The Burmese Junta has been in power for 48 years. It is a rule of harsh physical and psychological oppression. During the student uprising in August 1988, more than 3,000 demonstrators were shot dead in the streets of Yangon. For decades, a bloody war has been waged upon ethnic minorities resulting in more than 500.000 internally displaced refugees. Peaceful demonstrations in 2007 led by monks were brutally crushed. To this day, the regime holds more than 2000 political prisoners solely for their peaceful opposition to the generals. Recently, Cyclone Nargis claimed the lives of 140.000 people and once again, the generals showed their ruthless disregard for their people when they opposed foreign aid.
On a day to day basis, the Burmese people are just trying to get by. But even that is becoming increasingly difficult. The regime’s faulted economic policies have led to a 20-30% yearly inflation rapidly rendering salaries useless. An average Burmese live on less than a dollar per day. Today, a minimum wage buys 8-10 times less basic commodities like rice, salt, sugar and cooking oil than 20 years ago. The country once dubbed The Rice Bowl of Asia can now hardly feed itself and has gone from being the richest in the region to one of the world's most impoverished nations.
