BURMESE DAYS...
Saturday, July 4, 2009 at 11:14AM Showing the iron-like tenacity oner expects from a UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon has declared that he is "disappointed " to be denied the opportunity to meet jailed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi during his visit to Burma.
Mr Ban was told of the refusal when he held a second round of talks with military leader Gen Than Shwe. "I'm deeply disappointed," he told reporters. "I'm very sorry to report to you that this is not possible."
Can someone please explain what is the POINT in having a United Nations that is supine in the face of the sort of tyranny that the Burma thugs demonstrate? Mr Moon is as useless as his corrupt predecessors and yet the international left hail the UN as an honourable and vital institution. As we look around the world from Iran to North Korea, from Burma to Sudan - the UN just watches as tyranny prevails. Still, it's quite good at attacking Israel...
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Reader Comments (11)
You have essentially summed up what the United Nations has become. Ignored by tyrants unless as a propoganda tool for anti-Western and anti-Israeli sentiments. And it blocks my view of the East River when I go to work each day.
It's Mr. Ban, not Mr. Moon.
Mr Moon to me, pal.
As he actually bans nothing, couldn't it equally be Mr Wan - or on a bad day Mr Cran?
h.t. to my ten year old grandson!
"Can someone please explain what is the POINT in having a United Nations that is supine in the face of the sort of tyranny that the Burma thugs demonstrate? "
Unless you wish to give the UN an army they have little choice to be supine, and lets face it if they did have an army hey'd march against Israel and possibly the USA before they turned to Burma.
The UN is fine as a institution where necessary but grubby and amoral realpolitick can occur, the mistake is to claim some sort of moral authority for it.
It is Mr Ban, not Mr Moon and it is also Myanmar, not Burma.
It's Burma.
Myanmar is the " slave name " given by the junta
The Burmese, including the political opposition, call it Burma.
" Myanmar " is the equivalent of " Ho Chi Minh City ", a name which the Saigonese hate and tend never to use.
It is indeed Burma. But...
" Ho Chi Minh City ", a name which the Saigonese hate and tend never to use
Change the word 'Saigonese' with 'American tourists' and you'll be a lot closer to the truth.
then lets call it Ho Chi Minimar.....
The UN is useless, and my government is becoming even worse I use Honduras as an example When the President of the US sides with Chavez and Castro to back a man trying to rewrite his nations constitution to become a dictator against that nations laws we got real problems brewing
AJ
I take it that you've not been to Vietnam. I've been there.
When there, I noticed that the locals seemingly never used the word " Ho Chi Minh City ".
I asked Vietnamese speaking expats living there - Aussies and French -- who confirmed that in any informal setting -- ie when you weren't speaking to a govt official - that Saigon was the term that the locals would nearly always use.
Vietnam is a big country, and the culture, politics and history is more complex than many realize.
When South Vietnam fell in 1975, the North Vietnamese did not extend the hand of brotherhood to their defeated countryman as Lincoln did to the U.S. South at the end of the US Civil War.
The South Vietnamese were treated as a defeated enemy. Large numbers of South Vietnamese soldiers and govt officials were herded into prison camps where they remained for years. ( Even now, many of them are not allowed to have any decent jobs. You see old men, ex S Vietnamese military, operating motorcycle taxis in Saigon for this reason )
The name of " Ho Chi Minh City " was imposed on the south's largest city from Hanoi. Ho Chi Minh,-- though respected by most Vietnamese for his integrity, including those who fought him-- was himself not a southerner. He never lived there. Imposing his name on the old city of Saigon was meant to remind the Saigonese who won the war, everytime they said the city's name.
If you want to prove this for yourself, I recommend that you actually visit the place we speak of. Vietnam is an interesting place.
The three letter airport symbol for Saigon remains " SGN ".