surrounding these protests

In the light of the current Myanmar pro-democratic protests, I started thinking once again how lucky I am to be living in Singapore (probably politics are the only things Rafflesians really do care about).

Sitting here in the comfort of my study room with the walkman playing "20 Golden Oldies Volume 1", I compare my comfort to the situation in Myanmar - what would happen if Singapore was controlled by a military junta? Lol in any case PM Lee Hsien Loong shall be our Brigadier-General...

The politics surrounding these protests have affected the ASEAN, the United States, the United Kingdom, big players China and India.

China and India have been mentioned in the media as close partners to Myanmar. So why is China keep quiet and not intefering much with the problems surrounding this once-colonial military regime?

Well if you have done your research, you would have realised that China has plans with Myanmar to build a pipe connecting both countries, and that this pipe would transport oil into Mainland China.

Here's the link for the news: http://asia.news.yahoo.com/070619/3/33l0w.html

Should China intefere any deeper or irritate Myanmar...there goes the oil and loss of money for our big player in Asia.

I shall elaborate on the protests should any of you not know about it - thanks to the military government raising the fuel prices, the already impoverished people of
Myanmar decide to protest on this high prices. Long story short, the monks join in the protests, and while listening on Saturday for the Arsenal game, I heard on BBC World News about the symbolic event of the monks visiting the detained Miss Aung San Suu Kyi.

"She placed her hands together in the Buddhist sign of respect for the monks and the people. Together with her were two of her attendants, and the civilians started crying and weeping."

Guess I'm probably one of the first people to hear of that. In any case, the incidents have snowballed into the huge demonstrations on Thursday.

Put it this way...imagine being so poor and probably hungry for most of the day, and having the fuel prices being RAISED. Holy crap, the military government should go to Kunokuniya to borrow a book on "Governing for Dummies".

Today's Strait Times have rather long articles on Myanmar's past and present, before the British colonisation, during the Japanese Occupation.

For a 15 year old like me, Myanmar has always been a country which really isn't placed importantly on a world map, and you only remember there's such a country called "Myanmar" when you see it on the papers. And that, is rare.

We cannot start criticizing governments - that action is immature. We can however, continue to live life and think that Myanmar is none of our business. The Strait Times had already stated the 4 ways in which this protest can end - the protesters stop protesting, which I think is rather impossible, considering the unanimous decision that it is 'now or never'.

The second way would be for the government to split up and democracy to take over in Myanmar. Today I could hardly contain my laughter and my shock at the human emotions: there was a General Election in 1994, and Miss Aung San Suu Kyi's democratic party won.

The military refused to hand over power after that! Gosh, the power of money. One really has to understand that the world is unfair, and money is the driving force for everyone.

As a ordinary citizen, my most optimistic hope for Myanmar would be for the citizens to settle into democracy with the least possible bloodshed for the civilians. And down with the restricting military government!

How indeed the media has influenced us. I'm a pro-democratic blogger in such a sense!