WEBVTT - How To Build A Revolution: Myanmar, Part Five 0:00:05.680 --> 0:00:08.119 It's not easy to leave your home, even when people 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:11.600 there are trying to kill you. Doctor Wonder, like everyone else, 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:15.360 struggled with the choice. His hospital had next to no supplies. 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:19.040 COVID's third wave was ravaging the population, and he couldn't 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:22.520 even get oxygen to treat sick patients. All around him 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:25.440 was death and fear, but he still wanted to stay. 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:31.040 Actually, I don't want to live my country because if 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:35.240 we just live like that, our country will be We'll 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:39.159 go back to yes before centuries. You know, you know, 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:43.280 they control everything. We have to just queue. We have 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:46.800 to just make it queue to get a patrolium, petroleum. 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:50.720 We have faith in our young age. I don't. I 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:54.800 don't want to fit that feeling again, not for me, 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:57.880 not just for me, not of for our people, for 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:02.880 our new generation are too young accents. Yes, one is 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:07.160 a five year one is the ideas. So I just 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:11.520 want to fight. Yeah, and then my last friend back, 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:21.000 I can't tolerate because they are trying, you know, around movement. 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:22.920 I'm trying my best. 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:27.000 From the decision to go was made for him. By 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:27.640 the top of door. 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:31.440 We are making the meeting with him. He is in 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:35.479 a control at those times he is a control yes 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:38.640 at those times. So we're making a meeting then asking 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:41.760 him did did he's safe or not? You know, I 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:46.600 start at the end of the meeting, he he, he 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:49.360 told me the hint. They were going to the insight 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:51.680 oh oh ship, the holy ship. 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:53.200 He was arrested. 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:58.040 So so time I was living the younger and you 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:02.360 know the government of that, the Millers. We also announced 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:06.560 that the remain do arrest Yeah, REMAINU arrests too. I'm 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:09.679 thinking all of my things that you have to goal 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:12.080 because you have all of the data, so you have 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:13.639 the goal. So I decided to go. 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:17.440 Okay, Andy and the boys made the decision to abandon 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:20.960 their apartment and head for Karin Territory and eventually Thailand. 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:24.040 Once one of their protest friends was arrested by the government, 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:27.160 his phone was on him when he got caught, potentially 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:30.480 exposing all of them. After a harrowing drive into the 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:33.600 jungle and several days among the Koran, they succeeded in 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:36.240 finding a people smuggler to get them across the border 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:39.359 without getting stuck in one of the refugee camps operated 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:40.359 by the Thai government. 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:43.679 Three days later, we were trying to cross at night time, 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:46.680 and these guys said, okay, you know, you go in, 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:50.680 you cross, you get to Thailand at the same night. 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:53.760 And we thought, okay, you know, and we swim across 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:56.880 the river. It was very scary, but for me, I've 0:02:56.919 --> 0:02:59.880 done it like three times, so it was a little bit. 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:03.320 I thought it was going to be better, but it 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:05.840 was more stressful because I had them right. So I 0:03:05.880 --> 0:03:07.800 was like, if it was me alone, maybe I could, 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:09.959 you know, whatever happened, I would find a way out. 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:12.200 I'm not sure if I could do that with three 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:15.440 other people, you know, so I was quite nervous. We 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:21.280 paid what five thousand bodies. Yeah, it is not cheap, 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:26.600 it is, no, no, but because that's the thing, it's 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:29.800 not just one person. Yeah, it's not just one person. 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:35.000 He the person that crossed us from the river from 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:37.880 the Avidy to this side is one and then from 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:41.280 there to the nomansland is another one. Right, So yeah, we. 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:44.560 Saw the soldier were like Alex stayed in four or 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:46.840 attempted to fight with the current, but most of the 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:49.760 time only did with stamp sentry. Where about getting enough 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:51.800 to eat? I wonder when he gets his hands on 0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:52.600 something better than. 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:59.520 A squirrel rifle kind because we don't have like enough girls. 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:03.280 Uh you know, Like so by the time like there 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:08.920 was like STROI happening in uh Lekic, I thought like, oh, 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:10.920 we're gonna have to like go and you know like 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:16.040 fight them now. But uh stay, like we have to 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:20.400 pack our staff and move to a deba jungle. So 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:27.080 we were like kind of like refugees with uniforms. But yeah, 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:29.720 you know, if I just keep staying there like we 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:31.919 if we are just going to keep running away like this, 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:34.880 Like I don't want to stay there. I want to 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:38.720 do something about the needs, like you know, like the 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:43.000 Maynes in our canvas, the weapons against So I want 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:46.000 to like come here and like you know, like walk 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:47.120 work for that. 