Another of nature’s incredible creations, the cyclone, has wreaked havoc on Burma with the loss of life expected to be upwards of 100,000. Living around the Bay of Bengal can be a dangerous business with Bangladesh a regular guest of tragedy and Thailand more recently with the Tsunami of 2004.

Numbers of this magnitude tend to overhwhelm causing a certain numbness to appear. 90,000 or 120,000, it’s a big number. But I don’t want to dwell on that aspect of the disaster but more on what this means for Burma.

A period of searching and mourning followed by rebuilding will take place, following a similar pattern to these events, but in what framework? The miltary junta, bunch of decrepid bovver boys, has no choice but to allow the world in as it has no hope of handling this on its own. Repression yes! reconstruction nah.

If ever a message was to be heeded this is it. The Saffron Revolution was just the beginning, creating a force of energy which some might say has manifested in this terrible way. It is surely no coincidence that just 2 days away is the proposed referendum on a new constitution. A referendum where you can vote but not against it.

It’s been interesting watching the warlord generals and how they look shellshocked and dazed as the cameras focus in on them. But more than anything they look very human. Sure they have plenty of vicious thugs to carry out their torture and murder but now they look weak as they are exposed to the world.

It’s time for the world to really put the hammer down on these dictators and try and bring about some kind of change. Just being able to live without fear of being carted off to prison or a labour camp would be a good start but this may be the point at which birth, although painful, can be given to a new Burma.

News comes of Fouad al-Farhan and his release after 137 days in jail. He was detained for being critical of the Kingdom and its repressive approach to government. Following on from my previous post on human rights in Saudi Arabia, this is no surprise.

The Kingdom is very sensitive to any mention of reform or greater freedom of expression. It has huge strategic importance in the Gulf area and has always been a major bulwark for the West against Iraq and Iran. At the same time its treatment of its own citizens has left a lot to be desired. In some ways its an example of the ultimate trade off between human rights and strategic concerns.

But the key issue here is one of freedom of speech. Many organizations have worked long and hard around the world to support people like Fouad who are imprisoned on no charge and on spurious grounds at best.

Amnesty is one and needs no introduction but Index on Censorship is another organization doing great work in preventing and informing us on cases of repression and curtailment of speech.

It’s a cause all bloggers should support.

Following a huge campaign the death sentence on Pervez Kambaksh was lifted and we finally heard from him about his experience at the hands of the Afghani justice system.

Stories about the Taliban’s treatment of women and those who try to help them are legendary in their barbarism.

Now we hear about the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia. It’s one thing to treat women with violence (we have plenty enough of that terrible behaviour in the non-Islamic world) but the dis-empowerment via lack of rights and education is really unacceptable at the most basic level. It means there really is no escape from a life of slavery.

This extremist form of Islam does a dis-service to mainstream Islam and shows how vast and wide that congregation is in terms of beliefs and practices.

You wont hear anyone in power being critical of Saudi Arabia because their strategic position is so important and of course they buy a lot of weapons and sell a lot of oil. The hypocrisy of human rights and trade is summarised nicely here.

This year it’s the 60th Anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights. The UN better start pulling its finger out before it gets done under the trades description act.

I was reading an obituary today for Dith Pran, the man who brought the “Killing Fields” of the Khmer Rouge to a global audience. Not only was it a moving story as portrayed in the film but it was a first hand account of the Cambodian genocide. It reminded me of some of the news stories recently about the men involved in carrying out orders from their leaders.

There was Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, who processed thousands through S-21, a prison and torture centre. As he tells it he simply followed orders and after a time realised either he carried on or he and his family would be killed like all the others. This is a common theme: the chance of survival at any cost or certain death. Once you’ve killed a few another hundred or thousand is just numbers.

What about Joseph “Zig Zag” Marzah, a “lieutenant” of Charles Taylor, Liberian warlord. He recalls a culture of fear and severe repression within which there was no escape. Henchman who failed to carry through vicious killings were dispatched in similar fashion, on one occasion completely dismembering a former rebel leader and eating his liver. Cannibalism was encouraged as a weapon of fear.

