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“VJ Burma”
Film Presentation and Short Talk
by Ethan Davidson
As our country seems to lurch closer and closer to extreme authoritarianism, it is useful to learn
about how other people have successfully resisted extreme authoritarian government. The Saffron Revolution in Burma, and its video journalists, is one such example. In 2007, five years before Occupy, the people of Burma spontaneously organized a large mass resistance in a nation ruled by a brutal military government. It was not the first such rebellion. Students, dissidents, rural ethnic minorities, and Buddhist monastics had resisted before. But they had always been put down by brute force, leaving most things unchanged. Aung Sang Suu Kyi, the democratically-elected leader, had been denied power and held under extended house arrest on and off for two decades.
In 2007, when a large mass resistance broke out, a dilemma had to be confronted. The media was totally state-controlled, and foreign journalists were not permitted in, so whatever happened was known only to those who had seen it. In response, a group of independent video journalists taped
the uprising and the response as it happened, at the risk of their lives, and others smuggled the footage into Thailand, and from there to the global media.
The uprising really caught fire when the Buddhist monks started participating. Burma is a
Buddhist nation, and its monks are highly respected. But in the past, those monastics who had resisted the government had been killed, while those who did not were given good food and beautiful, comfortable buildings. The generals who ruled Burma loved to be photographed giving food to monks, and these pictures were posted all over the state media.
Traditionally, Buddhist monks eat by going silently from house to house with begging bowls and eating anything that was put in them. While this custom had been modified, the symbolism of the begging bowl was still a potent one. All the monks had to do was to march in public with their begging bowls turned upside down, symbolizing their refusal to take food from a corrupt or harmful source. No words or banners were needed. The meaning was understood by all.
At its peak, demonstrations were estimated at up to fifty thousand people. Inevitably, another government crackdown followed, and the film ends on a grim note. Yet change followed rapidly. The generals lost much of their power, and Aung Sand Suu Ki was released. She ran for the nation’s highest office again, and won by a landslide.
The movie is comprised completely of videos taking by the Video Journalists, and includes footage of highly dangerous situations that one rarely has a chance to see.
Come and see how resistance can be successful, even in the most desperate situations.
Time will be allotted for announcements.
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