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

Correction: Re: SPDC'S ART OF CORRU



Subject: Correction: Re: SPDC'S ART OF CORRUPTING THE ADVERSARIES

Dear Readers:

My reference to "IRC" in the following article (para 4) should read "ICRC", meaning the world giant International Red Cross, and not the IRC (International Rescue Committee), whose service in Thailand I have always found to be impeccable.

My apologies to those concerned, and thanks to Eric Snider for pointing out this error to me.

Indiana 


>Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1999 09:27:57 +0700
>To: moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Julien Moe), burmanet-l@xxxxxxxxxxx
>From: Indiana <bina@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: Re: SPDC'S ART OF CORRUPTING THE ADVERSARIES
>
>Dear Julien,
>
>I dont doubt that the junta generals use bribery to try to corrupt powerful foreign interests whenever they can.  But in the case of US Congressman Tony Hall, this is probably not a realistic interpretation of his political position vis-a-vis Burma.  Like Chris Sidoti of Australia, he had a negative attitude towards DASSK before he ever reached Rangoon.
>
>A few rubies will not do it, for people like Tony Hall.  Rather, politicians of his type are beholden to people in the very large US/International NGO's (Save the Children, AmeriCares, etc.) who have a serious interest in maintaining a growing victim and refugee population to serve.  
>
>Most workers in the lower ranks of these organizations are sincere and dedicated people.  Some of the officers, too, can keep their vision of service to the poor.  But eventually their ponderous bureaucracies become controlled by administrators of limited vision and personal focus.  These people are always afraid of actually accomplishing the organization's mission, which of course would make their office, their budget, their staff, and even themselves, redundant.  
>
>I have met IRC people who see refugees not so much as suffering people, but as numbers in the budget and staffing requests they send to their head office in Geneva.  Any increase in refugee populations increases the personal importance of these bureaucrats, and any reduction diminishes their power and funds.  Even officers of the French "MSF", which won this year's Nobel Peace prize (and I see here on the border the great service they provide daily to suffering people), had unhappy things to say about how the prize could rush the growing "bureaucratization" of their group. 
>
>These "do-good" organizations handle huge sums of money, many millions of US dollars per year, and operate all around the globe.  It is more likely that this money, and the people controlling it, are behind Tony Hall's campaign, rather than any pretty stones from the SPDC.  From his institutional point of view, the Burmese generals are tools to building power and influence for himself and his supporters.  Burma is a "treasure house of suffering" for these professional "givers of aid".  That his participation with these immoral and vicious dictators will never help the people of Burma become free and independent, is unfortunately of little concern for his short-term goals.
>
>There is a cynical element in the government/non-government public service sector, not unlike that in the private sector, which is willing to exploit any psychological weakness in a given culture in order to build its power and financial base.  And since  Americans are remarkably naive about helping others, probably because of the contradictions inherent in a society strongly premised on both Christian charity and on the institutionalization of intense individual competition, they are susceptible to pleas to alleviate the conditions of the desperate, while allowing the basic causes of their desperation to remain in place.
>
>In any case, the fact that Tony Hall sees the generals as people he can work with, shows that even a virtue such as charity to the poor can become an evil practice, if the motives behind it are not pure, ie, based on true compassion and selflessness.
>
>The Tony Hall phenomenon definitely needs to be studied and understood if  we are going to avoid this type of insidious undermining of efforts to bring independence, freedom, and democratic rule to the people of Burma, and to the world itself.  The basic fact is that the people of Burma are in a dire state is not due to any failing of their own ability of self-sufficiency, but to a totalitarian government that stays in power due in part to private sector contributions from many countries that say they oppose it.
>
>The proper response to the poverty problem in Burma is not only sanctions against the ruling junta, but also coordinated and concerted economic pressure on Japan, Singapore, China, and the rest of the opportunists who keep the poverty alive.  The sooner the root cause of poverty is removed, the faster conditions will improve on a permanent basis.
>
>"Dont worry about feeding the Burmese poor.  Get rid of the junta, and in two or three years Burma will be feeding you."