MAILBAG:ONE ACTIVIST SPEAKS OUT

[moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Dear Netters,
                       One of the altuistic activists speaks out about  what
she feels and knows about the Australian version of Amnesty International
doing business with Intrepid, the the tour company that encourages tourists
to travel to Burma....The identity of the author is
 ................[deleted] for her own sake...

Sincerely,

Julien Moe
---------------

Julien,
Thank you for your very strong letter to the very pro SPDC Australian.
I think there is some intense racism going on in that country. It was only
in May
when the
Aussie version of Amnesty International had a business agreement with the
travel
tour company
Intrepid, encouraging visitors to go to Burma. Amnesty Australia would get a
kick
back of $100 per traveller.
I suspect it was this that prompted Daw Suu's statement about
"racist" ideas of going to visit Burma and dropping money into the hands of
their(the travellers) beloved SPDC
in the name of teaching the people of Burma about democracy. She called the
spade
the spade by saying these are profit making
endeavors and nothing but. It is sickening.
Its about as sickening as when the Bhuddist Social Action Network came to the
Vancouver Burma Roundtabe
earlier this year hoping to get us to endorse thier money making projects
in the
Saigaing Hills. You should have seen their brichures, hot tubs and all the
luxuries. They were planning a fund raising event (with the funds intended to
build a school and a clinic) and at first invited us to speak at it. When they
found out we were planning to blast them with the truth they UNINVITED us.
I for one think we should have been more surreptitious, we missed a golden
opportunity. Our group has no leadership and the Free Burma movement
suffers for
it.
It all fizzled out because of the challenge of some of our sharper members,
but
some of us, including myself were at first drawn in by the thought of a
chance of
helping the suffering people. We must beware of these pretenders and
opportunitists they seem to abound inside the human rights movement.
It seemed to take some of us a while to wake up to the idea that things are so
controlled inside Burma that there is no "magic" spot
where tourists are coming and the junta doesn't know about it and get paid
off for
it. I so wanted to believe that we could do something constructive and
helpful for
the people.

The exploitation of human kindness is a trap we must watch out for in
these evil
days.

Keep up the good work I try to read all your stuff but time is not on my side.
Jennifer Suprun, a member of the Vancouver Burma Roundtable
Yes you may publish this letter. 

JS