Burma exposes the West

Burma isn’t an anomaly. This is the way the world works. Corruption, violence, oppression and murder, all covered with lies and platitudes.

We might not be able to do much to help the people of Burma, but at least the situation gives us the opportunity to expose the culpability of our own governments and top companies.

For example, 50 British companies, and many other around the world, invest in Burma. You can read the full ‘dirty list‘ here. It includes Rolls-Royce, Total Oil, Alcatel, Chevron, Daewoo, Let’s Go/Pan MacMillan, Lonely Planet, Maersk, Mitsui, Siemens and Suzuki.

We should be working to embarrass and boycott these companies, at the same time as exposing our own governments’ weakness in the face of corporate interests.

Most western governments ‘discourage’ investment in Burma, but do nothing concrete to prevent corporate interests propping up the Burmese junta. The South African government voted against a UN security council resolution to urge the Burmese government to move towards democracy.

And it’s not just in Burma – dictatorial regimes around the world get by with a nod and a wink from the west, as long as there is money to be made.

And we’re expected to believe that Iran is the great evil?

Also, given recent neo-imperial adventures, Britain and the US are hardly in any position to be telling other countries how to behave.

Most serious commentators – including Sholto Byrnes in the New Statesman – feel that the key lies with China, and to a lesser extent, India. But while we in the West are so in thrall to cheap Chinese goods, are we going to criticise them?

The whole system is rotten and corrupt. Our governments, and the big companies that make up our economies, are part of the problem. We can’t rely on them to be part of the solution.

We need to remake the world from the bottom up, street by street, workplace by workplace, community by community. We need to build real solidarity at a human level, neighbour to neighbour, and not rely on the rich and powerful to solve our problems for us.

It’s a big task, but we’re all in this together, and we can do it. We need to find a real human connection with each other that is principled, but transcends ideology and religion. We need to remember that what unites us is so much greater than what divides us.