Thank you all for your well wishes! I would love to say that my cold is on the retreat, but these little viral bugs are still having a party inside my throat and nose. I am having a fruit and veggie day today, to send some battle-ready vitamins to them.
Yesterday, I spent the whole day in front of the computer to tinker with Cosima Inc’s website. I thought that a flash slideshow of my products would be a cool thing to have, and bought this product, which is a cheap and elegant solution to put a picture slideshow on your website or blog, but as always the devil lies in the details. It took me the whole day to make this work and look like I wanted too. By the end of the day, it was hard to focus my eyes.
So I thought, that I deserved a special treat this morning, and went to the neighborhood coffee shop. It belongs to a local chain, and has very nice decor with comfy chairs and sofas, good jazz music, and a wide selection of newspapers and magazines. Only the coffee is lousy, but drinkable in cappuccino form. So I sipped my cappuccino and read the news on Burma. Apparently even Rambo aka Sylvester Stallone, who was filming at the Thai-Burmese border, thinks it’s a “hell hole”. Then I glanced at the people rushing by on the other side of the window, struggling to get to work on time. The coffee shop felt like a quiet and comfy bubble, swimming slowly against the tide. It was luxurious to be inside of it. Life felt good.
The following blogs are written by Burmese, and have up-to-date information, pictures, and video footage from inside the country and news organizations around the world:
The website of the Democratic Voice of Burma has reports, pictures, and video footage. The video below shows yesterday’s protests in Rangoon. Just from watching videos of the protests over the last days, I get the sense that the protests have changed very much. Earlier footage shows very calm demonstrations by large groups of monks as well as women and men of all age groups, while yesterdays protesters were mainly young men. Besides shooting demonstrators, the military has also raided Buddhist monasteries. Monks were reportedly beaten and arrested. One of the Burmese blogs reports rumors of a split in the military government… I hope it’s true.
Sep 28, 2007 (DVB)–Soldiers have used slingshots to disperse demonstrations in Rangoon today, which have been less organised than on previous days.
Chants from the protestors have taken on a different tone from earlier messages of goodwill, with protestors calling for lightning to strike and kill those who had attacked monks.
“Before they were chanting metta, but now they are cursing the soldiers,” said a local resident.
Troops were deployed at the corner of Sule pagoda road and Anawrahta road where shootings took place yesterday, about six blocks away from the Pansodan junction with Anawrahta road where more than 10,000 people were protesting.
Another group of 5,000-10,000 protestors assembled at around 3.30pm in the Chinatown area at the junction of Strand road and Keile road, also cursing government security forces. No government troops, guards or supporters were seen at this location.
“It’s like they’re trying not to upset the Chinese. We’ve seen an army truck passing by Chinatown, but no troops have been deployed,” said a Rangoon resident.
The group moved on towards Sule pagoda road but was broken up at around 4pm by government troops from battalion 66 firing slingshots at them.
Four army trucks were seen, one with a loudspeaker urging residents not to provide refuge to protestors and ordering them to refrain from firing slingshots at security forces from their homes. The announcements threatened action against anyone sheltering protestors.
There have also been reports that warning shots were fired at demonstrations at Theingyizay market, but these were not said to have been aimed directly into the crowds.
Reporting by Than Win Htut and Aye Nai (www.dvb.no)
