updated May 9, 2025 German version below Currently, the Burmese Cardinal Charles Maung Bo is among other entitled cardinals taking part in the conclave, finding the next pope. The conclave began on Wednesday, May 7, in the hermetically closed Sistine Chapel in Rome. As widely known, all cardinals under the age of 80 have the […]
Read more...Category: Domestic Politics
Loving Kindness, Unheard Calls. The Potential Political Role of Buddhism
Myanmar`s senior abbots have tried to influence the events unfolding in the country after February,1 for the better. As it is widely known, they have not succeeded so far. According to The Irrawaddy, just three days before the military’s power seizure, members of the Ma Ha Na (Burmese short form for State Buddhist authority) had […]
Read more...22.02.2021: The People’s Peaceful Veto
History is the record of human behaviour. Today, most people of Myanmar vetoed the military’s power seizure of three weeks ago. Undeterred and calmly, the announced general strike brought hundreds of thousands, if not millions, onto the country’s streets. Beyond banging pans and pots at night for driving out evil spirits, a “tech-savvy” generation Z […]
Read more...Sabre-Rattling in Myanmar. No More, No Less?
A politically tense situation has evolved in Myanmar, a country „coming out of decades of darkness of military rule“. In 2010, it started its path towards democratic transition, an endavour which in these days seems endangered by a renewed power struggle between the military and the civilian government. An „End-of-January-Sabre-Rattling “, performed by the Tatmadaw, […]
Read more...A New Outlook for Myanmar
The National League of Democracy (NLD) with its „crowd-attracting“ founder and leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has become the stunning winner of this year’s elections, securing each possible parliamentary seat. Myanmar‘s voting folks enabled the rolling out of the NLD’s red carpet almost all over the country, also in cities former called „strongholds of […]
Read more...Freedom of Press: Myanmar’s Actual Ranking
In 2016, Myanmar ranked place 143 on the Reporters Without Borders’ (RSB) barometer of Freedom of the Press. In 2020, it changed to the 139th. Reasons for the only slight improvement, over a span of four years, are especially related to the handling of news covering the pandemic. Main reasons mentioned are „the blocking of […]
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