CHIANG MAI, Thailand — As the third day of a military crackdown on protestors begins in Burma, the mass movement is at a critical juncture. Following the arrests of hundreds of monks in the past two days, the demonstrations that had reached a peek participation of around 100,000 earlier in the week have simmered down, though tens of thousands are still marching. Meanwhile, reports on the ground indicate Burmese military forces are massing in Yangon and the administrative capital at Naypyidaw. Government crackdowns against protesters escalated early Thursday when large-scale pre-dawn raids on Buddhist monasteries throughout Yangon were carried out [...]
TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may have surprised many within his own Liberal Democratic Party with his decision to resign, but the party showed it was capable of pulling off a surprise of its own by choosing veteran lawmaker Yasuo Fukuda as its new leader. Most observers had expected former Foreign Minister Taro Aso to succeed Abe, including the financial markets, which actually saw a jump in the stock prices of manga-related firms in expectation that manga fan Aso was set to take over. But Aso’s closeness to Abe, and his determination to stand by the embattled prime [...]
When I heard the news that protesting Buddhist monks in Burma had managed to reach the home of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi last week, a wave of cold dread washed over me. My mind traveled back to the time a few years ago when I tried to reach Suu Kyi’s home on University Avenue in Rangoon (now named Yangon by the brutal military rulers of Burma, itself renamed Myanmar by the same illegitimate government). My thoughts then moved further back in time, to 1988, when street protests led by the astonishing Suu Kyi ended in tragedy. By some [...]