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:51.280 He called his unit refugees with uniforms, and that's about 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:53.920 what they were. This is why rebels like me Off 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:57.080 and Daddy UMCD are so motivated to find a way 0:04:57.080 --> 0:05:01.280 to reliably print functional semi automatic weapons. The Karin are 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:04.280 desperately under armed, and yet they've been able to hold 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:07.360 off the military for decades. If the Korn and other 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:11.640 ethnic organizations were able to build functional arms production infrastructure 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:14.640 alongside the new rebels with the PDF, they have a 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:18.080 real chance at victory. If they succeed in building this, 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:22.000 the repercussions around the world could be massive. That is, however, 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:35.880 a story for another day. 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:39.880 Seeing this kind of conflict isn't good for you. Nobody's 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:42.480 supposed to live through this kind of stuff, and certainly 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:45.240 not when they're just kids. Even in a rich country 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:49.160 replete with therapists and VA clinics. Thousands of US veterans 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:52.719 live every day with PTFT. The difference for them is 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:56.279 that they went to war in myanma what comes to you? 0:05:56.920 --> 0:06:03.039 And then there's another one, which is this one. And 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:05.640 I did the first part and I'm too scared to 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:08.640 do the second part. So yeah, I mean this is 0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:10.320 fucked up, Like every time I have to do it, 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:13.080 I get my head get fucked like. 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:16.520 That's one of the guys. 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:20.200 And so that's in Yang in the protest, that's one 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:22.560 of the nightway, that's one of the days. But the 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:25.479 AANA but on a hundred people would kill over one 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:30.680 hundred people. You can see in the video they come 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:37.719 in and you will see that the military, how the 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:42.159 military came in and how they were trying to I'm 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:43.480 not sure if I have in anymore. 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:44.200 Maybe here. 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:49.479 You developing. 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:56.680 Me. They surrounded and they killed everyone. 0:06:57.360 --> 0:07:00.480 What they've seen is bonded the boys. They do anything 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:02.719 for each other, and I've already done things that most 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:05.560 of us can't imagine. When one of their mothers wanted 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:09.080 to take him home, he felt helpless without them. When 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:11.360 the rest of them crossed. One of their moms came 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:14.280 back to get him without them and stuck in the country, 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:17.720 falling apart, he didn't want to keep going. Every day 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:21.320 he watched soldiers outside himself popping yabber pills. Yaba's a 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:25.080 myth based drug and soldiers are often given by the military. 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:27.800 He worried they'd kill him. His brother in law was 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:31.680 arrested and tortured just for having a lighter. Can you 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:34.360 remember what it felt like when your mom came home. 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:37.880 He kept saying, he's going to fucking kill himself for 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:46.160 a long time, for a line time I will come to. Yeah, 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:59.480 he wasn't in a good space. I so he was 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:02.400 saying that if he has to go back. He was 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:06.800 telling us like, you know, now he's alone, like he 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:09.520 doesn't even have us anymore. And so he was saying, 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:10.920 like he's going to go out to the protest and 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:13.320 he's going to try to kill the cops, right, the soldiers, 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:18.040 the police. And it was very difficult like for us too, 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:22.960 like because we know his mom can't really like help 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:24.920 him with that stuff. You know we can, but she 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:26.000 really wanted to take him. 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:29.320 So over time they chatted on the phone and he 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:33.360 felt better. But now he's here with the boys. It's 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:35.560 him playing his guitar and the music you heard. 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:40.040 He got a lot better coping with this in a 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:43.880 good way, you know what I mean. I mean, if 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:47.400 you're young and you see people killing people like this terribly, 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:50.960 you have some job fucked up thoughts yourself too, right, 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:53.040 Like well I could do this to someone too, and 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:56.559 stuff like that. So he's struggled a lot with that 0:08:56.600 --> 0:08:59.600 for a long time. And I think the worst thing 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:02.599 was being alone. He was alone. He couldn't talk to 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:05.800 his mom about all these things, right, He was paranoi, 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:10.120 he was scared, he was traumatized. So I mean, it's 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:12.400 just see like the first time we write, but then 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:14.600 actually can na ask you. It's been five months since 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:17.200 he was he's here, but the first few months it 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:22.679 was very difficult. Yeah, I'm kind of like I talked 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:24.560 to them all the time about this, because I know 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:28.720 talking helps with these stubs, like and especially when you 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:31.319 all feeling the same thing. It's like, you know, and 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:33.560 I think our ways of coping with this is like 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:35.679 we talk about it, but like kind of like a 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:38.760 joking way, like you put humor in it. That's the 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:39.360 best way. 