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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 5-Nov-2010
5-Nov-10 News -- Burma's sham election and the 88 Generation

Web Log - November, 2010

5-Nov-10 News -- Burma's sham election and the 88 Generation

Ireland's bond yields continue to rise in crisis levels

Burma/Myanmar's sham election includes a sham '88 generation'

On Sunday, Burma (also called Myanmar) is planning to hold elections for the first time in 20 years. However, these are widely believed in the West to be sham elections, according to CNN, and few doubt that the winning party will be the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the party representing the current military junta.

Burma's last generational crisis war was the bloody 1948-58 civil war among ethnic groups. The war climaxed in 1958 when the army took power, turning it over to a civilian government. In the ensuing generational Recovery era, the army overthrew the civilian government and has remained in power since then.

Burma's generational Awakening era, beginning around 1975, climaxed in 1988. On 8/8/88, hundreds of thousands of students in the "88 generation," joined by monks and civilians, marched against the military government. Soldiers opened fire on demonstrators with machine guns, resulting in thousands of casualties.

The people in the 88 Generation led new demonstrations in 2007. (See "Burma: Growing demonstrations by the '88 Generation' raise fears of new slaughter.")

Once again, the demonstrations were crushed with gunfire, and many of the leaders were jailed and still remain in prison.

So the bizarre twist Sunday's election is that one of the registered parties in the election is called the "88 Generation Student Youths," a party that has absolutely no connection to the leaders of the opposition 88 Generation group who, as we've said, are all in prison. According to the BBC, the 88 Generation Student Youths party is believed to be supported by the military junta.

So it appears that the junta has found a way to extend the election sham even further -- by backing a pretend opposition party that actually supports the junta.

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Interest rates (yields) on bonds issued by Ireland have risen to almost 8%, the level that prevailed in Greece before it was rescued by the EU in May. As happened in the case of Greece, there appears to be panic selling of Irish bonds, pushing prices down and yields up. If this continues, then Ireland will require a massive bailout by the EU to prevent default. Irish Times

Wall Street stocks appeared to be going parabolic on Thursday, as the Dow Industrials index added 219 points to close at a two-year high. Euphoric investors poured money into the market to celebrate the $600 billion quantitative easing plans by the Fed. Reuters

Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas repeated his accusation that Israel's settlement activities are blocking peace talks. But he also blamed Hamas for slowing the peace process, and he blamed Iran for pressuring Hamas to do everything possible to stop the peace process. CNN

(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the 5-Nov-10 News -- Burma's sham election and 88 Generation thread of the Generational Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.) (5-Nov-2010) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 5-Nov-2010 5-Nov-10 News -- Burma's sham election and the 88 Generation

Burma/Myanmar's sham election includes a sham '88 generation'

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 5-Nov-2010
5-Nov-10 News -- Burma's sham election and the 88 Generation