In the Quiet Land - a poem by Aung San Suu Kyi

Shepard Fairey's portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi

In the Quiet Land, no one can tell
if there's someone who's listening
for secrets they can sell.
The informers are paid in the blood of the land
and no one dares speak what the tyrants won't stand.
In the quiet land of Burma,
no one laughs and no one thinks out loud.
In the quiet land of Burma,
you can hear it in the silence of the crowd
In the Quiet Land, no one can say
when the soldiers are coming
to carry them away.
The Chinese want a road; the French want the oil;
the Thais take the timber; and SLORC takes the spoils...
In the Quiet Land....
In the Quiet Land, no one can hear
what is silenced by murder
and covered up with fear.
But, despite what is forced, freedom's a sound
that liars can't fake and no shouting can drown.

Web restrictions lifted - Burmese gain access to BBC and YouTube:)

I try to keep up on the news for the countries I am checking out for my blog, and I was happy to read that some website restrictions in Burma have just been lifted! This is a step by the repressive government to show that they are attempting to lift some restrictions and improve international perception of Burma and boost internal morale. 

BBC, Reuters,  Radio Free Asia, and YouTube are some of the websites that have been blocked since a time of protests in 2007.  The lifting of the censorship coincides with a recent visit from a U.S. envoy as well as the United Nation's "International Day of Democracy" which celebrated Nobel Laureate and democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who said she believes "changes are on the horizon."  

Aung San Suu Kyi

Although the lifting of web censorship is a positive step, TV broadcasts still remain tightly controlled by the government and foreign journalists are mostly barred from reporting in the country.