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The Iraq War’s Forgotten Side
Posted on June 18, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under International.
Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain talk a lot about the Iraq War. They talk about troop withdrawals, permanent bases, legal battles over Guantanamo detainees. But then there’s everything else they rarely if ever mention - for example, the entire humanitarian crisis caused by the war. There are now more than 4 million Iraqis who have fled their homes and are displaced by the ongoing conflict.
Read more in my column on the Huffington Post’s OffTheBus here.
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Refugees in Malaysia
Posted on June 13, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under International.
Check out these powerful photographs by Simon Wheatley of Burmese refugees living in Malaysia.
I spent a week in Malaysia in July 2005, listening to stories from some of the tens of thousands of Burmese who had fled religious or political persecution back home in the hopes of finding safety in Malaysia. They didn’t find it. Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees, and it does not recognize the status of refugees - even those carrying UNHCR identification - and treats them as illegal immigrants.
The government arms volunteer civilian groups, called RELA, to go on raids throughout the country, rounding up refugees as if they were cattle. Burmese told me about running from RELA forces. If they get caught, they must either pay a hefty bribe or face time in a detention center and then be deported. I met Burmese political refugees who got caught, sent to a detention center, deported to Thailand, lured by a smuggler, brought back into Malaysia, and then caught and deported all over, again and again and again.
Muslim Rohingya refugees told me they fled Rakkhine State in western Burma because they were denied citizenship on the basis of their religion. They couldn’t marry, get a higher degree or travel freely. They fled to Kuala Lumpur and found more discrimination - taunted by Muslim Malaysians because they came from Burma. They couldn’t get proper jobs and were living a life of poverty, squeezing four or five into one tiny bedroom.
I traveled to a plantation in Malaysia and met with refugees from Chin State in northern Burma. I heard stories about their churches back home being burned down because they weren’t Buddhist. On the plantation, they work hard all day - with no protection from the sun or pesticides - and then hike into the thick forests each night, sleeping in make-shift huts so the RELA forces can’t find them. Each morning, they hike back down to work on the plantation for little pay. They have no rights and told me that if a boss decides he won’t compensate them, their options are to keep working or get sent to a detention center.
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“Responsibilities” in Iraq
Posted on June 3, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under International.
Sen. Barack Obama used his speech in Minnesota tonight to discuss his planned policy towards Iraq, promising that if he becomes president he will end the war and withdrawal the troops. He said it’s now time to bring the troops home and demand more from the Iraqi politicians.
It’s been five years, maybe I’ve forgotten…but wasn’t it the United States that invaded Iraq? Wasn’t it the Bush administration and the U.S. congress - with the support of most of the American people - who thought going to war in Iraq was such a brilliant idea?
The United States started this war, caused the chaos and destruction and daily violence, and the United States should now be held accountable. Not the Iraqis.
Read more of my column here on the Huffington Post.
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Woman Arrested for Airport “Joke” Responds
Posted on May 28, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under Crime.
I wrote a post on April 22 highlighting the illegality of making a bomb joke at airports by discussing the arrest of a woman, Rosalinda Baez, for doing just that at JFK. A JetBlue flight attendant denied Baez access to the plane carrying her luggage, and she asked: “What if I had a bomb in my bag?” She was then arrested for falsely claiming there was a bomb in her suitcase. She has written in to this blog, explaining that she wasn’t joking at all:
I actually was NOT joking. I was asking a very serious security question after being denied boarding onto a flight I’d checked in for, with a bag, 96 minutes prior to departure. I was denied boarding because the gate agent decided to “close the flight early” (evidently to try and make a jump in the queue at JFK so that Jetblue wouldn’t miss it’s ‘on-time departure status’ quota). The agent closed that flight KNOWING that there was a bag on board for a passenger who had not yet boarded. I asked her: “Isn’t it a security risk to allow a bag to fly without a passenger? What if there was a bomb in the bag?”
As a frequent world traveler, it struck me as (more than) odd that policy in post-911, fear-mongering, check-in your shampoo unless if it’s even 3.1 OZ would ALLOW this OBVIOUS security flaw. It is LAW in over 19 developed nations to remove the bag of a passenger if said passenger does not board the flight. But, evidently NOT in the USA. And as a result, my life is being balanced by some over-zealous FBI agents who don’t want to allow the obvious question asked by me to become public question……….hmmmmm….
