Protesting against a corrupt government.
Major protests in the US run anywhere from a few dozen up to a few thousand these days. This is even though people like George Soros are doing heavy funding of any anti-American group.
Some Buddhist monks in Burma are protesting their government and getting a bit higher turnout.
From
ABC News/AP:
100,000 Turn Out for Myanmar Protest
Government Warns Monks After 100,000 Take Part in Myanmar Protest March
Myanmar's military government issued a threat Monday to the barefoot Buddhist monks who led 100,000 people marching through a major city in the strongest protests against the repressive regime for two decades.
The warning shows the increasing pressure the junta is under to either crack down on or compromise with a reinvigorated democracy movement. The monks have taken their traditional role as the conscience of society, backing the military into a corner from which it may lash out again.
The authorities did not stop the protests Monday, even as they built to a scale and fervor that rivaled the pro-democracy uprising of 1988 when the military fired on peaceful crowds and killed thousands, terrorizing the country. The government has been handling the monks gingerly, wary of raising the ire of ordinary citizens in this devout, predominantly Buddhist nation.
However, on Monday night the country's religious affairs minister appeared on state television to accuse the monks of being manipulated by the regime's domestic and foreign enemies. Meeting with senior monks at Yangon's Kaba Aye Pagoda, Brig. Gen. Thura Myint Maung said the protesting monks represented just 2 percent of the country's population. He suggested that if senior monks did not restrain them, the government would act according to its own regulations, which he did not detail.
Also on Monday, the White House weighed in with the threat of additional sanctions against the Myanmar regime and those who provide it with financial aid. President Bush is expected to announce the sanctions Tuesday at the U.N. General Assembly. The United States restricts imports and exports and financial transactions with Myanmar, also known as Burma.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urged authorities in Myanmar to exercise restraint in the face of the protests and expressed hope the military-led government would "seize this opportunity" to include all opposition groups in the political process.
The current protests began on Aug. 19 after the government sharply raised fuel prices in what is one of Asia's poorest countries. But they are based in deep-rooted dissatisfaction with the repressive military government that has ruled the country in one form or another since 1962.
This is not getting very wide coverage by the left-leaning MSM for one very simple reason. The liberals in the United States of America like to think that they are speaking troof-to-power against a repressive regime. Hence the piss-poor turnouts at their protests.
What you are seeing in Burma is, in reality, a repressive regime and also, in reality, a people dedicated to peace and democratic representation. The citizens voice is being raised and it is, indeed truth being spoken to power.
A perfect case of Reality v/s Delusion...
For more on the protests, check out the
Democratic Voice of Burma
Some of the
photos of the demonstrations from their web site.
Posted by DaveH at September 24, 2007 9:44 PM