I am in Yangon, Myanmar now, if anyone has any questions.<p>All Internet and TV, phone service, cut off. However fiber internet land lines are still working. Most ATMs are still working but very long lines.<p>Soldiers and tanks in many parts of city. City hall if full of soldiers.
Tangential, but apparently at least one Signal user was logged out overnight and is unable to log back in due to a cellular outage: <a href="https://twitter.com/the_ayeminthant/status/1356064981712691200?s=21" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/the_ayeminthant/status/13560649817126912...</a><p>Seems like a major weakness if your local government can somehow just log you out of your secure messaging platform.
Shortly after ASSK first got released, I went across as part of a trade group to help the country look at their mining laws (untouched territory).<p>It was a shambles. Military is making way too much as it stands. Peasants working with cyanide, dumping into rivers.<p>Absolute disaster
Sad but not surprising. And unlike previous coups, there's no obvious way to protest: they've plowed an estimated $4 billion into building a brand new capital in the middle of nowhere, far from any people who could protest, and it looks like this investment is going to pay off.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naypyidaw" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naypyidaw</a><p><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/myanmar/articles/naypyidaw-myanmar-ghost-city/" rel="nofollow">https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/myanmar...</a><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C19EhJitGrU" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C19EhJitGrU</a>
The military is alleging that voter fraud took place. Obviously a pretext by Myanmar’s dictatorial military family, but it makes you wonder if Trump’s demagoguery and erosion of trust in the US voting system has emboldened authoritarians across the globe who can now scoff at the integrity of democratic norms, seeing that one of the greatest examples (supposedly) in the free world is not even capable of being such an example. The power of our example has global ramifications.
The west backed Aung San Suu Kyi painting her as human rights icon but her governance induced new ethnic and class conflicts. The imbalance of power does not seem to be correcting itself no matter who is in power because that country is being driven by external agenda as well ethnic and class conflict.
What would happen if the US just invaded and wiped out the military?<p>Would there be an insurgency? Would they be able to train a local and loyal military force to protect democracy?<p>I guess it would end up like Iraq all over again. Local military leaders would just become terrorist leaders. However because they are mostly Buddhist it feels like it would be harder for them to attract jihadists. And the Muslims are the ones being persecuted.<p>After all the money we spent on Iraq and Afghanistan, it seems like it would have been better spent liberating a country like this once and for all.<p>Funny to think how the reaction would be to a Biden government going to war with a tiny military dictatorship. Would people protest it and on what grounds?<p>Could a modern day colonialism work? With modern liberal ideals of the US it seems like it would be dramatically different from times past. US would just setup and defend a constitution and ensure fair elections and provide military. Minus the exploitation this time.<p>PS. Not seriously advocating for any of this, just interesting to think about.<p>—<p>Also, I think we take it so much for granted that the most powerful military in the world who could easily take control of the whole country overnight is 100% loyal to a civilian elected by the people.<p>I wonder how much free choice people have in this scenario anyway. It would seem obvious to blame the military leaders and their soldiers who are the ones who enable all this. But how much does a regular soldier rely upon his salary to survive.
I don't know that human rights can <i>create</i> good government, but it seems pretty reliable that societies without strong human rights protections will turn into a weird pyramid scheme for <i>someone</i> and then collapse in relatively short order.
Their claimed reasoning for seizing control is "election fraud". Sound familiar?<p>This is why many of us internationals get concerned about American politics, because where America goes, others soon follow. Just like some countries used the "war on terror" branding to suppress democratic movements, it was only a matter of time before other authoritarians used "election fraud" to overthrow election results they didn't like. In Myanmar's case the junta's fraud issue is more likely to be that they didn't rig the system enough to their liking.
I'm 28 years old. In the time I've been aware of world events, it's felt like the world has been accelerating in a downward spiral towards authoritarianism and away from progress. Things are worse in some places than others, but seemingly no corner of the globe is spared from the trend.<p>I genuinely can't tell how much of this perceived trend is real, and how much of it is a shift in my own perspective. And even then: am I just becoming more aware of how the world has always been, or is an increase in media sensationalism to blame (either for my perspective shift, or for an actual shifting reality?) Does it all come down to the impact of social media, or other technologies enabling oppressors? Is it the increasing concentration of global wealth? Was the latter half of the 20th century just an anomaly where much of the world was turned off to authoritarianism by the second world war, and we're at a point now where that's worn off and we're getting back on with the normal trajectory? Was it just my American information bubble telling me that things were ever somewhat better, even for a few decades?<p>I don't know what to think, but what it feels like is that this train is going off the rails.
It's easy to look at them from our perspective and think "you're so small, shouldn't you be peaceful and united in order to face the larger world around you?" but we're just as prone to the same type of thinking.
Despite what western media outlets say, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Military juntas are often a good/restorative part of government in countries like Thailand and Myanmar, and are well received by the general public.<p>Doesn't mesh well with washington kissinger pastiche though