https://twitter.com/husaynz/status/1199177479220613120?s=21
This tweet is quite interesting, in which a former Pakistani serviceman juxtaposes Pakistan’s treatment of their veterans with the United States. The author keys in on the lack of educational benefits provide to servicmen and servicewomen after their service. He also mentions how our society in the US naturally prioritizes and glorified those who serves and points at the Pakistani government to show more appreciation to is servicemen.
Haikal Mansor, author of the linked tweet, is a very vocal Rohingya tweeter and blogger. On November 20th, Aung San Suu Kyi declared that she would go to The Hauge in order to defend Myanmar at the ICJ against the potential violation of the Genocide Convention of 1948, as accused by Gambia. Being a Rohingya muslim, clearly Mr. Mansor feels very strongly about this decision. First of all he criticizes her decision to defend Myanmar at the ICJ as she will be defending the militaries potentially genocidal like actions against the Rohingya people. Obviously, Mr. Mansor feels very strongly about this since he Rohingya and she is therefore going against something he believes in. Second of all he criticizes her choice of picking two military generals to help her defend at the ICJ. According to Ministry of the Office of the State Counselor this choice was, “in order to strengthen internal capacity and expertise, and provide legal opinions to relevant ministries on issues related to international criminal law.”(Two Myanmar Military Officers Join Int’l Criminal Justice Unit for ICJ Defense, Irrawaddy). Military spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun stated, “[The inclusion of the military officials] is at the government’s instruction. In the Special Unit on International Criminal Justice, two military officers are included and one of them is an expert on international law,”(Two Myanmar Military Officers Join Int’l Criminal Justice Unit for ICJ Defense, Irrawaddy). Therefore is doesn’t seem that the choice to include these two military generals was ASSK’s choice. Nevertheless, it shows that the the government and military do not want to take responsibility for their actions. However, it only makes sense that they would choose these military generals to help defend their case since they probably know the most about what actions the military took. That being said, I’m sure there will be no small amount of biases since it is in their interest to defend the militaries actions and make it look like they did nothing wrong. As for her being a puppet to the military, I wonder if ASSK was told or is being forced to go or if it was actually her choice?
Help Received:
https://www.haikalmansor.com/ Haikal Mansor’s Blog
Tweet from Haikal Mansor:
Ethan Watts
#AungSanSuuKyi, the military's puppet, is OUT OF HER MIND!
First she declared she'll be defending the case at the ICJ as "the Agent" of genocidal #Myanmar.
Now she formed 'International Criminal Justice' unit and included 2 military generals. #Rohingyahttps://t.co/5QUi6up8D6
— Haikal Mansor (@HaikalMansor) November 28, 2019
HR: Tweet, https://www.nbr.org/publication/reorienting-indias-foreign-policy-neighborhood-first/,
https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2019/06/06/modi-foreign-policy-lay-stress-sagar-doctrine-and-act-east.html
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2170621/what-rajapaksas-return-means-china-india-tug-war-over-sri-lanka
This tweet was sent out after the Prime Minister of India spoke during the President of Sri Lanka’s visit to India. The tweet references the speech made by the Prime Minister of India addressing Sri Lanka. The President made this state visit to India because he had recently been elected as President of Sri Lanka. The “Neighborhood First” policy is a foreign policy objective by India to increase relations between itself and the surrounding south Asian countries. Basically, India is trying to increase cooperation in the area by offering assistance to countries that need it in order to build up their infrastructure. Historically, India had been promising countries things they had not delivered on, and this policy is trying to decrease that. This project falls under the SAGAR doctrine that is mentioned in the speech, SAGAR stands for Security and Growth for All the Region, which is the foreign policy objectives of India, as mentioned above, to increase cooperation within the region. I think a large part of the reason that the President visited India was because he ran on a anti-China platform, and one of India’s goal with the SAGAR doctrine is ultimately to unite south Asia against China, so it makes sense that the President would go to show his support. Based on the fact that the President of Sri Lanka referenced the promise that the PM of India made to contribute to a strong Sri Lanka, it shows that the President supports the PM and is also hoping that he will follow through with his word to build up Sri Lanka.
