More on Burma

Burma recently was approved for chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN):

The leadership of the Asean regional grouping rotates on an annual basis, but Burma was not allowed to take the top position last time because of its human rights record.

Some critics say it is still too early to award the high-profile role to Burma, where between 600 and 1,000 political prisoners are thought to remain behind bars.

Several political prisoners were released in October.

The country's continued detention of about 2,000 political prisoners is a crucial reason why Western nations maintain sanctions on Burma....

Speaking to the BBC shortly after his release, Zarganar was wary of his new-found freedom, describing it as conditional.

"If I do something wrong they will send me back. I'm not happy today because there are so many of my friends still in prison," he said.

Several hundred political prisoners remain behind bars, including some of the most high profile activists.

The BBC's analysis suggests that

The move is the latest in a series of developments that suggest the new military-backed government is taking some steps towards reform.

There is a very clear divide between those who look at the changes and say they are a first step, but do not go nearly far enough, and others who say they show that the Burmese government needs to be encouraged.

The BBC has excellent coverage of Burmese politics and the struggle for democracy.

Child Removal Continues

One of the primary forms that the genocide of Indigenous people has taken is that of child removal. It continues unabated in South Dakota (and, based on anecdotal evidence, in other states as well), where an investigation by National Public Radio uncovered systemic injustice in the foster care system, in particular a very high rate of removal of Native children.

As the investigation overview explains,

Nearly 700 Native American children in South Dakota are being removed from their homes every year, sometimes under questionable circumstances. An NPR News investigation has found that the state is largely failing to place them according to the law. The vast majority of native kids in foster care in South Dakota are in nonnative homes or group homes, according to an NPR analysis of state records.

It is, unfortunately, the same old story that you've seen in several of our texts and films thus far. The systematic removal of Native children from their families is one of the reasons that the UN Convention on Genocide includes "removing children from one group and placing them with another group" in its definition of genocide.

The whole series is here: Native Foster Care: Lost Children, Shattered Families.

I have to admit that I found this so demoralizing--the fact that, at this point in time, with a law designed to protect Native children from removal because so many Native children were being taken away, this is still happening--that I just couldn't bring myself to post for a while.