If 100,000 people were marching the streets of Baghdad or Riyadh, or if thousands of Catholic priests were lying dead in Vatican City, you can bet there would have been a little bit more action by now.
UPDATED 8 Oct '07: 
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, at the meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said, “The United States is determined to keep an international focus on the travesty that is taking place.” Keeping an international focus is essential, but should not distract from one of the most powerful supporters of the junta, one that is much closer to home. Rice knows it well: Chevron.
Fueling the military junta that has ruled for decades are Burma’s natural gas reserves, controlled by the Burmese regime in partnership with the U.S. multinational oil giant Chevron, the French oil company Total and a Thai oil firm. Offshore natural gas facilities deliver their extracted gas to Thailand through Burma’s Yadana pipeline. The pipeline was built with slave labor, forced into servitude by the Burmese military
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"DESPITE global outrage over Burma's bloody crackdown on dissent, multinational firms are still vying for the country's rich natural resources.
The firms are throwing an economic lifeline to the military regime.
US energy giant Chevron, French oil group Total and China's top oil producer China National Petroleum Corporation are among companies giving much-needed income to Burma, defying activists' calls to pull out.
"All these profits go to the regime. These companies don't care about human rights and what is going on in Yangon (Rangoon)," said Debbie Stothard, a co-ordinator of the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma, a regional pro-democracy body.
US President George W Bush last week unveiled new sanctions on the country's ruling generals in a speech to the UN General Assembly.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy also urged his country's businesses, including Total, to freeze their investments in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation, which has been ruled by the military since 1962.
Total has a 31 per cent stake in Burma 's major Yadana project, which would carry gas to power plants in Thailand.
The project is jointly run by the state-run Burma Oil and Gas Enterprise, Thailand's top oil exploration firm PTTEP and US firm Unocal.
Japan's Nippon Oil Corp, South Korean's Daewoo International, Malaysia's state-run energy firm Petronas, as well as two Indian power giants, Gail India and Oil and Natural Gas Corp, are also jockeying for billion-dollar contracts.
Nippon Oil said there would be no change in its Burma operations, which had steadily grown since August 19 following a massive hike in fuel prices for ordinary people.
"We see the political situation and energy business as separate matters," said a company spokesman in Tokyo.
Apart from natural gas, global companies are also seeking Burma's teak, forest products, jade, gems, beans and textiles.
"China and Thailand are the major buyers of teak and jade. They just want short-term business interests. They don't care about the lives of Burmese people," said Aung Thu Nyein, a Thai-based Burma analyst.
Another big neighbour, India, is also flexing its economic muscle.
As recently as Sunday last week - as marches led by Buddhist monks drew thousands in the country's biggest cities - Indian Oil Minister Murli Deora was in Rangoon for the signing of contracts with Burma's military rulers to explore three offshore sites.
And Russia, which had called the crackdown an "internal matter", also announced in May it would help build a nuclear research centre in Burma."
Nothing like a stable dictatorship to keep the flow of Energy running!
weetbix must think these blogs are for copying and pasting OTHER blog writings.
Here's a tip Wheatbin. Write your OWN opinions. (just ask the nearest libby what it is)
Saw the quotations marks pest?
My own comments are at the bottom.Article is from the guardian.
Do u have any personals comments on Burma's unrest? Do u know where Burma is?
Here's an easy one for u.Who plays the chinese doctor in days of our lives?
Halliburton is supplying Burmas junta with weaponry. more to follow!
Ono as per usual its just a matter of following the money trail.
Apart from Burma being the biggest manufacturer and exporter of amphetamines in the world known as "Shabu"to the locals or"Ice"over here Burma is also rich in minerals and oil.....and labour is cheap,really cheap .
"forced labour" they call it.
Here's a couple of reports on this matter:
http://www.ibiblio.org/freeburma/humanrights/khrg/archive/khrg97/khrg97s1.html
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35506
Singapore (Burma biggest trader after South Korea)ex dictator Lee Kwan Yew praised the Junta on many occasions as a model of stability.
Thailand generals are making a mint through the drug trades,Western companies and also China are also benefiting from oil money and arm sales to the Junta.
Last year "foreign correspondant" did a piece on Blackwaters christian mercenaries crossing the border from Thailand and fighting alongside the Karen people on Burmese soil.Some were interviewed.
Why is Bush suddenly "interested" in restoring democracy to Burma? What's in it for the Neo-cons? Who knows?
May be like all naughty dictators their times is coming to an end.