“A stable, secure and prosperous Sri Lanka is not only in India's interest but also in the interest of the entire Indian Ocean Region” – stated HE @narendramodi during the press conference today – the translation of speech can be accessed : https://t.co/jqTbxmqDrz
— Gotabaya Rajapaksa (@GotabayaR) November 29, 2019
Adam Roberto
“Free #Rohingya Coalition is going to launch an online campaign called “Boycott #Myanmar” on December 9. On this day in 1984, UN General Assembly adopted the #genocide convention. We urge all to join our campaign.” -Ro Nay San Lwin
In 2015, Myanmars military began forcing out a group of people called Rohingya from the Myanmar state of Rakhine. The Rohingya are an ethnically muslim group that have lived in Myanmar for many years. Since the start of this attack on the Rohingya by the Myanmar government, tens of thousands have been forced from their home to places like Bangladesh due to the increasing violence. There has been public outcry from all across the globe to stop these acts. Now, it is being brought to the United Nations to charge the Myanmar government with genocidal acts and an organization called Free Rohingya Coalition are calling for a boycott against Myanmar.
I find this tweet and this movement to be very interesting. Just by looking at this tweet, it doesn’t give the reader much on what exactly is being boycotted, it only states that the country is being boycotted. It causes the reader to have to look more into the whole crisis in Myanmar, or if they already know about it, it at least causes them to look into this specific Boycotting Myanmar movement. I would like to know if the person who made the tweet wanted people to look more into the movement by being vague, or does not want to say a lot about the movement for another reason. This could also be to avoid censorship by the Myanmar government.
Cadet Caleb Minus
Blog Post
I chose this blog post about the Pakistani movie/TV industry because it involves ICTs and also revolves around women’s perceptions, roles, and rights in Pakistan. It takes about how Khalilur Qamar, a successful director in Pakistan, uses his art to essentially demonize women and glorify men. The article highlights “that any woman in a pair of jeans is inherently evil or that any wife who stands up for herself against abuse is bad” and that men are “innocent creatures who only suffer because of the women they are around with barely any fault of their own.” For this reason, on social media and obviously blogs are making a big deal about how he is reinforcing a dangerous form of patriarchy.
As a result, his colleagues and viewers have begun to outcry against his direct and subliminal comments on women. It’s nice to see that ICTs are being used to create and drive social change in Pakistan. Likewise, it’s interesting because in our class we’ve taken time to focus on the impact society has had on women in South Asia, more so in a negative sense, in that ICTs are often ineffective or simply not used to help women. This blog post shows that there are people, including men, who are fighting and calling out media that degrades women, to stop the “vile circle of woman blaming and the botched notions that a woman cannot ask for her rights”.
This blog started out by saying that the Indian central government nullified Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian constitution which had given the Jammu and Kashmir state a large degree of autonomy. This order divided the State into two Union territories with a lot less autonomy. This division had three goals in mind: to fight Pakistan-inspired terrorism and separatism in Jammu and Kashmir, to integrate Jammu and Kashmir with India fully, and to facilitate economic development. Former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa approved the steps taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India. The blog then talked about the upcoming Sri Lankan presidential election in December 2019 and the importance of the elected person needing to strengthen national security. Rajapaksa spoke in parliament and said he was opposed to dividing Sri Lanka into nine semi-independent states. He also spoke of the ’13 Plus’ system of government that would go beyond the provisions of the 13th amendment. The draft constitution talked about by Rajapaksa was prepared by the Tamil National Alliance. Once presented to the government, the Prime Minister denied ownership of the document. Now, with Gotobaya likely to win the upcoming presidential election, the chances of the Tamils getting power is slim.