Anyone who has seen “Blood Diamond” or even the new “Rambo” film will have seen theatrical glimpses of the way ordinary civilians are routinely tortured and killed in various parts of the world.

Never mind the 20th century as the bloodiest on record the 21st is shaping up to be pretty wet also.

Branton posted recently on the film “Beowulf” and how the myth demonstrates that we manifest what we truly believe about ourselves. The birthing of monsters is something we see all the time today. Did the US not support and fund the Khmer Rouge initially? Did they not fund Saddam initially as well as the Taliban?

So what can we learn from all this? Not that there is somehow a solution to genocide or that, as was said post-Holocaust, it will never happen again. It will happen again, somewhere and somehow. Sure we can make changes to the system that generates conflicts and doesn’t provide for all but really it’s ourselves that need to change. What we believe about ourselves is what comes out into the world. Will we continue to be like Hrothgar or will we be like Beowulf? Will we unite with the source or continue to separate ourselves and descend into a world of monsters?

The choice is ours.

Even Condelezza Rice is giving her support to this campaign. Thanks to all who have given their support.

It does/you can make a difference.

I finally got round to seeing the Last King of Scotland yesterday. I thought it was a great film not just because of its portrayal of Idi Amin but also the feckless young Scottish doctor who arrived in Uganda hoping to help out, make a difference and have a bit of adventure (preferably sexual).

As Amin prepares him to meet his maker he makes some interesting points to the young man. He tells him in no uncertain terms that Africa is not a game or a place to come a play the altruist…it’s real….and reality is often brutal and bloody. His death was the first real thing the young doctor would experience in his life. As it happens he got away and we are left feeling that the message got through.

Of course the film is fictional though based on the book of the same name which drew on various people and factual events to create the character of Dr Carrigan. Complete with stereotypical English diplomatic spooks, menacing local enforcers and locals with big hearts but no hope, the film almost falls over but for the fact that it’s a fair representation of life in Uganda at that time.

It’s interesting for me also becuase in recent weeks i have met 2 people from Uganda in different contexts both who struck me as being very hopeful about life, passionate about making a difference but also aware that potentially similar problems may be lurking around the corner.

So that brings me to the point of this blog…….is Robert Mugabe the last King of Africa? Watching Zimbabwe implode is not very pleasant even for the dispassionate observer. The similarities with Uganda are there though not as obvious as one might think. Certainly the paranoia is setting in, the violence is on the increase and the general population is now suffering from food and medical shortages, inflation, unemployment.

Mugabe has already used up his fall guy card - the British - with white landowners having been given short shrift over the past decade. So the only people left to get stuck into are his own…..surely he doesn’t have much time left?

The nature of the dictator as a sociopath is well documented. Intransigence and unwillingless to listen are other unwelcome attributes. But is this just an African problem? I don’t think so. Look at Iraq, Serbia even Northern Ireland. Ian Paisley finally agreed with Sinn Fein yesterday as they sat down next to each other…..apparently “never, never, never, never” doesn’t always mean never.

And who is running Russia right now? Surely Putin is only a few steps away from a fully paid up authoritarian….he’s just doing well economically so can afford to be beneficient at the moment.

That could change.

Many old timers weep tears for their beloved Rhodesia but how can a country be prosperous based on the subjugation of others and the expropriation of resources? All around the world we are seeing a slow unwinding of the colonial and imperialist adventures of the last 500 years. Freedom, self determination and removal of the yolk of centralised and external authority is the story of the day. For Africa, stuck in the whirlpool of historical tribal and ethnic conflict, post colonialisation changes, grinding debt and the arms/resource trade, times are difficult.

The best thing the international community could do is to eliminate historical debts and aid at the same time under a guarantee that funds would go towards schools, hospitals and basic infrastructure.

Other than that people have to sort out their own problems in their own backyard. Human nature will no doubt continue to interfere with any positive outcomes but everywhere there are people with hope and the will to make things work.

As they say in New Zealand, she’s a hard road ahead.

debt, zimbabwe, poverty, conflict, mugabe, political institutions, un declaration of human rights, sustainability, new zealand, education, violence, politics, money, africa, uganda, future, Uncategorized