WEBVTT - Behind Myanmar's Devastating Earthquake 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:05.080 All media. Hey everybody, Robert here, I wanted to let 0:00:05.080 --> 0:00:07.160 you know that two of our hosts at Zeitron of 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:10.760 Better Offline and Molly Conger of Weird Little Guys, are 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:13.080 in the running to win the Webbys right now, or 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:16.200 to win Webbys in their respective categories. If you just 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:22.119 google their names at Zeitron, Webby Webby or Molly Conger Webby, 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:24.760 you can find them and vote for them. There will 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:26.840 be links in the show notes as well, Sophia, you'll 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:31.280 put them in, so please do vote for them. 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:34.720 Hello, and welcome to the show. It's me James today 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:39.200 and I am joined by Garrison Davis. Hi, Garrison, Hello. Hello. 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:42.600 Garrison has just said some words about something that's happening 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:45.919 on social media that I don't understand, and it's made 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:49.080 me feel very old. That's what's happening today in my world. 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:53.280 It's very sad. We're gathered here today to talk about 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:56.840 the earthquake in Mianma. Right. I think most of you 0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:00.360 will probably have been made aware of the earthquake. Click. 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:04.520 It's somewhat odd that corporate media has really not reported 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:07.880 on the revolution in any substantial way since twenty twenty one, 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:12.679 but the earthquake apparently justified a lot of network sending 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:16.000 people to Meamma for the first time. Very amusingly, people 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:19.640 dming me on Blue Sky and Twitter asking how to 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:22.360 get a visa from the Burmese hunter, which is not 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:24.479 a thing I've ever done. The last communication I had 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:26.200 with them came in the form of a car bomb 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:28.800 that they said of near to a place where we were. 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:33.280 But if you're not aware, the earthquake happened on the 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:35.959 twenty eighth of March of this year, just before one 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:39.040 in the afternoon. It was the biggest earthquake in Meanma. 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:42.360 So it's nineteen twelve and it registered seven point seven 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:45.920 on the Richter scale, which is huge because it's it's 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:48.840 very hard for foreign journalists to get a visa to 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:52.840 enter Memba. The initial reporting focused on Bangkok and the 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:56.640 damage done in Thailand, but the epithet was in Sagang, 0:01:56.920 --> 0:01:59.920 which is near Mandalay, Madelade's second biggest city in Memba, 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:04.200 and that was where like the worst of the destruction happened. 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:09.720 Almost every street in Mandalay has collapsed buildings. It's a 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:12.320 little difficult for us to get a sense of the 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:15.160 exact scale of the damage because the Hunter refuses to 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:18.320 allow some media has been allowed in the BBC. I 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:22.000 saw like sneaked somebody in It's very difficult for media 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:25.240 to move and report freely. And in addition to this, 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:28.519 the Hunter has continued to practice of cutting off Internet 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:30.040 for people in Mema right. 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:32.359 Even during like emergency situations. 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:36.080 Yes, yeah, especially during emergency. They've cut it off like 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:38.560 as a response to this because I guess they perceive 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:42.239 it to be something that makes them look weak. This 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:46.200 is a tendency that the Hunter has displayed before. So 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:49.639 in two thousand and eight, cyclone Nagas affected Mema and 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:52.880 killed over one hundred and thirty thousand people, and they 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:57.120 blocked international aid. They said that people didn't need the 0:02:57.200 --> 0:03:01.920 quote chocolate bars that the US and other countries were 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:05.400 trying to deliver, and that they could exist by like 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:09.079 hunting frogs in ditches, was their suggestion. I don't think 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:13.680 people realize like how far down the North Korea scale 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:18.160 the Burmese Hunter is, but like they're very worried that 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:24.680 any interaction with the outside world, specifically with like I 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:29.080 guess western neoliberal powers will be damaging for their like 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:34.440 ability to control the population. So for that reason, we 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:38.320 don't know how many people have died. Right from what 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:41.320 I've heard on the ground, the death toll is substantially 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:44.080 higher than the three thy six hundred number being reported. 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:47.520 The US Geological Survey estimated that an earthquake of that 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:49.960 magnitude in that region would kill between ten and one 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:53.160 hundred thousand people. Obviously, that's quite a big kind of 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:56.280 delta there. What I can tell you is that I've 0:03:56.320 --> 0:03:59.640 heard firsthand that there are some parts of mandolines A 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:03.000 going where the stench of rotting bodies is so powerful 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:08.200 that people have stopped returning to their homes. There have 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.480 been so many after shocks that people are still sleeping 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:14.280 in the street because they're worried about the damage structures 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:18.760 falling down. The UN has an estimate of seventeen million 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:22.680 people across fifty seven townships. Townships are like the administrative 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:26.359 districts that are used in miannber a bit affected, with 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:30.560 over nine million people facing severe hardship. And of course 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:32.360 this is all compounded by the fact that there were 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:36.000 already twenty million people in Mianba who needed humanitarian assistance, 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:39.279 and they're about three and a half million internally displaced 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:41.640 people as a result of the fighting that's happened after 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:45.720 the revolution, So like it really came at a pretty 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:49.839 difficult time in a place where the government is not 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:52.680 willing to They said after the earth quake, they wanted 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:55.240 international aid, but they've, as we'll see later in this script, 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:59.200 they've only accepted it from certain countries. I spoke to 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:02.400 a friend who has family in Mandalay yesterday. He told 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:05.080 me that they the way they're assessing the damage is 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:08.919 using like open source intelligence. They're trying to look in 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:11.640 the backgrounds of people's videos on Facebook to like work 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:15.080 out if their childhood homes fell down. Right, They were 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:18.320 using satellite imaging software when I spoke to them yesterday 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:22.560 to try and ascertain if their families were okay. They 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:26.120 told me or Sagang has very famous pagodas, and the 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:28.400 pagodas are all on a hill. Apparently a lot of 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:31.000 those pagodas have fallen down, and even the hill itself 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:35.560 is like listing. So there's been like massive cultural damage 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:39.960 as well. Another way in which the damage was compounded 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:43.760 by Miamma's politics was the quake struck Like I said, 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:46.520 at one pm on a Friday, right which is Friday prayers. 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:50.040 This happened during Ramadans, particularly the day before it'll fitter, 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:52.640 which is a very busy day for mosques if you're 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:56.320 not aware. Right, successive governments of Memma since the nineteen 0:05:56.360 --> 0:06:00.320 sixties have refused to allow even basic maintenance for moses. 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:06.840 That means that these buildings were in great states of disrepair, right, Memma, 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:10.560 there is an alternationalist Buddhist movement which has been embraced 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:13.760 to a great degree by the Hunter, but also limited 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:16.200 even like the National League for Democracy, which was the 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:21.480 relatively neo liberal aligned party that had previously been in 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:25.080 power in Myanma or somewhat in power. I suppose alternationalist 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:27.760 Buddhist monks like Ashin Wurathu and his nine six nine 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:32.200 movement have kind of condemned anythink that they did as 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:35.200 making them pro Muslim And they have this essentially they 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:38.560 have a great replacement theory, right, that Muslims are trying 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:41.200 to come in through Bangladesh to replace Buddhists in Mianma. 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:46.520 Yeah, lots of people here have this like very orientalist 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:50.520 perspective of like Buddhism TM as this like you know, 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:53.880 like like like peaceful blah blah blah blah blah, and 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:56.760 like no, like Buddhism, like every religion has a variety 0:06:56.760 --> 0:07:01.800 of sex. Yes, and the Buddhist nationalist set can be 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:02.960 particularly nasty. 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:06.480 Yeah, I mean as vicious as any other people I'm 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:08.599 sure will be familiar with their Hindi genocide and like 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:10.960 there are a lot of monks that supported that, including 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:14.000 We're Atheurism most notable one, but there are plenty more, right, 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:16.360 and they're part of the I mean he's he's literally 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:19.480 explicitly expressed, like how much he looks up to the 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:24.320 English Defense League Jesus. Yeah, yeah, Like these are people 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:28.480 who like they are part of this global nativist movement. 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:31.520 People's orientalism, I think sometimes stops him seeing that or 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:36.960 appreciating that this extends outside of like white global North countries. Yeah. 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:39.840 One thing that I did think that that really touched 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:43.680 me in the days after the earthquake was young Buddhist Bamar, 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:47.360 people of the majority ethnicity, reaching out to me and 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:51.080 being like, hey man, this happened in Friday prayers to Ramadan, 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:55.920 and it has devastated the Muslim population, Like thousands of people, 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:58.320 hundreds of mosques have gone and thousands of people are 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:00.320 trapped in a rubble and like no one's talking about it? 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:02.040 Why is no we're talking about it? This is terrible 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:06.920 and like it would have been inconceivable to hear young 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:10.120 Bama Buddhist people so concerned with the well being of 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:13.880 like their Muslim countrymen before the coup in twenty twenty one. 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:17.000 This was a country that had been manufacturing consent for 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:22.559 genocide against its Muslim minorities for four or five years 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:25.880 by that point, right specifically on Facebook. That's a behind 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:27.920 the bath this episode on this you can also listen 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:30.280 if you're new to the show. Robert and I have 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:33.480 made two scripted series about the revolution in me Amma, 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:36.640 which will include in the show notes. But like that 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:41.640 change to a real genuine solidarity and care between these 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:45.200 two groups was really touching in the like moments after 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:47.720 the earthquake, in the dates after the earthquake. When we 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:49.120 come back, I want to talk a little bit more 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:51.839 about the revolution and I want to talk about how 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:54.319 the revolution has been responding to this and the impact 0:08:54.360 --> 0:09:07.520 has had on the revolution. We are back, and of 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:11.440 course the revolution hasn't stopped because of the earthquake. Right, 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:16.160 the conflict is still ongoing, and the PDFs and their 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:20.160 allied ethnic bsiness organizations are still fighting against the Hunter. 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:23.400 In fact, within an hour of the earthquake, the Hunter 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:28.000 began using paramotors to drop bombs on Hangule village and Sagang. 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:32.079 This has been a thing that they've started to do recently. 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:34.600 In a sense, I guess it's a good sign because 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:38.600 it shows that maybe their jets and other aircraft are 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:41.160 in a poor state of repair, or that they're struggling 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:44.720 to keep enough of them airborne. Initially, I wondered if 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:48.760 they were using the paramotors because their runways have been damaged, 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:51.079 but there doesn't seem to be the case. They've been 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:55.599 striking just as much as they ever did, which is unfortunate. 0:09:56.080 --> 0:09:58.599 Satellite images or reports of my source on the ground 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:02.600 suggests that they're able to continue carrying out bombing rates 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:05.120 at a pretty similar rate from when they did before. 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:09.160 Despite this, the National Unity Government, which is kind of 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:12.800 the shadow government composed mostly of people who are elected 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:15.000 and then deposed by the coup in twenty twenty one 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:18.079 and the PDF who in theory are commanded by the 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:22.080 National Unity Government, called a two week ceasefire right after 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:26.080 the earthquake to allow for like a humanitarian pause. The 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:28.880 Three Brotherhood Alliance, which is an alliance of the three 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:33.000 month powerful ethnic resistance organizations in Myanmar, also called what 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:36.160 they called a humanitarian pause for a month. In both 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:40.440 cases they said they wouldn't undertake offensive operations, but they 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:42.760 would defend themselves right because I think they had a 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:45.240 CeNSE that the Hunter wasn't going to stop attacking them. 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:49.520 The Hunter did declare its own ceasfire on April third, 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:52.720 and the Kachin In Dependence Army, which is another ethnic 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:57.560 residence organization, followed shortly thereafter. Notably, that ceasefire from the 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:00.240 Hunter came the day after its troops fire on a 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:03.920 Chinese Red Cross convoy, which is not a great look 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:04.280 for them. 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:06.280 No, never love to see that. 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:08.480 Yeah, we don't love to see people firing on the 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:11.760 Red Cross. This is especially bad for the Hunter because 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:14.160 China has been growing closer and closer to the Hunter 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:16.920 and supporting it. China's had this weird back and forth 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:20.240 relationship with the Revolution. At times it supported the revolution, 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:23.000 it seems like just supporting the me and my National 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:26.400 Democratic Alliance Army, which is a group that broke off 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:28.920 the Communist Party of Burma in the nineteen eighties. 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:30.240 That yeah, that makes sense. 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:33.520 Yeah, there's also the United War State Army, which isn't 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:35.679 part of the revolution, which is that which has the 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:38.480 strongest relationship with the PSC, and they're just chilling. They 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:40.520 haven't really entered the conflict. 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:43.400 It's called straight chillin. By the way, Jane, straight chillin. 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:47.000 Yeah, there you go. That's how you say it. I 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:51.280 marked myself out yet again, straight chillin the United War 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:56.800 State Army, Thank you, Charrison. Actually it spoke to some 0:11:56.880 --> 0:12:01.120 Cardridge from the Burmese Communist Party. The Communist Party of 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:05.000 Burma re entered after twenty twenty one, and like they're 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:08.920 not focusing on like proselytizing the Maoist gospel to people. 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:13.319 They're focusing on like fighting the hunter and like developing alliances. 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:15.319 And it's kind of it's interesting to see where that 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:18.760 will go. Given Marcus Leninism MAUS and is definitely not 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:21.560 the majority ideology the revolution. Most people are committed to 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:25.560 some form of federal democracy, which when you speak to 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:28.760 different fighters, varies from like we want what you guys 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:31.520 have in the US to something more akin to the 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:34.200 democratic con federalism that people might be familiar with in 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:39.720 ra Java. China is competing with Russia in me and 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:42.600 mar So both of them are interested in supporting the 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:44.920 Hunter right like, and obviously both their ideologies are far 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:48.640 from the liberatory. They're interested in propping up a totalitarian state. 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:53.240 So we have seen both Russia and China send support 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:57.960 to the Hunter, send like rescue teams after the earthquake. Meanwhile, 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:01.920 the US offered two million dollars, which I was kind 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:02.760 of surprisingly offered. 0:13:02.760 --> 0:13:07.439 Any think that is low key surprising considering Yeah, Mark Rubio. 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:09.960 Right, Yeah, well I think Rubio is more of a 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:12.880 like slightly Rubio is a neocon. 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:15.920 Yeah, I guess like it makes sense Mark Rubio like 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:18.640 five years ago. Yeah, it doesn't make sense. Like post 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:22.360 like you said, being gutted, They're like, oh, you're still 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:24.600 doing that kind of stuff. Huh. Yeah, there's like a 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:27.600 weird like mix of things because because yes, like a 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:33.600 traditional neo con style Rubio. This this tracks but all 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:35.600 of the movements that the Trump administration has been doing 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:38.839 more recently. This seems like it seems like some kind 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:40.920 of dei shenanigans if you ask. 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:45.240 Yeah, actually they added another seven million later nine million 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:47.520 which is, yeah, it's not a lot of money compared 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:48.720 to what we would normally expect. 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:50.720 And at the same. 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:54.120 Time they did it, three USAID workers, at least three, 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:56.600 I should say three that I'm aware of, were laid off, 0:13:56.640 --> 0:13:59.319 like literally they received emails telling them that they no 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:01.600 longer had a job while they were on the ground 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:03.600 assisting earthquake survivors. 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:06.640 Department of Government Efficiency strikes again. 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:09.840 Highly efficient, will send you the money and then also 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:11.800 put out our own people who I guess are supervising 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.160 how the money has spent or would be. It definitely 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:17.439 shows though, like a strategic shift in the region China 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:21.040 and Russia. China obviously is interested in Memma because of 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:26.120 its rare earth metals, because of jade China has originally 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:28.960 had a lot of jade trade with mean Ma, and 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:34.560 then because it controls a large amount of seafront right, 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:36.400 which which China wouldn't want to fall into like way 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:39.880 it would see as like someone with adversarial interests. Russia 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:42.040 is still interested in just kind of projecting itself as 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:44.520 a global power, even as it continues to shrink of 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:47.760 every day in terms of its global ability to project power. 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:51.360 But there definitely are both Chinese and Russian assistance helping 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:55.920 the Miamma Hunter. Now, meanwhile, the US doesn't seem to 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:58.400 give a shit what happens here now like this is 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:01.000 kind of not that it by the administration was doing 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:03.320 very much either, but at least we had USAID and 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:07.080 USIP was very invested in MEMR and actually did a 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:09.840 really good job of kind of almost like being the 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:13.960 Foreign Affairs not branch, but they explained the revolution to 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:16.320 the world, like whenever a journalist wanted to understand the 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:19.640 revolution in Memr, it was USIP they went to. Obviously, 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:22.000 all the contents that have a USIP have now been doged, 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:28.680 which is a shame. So despite the ceasefire, right I said, 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:30.960 they fired on these Chinese troops, the Hunter has in 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:35.479 fact not stop bombing earthquake struck areas since the earthquake 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:39.400 madele APDF who I'm in contact with the other revolutionary 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:41.400 forces in the area that was most affected by the 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:44.080 earthquake on April seventh, told me that they were aware 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:48.200 of ten strikes in their area of operations since the earthquake. 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:50.720 Three months old baby and a ten year old child 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:53.720 were killed in an air raid on Niicar village and 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:57.720 Papun township that was in Corrent State. On April tenth, 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:00.480 they bombed a school and something that the and likes 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:02.640 to do a lot that They dropped two five hundred 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:06.360 pound bombs on a food court. They then circled back 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:09.400 and dropped another bomb on the people responding to and 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:11.520 giving aid to the people they'd initially bombed in the 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:14.240 food court by food court here, Just to clarify, I'm 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:16.440 not talking about like at the shopping mall. I'm talking 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:20.280 about like a market where people can buy like prepared food. Right. 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:25.600 They've killed the best I can collate from various sources, 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:28.400 at least seventy two people and injured about one hundred 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:32.160 people in addition to thousands who died after the earthquake. 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:37.480 There are also reports that hunter quote unquote recruiters here 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:41.960 are engaging in forced conscription in the disaster zone. I 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:44.040 read of at least one person who was on a 0:16:44.080 --> 0:16:46.520 search and rescue team, like they were a trained search 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:49.760 and rescue volunteer, right, so they were moving rebel to 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:53.120 rescue people, and they were forcibly conscripted while they were 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:57.000 doing that. Obviously, that's had a chilling effect on people 0:16:57.040 --> 0:16:59.880 going out to help others. Right, what the Hunter is 0:16:59.920 --> 0:17:05.560 not doing is rescuing its citizens. The military is detested 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:07.560 in most of me and mar even in the areas 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:10.439 that it controls, and its failure to even try and 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:12.680 track people rescued on the rubber won't help this. There 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:15.680 was a video that went viral recently of Hunter troops 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:19.639 literally a line of soldiers rescuing bricks. They've gone to 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:22.280 a collapsed building and they're inspecting the bricks to see 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:24.080 if the bricks a whole, and then passing them down 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:25.480 the lines and stacking them up. 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:26.879 Don't worry. The bricks are safe. 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:30.359 Yeah, the bricks are safe. The people are not, which 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:34.240 just like it was genuinely like infuriating to see it, 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:36.720 and I can't imagine for people who have lost family 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:40.880 members how that must feel. Even rescue workers, like I said, 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:45.000 have been forcibly conscripted. Equality MEANMA has noted more than 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:48.600 one hundred cases of force conscriptions since the earthquake. So 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:52.200 Meama has a conscription rule right, a law, so anyone 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:55.560 men and now women between certain ages can be forcibly 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:57.000 conscripted into the Hunter's army. 0:17:57.040 --> 0:17:59.480 So they're just finding people displaced from the earthquake and 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:00.320 forcing now. 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:02.439 Yeah, it's people who have been hiding in their homes 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:04.359 right who now don't have homes to hide it, yeah, 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:07.000 or people who came out in order to save their 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:10.359 neighbors and now now they're forcing them to be to 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:14.280 fight for them, just as as they did with cyclone Nagis. 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:18.040 They've also delayed and in cases blocked AID. A team 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:21.360 came from France to assist in a search and rescue. 