Word: burma
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...expect China to go easy on thuggish dictatorships such as Burma's because China is a dictatorship itself. But what about Asia's other rising power India, the world's biggest democracy? Surely Delhi has joined the rest of the world in condemning Burma's violent crackdown on anti-government protesters over the past few days...
Well, no. Despite pressure from Europe and the U.S. for India to use its influence with Burma to help end the bloodshed, Delhi has taken a softly, softly approach to the current crisis for the same reasons China has: potential trade with and influence over the energy-rich Southeast Asian nation. "We are concerned at the situation in Myanmar and are monitoring it closely. It is our hope that all sides will resolve their issues peacefully through dialogue," said External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the single short public statement he has made on the subject...
...During World War II, stateside audiences got morale-boosting movies with Errol Flynn or John Wayne leading victorious campaigns through Burma and Bataan. The current Mideast conflict is different, of course. America is not mobilized; only the military is. The enemy is not a country but an ideology, not uniformed but civilian guerrillas. And in a War on Terror there's no sure way to declare victory. But just because our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are less fighting machines than sitting ducks, that doesn't mean that moviegoers should be deprived of go-get-'em war epics...
...course, no amount of Buddhist mantras chanted in Suu Kyi's name are likely to convince Burma's generals to give up power quietly. They have ruled with an iron grip, and with impunity, for nearly half a century, and have already brutally crushed one major democracy movement. With the clashes on Sept. 26, the regime once again displayed its capacity for violence. Burma's burgundy revolutionaries can only pray that their robes will not be stained further - by the color of blood...
...cinnamon-hued robes of Burma's Buddhist monks usually evoke spiritual serenity. Yet for the repressive junta that has ruled for 45 years, the sight of shaven-headed clerics marching the streets has been anything but soothing. For more than a week, tens of thousands of monks have rallied across the country, turning what started in August as a protest against fuel-price hikes into a much more potent threat to the generals' rule. Some of the monks turned their begging bowls upside down, a gesture that traditionally denotes excommunication but now also carries a political message: they want...