[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

French magazine, You are a little w



Subject: Re: French magazine, You are a little wrong on this!

It's clear the French are swarming in numbers to Burma as tourists (the Club 
Med lost over 5 to 6  million dollars over tourist revenue lost in their 
Polynesian operations,cited recently a Club Med spokesman here in Paris 
during an interview last week with UVI, and contrary to news reports Club Med 
is not negotiation to build operations in Burma) The Grands Reportages 
magazine, however sumptuously presented in full color with excellent National 
Geographic type style, is a tourist rag to promote tourism, and their 
industry, and oddly did choose to kick off this year with Burma. One must ask 
the editors how much they paid their journalists to vacation there, free of 
charge!  But David Boilley is wrong when he says that the editors, in all 
fairness, did not mention "one word on human rights". In fact there is a 
column with afull size photo of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, under pictures of her 
father, and montks, with the caption, in french, "In Rangoon, posters of Aung 
San Suu Kyi and her famous father". In the text next to the photo of DASSK, 
she is accurately described, well featured, as is the political plight and 
record of the NLD against the "junta" for having "the majority of votes in 
the elections (392 seats out of 485 contested. Even if the junta has not 
taken it into account, the young woman has a historical legitimacy without 
equivalent. She received the NobelPeace Prize in 1991. Since her release , 
last July 10, she continues to to represent the hope of a new modern and 
democratic Burma". This is quite unexpected ofcourse, in a coverstory that 
nontheless, features on the frontcover "Birmanie, A country that reveals its 
treasures". Its hard to show bloated  corpses floating down rivers but just 
the same, the editors did cite Burma, not Myanmar on the cover, and irritated 
their counterparts in the Slorc tourist ministry, who probably read the story 
while wiping the sweat off their pistol-totting holsters.

I did see the need to highlight this story, since every tourist agency in 
france at this time is pushing Burma as best they can, and the french dont 
give a damn, except an exceptional few, a real exception in this land of 
refined cynics and false humanitarians.  

I must say, that former  French Minister of Culture and Communication, Jack 
Lang, last December sent his highest personal regards of support, through the 
French ministry, to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Not all of the French, are 
indifferent!

dawn star


strider@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> 
> From: <strider@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Received: (from strider) by igc4.igc.apc.org (8.6.12/Revision: 1.16 ) id FAA20007 for conf:reg.burma; Thu, 15 Feb 1996 05:47:27 -0800
> Date: Thu, 15 Feb 1996 05:47:27 -0800
> 
> >From boilley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  Tue Jan 16 01:31:35 1996
> Received: from ccpngw.in2p3.fr (ccpngw.in2p3.fr [134.158.69.100]) by igc3.igc.apc.org (8.6.12/Revision: 1.9 ) with SMTP id BAA04357 for 
<strider@xxxxxxxxxxx>;
> From: boilley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Received: from GANAC4.DECnet MAIL11D_V3 by ccpngw.in2p3.fr (5.57/Ultrix2.4-C-3)
>         id AA06052; Tue, 16 Jan 96 10:34:38 +0100
> Date: Tue, 16 Jan 96 10:34:38 +0100
> Message-Id: <9601160934.AA06052@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: please forward
> Status: RO
> 
> Dear Strider, please forward the following message:
> ______________________________________________________________________________
> Dear Burmanet readers,
> 
> In its January issue, the French travel revue `Grands Reportages' has published
> about 50 pages on Burma without a single word on human rights problems.
> If you'd like to write to the editor to explain him what's happening in Burma
> and what does `Visit Burma' campaign means to the population, here is the
> address:
> Grands Reportages                       Director: Kevin Hand
> 9-13, rue du Colonel Pierre-Avia        Chief editor: Yan Meot
> 75 754 Paris cedex 15
> ph: +33 1 46 62 2000
> fax: +33 1 46 62 25 31
> 
> David Boilley
> boilley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx