dvtv live broadcast 11.11.10: Bloody Burma Election

Imagine a country where you can’t buy a book -
Where government troops shut down schools for ethnic children.

Imagine a country where the state policy is to torture monks, rape women, enslave children, to burn ethnic villages and shoot the elderly - pregnant women - and children.

Imagine a country where entire families are sentenced to prison - because one member of that family expressed dissent.

Imagine a country where people are afraid to even speak the name of the lady who was elected as their leader twenty years ago.

Imagine a country where families of landmine victims are charged by the government for the cost of the exploded landmine - where posting a blog or taking a video can get you sentenced to sixty-five years in prison.

That country is Burma – also known as Myanmar – a bloody military dictatorship bordering Thailand, China and India.

Last Sunday the junta staged a national election in Burma. The junta hired rebel armies whit whom they have a cease-fire agreement to supervise the voting process in the ethnic Karen region in the northeast of Burma.

By supervise the junta meant conduct the voting process - at gunpoint. The Karen troops were instructed to hold guns to the heads of their own people as they voted.

Some of the Karen troops turned the guns on the Burmese troops. The Burmese troops responded by shelling villages in the area. Some of the shells landed across the border in Thailand, as did twenty thousand refugees.

A good friend of this broadcast is Jeremy Taylor. Jeremy sent three people into Burma with video cameras. They posed as tourists because foreign journalists are not allowed into Burma. They were inside Burma for three months and witnessed a rigged constitutional referendum vote and a cyclone that killed two-hundred-thousand people.

Because these filmmakers were followed by military police the American Embassy arranged for the videotapes to be flown back here to New York as soon as I saw them I knew I had to edit this documentary. I did.

You will see and hear from the victims of this bloody dictatorship, and what they had to say in anticipation of this past Sunday’s sham election.

“Burma: An Indictment” won Best Documentary at the Soho International Film Festival and a Silver Remi Award at the Houston International Film Festival earlier this year.

dvtv is pleased to present for the first time on television – “Burma: An Indictment” - a documentary film directed by Jeremy Taylor.
This film does contain some graphic images. Viewer desgression is advised.

+ + +

Working on a film like that makes you realize how lucky we are to be living in a country like this.

We need to acknowledge the dozens of anonymous photographers, videographers and ordinary Burmese citizens who risked imprisonment and torture to capture some of the images you have just seen.

What happens next in Burma is unclear. There’s little indication that things will get any better. Because foreign journalists are not allowed in Burma, much of this happens in a vacuum. Burma’s trading partners – china India and Thailand - are happy with the status quo – cheap labor – cheap resources. Burma is a rich country with children starving in the streets.

What you can do is to get more information on this unacceptable situation from this website freeburmaalliance.org. You will find more videos - individual stories of political prisoners and refugees - the latest news about Burma and what you can do to take action – what you need to tell your senator and the white house - because only international pressure can bring change.

Every political prisoner that I have met from Burma tells me that it was international pressure and awareness of their situation that got them released. Don’t let the people in Burma suffer in a vacuum.

Find out about this humanitarian crisis that has lasted decades. Speak out to your elected leaders about the need for change in Burma.

We should not tolerate slavery, torture and genocide. As civilized people in a privileged society it is only our duty to speak out.

freeburmaalliance.org

dvtv live broadcast 01.17.08: election fraud

the black guy, the white guy, and the chick.

choose one.

no substitutions.
click here if this don't play well,
for Quicktime video,
or full-screen options
imagine, if you will, this scenario: you’re hungry. you go into a restaurant. you look at the menu - huge menu. goes on for pages and pages –there’s steaks, chops, fish, pasta, soup, salads, sandwiches, vegetarian meals. you think – wow – i have a huge choice. i’ll have the steak you say. the waiter says - we’re out of steaks tonight. you look at the menu again. i’ll have the salmon. no salmon. allright, you say - linguini. out of linguini the waiter says. in fact, the waiter tells you - all we’ve got tonight is chicken, burgers, and fishcakes. no substitutions. you thought you had a choice of almost anything, a wide open choice of dishes to eat, because you saw it all on the menu. but when it comes time to order – there’s only three choices: chicken, burgers, or fishcakes. you feel like you’ve been lied to. cheated.
scenario two: you are an American citizen. all your life, you are told: this is America. anybody can grow up to be presient. america has a free and open election system. your vote counts.
but right now, just weeks into the election process, before you have had a chance to express your opinion, you are told: here’s your choice – burger, fishcakes or chicken.
it’s the third week of January – the New York primary won’t even happen for another two weeks – but right now the only choices you have are – the black guy, the white guy, or the chick. no substitutions. in the two weeks that you will have to wait to vote – people you don’t even know, people who aren’t your neighbors, people who live thousands of miles away, in towns youv’e never even heard of – they might effectively limit your choice to two or even one of the above.
welcome to the American electoral process. decision 2008. wars are raging, hundreds of Americans dying overseas, the dollar is worth pennies, oil at one-hundred dollars a barrel, the economy tanking under the strain of debt and mortgage failures, and it’s time to pick a new executive office resident to clean up this mess – and the decision’s already made for you. the black guy, the white guy, or the chick. theres only three choices – the black guy, the white guy, and the chick. no substitutions.
even worse, the whole election process is pretty shakey – eighty per cent of the voters will be casting ballots on electronic voting machines. are they secure? do these machines gaurantee a fair and accurate tabulation of votes? do the electronics protect against manipulation before during or after the election? fuck no!

from a documantary called Hacking the Election, you can watch the whole thing on you tube, and yes, that was a diebold machine, exactly the same machines that were used in new hampshire and many other states. fortunately, New York will still use those big grey lever clunkers that have been around for forty years. they are mechanical – cannot be hacked.
tonight, it’s your chance to cast your vote of confidence - or no confidence in the electoral process. does your vote really count? will anybody actually count your vote? call now, the phones are open until eleven tonight, at 212 757 1393, you are watching dvtv live my name rs and i’ve barely scratched the surface about the issues i have with the whole election thing – remember Florida? black voters harrassed, questioned by police for waiting in line to do their sacred duty as american citizens. some were turned away, some after waiting twelve hours to vote? one hundred forty thousand votes went uncounted in the 2000 election, yet the election was decieded by a few dozen votes. remember ohio in 2004?
of course, you could vote for a republican…

restore ‘god’ to the constitution? GOD – WAS- NEVER IN –THE- CONSTITUTION - YOU – LOPSIDED - BAPTIST - MORON. he also said the constiution has changed, but the word of god – meaning the bible – does not. that’s bullshit. the Bible has changed countless times – that’s why there’s different versions, translations, Old and New Testaments, the Koran. that’s why there’s biblical scholars who research the original Hebrew and Greek words. does Huckabee think the original transcript of the bible was printed in english by Gideon and found in a hotel room drawer?
this idiot is dangerous – he thinks women should be subserviant to men, yesterday in an interview with beliefnet.com he equated gay marriage to animal-fucking, and today he embraced what is to many people an enduring symbol of slavery – the confederate flag. he’s dangerous, he gets lots of attention and votes, and he’s being touted as the frontrunner for the republican nomination. then there’s John McCain, who would be seventy-two if he takes office, today he repeated the assertion that we’re winning in Iraq. enough said. many pundits envision a McCain -Clinton contest in November – swell. with three quarters of the American people opposing the war, we get to choose between hawk and hawk – two powerful influential senators that enabled bush to start this war in the first place.
are you happy with your choices. are you excited about voting in november. are you optimistic about “change”? do you hold out hope for the future of this country – or does the whole election charade make you want to puke? call me now, talk to me – 212 757 1393 your calls to dvtv live this seventeeth of January, two thousand eight.
while youre dialing, here’s a little dance segment for dvtv’s director of photography.