So, what’s with the acronym?
It doesn’t stand for customer service representative or corporate social responsibility but it stands for a visual impairment, central serous chorioretinopathy also called central serous retinopathy. This is usually temporary albeit for a few months. According to contributors of Wikipedia, it affects males 20 to 50. The disorder is further described as
Barely two months since Joseph Estrada was convicted of plunder, elements of the government moved swiftly to work out an easy way out for the disgraced leader. There were still some pride from Erap and his lawyers but apparently the overwhelming evidence or their belief that Philippine justice is just inefficient–changed their mind and they opted to forward a plea for pardon.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer recently made a major blooper bannering a headline that President Arroyo was present during an alleged bribery of several politicians. The news was also carried on Inquirer.net. Apparently the error was discovered only before the daily deadline for the day’s stories, which is at 3pm.
A few months back, one story on Bangkok Post caught my eye. As one wire agency reporter described it, the plot was just like a classic spy novel. The plot costs around US$28million and though it will be led by a leading Hmong activist in the US, it will mainly be supported by ex-CIA agents, which number barely about a size of a platoon. The US took the plan seriously (well, it was serious that money and other logistics were allegedly ready) and charged those behind the possibly deadly revolutionary plan.
This case shows that the US is full of irony. Here’s a noble plan, albeit deadly, to overthrow a tyrant government and yet they threw the books at the plotters. When they planned to attack Afghanistan and Iraq they were relying on their belief that it was their moral authority to lead the war on terror regardless whether it will be sanctioned by the United Nations or not (remember the lines of Judge Dredd, I AM the LAW!!!). 🙂
Now, Burma (Myanmar) is making some noise for change. More than a decade ago, Myanmar also faced the same turmoil, wherein people trooped to the street to demand change but they the government responded with a hail of bullet. However, the best help that Myanmar got were a series of economic sanctions from various countries, which didn’t work. Every country just stood to see the people of Myanmar suffer.
Today, it seems that it will be the same old story and it might probably be that the Myanmar Military Junta might go down to the books as the longest serving military dictators of all time (counting to around 40 years now).
My friend from Myanmar was able to return to Perth but he wasn’t able to join any of the protest action (just send me a personal message if you want to know why). However, I noticed that he is a changed man. He is a man burning with passion and anger against the government. He confirmed that there is possibly more than 200 that were killed in the military dispersal of the Buddhist monk-led protest rally in Yangon.
“I am very angry with my government,” he told me. “They killed the monks right at the most sacred place of our religion, Shwedagon Pagoda,” he explained. He said that hundreds are missing without a trace after the government crackdown. Everybody’s being arrested, according to him, whether they participated or not. It was worse for those living in proximity to the temple. Some of them were arrested even if they haven’t participated in any protest action. He also said that the jails in Yangon are filled to the brim.
The US Ambassador Shari Villarosa recently held a high level meeting with the government. My friend told me that she was allegedly shown the monks that were arrested and Villarosa was made to believe that the monks were treated fairly. However, my friend believes otherwise. “They are killing everybody,” he said. Allegedly, all the monks that were arrested were marked for “substitution.” “The monks were killed as they were replaced by soldiers posing as monks. They shaved their heads to make her (Villarosa) believe that they are still alive. How could she possibly know that they are legitimately the monks when she can’t speak or can’t understand Burmese language,” he explained.
As of this writing, all the hyped talks at the international (UN) and regional level (ASEAN) are on going however, all are just talks and no definitive action (except for further economic sanctions) are being planned. As always, it’s all just talk despite the large number of people killed.
So what’s with Myanmar, Rwanda, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Colombia among others that each are treated in a different way by the international community especially the all powerful US??? You make your guess, I rest my fingers for now…
I have yet to hear from my friend from Myanmar. He was supposed to return last night. I saw a video clip of what happened in Yangon over Mizzima News. When I saw it, it reminded me of Mendiola Massacre–I just couldn’t take the brutality of the situation.
A friend of mine was in the front line of the protesting peasant farmers. Her colleague was hit by a bullet in the face. She survived and so did her colleague. I saw the event on TV and it became one of historical events on TV that I’ll never forget aside from the assassination of Ninoy.
It was reported that the Military Junta had cut off the internet connection in the country to avoid any leakage of any documentation of the military action against the protesters and hold a clip on the nation’s blogger informants. The military had previously cracked down on protesters in 1988 when thousands were killed. They are still defiant again despite increasing international pressure including from its strongest ally, China. If they continue their defiance at this stage, will they have the guts to annihilate more than 10,000 people at one go? Will the international community, again, just watch and contribute to the rhetoric of diplomatic scolding and spanking (economic sanction) of this country? It’s everybody’s guess and I hope that the video clip at Missima News will be the last image of that kind that I will see from Yangon.