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:41.080 To deal with it, Like to get through those hard 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:43.640 days on his own, looking down at men who wanted 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:47.480 him dead, he picked up a cheap acoustic guitar. When 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:50.080 he got back, he began teaching the others if you 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:53.640 hadn't picked it up, they're pretty good. When we went 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:55.920 out to the pool bar at night, in between kicking 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:58.040 your asses, the boys would look up at the stage. 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:01.040 It was occupied by a pretty second rate cover band 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:04.800 for whatever reason, probably not helped by the incredibly rough 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:07.319 ti gin we've been smashing back. I looked at them 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:09.200 looking at the stage on our last night, and I 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:13.000 wanted to cry. Teenage kids shouldn't be caught picking up 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:15.600 guns to fight or picking up cameras to film their 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:18.240 friends die. They should be doing what I was doing 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:20.240 when I was a teenager, which is making a complete 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:23.520 prick of myself on a stage with a guitar one day. 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:26.840 Hopefully soon they'll be able to sing happy songs again 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:29.760 and the war will just be a memory. I start, 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:33.040 then when you write it. 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:42.760 Before, Yeah, I don't have from for tall like, so 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:43.480 I start. 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:52.000 Their bond is so close now, they're barely ever apart. 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:54.920 It's a lot of responsibility for Andy, who's just twenty 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:57.760 two himself, but he wouldn't want it any other way, 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:01.400 and neither would they one right, and you and Sarah 0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:04.280 have appointments, and so Robert and I take the boys 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:07.120 for dinner. It's a lot of fun and actually a 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:09.920 lot of food. But when we talked to him about 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:12.360 their options, it's refugees. He might be able to come 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:15.400 to the US. One thing is clear. They don't want 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:15.880 to be a part. 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:19.920 For me, it's like I'd rather fucking take bullet than 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:23.280 any of them, because if they die or if something 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:25.920 happened to them, I am in so much trouble, you 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:27.560 know what I mean. But I know that that's what 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:30.840 they want to do. Like if the mom trap him 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:34.600 in Yangon and he doesn't do anything and the revolution 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:37.000 is over, he's going to feel so much regret, you know, 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:40.640 like for not being involved in this and that's for me. 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:43.360 It's like people, if people want to fight, like, you know, 0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:47.240 like we shouldn't keep them. We shouldn't just say yeah yeah. 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:00.959 It's been a few months since we got back from 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:03.520 May Saught. It's the rainy season there now and that 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:08.080 makes fighting reporting harder. Amrah is still stuck in mayst 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:09.920 It's not safe for her to go back to a 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:12.679 country where her family wants her dead, but it's not 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:16.679 possible for her to leave May Sought either without travel documents, 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:19.560 something the UNHCR would have to issue. She's stuck in 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:22.240 a little room in a hotel. It's not a great 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:24.600 place for a young woman, and it's even worse when 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:27.360 she has to watch her friends continue to struggle without her. 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:30.679 We both wrote to the UN and the various embassies 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:34.200 on her behalf, but months later we've heard nothing. This 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:37.400 is typical of a lot of refugees. They're often presented 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:40.320 as a faceless mass of humanity, bereft of hope, but 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:42.839 each of them has a story, and those refugee camps 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:46.040 along the border between Thailand and Myanmar are full of stories. 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:49.280 Some of those are stories of fear, some of heroism, 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:52.240 and some of tragedy, but until things change at the 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:54.960 UN all of those stories aren't being told. 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:58.319 The three D printed firearms Maalk and his colleagues are 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:01.320 working on I've made massive progress over the last few months, 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:04.000 but even though three D printed guns cost a small 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:05.960 fraction of the price of an M sixteen or an 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:10.720 AK forty seven, the pro democracy forces are still desperately underfunded. 