onsdag, oktober 17, 2007

Proposal to bombard Burma with photos

Please, tell me what you think about this idea.
Even though there has been leaks in the firewall of Burma, and even though there is short-wave radio transmission and so on, the vast majority of the people in Burma, do not have direct access to these sources of information, and have to rely on rumours about what happened during the days of protest and crackdown. I think that spreading the word further, by giving proof of what what and is going on, to ordinary people and to low officials and people on various administrative posts, is crucial to build up even more resistance, motivation and courage to disobey orders from higher up in the hierarchy.

Perhaps one possible way to do this is by mail. With pictures, since a picture is worth a thousand words and speaks every language. My suggestion, as for right now, is to send:
1) Postcards of the demonstrations, that shows the incredible size and power of it, and how it was brutally halted. MOST postcards will probably get stuck in the very first mail sorting facility, but for the workers there to see. Some will probably go further, since you might just look at the address (or you could pretend to do so). By writing realistic fake addresses, the postcards will never reach (and thereby harm) any recipient, but will be seen by various people dealing with mails, and might be shown to even further, when looking for the address...
2) Pictures in envelopes, sent to real addresses: low officials, police stations, local authorities etc. The people there might not even have understood the width of what was happening, and they have been fed lies about violent protestors etc. The problem is of course, to find appropriate addresses.

Postcards can be printed by you, on good paper, and I guess laser or wax printers is better against moist than ink. Pictures in envelopes could be printed with any printer, of course. On the back side, a simple one-sentence message, or nothing at all, except the address.

How does this sound to you? I imagine that feeding the public and low officials in the administration with the truth could be more effective than trying to change the minds of Than Shwe and the other generals.

Please comment on this, so we can develop the idea, or discard it...

9 Comments:

At 8:43 em, Blogger johanna said...

Sounds like a good ida to me!

 
At 8:50 em, Blogger johanna said...

idea

 
At 9:27 em, Blogger Eva said...

That´s a wonderful idea.

 
At 10:44 em, Blogger Catti Ullström said...

It sounds interesting. If you have face book, that's a great place to spread these sorts of ideas, maybe through one of the many burma goups there.

Anyway, happy to have found your blog. will put you on my blog roll of Burma bloggers. We are getting numerous now :)

 
At 11:07 em, Blogger David said...

Catti, yes I already did put it there, on the "Support the monks in Burma"-group. But only the most recent links are visible on the main page...

 
At 1:56 fm, Blogger Catti Ullström said...

Well I suppose it might be a problem with that group... it's too big I guess. Well, there are many others with many members, just not that many. Maybe it would be better to create a new group, or cause, for this kind of thing. I know Amnesty did it, I think it was for the "send postcards to the generals"-campaign. I'm not sure, but I think it went well. If you do that, you should probably try to make for exemple Svenska Burmakommittén or Amnesty support the campaign. With their press releases they are better equiped to reach out.

 
At 12:11 fm, Blogger Unknown said...

I don't know how it works when people who r not burmese send such kind of post cards to burmese living inside Burma. For me, as a burmese living outside burma, have to send letters or things via friends who r going into Burma. If you send something that is precious or valuable (or at least look nice) via post, the burmese governmental officers take it. I don't know what they will do with the post cards if you send. But I think they won't care, coz you know, the government officers have to work hard everyday and they don't really care (or understand) what the post cards mean(for them). They will just throw away coz they r afraid.

 
At 5:16 em, Blogger Catti Ullström said...

Missa inte den burmesiska kulturdagen och aftonen den 4 november. Svenska och burmesiska artister kommer att uppträda för att samla in pengar som kommer att gå till den burmesiska rörelsen via Solidaritetsfonden. Mer info finns här: http://sondagforburma.blogspot.com/

Sprid det här vidare och länka gärna till oss!!!

 
At 2:54 em, Anonymous Anonym said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!

 

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