The media rallied around the cause of the Burmese people standing up against fear and tyranny, against a government hellbent on controlling every aspect of their life.
Now it has been a month since all of the protests have been crushed.
How are things now?
" Life has changed a lot for many people. The place once full of hope is now shrouded with fear. Fear is everywhere and it's stronger than before.
With fear comes anger. This anger will never go away until this regime is destroyed forever. The anger will go away only when there is true democracy." [Samson]
" Armed soldiers are still patrolling the areas near pagodas and the city centre. They keep questioning people who come to pagodas and I've heard that some have been arrested without doing anything wrong.
We, Burmese people, are Buddhist. Do we need reasons to visit pagodas?
Some private computers have been checked by the military to see if photos or videos of the protests have been sent from there.
My aunt's PC was checked. They came to her house and checked her computer for proxy software. They have even installed some software that can track down what we are doing on the internet. She has warned me not to do anything silly. " [Da Vine]
BBC
Back to normal with more security measures insuring that people have even less freedom to resist. The crisis we highlighted has now faded from the screens and all the cheering on of the Western press has done nothing.
Buddhist Burmese even have trouble visiting their pagodas.
What can you say other than the media has abandoned their Burmese darling. The cause will be forgotten until the next major upheaval and until then they are left to their own devices.
It is disappointing to see the impotence of mankind to help one another to incite drastic change for the positive.
The only thing more disappointing is that when we do move to incite change by overthrowing a Saddam Hussein or a Taliban, we are criticized.
I think people live in fear of trying to institute change because those who cause it now suddenly inherit a mess of accusations and questioning of motives. Nothing is worth anything.
In a different world China with a conglomeration of other powers could have came in and destroyed the Burmese regime and held elections, guided the nation into stability; in our world, the liberals would have accused them of acting out of their own interests and regardless of how many democratic reforms were made they would be forever questioned.
We live in a world where liberation is risky business as quickly everything we know is turned on its head by Marxist media outlets that view everything as a vain attempt to exploit the laborer and poorer nations and the only people who have values are liberals, while conservatives are mere pirates.
I don't think they understand that part of us conservatives also feels a little tingle inside when people free themselves from overbearing governments.