This weekend in New York, Amnesty International is teaming up with Network 355 and the Free Burma Alliance for a conference about the human-rights crisis in Burma and the US response.
There are plenty of good reasons to bone up on your Burma awareness right now. And you don’t have to take my Burma-obsessed word for it: Next month, Burma will hold its first elections in 20 years. They may or may not spark massive protests like the ones led by monks in 2007. They will definitely be bullshit. Then there’s the matter of the almost entirely unreported genocide raging in the hills. And there’s no better time to understand that situation now that the call for a UN inquiry into the military junta’s crimes against humanity is gaining momentum.
The conference will include panelists from organizations like Human Rights Watch to the crazy bad-ass Free Burma Rangers. I’ll be there, too. You can buy tickets here, and they come with a little activism built in, too: The money goes toward heart surgery for four Burmese kids who will probably die without it.