SUMMARY: After nearly 18 months, two Reuters journalists have left prison in Myanmar. The crime that put them there: Revealing information the country’s government wanted to suppress, about its persecution campaign against Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority. John Yang talks to Priscilla Clapp, a former U.S. diplomat who served as chief of mission in the American embassy in Myanmar, about the developments.
The scars of military rule run deep at Yangon University — decrepit buildings, broken sidewalks and mold everywhere. But with plans for President Obama to visit on Monday, hundreds of workers have converged in an urgent effort to spruce up the campus. Mr. Obama’s trip to Myanmar will be the first by an American president, and the authorities are creating something of a Potemkin campus to greet him.
Contractors have brought small armies of men from rural areas to repaint and refurbish the British-built university, which before military rule was one of the most pre-eminent educational institutions in Asia. Mr. Obama’s visit to the university, which over the years has been a site of both student activism and brutal repression, will carry significant symbolism in Myanmar.
“They said we have a cleaning job for you, and it has to be done in three days,” said Tun Tun, one of the contractors who watched over his men as they scraped rust from a fence.
Mr. Tun Tun said he was happy that Mr. Obama was coming, not because of the political significance, but because contract work was still relatively scarce.
“It’s a job opportunity,” he said.
To say that Yangon University has fallen into disrepair would be a vast understatement. The outer walls of the auditorium where Mr. Obama is scheduled to deliver a speech are black with mold. Plants are growing out of cracks in the facade.
As encouragement for daunted workers, contractors are paying the technicians who are fixing air-conditioners in the auditorium a premium: 6,000 kyat, or about $7, for a day’s work, about 50 cents more than usual.
I am Retired U.S. Navy (22yrs) and a Vietnam Veteran. After my Navy retirement I was in the computer related industry, now retired. In 2000 I was a registered Republican and voted for George W. Bush. Six months of having Bush in the Whitehouse forced me to re-evaluate my political stance. I had always thought of myself as a Moderate Republican, but was a Republican by "default" NOT because of close examination of the GOP. Due to what has happened in America since 2000, I now consider myself a progressive, and registered as a Non-Affiliated voter.
*Anti-First Amendment policies that attempt to turn America into a theocracy by enshrining ANY religious belief as law.
* Any attempt to suppress human or Constitutional rights.
* Any law or policy that supports discrimination based on religion, ethnicity, race/color, gender, sexual orientation, or any law that does NOT support Equal Treatment under the law.
*Any law or policy that attempts to suppress Freedom of the Press or Free Speech.
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