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Govt Officials: Stop Helping Survivors!
Posted on May 27, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under International.
Burmese government officials handed out leaflets this weekend ordering people to stop donating to survivors of the cyclone. The UN estimates that 2.5 million people are still in need of help. Yet the junta wants Burmese people to stop donating aid directly to survivors in order to “save the prestige of Myanmar people.”
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Obama Crashes My College Reunion
Posted on May 26, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under Politics.
Check out my column on the Huffington Post’s Off the Bus today about Sen. Barack Obama coming to Wesleyan this weekend.
Wesleyan University, my alma mater, is a small liberal arts school that gets a disproportionate amount of media coverage, usually for its uber-liberal ways. It has made the press for having a naked dorm and co-ed rooms. This time we made the headlines, and we didn’t have to take our clothes off. Sen. Barack Obama veered from the campaign trail to give Sunday’s commencement address for Wesleyan’s class of 2008.
I happened to be going to the campus this weekend to celebrate my five-year reunion. I flew in to Connecticut from Los Angeles; others came from as far as Madrid and Buenos Aires. We left behind spouses, fiances and at least one baby so we could focus on each other and our memories. We love our Wesleyan.
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Obama Speaks at Wesleyan
Posted on May 26, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under Politics.
Sen. Barack Obama veered from his campaign trail to give the commencement address at Wesleyan University this weekend. I was there for my five-year reunion. Here are some pix:
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Saving Face, Not Lives
Posted on May 21, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under International, Media.
The Burmese junta continues to be more concerned about its image than about the safety of roughly 2.5 million people affected by Cyclone Nargis.
Homeless people and beggars have been kicked off the streets in preparation for visits to cyclone-hit areas by the dictator, Sen. Gen. Than Shwe.
The Irrawaddy reports that soldiers arrested eight Burmese journalists Monday night for trying to cover the disaster in Laputta Township in the Irrawaddy delta. The soldiers arrested the journalists at their hotel and interrogated them all night. They released them the following morning, but only after the reporters signed an agreement that they wouldn’t return to cyclone-affected areas without permission.
A source in Rangoon also told the Irrawaddy that the junta has stepped up its strict censorship policies.
Only positive stories are allowed. Photos about refugees, victims and children are always rejected..The censorship board will only allow propaganda stories and photos, such as reconstruction projects, to be published.
The censorship has led to the growth of “cyclone DVDs,” which show images of dead bodies and destroyed villages - scenes the government has tried to control.
This is reminiscent of last fall when the junta tried to control news on the nation-wide protests and subsequent military crackdown on democracy demonstrators. Then people also responded to the censorship by producing illegal DVDs featuring the protests and ones showing monks - symbols of resistance - giving sermons.
The difference between last fall and now is that this time there are 2.5 million people in need of food, water, housing and medicine. Thousands of corpses remain in the delta water. Save the Children warns that thousands of children could starve to death in the next two to three weeks if they don’t receive aid. People in Western Burma were safe from the cyclone but now struggle to pay for basic food that has tripled in price because the storm destroyed rice fields and killed livestock and farmers.
The junta should be coordinating aid and relief, not arresting beggars or looking for sneaky reporters.
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Occupation Diplomacy
Posted on May 20, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under International, Politics, Religion.
Check out my latest blog on the Huffington Post’s Off the Bus.
One thing is certain about the outcome of this November’s presidential election — whoever wins will have the monumental job of improving America’s standing around the world. He or she (I’m one of the few who won’t pronounce Hillary Clinton’s campaign dead until it’s official) should start by loudly proclaiming his (or her) anger and repugnance at the American soldier in Baghdad who used a copy of the Koran for target practice.
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‘Please, Please Stop’
Posted on May 19, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under Crime, Immigration, International.
South Africans have killed at least 22 foreigners and terrorized many times more in the past week as a wave of xenophobia washes over the country. See photos here. Anger against immigrants is not new to South Africa, but the violence rarely reaches this level.
Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu condemned the attacks: “Please stop. Please stop the violence now. This is not how we behave. These are our sisters and brothers. Please, please stop,” he said, as quoted in the Cape Times.
The violence has been targeted at refugees and immigrants who fled Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Somalia and other African nations to find safety and jobs in their new home. But South Africa itself has been struggling with 40 percent unemployment and rampant crime. Marketplace reporter Gretchen Wilson has a powerful story on how the violence is tied to the country’s economic problems.
