First, I have no definitive answer for the question that is the title of this video.
Currently there is a humanitarian crisis involving 600,000 people who in the last few months
have had their homes burned down and been chased violently from their homes, and yet,
news media, especially on television, have been rather quiet on the topic.
I don't have a clear answer why, but we do need to start talking about this issue.
I've dedicated a lot of my time to studying politics in the United States, politics in
Latin America, and relationships between Latin American countries and the United States.
Consequently, I have not dedicated that same time to studying the politics of other countries,
so I have to acknowledge that this is a situation I've only recently begun to study.
For example, I don't even know which name to use for the country this video is about,
whether Burma or Myanmar, because from what I've read, Burma is the name England, as the
former colonial power, used and is more limited because it refers to one ethnicity in an ethnically
diverse country, but on the other had Myanmar was the name chosen by a military-controlled
government that itself is responsible for many deaths against its own people.
So frankly, I don't even know which of two names to use, but my opinion was that any
respectful discussion of the country had to start with some recognition of its history.
Having said that, and acknowledging the importance of the past, this video is about something
happening in the present day.
Every source I've read so far agrees on certain key points about the conflict, and these key
points are so powerful that it concerns me to see so little attention to this problem
in the media.
Here are the key points I see repeated in source after source: In the country there
is a majority Buddhist population with a minority Muslim population, the Rohingya, who have
lived there for centuries.
The Buddhist majority and the particularly the military have a very negative record with
regard to their treatment of the Rohingya, who despite living in the country for centuries
are not recognized as citizens by their own government, which puts them in the dangerous
position of having no nationality.
This by itself is a big problem because so much of international law presumes people
have a nationality, but the Rohingya have been officially denied their nationality by
a government that insists they are quote-unquote illegal immigrants and insists they prove
they aren't by showing documentation, which for poor people living in rural areas isn't
easily to obtain and it certainly isn't easy given the discrimination faced by the Rohingya,
a group which isn't even allowed to vote.
During summer 2017, the military chased the Rohingya from their lands, burning their homes,
killing many, and raping women.
As I understand it, there was a group of Rohingya who attacked the police and army and there
are conflicting reports of how many people were killed in the attack.
My opinion here is that while it's understandable for an army to defend itself and while violent
extremism cannot be accepted, at the same time, the use of force by state sanctioned
armies should be aimed at restoring a state of peace and putting an end to conflict.
To make a show of force this extreme, displacing 600,000 people, killing men, women, and children,
burning homes, raping women, no respectable military can engage in actions like that.
There are over 600,000 Rohingya refugees who fled across the border into Bangladesh right
now, many of them suffering from lack of basic necessities and starving.
Here's the question I pose to the people watching this video: How do 600,000 people lose their
homes in a violent attack and so few people outside of the region actually know what's
happening?
I've said in previous videos that I believe that even if comparatively few people are
suffering, the problem still deserves to be addressed efficiently.
And I made that video because typically when things involve large numbers people already
pay attention.
But people haven't being attention to what happening to the Rohingya.
More than 600,000 refugees have fled from their homes in a violent attack.
Look at that number again.
600,000.
600,000.
One last time: 600,000 people.
And yet, the news media in the United States have been pretty quiet about the entire situation.
There are some newspaper articles, but no entity capable of communicating with a large
audience has really reported on this.
And the same goes for Spanish language news networks, which admittedly focus on Latin
America but still do report on other parts of the world.
My guess here is there are three likely reasons.
The first is, a lot of the people who have lost their homes were poor.
When it comes to what the rich are doing, that immediately gets on the news.
Some actor divorces some actress and that gets reported everywhere.
Some new political venture is affecting wealthy people and that gets reported everywhere.
But when something primarily affects the poor?
Sure it gets reported but receives no where the coverage.
The second reason is, the Rohingya are brown and Muslim.
Throughout the United States and in Europe there has always been racism against people
of color and discrimination against Muslims, and in recent years that discrimination has
only become more intense.
In this environment, news media are just less likely to talk about a situation where Muslims
aren't some terrifying aggressor but displaced people literally running for their lives.
The third reason is, the situation is complicated.
I talk a lot on my channel about Latin America but I acknowledge that many people in the
United States don't know about the history of Latin America countries not from prejudice
but because for many it's a somewhat distant place and they have no personal ties to Latin
America.
People have nothing against Latin America but they haven't had an opportunity to study
the region in depth.
In the same way, a lot of people may not have prior knowledge about Burma or Myanmar.
And when situations are complicated, it can be difficult to summarize in a quick news
segment.
I understand that, but I also believe that certain problems are of such significance
that people should try to inform themselves.
And that is what is happening to the Rohingya.
Or maybe I'm wrong and there are other reasons media groups haven't talked about this as
much as it should be talked about.
Whatever reason media entities have for just not talking about how 600,000 have been violently
thrown off their lands, children starving, people killed, women raped, I can't imagine
any justifiable reason to ignore this suffering.
Whatever the reason is for this silence, it is a bad reason.
There are much stronger arguments in favor of publicly addressing this problem.
Just because the people who suffer are poor, brown and Muslim, just because a situation
is complicated, that is no reason enough to let people suffer, particularly when the richest
countries have the resources to provide the necessary aid if they analyze what needs to
be done and work effectively.
I'm not here to propose solutions because I still need to study.
I need to inform myself.
But here's the thing.
A lot of other people also need to inform themselves.
News media especially need to stop ignoring what is happening.
And if nothing else, political groups in powerful and rich countries have a duty to inform themselves
and deliver aid to those suffering.
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