This move by Narendra Modi is a positive and possibly very beneficial move for India. It can create new jobs, fight corruption, boost economic development, and fight religious discrimination. Although India sees this as a beneficial move, a lot of outside countries do not agree with it. It is obviously not beneficial to Sri Lanka as the division was already mentioned. The Sri Lankan government has failed to make progress on post-war challenges. India’s progress has increased the insecurity of Tamils. India and Sri Lanka will now have more tensions arising because of this move by India.
HR: blog
India’s Kashmir Action: Severe Implications for Sri Lankan Tamils
The blog that I found was about how rubber corporations became greedy by prioritizing profits, instead of caring more about the people and land of Bangladesh. The site that I found my blog from is actually a rather famous site in Bangladesh. It is called Mukto-Mona, and was founded by Avijit Roy. Roy was one of the founders of the blog, who was sadly killed in recent years due to speaking out over the internet. After speaking out, he was attacked by a conflicting radical group that opposed his blogging. The main bloggers that make up the site try to bring to light conflicting issues that are occurring in the country of Bangladesh.
In the specific blog that I found, Tony Emroz spoke out against large corporations that were seeking to take over villages that contained rubber. Their goal was to obtain the rubber in order to make a profit after production of their main products. He notes that in the 1970’s, people treated land in Bangladesh as a free-for-all reserve of natural goods. Emroz notes that in the Constitution of Bangladesh, Article 23A explains that the land is supposed to be under the protection of the State. Although this piece of legislation is failing the people, the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord has helped to protect the land.
The village of Natun-Parra was recently attacked not too long ago, and at the time of the blog they were facing new conflicts between the villagers and Meridian Agro Industries Limited and Lama Rubber Industries Limited. These two firms were interested in the rubber that was located in the village. The firms were threatening the villagers and were clearly more concerned with rubber more than they cared about the people of Natun-Parra.
Due to networking bloggers, a local army group came to the rescue and helped to protect the villagers from the aggressive rubber corporations. Within the blog, Emroz mentions a human rights leader’s perception of what a true State stands for. The human rights leader’s quote that was included explained how in order for a State to be truly just, they must have the support and backing from the people. This points to the fact that Bangladesh has done a poor job of carrying out Article 23A that can be found in their Constitution, therefore the people do not have as much confidence in their own government. This is because the State is not protecting the land that they said they would help to conserve.
In conclusion, the blogger notes how the village was indeed rescued by the local army group. He continues to go on about how the State needs to analyze their past failures and use what they’ve learned from their mistakes to their advantage. If issues like this continue to occur in Bangladesh, the citizens of the State may begin to rebel against the current government due to their lack of following their own established Constitution.
After reading the blog, I thought it was interesting to see that even though it was just a village that was involved in the incident, bloggers still brought it to the attention of the internet. I guess they need every inch that they can get if they are trying to really make a difference by using the internet to help change their country for the better. Even though this corporation was most likely quite large, the people that made up the village were likely poor and couldn’t use the technique of boycotting. If the village population was large enough, they could possibly stop purchasing the products and really have an impact no the two companies. With this in mind, it probably made it much easier for the rubber corporations to try and infiltrate the village because there was basically no-one that could pull their economic foundation from underneath of them. Also, it makes me wonder whether or not the two corporations paid someone within the government to go against their own Constitution just so they could get by with out any government enforcement. Luckily the local army force noticed the networkers blog and was there to help defend the helpless villagers.
