What its all about

Those of you that followed my journey last time around know I was working with an amazing Burmese Women's group, teaching women's empowerment, human rights, democracy building, health and of course, the dreaded English classes! I had an absolutely amazing trip, filled with incredible people and countless new experiences. I also became deeply involved in the Burmese democracy movement, a cause that I stay attached to after I moved back to NY.
I'll thought I'd take this time to explain a bit about what its all about.............
Burma is a country is South East Asia, that was once known as the "Rice Bowl of Asia" do to its wealth of natural resources and diverse cultures. The country was part of British India until gaining independence in 1948. While unified as one country, Burma is made up of 9 separate ethnic states, which were promised independence in 20 years. This promise was never granted, as in 1962 the democratic government was toppled by a military coup, installing a military dictatorship led by General Ne Win. He ruled until 1988, and under his "Burmese Way to Socialism" Burma went from Asia's "Rice Bowl" to one of the poorest, and sickest countries in the world.
In 1988 unrest over political corruption and economic mismanagement led to a country wide protests, began by students. The protests, which began on August 8th, 1988, are known as the 8888 revolutions. Thousands were killed and the protests eventually stopped, but the government did promise free elections for the first time in 30 years. In 1990, despite the military's attempt to fix the polls, the National League For Democracy, a pro-democracy party, won 392 out of 489 seats. Unfortunately the military government refused to acknowledge this, and stayed in power. Many of you might remember that another nation wide protest was held in fall of 2007, led by thousands of Buddhist monks, the country's most revered people. The military government once again crushed the people's protests, killing hundreds in the process.
Besides the continued suppression of democracy, the government also continues to persecute Burma's ethnic hill tribe groups. These groups, which maintain different cultures from those in mainland Burma, face continued threats from the military government. The military forces people off their land, uses women and children to test for landmines, recruits children soldiers and utilizes rape as a weapon of war. Since 1988 thousands of refugees have fled to neighboring countries, especially Thailand and Malaysia.
That (extremely short) summary brings us up to date. Stay tuned to learn about what I am doing to take part in the democracy movement and human rights struggle for the people of Burma