Its 1988 in Burma. Students are leading a series of vociferous protests against the military junta. Years of economic mismanagement have been compounded by the sudden cancelling of some of the nation's currency notes - savings held in cash are instantly wiped out. The shooting of an engineering student in March leads only to louder and larger protests; a young woman by the name of Aung San Suu Kyi becomes the face of the democracy movement. Then, on September 18, the Army steps in - over 3,000 are killed or disappeared in one afternoon.
Fast forward to 2007, and Joshua, the underground reporter and narrator of Ostergaard's 'Burma VJ' is getting deja vu. Economically on its knees, with high unemployment, rising inflation and subsidies being cut, and politically running out of options, the Burmese people are suffering. As one of a number of journalists working illegally for the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), a television and radio network-in-exile (based in Norway), Joshua risks his freedom and life to document conditions inside the country under the despotic rule of the junta. Once smuggled out of the country, images and videos are edited and streamed back into Burma via radio networks, or passed onto international news networks to raise awareness.
In late 2007, Joshua and his DVB colleagues noticed a shift in popular opinion. The fears of a recurrence of 1988 were subsiding, a combination of the natural amnesia of time and the desperation of quotidian life. Small, isolated protests were occurring. They were quickly broken up by the junta's 'thugs' but not before being captured by the diligent DVB reporters. Then, and most famously, the monks took to the streets; occupying a precious place in Burmese and Buddhist society, monks are not to be harmed and therefore presented a literal human shield for the thousands of Burmese citizens who took to the streets to protest alongside them.
The bloody conclusion to the uprising thereafter is well-known, as is the infamous execution-like shooting of the Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai. What Ostergaard adds to the saga however is to point out the courage of those behind the footage (it was a DVB reporter that captured the Nagai shooting for example, from a nearby building), who risk their lives so that the bravery of those protesting is not lost with the first firing of the army's guns. The 2007 uprising, however brutally put down, was a defeat for the junta due almost entirely to the reporting of DVB reporters, like Joshua, who put themselves in positions similar to Nagai in order to document the democratic desire of their people.
Concluding Thought: Hard to know who to admire more, the monks willing to die for the sake of their people, or the reporters willing to die to document it.
Fast forward to 2007, and Joshua, the underground reporter and narrator of Ostergaard's 'Burma VJ' is getting deja vu. Economically on its knees, with high unemployment, rising inflation and subsidies being cut, and politically running out of options, the Burmese people are suffering. As one of a number of journalists working illegally for the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), a television and radio network-in-exile (based in Norway), Joshua risks his freedom and life to document conditions inside the country under the despotic rule of the junta. Once smuggled out of the country, images and videos are edited and streamed back into Burma via radio networks, or passed onto international news networks to raise awareness.
In late 2007, Joshua and his DVB colleagues noticed a shift in popular opinion. The fears of a recurrence of 1988 were subsiding, a combination of the natural amnesia of time and the desperation of quotidian life. Small, isolated protests were occurring. They were quickly broken up by the junta's 'thugs' but not before being captured by the diligent DVB reporters. Then, and most famously, the monks took to the streets; occupying a precious place in Burmese and Buddhist society, monks are not to be harmed and therefore presented a literal human shield for the thousands of Burmese citizens who took to the streets to protest alongside them.
The bloody conclusion to the uprising thereafter is well-known, as is the infamous execution-like shooting of the Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai. What Ostergaard adds to the saga however is to point out the courage of those behind the footage (it was a DVB reporter that captured the Nagai shooting for example, from a nearby building), who risk their lives so that the bravery of those protesting is not lost with the first firing of the army's guns. The 2007 uprising, however brutally put down, was a defeat for the junta due almost entirely to the reporting of DVB reporters, like Joshua, who put themselves in positions similar to Nagai in order to document the democratic desire of their people.
Concluding Thought: Hard to know who to admire more, the monks willing to die for the sake of their people, or the reporters willing to die to document it.