remind you that they are off-topic.  If you insist on 
posting about who killed JFK (as someone recently did) and aren't 
prepared to assert that it had something, anything at all, to do with 
Burma, I will complain to your system administrator and block further 
postings to the list.


  The recent flaming is not offensive because of the views expressed, 
but because they are expressed in a way that is childish.  To recap, Lion 
asserted that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was objectionable and Tmyint 
suggested that Lion could do things to himself which are more 
appropriately covered in one of the alt.sex newsgroups.

  If subscribers want to flame each other, please do one of two 
things.  Either put some effort into writing a flame worth sending to 
several hundred people, or if you are not up to this, take the 
conversation over to soc.culture.burma or  alt.flame.  The newsgroups are 
places of completely free speech (which is why so few people spend much time 
listening to the few who spend so much time talking in them). 

  There is a related issue which several subscribers have raised.  Some 
readers object to having SLORC messages on the BurmaNet (of which 
Lion's pretty clearly is).  The reason that SLORC messages are carried 
is because some of them shed light on how the SLORC operates.  For 
Burmese who have lived in Burma for any length of time, it is probably 
no great mystery.  But for outsiders, the SLORC mindset is difficult to 
understand and unless viewed first hand, is hard to believe exists this 
late in the twentieth centry.

  Beyond the curiousity value, their postings give some hints about 
what is happening inside Burma.  For example, the current round of 
letters and articles bashing Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and others are of 
recent origin.  Something important is happening and Tmyint  
would be of more help to the net if he put his efforts toward explaining 
what the SLORC is doing rather than firing off obscene letters.

  The new moderated mailing list should be operational in about 72 
hours, barring more technical problems.  Readers will be given the 
option of switching over once the new list is on-line.  Finally, for 
those who insist on flaming, BurmaNet will be setting up a mailing 
address for notes sent to the SLORC.  The address will be 
khin.nyunt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  Please don't bother trying it yet 
because it isn't ready and don't ask how it's done.

  Strider