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:25.240 They spent twenty four hours sitting in an airport waiting 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:29.359 for their visa to be approved, and then they spent 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:32.400 one day working in search and rescue efforts before being 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:34.679 told that search and rescue efforts had now finished and 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:36.879 they were to go home. So they traveled around the 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:41.119 entire world and didn't save a single life abundance it's great, 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:45.159 presumably because the hunter wanted to plicate China. A Taiwanese 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:49.119 team was straight up refused entry into Meenmar. Taiwan had 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:50.600 a search and rescue team that they were willing to 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:52.879 say zend who could have saved yourble lives, and that 0:18:52.880 --> 0:18:56.359 they weren't allowed to enter. All tourist visas have been suspended, 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:58.200 so it's not like the Hunter is like overwhelmed with 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:01.480 visa applications, but they're not allowing certain rescue teams to 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:04.000 enter from countries. I guess they're not politically aligned with 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:07.840 This kind of horrific indifference to human suffering has characterized 0:19:07.840 --> 0:19:11.640 a toutmudor for decades, and it's really unlikely to change. 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:13.800 As it grows even more desperate and it loses even 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:16.240 more territory, it's just going to clamp down harder and 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:18.880 harder on its people. The one in the liberated areas. 0:19:19.200 --> 0:19:21.720 Aid is being mobilized using the mutual aid structures which 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:23.920 you've existed for decades. In the absence of the state, 0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:27.760 in significant and growing parts of ME and MA, people 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:30.440 are relying on each other instead of the government for aid, 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:33.879 and that has its benefits, right, Like people have been 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:37.960 out rescuing people from the rebel, but they're also desperately 0:19:37.960 --> 0:19:41.879 short of resources. I spoke to mandal APDF rescue team 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:45.120 at the first week of April and they literally sent 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:47.199 me a They have a notebook of a list of 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:48.919 like we've run out of gorz, we've run out of 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:51.520 towny ks, we've run out of adhesive dressings, we've run 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:54.720 out of elastic bandages, right, they're like the little nuts 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:56.679 and bolts of saving people's lives they run out of. 0:19:56.800 --> 0:19:59.680 We did a fund raising campaign for them through behind 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:02.240 the Bus. We raised nearly two thousand dollars, which is great. 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:06.280 So they're restocking their supplies, which is fantastic, But that's 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:09.880 just one township. All across the country, people are struggling 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:12.119 for the basic supplies that they need to save lives. 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:16.280 The military has also blocked aid and medicine from entering 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:18.960 their areas. Right, so the military controls a lot of 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:22.679 roadblocks and it uses its control of those roadblocks to 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:25.320 stop AIDA medicine. Often it's kind of hoarding it in 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:28.000 the capital city, which is Napidor. People not familiar and 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:30.720 Napidor is a city that they've couldn't have built for 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:33.760 itself to govern from, I mean seat of kings. Also 0:20:33.840 --> 0:20:38.080 in Napidor right now is the US AID agency Samaritans Purse. 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:40.760 Are you familiar with Samaritans perse keratin? 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:43.800 I don't think so. It sounds vaguely familiar, but all 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:47.320 these humanitarian organizations all have like the same like four 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:49.760 words that they shuffle around in different ways. 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:53.439 So yeah, yeah, yeah, Samaritans perse perhaps the most famous 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:55.360 for being run by Franklin Graham. 0:20:55.520 --> 0:20:59.159 Okay, yes, the idea what this is and who this is? 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:02.640 Yes, yeah, having all their volunteers sign like a statement 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:07.560 of faith, and being extremely homophobic. For some reason, Samaritans 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:10.600 Persons establishing a field hospital in Napi door right now. 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:13.679 They're going to force people to convert to Evangelical Christianity 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:16.439 before they give services like they do in some. 0:21:16.359 --> 0:21:18.879 Cases, yeah, or just leave them like they did in 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:22.359 Afghanistan if they're not Christian. I cannot work out for 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:25.240 the life of me what the fuck they're doing, because 0:21:25.280 --> 0:21:28.520 like the Hunter has made a consistent policy of bombing 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:31.200 Christians in me Emma. Right in Karen and Karini State, 0:21:31.200 --> 0:21:34.040 there are a lot of Christian people. On Christmas Day, 0:21:34.640 --> 0:21:37.720 the Hunter bombed people going to services because it knew 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:40.440 that Christians would be going to services at churches. Right 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:44.760 the Kareni Christians this year I saw celebrated Christmas in 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:48.560 caves because they were so afraid of being bombed. Right, Like, 0:21:49.040 --> 0:21:52.560 I have no idea what logical leap you have to make? 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:56.160 Are yeah, it's and they're like they're not even at 0:21:56.200 --> 0:22:00.359 the Insagang. The only people. The only international aida aware 0:22:00.400 --> 0:22:02.199 of that was able to make it to Sagang was 0:22:02.200 --> 0:22:07.120