Dean Corner’s blog

2008 is the Year of the Rat.  Which animal year were you born in?

Year of the Rat - this should be my lucky year!

I can't figure out why The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists would have an article about Burmese refugees in Bangladesh but the November/December issue contains an article by Emma Larkin titled "Burma's forgotten refugees."  There are 26,000 Rohingya in two camps in Bangladesh.  As many as 10,000 live in a makeshift camp on a 32-yard wide plot of land between a highway and a river!  These people are Muslims that have been chased from Burma to Bangladesh, repatriated, chased, repatriated, and chased once again.  Of course, by chased I also mean arrested, tortured and killed.

Canada has accepted about 100 of these refugees but the generosity of the international community will have to become much more expansive.  The real solution is for Burma to accept the Rohingya as indigenous to Burma and granted the right to return without harassment or torture.

What's are their chances?  In the meantime, these camps are excellent breeding grounds for Islamist fundamentals to recruit fighters and suicide bombers.  What do the Rohingya have to lose?

What food item would you miss the most if it were removed from your diet and recipes? 
Submitted by scorpion1116.  

Olive Oil

After the incredibly brave protests and marches throughout Burma a few months ago, the world has forgotten the people of Burma.  Decades of repressive military rule has provided the Burmese people with all that they would ever need - they have everything they could possibly want because there is nothing left to take away anymore.

George Orwell wrote a very perceptive novel about a previous devastation of Burma during Britain's colonial rule.  Burmese Days paints a vivid portrait of imperialism and racism in the early 20th century.

Emma Larkin retraces Orwell's path some 70 years later in Finding George Orwell in Burma.  She finds buildings in danger of collapsing, towns barely recognizable and strange vestiges of the British.  There still resides in Burma a community of Anglo-Burmese who did not leave the country prior to Burmese "independence."  They are elderly now and resigned to living the rest of their days in Burma because the government rarely lets anyone leave the country - for 3 weeks or for ever.

Larkin finds that having honest conversations with Burmese could expose them to the Military Intelligence and certain imprisonment and torture.  No one is sure who is or is not connected to MI.  The Burmese army has as many troops as the U.S.  The education system is in shambles and university degrees are awarded to people who often never passed, let alone took, exams.  Burma, once an exporter of food, now imports food but allows its natural resources to be depleted by Thailand and China.  The income from these resources enriches the military leaders and pays for arms and troops.

What can the U.S. do?  Put pressure on the Chinese to stop propping up the dictatorship and stop buying timber and natural gas, tin, copper. 

If you want to know what it feels like to live in Burma today, read Orwell's 1984.  It really did happen somewhere.  It's not just a novel.

What are five words you really like? 
Submitted by purplesque.

1. micturate

2. macerate

3. doppelganger

4. loess

5. iris

There was disturbing news recently that the Washington Post may not exist as a newspaper in the very near future.  There may be a lot of "who cares?" in response but think of the repercussions for politics,  government and democracy (what's left of it).  Blogs and online "news" sources are great but how many of us have the time to find reliable sources that comment on more than the headlines? 

With the Wall Street Journal now under the control of Rupert Murdoch, we will have even fewer reliable news features (the editorial page couldn't get much alarming than it was).  The LA Times, NY Times, Chicago Tribune aren't perfect but their disappearance would  bring us closer to a full-blown atomization and alienation of America.

What's the best book you read this year?

The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon.