Funding a Revolution
Insight Myanmar20 Feb 2023

Funding a Revolution

Episode #149: Nandar Min Swe is a fundraiser for the government in exile. She helped sell NUG bonds, as well as facilitating the sale of subdivided plots of land owned by Min Aung Hlaing and other the military, which can be redeemed upon a successful end to the revolution. These days, she is working on facilitating a cryptocurrency which can circumvent the military regime’s control over the national financial system.

Nandar identifies a developing problem, however, in that most fundraising efforts are directed at Burmese donors. “Why are we digging deeper into our own pockets, and our own pockets are not that deep enough, no matter how much we dig into?” she asked herself. She thinks this is due, in part, to Burmese cultural values. Nandar agrees with Phillipp Annawitt, who expressed on a recent Insight Myanmar podcast episode that the “culture of sacrifice” that has long existed within Burmese democracy movements is not a sustainable form of governance, and this is reflected in the Burmese focus of fundraising efforts—the same people give over and over until they can’t, while volunteers are beginning to feel overwhelmed. Nearly two years into the attempted coup, the Burmese diaspora still continues to have to shoulder nearly this entire burden, unable to find a way to break through to a wider audience beyond their own bubble.

Going forward, Nandar makes clear she is seeking a new and better country, rather than advocating for a specific party or policy. “I'm not an NLD supporter or a Daw Aung San Suu Kyi supporter. I feel myself to be more like someone who wants to liberate Burma any way I can. And the only way I can right now is by fundraising.”

Avsnitt(506)

The Language of Freedom

The Language of Freedom

Most people would not regard a violent military coup as the best time to start an organization, but that's exactly what Katie Craig and her partners did! Katie has worked with minority language commun...

24 Feb 20221h 28min

This Woman’s Work

This Woman’s Work

“I think Tatmadaw is a place where soldiers and their families have lost their human rights,” Su Thit asserts. Her bold criticism of Myanmar's military is somewhat unusual because her husband was one ...

17 Feb 20221h 2min

Looking Within A Burmese Nunnery

Looking Within A Burmese Nunnery

Like so many other spiritual seekers from the West, Kim Shelton and her husband were attracted to Myanmar by the opportunities that the country presents for developing a deeper Buddhist practice. Kim’...

10 Feb 202258min

Depicting a Golden Kingdom

Depicting a Golden Kingdom

When films examine a subject in detail, it’s sometimes described as a “meditation on…” that particular theme. Golden Kingdom, a 2015 film by Brian Perkins, fits this expression in more ways than one.B...

5 Feb 20221h 34min

From Burma With Love

From Burma With Love

Kenneth Wong, a Burmese language instructor at UC Berkeley, has spent a lifetime studying the history of Burmese films, and is one of the organizers of the Burma Spring Benefit Film Festival. He grew ...

31 Jan 20221h 9min

Revisiting the Burma Spring

Revisiting the Burma Spring

For her first post-coup documentary, Padauk: Myanmar Spring, Jeanne Hallacy’s team employed a technique called “in-depth personal storytelling,” and the results were simply stunning. It allows the vi...

26 Jan 202256min

Portrait of an Activist

Portrait of an Activist

Little T’s ongoing nightmare started, as it did for so many Burmese people, with the violent coup launched last year by the military. Soon, the first peaceful mass protests hit the streets. Besides or...

22 Jan 20221h 48min

Sitagu Sayadaw, The Coup, and Burmese Buddhism

Sitagu Sayadaw, The Coup, and Burmese Buddhism

“My own feelings would be that it would be good for Sitagu Sayadaw to leave the country and then speak out [against the military]. If he speaks out now, he would probably be arrested immediately.”Thus...

16 Jan 20222h 28min

Populärt inom Politik & nyheter

motiv
aftonbladet-krim
rss-krimstad
p3-krim
fordomspodden
flashback-forever
spar
aftonbladet-daily
rss-viva-fotboll
blenda-2
rss-sanning-konsekvens
svenska-fall
rss-krimreportrarna
rss-frandfors-horna
rss-vad-fan-hande
olyckan-inifran
rss-flodet
rss-expressen-dok
dagens-eko
svd-dokumentara-berattelser-2