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:13.400 They're at war with the state, but they don't have 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:15.319 any of the apparatus of a state with which to 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:19.400 fight back. Instead, the gen Z rebels have turned once 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:23.800 again to the Internet. Alongside crowdfunding campaigns like Liberate Memma, 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:26.960 they've developed a more innovative fundraising method that allows for 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:30.400 donations even from people who don't have any money. Instead 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:34.640 of soliciting cash donations risking exposing their donors, they began 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:37.960 using a method that they call click to Donate, where 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:40.560 supporters could help the rebels by clicking on adverts on 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:44.000 certain videos and websites in order to generate advertising revenue. 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:47.360 It's used to find everything from weapons purchases to shelter 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:50.320 for the ten thousand eternally displaced people in the Anmar. 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:53.880 I spoke to several people in Themma who asked not 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:55.800 to be named for their own safety, but are very 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:59.199 familiar with the funding of the PDF. One of them 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:02.640 told me to donate started to support government staff who 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:06.400 had decided to join a civil disobedience movement. Government staff 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:08.880 are always low paid and so they were not very 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:12.200 financially stable in the beginning. The fund from click to 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:16.320 donate allowed these workers to strike without pay. After a 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:19.520 few weeks of being on strike, financial concerns were weakening 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:22.600 the movement and people were being forced to work or stave. 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:27.000 Younger pro democracy activists responded by setting up YouTube channels 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:30.320 and then using the anti coup telegram channels to direct 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:32.960 millions of views and add clicks to them from across 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:37.600 the country and from supporters abroad. The resulting advertising revenue 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:40.800 allowed them to fund the civil disobedience movement and later 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:43.880 to equip the PDF. By December of twenty twenty one, 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:47.040 these clicks were yielding an income of about five hundred 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:51.200 million kiats about twenty eight thousand dollars every day. 0:14:51.800 --> 0:14:55.400 The Military Hunter responded to this an international indignation at 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:58.800 videos of protesters being massacred in the street by tripling 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:02.880 data prizes and throat modeling Internet connection speeds. Pro democracy 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:06.720 keyboard warriors responded with viral content that required less bandwidth, 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:10.560 including writing personal finance blogs to attract a US audience 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:14.400 that was unknowingly supporting a revolution with its clicks. People 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:17.560 in Myanmar also began to use VPNs to access the Internet. 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:20.280 This helped them get around some of the junta's restrictions 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:23.120 and also yielded a higher advertising payment per click on 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:26.960 a given advert. Websites like Digital Revolution allow users to 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:30.480 find content that supports pro democracy rebels and click on it, 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:33.440 lending their support with nothing more than a broadband connection 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:36.880 and a few seconds of their time. Alongside their videos 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:40.560 and websites, the Ginz rebels also launched games. At first, 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:43.720 they were just simple little online phone app games that 0:15:43.760 --> 0:15:46.240 would let you throw darts at the coup leader or something. 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:49.400 One source told us that these games didn't just support 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:52.480 the rebels through funding, but also provided a little bit 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:54.720 of mental health care. You know, at least people could 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:57.400 virtually kill the folks in their city and their home 0:15:57.720 --> 0:15:59.960 who were ruining their lives, and at the same time 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:02.400 time the games earned the money, and that money went 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:03.520 to fund the PDF. 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:06.240 The most impressive of these games is a recently launched 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:08.400 War of Heroes, which you can buy for just a 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:10.120 dollar on the Apple and Google App stores if you 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:12.920 want to check it out. In the game, which is 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:15.920 available in Burmese or English, a player can fight as 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:18.400 a man or a woman and take on government troops 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:22.400 and even zombies. The money donated via these games and 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:25.080 adverts doesn't just go into a black hole, According to 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:27.840 the sources I spoke to, we have a click to 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:31.680 donate Facebook page, they said, and regularly we release financial 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:35.040 statements on a Facebook page, saying like this month we 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:38.000 gave ten million kyats to that group. I spoke to 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:40.920 Billy Ford, a program officer for the Burmer team at 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:43.560 the US Institute of Peace. He says this kind of 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:46.280 innovation is what's allowed the pro democracy movement to survive 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:48.680 in me and Mah since it was last violently suppressed 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:52.040 in nineteen eighty eight. Activists and