Hello everyone! So I know it's been a long long time since I have posted on this blog... over a year I think. Sadly, I was taken by all that is hipster a tumblr for the last year! Thankfully I have been given a reality check and instead of posting pictures of pictures of pictures being taken because they are "deep" I'm back to some serious Blogging. For those who have missed major events in my life, I now am in my second year of university with the CRC program in Global College.This program is great, I have been to Taiwan and I am currently in Thailand. I have decided to write a more informative blog because of what I am doing here: working on the Thai-Burma border. It is making me realize the power that I have- the power to inform and write what I believe- it is a gift greater then we know.

I am in a town called Mae Sot where most people are from Burma. The border not just in this area but on the whole Thai border, as well as in Bangladesh and China, is lined with refugee camps. There are also around 550 thousand Internally Displaced People (IDPs) inside Burma. Why are there so many people fleeing Burma? Because since 1962 Burma has been ruled by a brutal military regime. It has been a struggle, to say the least. Two major uprisings, one in 1988 and one in 2007 (known as the saffron revolution) were met with extreme brutality. In 1990 the government allowed the people to have democratic elections. Aung San Suu Kyi, the people's leader and a noble peace prize winner won the elections by a land slide. She was never given power, however, and was released from house arrest only in 2010. This release followed the "elections" that are widely accepted as having been rigged. The previous military leaders resigned from their military positions and then promptly "won" the election. This means the people in power are the same as before, they are just no longer employed by the military.

There is a movie called Burma VJ that I watched last night that really is amazing. It is an amazing documentation of not only the Saffron Revolution of 2007 but also of what it is like to be a reporter in a censored country. Two or three of the reporters are in prison and the others are in hiding. They aren't the only ones though- there are tons of political prisoners. I met with one woman who was jailed for almost six years and that is a short term. Monks too are political prisoners. In this part of the world monks being imprisoned is a huge deal because their social status is so high. Not to mention monks being shot and beaten during the Saffron Revolution.

I could write more now but I really have to run. More updates to come! I also will be posting some of my papers I have written over the semester.

-g