Myanmar: Thoughts

17.02.2021

Document 1: Declaration of Human Rights

Document 2: UN Document on the Crisis in Myanmar 11.02.2021

In the last 10 days I have been taking information about the history of Burma because my intention was to write something about it. After 10 days I realized that at the moment I cannot talk in depth about history about that territory, because that is an area that has a thousand-year history, where to talk about a fact I have to have knowledge of many related facts belonging to different populations that everything put together leads to what we have today.

I am sincere, I was extremely amazed and fascinated by what little I studied about the history that was lived in that area.

I believe that everything around us is a consequence of events that have taken place before. I consider it extremely difficult, not to say impossible, that something can happen so out of nowhere (the thing that could come closest to an event from nothing could be seen as the birth of the Whole, which I honestly do not know exactly where it can come from, because if everything already existed as everything already existed? I believe in change, in the evolution of things, but this change/evolution I see as a consequence of things. Anyway, this is a small example).

In saying this consequence of things, we are going to take up the fact that until not so long ago we were talking about the Burmese Empire.

I'm Italian. With such sincerity and I have no reason to lie I am proud to be Italian and to consider myself European. I have great respect for those who preceded me and allowed me to be who I am in the context in which I am.

In the last 10 days in which I have tried to deepen my knowledge about Burma, I have been faced with a territorial context with a thousand-year history. There are many ethnic groups in Burma (8 are the main ones), some of which have been present for decades, such as the Mon and Shan groups. These two groups currently represent 2% (Mon) and 9% (Shan) (the Bamar ethnic group represents 68%), but over the centuries together with other ethnic groups they have given life to myriad battles for control of Burmese territory, which over time has been more and less extensive. These two ethnic groups are just two parts of a territory where the longest civil war in modern history is currently taking place, which began in 1948.

This civil war did not start so out of nowhere, but is simply a consequence of the British colonial period (a real humiliation for the people of the territory, which lasted for about 100 years) and the previous history of the whole Burmese area, to which are also to be linked the facts and experiences of the territories and neighboring populations. As far as I can understand, the situation has not been stable for a very long time. And also if we go to analyze the period from 1948 to the present (this civil war is divided into three parts: first post-independence part from 1948 to 1962; second part after the first coup d'état from 1962 to 1988; the third since the uprising 8888, 8/8/88, to the turns of today) it seems obvious to me that if the events that happened on 1 February had not happened that day would have happened another day, due to the fact that despite the elections defined as democratic in 2015 the military maintained control of many essential branches and carried out massacres and attacks in different parts of the territory. I am speaking in hindsight, but there are international organisations that should monitor things preventively.

At the top you can find two documents, which I recommend reading.

The first is the Declaration of Human Rights. This is something that I find shameful, humiliating. I find shameful that we have to write on a sheet that we are all the same, that we all have the same rights, that we must not be discriminated against. The fact that we must stress and write that mutual respect is a factor that must never be lacking between us human beings indicates how low our capacity for coexistence is. Equally shameful is the fact that, despite the fact that these things have been written in a continuous way in the world there is an outrageous violation of human rights. Every day I realize that I live in a part of the world where we represent more of an exception than a rule to how things really go in the world. And the scariest thing about that is not the fact that we live in a reality outside the world, but the bad thing is the fact that almost all people are not aware of what really happens around us. There is no awareness. Interest is shifted to things that don't really matter. The fact that there has been no war in Europe for some time does not mean that there is no war in the world. The fact that there is no war in Europe does not mean that Europe does not wage war in other parts of the world. War is no longer just about guns. The war has now made a sneaky and frightening evolution. The fact that there is plenty in Europe does not mean that this abundance is present everywhere. The fact that there are rights in Europe does not mean that there are rights everywhere in the world. I notice all too often from governments calling themselves civilians an abuse of power against the most difficult peoples (South East Asia, Africa, the Middle East). I see civilized governments as expressions of the people. The fact that there is a lack of awareness-related component within the population is a very serious factor. In this small part of the world, the one in which I live, it is as if we are living in a world of illusions, where the distraction from reality is continuous. This morning I read that armed groups in Nigeria have penetrated a school and kidnapped dozens of students. But do we realize what world we live in?

The second document is a UNITED Nations report of the South East Asian section of 11 February 2021 concerning the situation in Myanmar. I advise everyone to give it a reading, you do it in about fifteen minutes and it doesn't hurt, so you can also get an idea of the situation.

What makes me think is not the document, it is the fact of how many documents of this kind have been written and will still be written, because always among these world powers there is no capacity for cooperation with the ultimate intent of common well-being for the defense of life. The fact that international laws are not being respected in Myanmar now, human rights are not being respected are not things that should genuinely surprise us. We all always get surprised when we see something wrong, something bad. In theory, however, we should be aware of how the world is going. But the most important thing is that we should know how we behave, especially with regard to Europeans and North Americans. We singles are not really a example of seriousness. In Italy it is said to preach well and rocket badly. We preach the good word, but then it is not that we behave accordingly.

In conclusion, the Area of Burma is an area with an incredible, interesting and fascinating history. In my opinion, the problems that have been there for a very long time because of the presence of different ethnic groups, it is not easy to bring peoples together, and because there is a story behind it. The influence of external powers (China, Russia, Atlantic powers,...) carry different weights, post-colonial management was not among the best. I honestly do not see an easy solution on the horizon. The sanctions that the US and UK should implement could have an impact on the population that is not already economically prosperous. The military's reactions to any riots must be assessed. How the various external factors will affect things. We are in a pandemic period and limiting this virus is another important factor.

It is not an easy solution to find. Slowly we will see how things evolve.

ELNaNgiO