Locally led efforts are important to the ongoing struggle for democracy in Myanmar, according to Thelma Young, campaigns coordinator from the U.S. Campaign for Burma at a panel Wednesday night at the Kay Spiritual Life Center.
"Most people have no idea about the mass atrocities still happening in Burma," Young said. "We have to keep educating people and doing grassroots work to create a strong and comprehensive base."
Panelists highlighted the ongoing strife in Myanmar and emphasized the importance of continued activism and lobbying on behalf of the Myanmar people.
Bobo Pyitheinkhine, a Georgetown University student from Myanmar, lamented the difficulty of organizing already overscheduled college students around Myanmar issues.
"It's so hard to get students' attention on Burma," Pyitheinkhine said. "We're trying everything we can, even getting students to focus on the Burmese culture rather than politics. Still, it is a struggle."
Students on-campus often have big opinions on international issues, including Myanmar, but their rhetoric often champions their lackluster actions, according to Leslie Miller, president of Student Campaign for Burma.
"There's a lot of activist talk at AU, but students underestimate themselves," said Miller, a second-year graduate student in the School of International Service. "Hopefully, events like nonviolent youth-led organizing will motivate students to call their congresspeople and encourage others to join the Burmese lobbying effort."
In today's Web-based age, the Internet and social networking sites have become a way for issues like Myanmar to reach large audiences with little effort, but technology can sometimes trivialize serious issues and undermine real organizing, according to Young.
"Technology is helpful to spread the word, but there is nothing that can replace people talking to each other," she said. "There are so many images coming out of Burma, and we really have to be careful with them because we live in a society that is oversaturated with images."
Pyitheinkhine told an anecdote about the availability of objective news and access to technology in Myanmar, detailing how his family used to huddle closely around its radio to listen to BBC in the morning since it was the only outlet the family could depend upon for news about its own country.
"I used to ask my mom what is for breakfast, but she would tell me to be quiet because she was trying to find out what was going on that day in our country," Pyitheinkhine said.
Erdong Chen, a Chinese freshman in the Kogod School of Business, said he could empathize with Pyitheinkhine's experience with press censorship, noting China's recent ban of YouTube and Wikipedia.
"The Chinese papers only say good things about my country's government," Chen said. "When Bobo spoke about the censorship, I felt a connection with what he was saying"