resistance movements in Miamma 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:55.920 have historically been an example to the world of creative, strategic, 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:59.840 and resilient models of activism, he said. This post twenty 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:02.360 two one movement has taken that to a new level, 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:06.320 enabling it to defy all historical precedent and sustain an 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:09.560 anti coup movement for more than eighteen months, now actually 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:13.240 gaining ground against a regime with an enormous structural advantage, 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:17.119 rather than seeing their lack of weapons and funds as 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:20.120 the fatal flaw. Ford says that the highly onlined rebels 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:22.399 have looked for areas where they could outflank the aging 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:25.800 generals who stole their futures from them. The movement has 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:29.760 leveraged comparative advantages large numbers of people with time and 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:34.640 tech savvy to raise money. He says. This tactic, although unusual, 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:38.639 has been a great success. According to Ford, the approach 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:41.800 has grown enormously, with one of the video games, for example, 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:43.879 rising to become the number two paid app on the 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:45.000 App Store at one point. 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:47.720 However, all the clicks in the world might not be 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:50.480 enough to sweep the rebels into Mandolay and return the 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:54.159 country on its path towards democracy. Sources inside me en 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:56.719 Mars say that less and less revenue is generated by 0:17:56.760 --> 0:17:59.240 a me and marip address, and that they have had 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:01.639 to encourage men members of the People's Click Force to 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:04.200 install VPNs to make their clicks appear to come from 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:07.560 the US or Europe. Sometimes the traffic is so massive 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:11.359 that Utube's algorithm mistakes it for an artificial intelligence botnet. 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:14.760 They're looking, they tell me, at pivoting towards affiliate links 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:17.000 and the sort of content driven commerce that has swept 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:19.520 the US media thanks to the success of sites like 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:24.080 The Wirecutter. Meanwhile, on the ground, PDF forces are regularly 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:27.280 getting the better of the totmadaw in small arms conflict, 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:30.200 but coming off worse when they can't defend themselves against 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:32.920 the Russian jets which the HUNTA uses to bomb civilian 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:37.240 and military targets. Without man portable anti aircraft systems, the 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:40.280 rebels are sitting ducks. The world has sent thousands of 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:43.040 these to Ukraine and none to people in Myanmar fighting 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:46.080 the same battle for democracy against the same Russian jets. 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:50.320 Despite this, they're not discouraged. PDF rebels tell me they 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:52.720 have been scouring the Internet and they're working on a 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:55.359 solution that doesn't need the apparatus of support of a 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:58.840 state and instead relies on stable broadband and the increasing 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:02.640 ingenuity they've shown and in eighteen months of revolution, demo 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:05.000 crazy word. 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:05.360 My joh. 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:10.240 Oh do o ye. 0:19:12.560 --> 0:19:13.280 Has on you. 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:15.199 On you. 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:20.119 Yeah he d. 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:25.760 Oh my. 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:31.760 Really young irby boy. 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:43.520 Okay lang and on this long heavy. 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:46.160 Ollo. 0:19:46.680 --> 0:19:48.840 Hi everyone, it's me again, James. 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:50.520 Don't worry. 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:51.879 I'm not coming to you at the end of the 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:54.160 series to report something tragic like I did, and I'll 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:57.320 ask me. I'm my series. I'm just recording this little 0:19:57.359 --> 0:19:59.560 message at the end to say that we're very grateful 0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:01.840 to Daniel an Ian for all their hard work on this, 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:06.240 and we've gone through countless edits for this particular project, 0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:09.040 and they've done a lot of hard work to get 0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:10.760 it to you in the form that you listen to 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:13.680 it today and for the last week. We also want 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:16.440 to say that although this appears to be a podcast 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:19.480 written and recorded by Robert and I, that Andy is 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:21.720 very much a co author and that none of this 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:24.720 would have been possible without him. As we said, Andy's 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:27.360 not his real name, and we can't put his real 0:20:27.440 --> 0:20:30.520 name in the credits because we're worried for his safety. 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:34.320 But his work has been invaluable and without him, none 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:35.840 of what you've heard would be possible. 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:40.560 It could happen here as a production of cool Zone Media. 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:43.320 For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:45.600 cool Zonemedia dot com or check us out on the 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:49.240 iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts, 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:51.719 you can find sources for It could happen here, Updated 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:54.840 monthly at cool zonemedia dot com slash sources. 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:55.840 Thanks for listening.