Who did they upset so badly?
Days of Our Lives?
I agree weet, quotation marks arent enough.... cite the article when you do that. You liberals so often try to pass other things off as your own.
Wheat Dicks thinks quotation marks are more than sufficient to say he's robbing someone else's writings. Why would he give credit where credit's due? He's a liberal
2 nonnies comments thus far and nothing about the topic itself Burma?
Nonnies
clue number1
Burma is in South East Asia.
clue 2
Books about Burma can be purchased on Amazon.com
Clue3
Many free articles about Burma can be read freely on the WWW.
Clue 4
UR own comments on the situation in Burma are welcome here.
Nonnies are big on quotations marks,liberals blah blah blah and "robbing" writings and in their self righteous excitement forgot to ask about the whereabouts of JC.
Thats' very Un-NOnny like
haaaaa classic riposte!
I don't have to ask the whereabouts of JC. I saw him on NBC's "To catch a predator". Chris Hanson and Perverted Justice have him safely tucked away.
LOL do you really think the AnonyMousies can make an intelligent comment on the situation in Burma. Mousies just scurry around in circle leaving their ignorant neocon Mouse poop in the form of Neocon rhetoric that hasn't been updated for the last 6 years ..... Good Lord they still claim that Saddam had WMDs and the top US Military are telling lies about Blackwater. LMFAO
Blackwater Frisson? i could talk about it for hours!
here's few facts:
Erik Prince is the CEO and founder of Blackwater
Daddy Prince (Edgar)left Eric's mother Elsa a fortune of $1.3 billions.
Using some of that money Erik (then 27) opens his first facility in Virginia to provide cops and military a first class facility for them to train in combat and protection.
In 2000 Blackwater only gvt contract was worth $204.000
Since then it has received more than $1billions in federal contract alone.
It has now been established through the commission of investigation that 50% of that 1 billion contract has been allocated to Blackwater whithout "open tender".
Edgar Prince established the "Family Research Council" one of the right-wing Christians groups most influencial with the Bush Administration.
Mummy Prince Elsa runs the "Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation" which gives money to christians groups and is affiliated with the "council for national policy" whose members include Cheney,rumsfield,Bremer.
Erik's sister married into the DeVos family (founders of Amway) one of the biggest donor to the repukes.
Erik has donated over $300.000 to the Bush re-election campaign.
Erik is also the director of "Christian Freedom International"
Erik is also director of "Presidential Airways"who's planes and crews are subcontracted by the CIA to conduct their "extraordinary Renditions" worldwide.
The committee in charge of investigating Blackwater is 87% republican.
Since 2005 Blackwater is officially involved in 195 shootings in Iraq alone (twice the number of the other 2 contractors employed by the state department.
Talk about christian talibans! Bush very own private army.
Read more about Blackwater here:
http://www.thespywhobilledme.com/the_spy_who_billed_me/2007/03/outsourced_warf.html
and other places where Blackwater is involved here:
http://www.christianfreedom.org/
Nonnies i still dont know where JC is so there is no need to comments.
FRisson1 said...
LOL do you really think the AnonyMousies can make an intelligent comment on the situation in Burma.
uhhhhmmm and what was YOUR comment on Burma? Nada, nothing, nill, not there. ha ha ha ha ha
ONO about ur updates on Chevron and Burma:
(Excerpts from THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICAL)
"
Chevron's involvement in Burma - called Myanmar by the military junta that rules it - already has a complicated and controversial history.
Chevron acquired the stake when it bought Unocal in 2005. By then, however, the Yadana project had become a public relations disaster for Unocal. Burmese exiles sued the company in a U.S. court, saying the pipeline's construction had involved forced labor and other human rights abuses committed by the military. Unocal denied the accusations but settled the case out of court for an undisclosed sum."
Forced labour and human rights abuses!
Only in Burma?
"Chevron has been the focus of repeated protests in Nigeria, for example, where soldiers paid by the company have been accused of shooting villagers and burning homes"
Links to this article:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/04/MNNBSIK4D.DTL
Those freedom and democracy loving americans will stop at nothing to protect their interests and increase their profits!
I thought Mr. Hugo Chavez (Venezuela) owned Chevron!!!
Oops, I was thinking of Citgo! Sorry about that.
Hi! Enjoyed your site. Thanks for the comment about the music on Blogging For Burma-the controls are located at the bottom of the page, you can turn the music off.
Thanks for Blogging For Burma, Floyd
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