Doug's Darkworld

Finally, something to write about other than Trump and his election fraud charade. Burma.  OK, the country is actually called Myanmar now, Burma was the old colonial name given to it during the British occupation. But, but, it was just a colony, occupation sounds so harsh! Um, the Brits shot their way into it, deposed the government, and installed British rule. That’s conquest no matter who’s doing it. The Age of Discovery my ass.

So, an election in Myanmar last November. The head of the military, one Min Aung Hlaing, wanted to be president after he leaves the military in 2021. That means he would need to win a majority in the parliamentary election to become head of state. And since the army gets 25% of parliamentary seats according to the Constitution, he would just need about a third of the vote. However, he started announcing long before the election that he was worried about voter fraud, and maybe the election should be delayed due to Covid. The election was held, Min Aung Hlaing was thoroughly trounced, he then spent the last two months complaining the election was rigged (without providing a shred of evidence,) and now he has seized power and arrested the civilian government.

Change a few words here and there and this could be a certain American ex-president’s fantasy come true. So yes, looks like Myanmar’s 9 year experiment with democracy is over for now. They were a badly run military dictatorship for more than 50 years before a parliamentary republic was established in 2011. Myanmar is one of the least developed countries in Asia, but awash in weapons. Buddhist nation too, that becomes important later. How accurate is the above? IDK, I think it’s a fairly safe appraisal, but I’ve never been to Myanmar and don’t know anyone from there. Biden and the west are all upset, so this isn’t a western backed military coup, those are OK. In fact the coup caught western observers by surprise.

Then there’s the truly ugly Rohingya situation. Genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass rape, etc. Yes, while Myanmar’s nascent democracy was getting going over the past decade, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi, a pro democracy activist who spent more than 15 years under house arrest, the army was simutaneously massacring and ethnic cleansing the Rohingya Muslim minority, already one of the world’s more discriminated against people. They are stateless, imagine, living somewhere for generations, but even though born in Myanmar, they do not have citizenship. So what did Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize winner, ostensibly the president, do or say while the army was carrying out its ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya? Essentially nothing.

OK then. How the hell does one explain this to other human beings, let alone aliens? Well, let’s try. “Earth, a planet ruled by 300 or so armed gangs, divided into multiple factions, constantly warring with each other. All claiming to follow this or that religion or ideology or personality cult, which they use to placate their populations and justify exploiting (or worse) minorities.A weird combination of prehistoric mystical cult thinking crossed with 20th century technological prowess. And a planetary civilization that not only hasn’t been able to channel the energies of those with infinite greed and zero ethics into safe outlets, it worships them.”

Yeah, we’re hosed. I feel for the people of Myanmar, this past weekend they were a nation hopefully entering into a period of western style openness and democracy, now back to a third world dictatorship. I wrote the above Monday, then spent two days being depressed about the state of humanity. 700,000 people driven from their homes, and it’s just another of the endless atrocities humans inflict on each other. There’s about 70 million refugees worldwide now, so essentially one human being in every thousand is a refugee. And we easily have the means to settle these people, modern civilization has almost unimaginable resources. And we use them to build weapons so the rich nations and rich people get ever richer.

Tomorrow, more folly and fallout from the lamest coup attempt in history. Stay safe and warm everyone. #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask #FelesRegula

Copyright © 2021 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.

(Image: Two British soldiers on patrol in the ruins of the Burmese town of Bahe during the advance on Mandalay. January 1945. Credit: UK government, Public Domain under UK copyright law.)