What's the Buzz?

The buzz around the ship right now is Burma. We were initially supposed to go to Burma, but it was taken off the itinerary. Archbishop Desmond Tutu said he wouldn’t sail with us if we were going to be stopping there. When asked a few days ago to explain why he refused to go to Burma, the Archbishop shed some light on the human rights violations that are currently occurring there. He also told us about Aung San Suu Kyi, the democratically chosen Prime Minister of Burma, and the world’s only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been imprisoned for 11 of the past 17 years because of the military junta's fear of her bringing about a revolution. She has asked that people not come to Burma, thus not support the economy. The Burmese government is the only one in the world that in 2006 used anti-personnel mines to terrorize civilians on a regular basis, the government is using starvation as a method of warfare, the military is suppressing political activity, there are attacks on human rights promoters and defenders, and there are plans to attack civilians and jeopardize their access to food.

A group of students sent a letter to ISE (Institute for Shipboard Education) inquiring about the decision to put Burma back on the itinerary for upcoming voyages, considering all the reasons not to. ISE replied saying that many students in the past said it was their favorite port, and that ISE uses a travel agent that is not linked with the government at all. The questions this raised on the ship though were what about the port fees? Don’t those go to the government? And many people travel independently, not going through the SAS field office. It was also brought to our attention that last spring’s inter-port lecturer from Burma was completely opposed to SAS going there. She wasn’t worried about the safety of the students, but the safety of the Burmese those students interacted with. So the question remains, why is SAS going back to Burma? It’s an ongoing discussion between students on the ship and those in the ISE office in Virginia.

To read more on the issues of Burma, check out www.uscampaignforburma.org