As I’m writing this, a colleague of mine is still in Yangon (Rangoon). He called yesterday to assure us that he’s fine. Well, we all know of the news about this poor country. What followed was unprecedented. To think that all the monks wanted was just an apology. Things got worse today.
My colleague is having second thoughts of leaving Yangon. He has an obligation to finish his study here in Perth but he would be leaving his family behind with his country deteriorating day after day. He’s arriving tomorrow… maybe.
To find out more about the Burma crisis click here.
A special report by GMANews.TV on political clans and pork barrel caught my eye last month. The Philippines is said to have good laws against corruption including nepotism however, it seems the Filipinos have not learned in the past when only the few controlled the government.
According to this report, at least nine families have access to at least PhP1 billion of pork barrel funds–a source of corruption as this kind of fund does not usually undergo scrutiny under the Commission on Audit. Now, do you still wonder why election, more specifically politics is a BIG THING in the Philippines. People literally kill to get their hands on various political posts.
Thanks to Getty they have at least a stock of what a lunar eclipse would have looked like. Australia had very good view of the lunar eclipse last Tuesday night but not us here in Western Australia. The weather spoiled my planned moon gazing activity.
I first fell in love with star gazing during a trip to the Manila Planetarium when I was an elementary student. The centre was jampacked then that I had to lie down on the floor to see the film showing. Lying on the floor was in fact the best position to watch the film as we watch about a film documentary about space (the film was projected on the centre’s dome roofing). It was the first time that I took notice of such beautiful bodies… albeit heavenly bodies 🙂 Orion, the bear, the big dipper and the moon.
Since then, stargazing has been my favorite past time especially whenever I get to a pitch black place. I remember my first lunar eclipse experience was also back when I was in elementary. The moon looked very big and my friends were telling horror stories during that night but it was certainly an awesome sight as the moon looks so huge and perfectly round.
When I first arrived here in Australia, I was amazed with the weather, which was most of the time clear skies during the night that one could get a very good view of the heavens. It is surely an awesome and exhilarating experience. So investing on a good telescope is not worthless for any stargazer. 🙂
Anyway, I missed this latest total lunar eclipse. I’ll definitely mark the next one–December 2011–as to where I’ll be by that time, I’m not yet sure but I’ll definitely not going to miss it unless cloudy weather prevails again. 🙂
For the first time since about four months Thailand blocked Youtube, I got to access the site here Down Under and watch some of my favorite clips online. 🙂
Then barely five months since Thailand blocked Youtube last April 3, Youtube is online again in Thailand according to The Bangkok Post. This came after lengthy negotiations between Google and the Thai Government with Google agreeing to remove the clips. However, the removal of the clips did not materialize as Google insisted that they might break rights of other users to free speech. The Thai government agreed to Google’s move install filters for Thai Youtube users. This means if you are a user in Thailand, you will still be able to access Youtube but you will not be able to access any identified offensive video clips against the monarchy.
Some Thai media experts were not happy with this as it was just a partial success for free speech advocate. Google won to have Youtube online in Thailand but “with conditions.”
The Thai government is happy with the outcome anyway and at least Google gave in to the Thai Government’s “request” albeit after a long dragged negotiations. Everybody happy.
Thailand has boundaries and this case has showed that in cyberspace there are still rules and there are still boundaries. As to how far would a country/organization could impose its rules/laws, it is still a vague concept I suppose. What do you think?
After assisting in the public awareness of bird flu for almost two years, I think I’m becoming callous just hearing the word “flu.” As if I have not had enough–there’s been an outbreak of human flu here in Australia, deaths were recorded especially in young children.
A few weeks ago, Australia watched cautiously as Japan reported its first horse flu in decades. Australia is the only country in the world without the disease and many breeding stallions from Australia travel as far as Japan just to service some of the horses there.
This week, Australia reported its first outbreak of equine flu or horse flu last week and the implication to its horse racing and breeding industry is shooting billions of Australian dollars! Despite excellent response to the first outbreak, the disease seems to spread in a blink of an eye. After decades of being free, Australia is now contemplating vaccination. The implication of this is that the country will have to wait for about two years to gain certification from the World Organization for Animal Health or OIE that it is free from equine flu.
The current outbreak is feared to have an effect on the Melbourne Cup in November, well horse trainers, bettors, jockeys are still hoping that at least it would just be partial. Well, partial or not I’m coming to Melbourne albeit not to the Cup but to a conference. 🙂 But I hope I would have the chance to have a side trip at the sidelines at Melbourne Cup. 🙂
Blogbastic! 