Myanmar--The Cause

I don't want to import videos too frequently, but there above is actor Jim Carrey getting out the word on Burma and its Nobel Prize winning, pro-democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi [1] under the aegis of the U.S. Campaign for Burma [2].

Again, one may say this quite quietly and still come out loud: hearts and minds know no boundaries on the Internet.

With leadership provided by Angelica Huston, Hollywood has signed on with the 25 celebrities putting their names to a letter urging UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to intervene in the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.  Here's the reference to that letter and the list of signatories: http://www.uscampaignforburma.org/assk/otherquotes.html.

On a fact-finding mission with the campaign's director, Jeremy Woodrum, CSI actor Eric Szmanda noted, "One and a half million people have been forced from their homes, women are systematically raped, men and children have been forced into slave labor. It's time to say 'enough is enough'.”

For all the attitude, China provides the necessary arms and other support to the ruling junta to keep it in business, but whether it does that on ideological (hard to believe) or for-profit grounds (that would be my guess) may be hard to say.

Hollywood seems to believe in the power of the truth to alter political reality, but most with a few years on their bones also know how rapidly an "internal security apparatus" can sweep through and silence leaders, kill their followers, and intimidate their subject populations.

Here's the wrinkle, the whole world, China included, is watching continuously and very close to real time.

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1. Carrey, Jim.  "Call to Action on Burma and Aung San Suu Kyi."  YouTube, August 27, 2007.

2. U.S. Campaign for Burma.

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Correspondence and Permissions: James S. Oppenheim

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