Following my analyzation of the blog post by Tony Emroz, it makes me wonder whether or not political and organizational corruption was involved with this case. And if it were, why wouldn’t the local army have been notified of the bribe? Was this a slip up in communication? Also, could the networking bloggers have reached out to other influential people with a higher economic status than the villagers so that they could boycott the rubber corporations? I think this would have been a useful technique due to its common peaceful and positive outcomes that can be found in other examples of boycotts. After local armies had to step in to help small villages with land issues, could the people of Bangladesh use the spark from the blog to ignite the fire that could end up changing the accountability of the government and its officials for the better?
http://enblog.mukto-mona.com/2019/08/10/save-tribal-homes-from-corporate-greed/
Through the creative and passionate voice of 22-year old, readers are welcomed onto the blog called 18, run by college student Sabhanaz Rashid Diya. This blog is used as a creative source to post poems, photos, ‘articles of her life’, and her opinions on current issues facing the world. This blog shows the mind of a young student starving to get her thoughts and words out into the world. She sometimes is very thoughtful in her writings, while other times she uses the platform as a space for her to spout out randomness to clear her mind. She says about herself, “I am known for serious and angry post-modern monologues.” While she describes herself as an angsty youth with an aversion to pink and a desire to jump into the depths of the unknown, she has a sensitive side to her that she has expressed through writing since the age of nine. She writes stories of herself, of a child she lost, of difficult times in her life, and other situations in which readers can find parts of themselves in. She analysis social norms and issues, such as the judgment she feels on airplanes just because of her race/ethnicity, artists ideals and works, restraints of freedom of speech in media and many more. Her blog is a world view coming from someone as normal as the rest of us, someone that has had life experiences, and sees the world through the same eyes as many of her readers have.
Many of Diya’s articles, especially the ones she writes about the chapters of her life are somewhat vague. She wrote an article about a child she lost, however she does not give any background information into the loss of the child, she stays within the emotional realm of the situation. What would be her specific reasoning behind this? Many readers would like to get that deeper understanding into what happened to this lost child, as well as the emotional impact and her opinions on it. She has a heavy focus on art throughout all of her blog. What ways is art positively or negatively affecting Bangladesh as a whole? How is she involved in art in her country outside of this blog? She has began to write children stories, which is her step into reaching into the physical artistic world. Does she have a connection with children because she lost one herself, or has the connection always been there? She offers her blog in English, does this mean her objective is to reach people outside of Bangladesh as well as the select citizen within the country that can read English? What would be the benefit to her to write this blog in English? Understanding these questions would provide a brighter light into the mind of the author and her artistic vision for the site.
The first that is rather obvious is that almost the entire blog is in Burmese. I think the persons name is Ko Htike. There are some posts and little sections that are in english. This leads me to believe that the blogger Ko Htike, knows english but chooses to use Burmese so that more natives can read the blog. Most posts are related to politics or current events/news. There is a section on the right side that lists all of the different categories. The second thing that stands out is the amount of pictures on the blog. The blogger uses many pictures from events in his/her posts. These pictures really draw you attention as there are pictures of riots/violence, political figures, and protests. The one that really stands out are the pictures of the anniversary of the saffron revolution. This interestingly is also one of the only posts in english. I wonder if this is because the saffron revolution was a monumental event in Burma that people around the world heard about? I would expect this persons blog to be traffic related to the topic, especially some from non Burmese speakers. The blog also has lots of political images on the right side with different slogans, pieces of information, or messages on the images. I can’t translate what is on the picture so I am not exactly sure what the ones in Burmese say. The posts in english seem to be calling people to action and also some criticisms. The blogger also has some videos posted along the side. They seem to be songs with political messages and motives(not in english). Something that caught my attention as well is that the blogger has posted links to other webpages (popular Burmese news sources and webpages) and also fellow bloggers. This helps grow other Burmese blogs and lead blog visitors to informational sources. The blogger also has their email posted if you would like to contact them. I do not see any forms of social media posted. It also seems like there is a pretty active group of followers. Some posts have up to 78 comments, but some other only have single digits. The website has a pretty simple interface to navigate for people who aren’t as tech savy.
Help received:
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Bloggers-in-Burma-keep-world-informed-during-2520952.php used this to find the blog.
http://ko-htike.blogspot.com/ actual blog
Ethan Watts