Burma

Burma (aka Myanmar) has been on the front page of the Globe and Mail twice this week, and has been featured by many other publications and media outlets, as monks and pro-democracy protesters are mercilessly killed on the orders of the military junta that rules the country.

This has spawned a whole outpouring of solidarity and concern in various forms, as should be expected.

But the media coverage has been truly bizarre, and it seriously compromises the aims of that solidarity. The massive coverage given to the Burmese crackdown raises two very serious questions, the premises of which are somewhat contradictory:

1. Where was the the media outrage when this was happening in Haiti?

Back in BC just in time to welcome a pack of gold-silver-nickel-copper toting criminals in suits to the Vancouver for the Association for Mineral Exploration conference, known as Roundup 2007, which will take place from 29 Jan to 01 Feb at the Westin Bayshore.

The list of sponsors is a veritable who's who in the international mining world. I am working on a list with notes to leaflet with, for the moment, I'll pick just one: Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.

Quote of choice: "If we can force Ivanhoe out of Mongolia, that signifies that we are a democratic nation. If we can’t, we will become the next Burma" -S.Ganbaatar, Ulan Baator, 2006.