Sunday, March 15, 2020

History of Myanmars 8888 Uprising

History of Myanmars 8888 Uprising Throughout the previous year, students, Buddhist monks, and pro-democracy advocates had been protesting against Myanmars military leader, Ne Win, and his erratic and repressive policies.  The demonstrations forced him out of office on July 23, 1988, but Ne Win appointed General Sein Lwin as his replacement. Sein Lwin was known as the Butcher of Rangoon for being in command of the army unit that massacred 130 Rangoon University students in July of 1962, as well as for other atrocities.   Tensions, already high, threatened to boil over.  The student leaders set the auspicious date of August 8, or 8/8/88, as the day for nationwide strikes and protests against the new regime. The 8/8/88 Protests In the week leading up to the protest day, all of Myanmar (Burma) seemed to rise up.  Human shields protected speakers at political rallies from retaliation by the army. Opposition newspapers printed and openly distributed anti-government papers.  Entire neighborhoods barricaded their streets and set up defenses, in case the army should try to move through.  Through the first week of August, it seemed that Burmas pro-democracy movement had unstoppable momentum on its side. The protests were peaceful at first, with demonstrators even encircling army officers in the street to shield them from any violence.  However, as the protests spread to even rural areas of Myanmar, Ne Win decided to call army units in the mountains back to the capital as reinforcements.  He ordered that the army disperses the massive protests and that their guns were not to shoot upward - an elliptical shoot to kill order.   Even in the face of live fire, the protesters remained in the streets through August 12. They threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at the army and police and raided police stations for firearms. On August 10, soldiers chased protesters into Rangoon General Hospital and then began shooting down the doctors and nurses who were treating wounded civilians.   On August 12, after just 17 days in power, Sein Lwin resigned the presidency.  The protesters were ecstatic but unsure about their next move. They demanded that the sole civilian member of the upper political echelon, Dr. Maung Maung, be appointed to replace him. Maung Maung would remain president for just one month.  This limited success did not halt the demonstrations; on August 22, 100,000 people gathered in Mandalay for a protest.  On August 26, as many as 1 million people turned out for a rally at Shwedagon Pagoda in the center of Rangoon.   One of the most electrifying speakers at that rally was Aung San Suu Kyi, who would go on to win the presidential elections in 1990 but would be arrested and jailed before she could take power.  She won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her support of peaceful resistance to military rule in Burma. Bloody clashes continued in the cities and towns of Myanmar for the rest of 1988.  Throughout early September, as the political leaders temporized and made plans for gradual political change, the protests grew ever more violent.  In some cases, the army provoked the demonstrators into open battle so that the soldiers would have an excuse to mow down their opponents. The End of the Protests On September 18, 1988, General Saw Maung led a military coup that seized power and declared the harsh martial law.  The army used extreme violence to break up demonstrations, killing 1,500 people in just the first week of military rule alone, including monks and schoolchildren.  Within two weeks, the 8888 Protest movement had collapsed. By the end of 1988, thousands of protesters and smaller numbers of police and army troops were dead.  Estimates of the casualties run from the implausible official figure of 350 to around 10,000.  Additional thousands of people disappeared or were imprisoned.  The ruling military junta kept universities shuttered through the year 2000 to prevent students from organizing further protests. The 8888 Uprising in Myanmar was eerily similar to the Tiananmen Square Protests that would break out the following year in Beijing, China.  Unfortunately for the protesters, both resulted in mass killings and little political reform - at least, in the short run.

Sunday, March 8, 2020

What Is Vancouver Referencing

What Is Vancouver Referencing What Is Vancouver Referencing? Vancouver is the most populous city in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is ethnically diverse, known for its high quality of life, and nicknamed â€Å"Hollywood North† for its connections to the Canadian film industry. It is also the home of Vancouver referencing. Well, sort of. In this post, we’ll look at the basics of Vancouver referencing. This will include how to cite sources, reference lists and bibliographies, and why it is called â€Å"Vancouver† referencing in the first place. What Is Vancouver Referencing? Vancouver referencing is so called because of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, who met in Vancouver to agree on a referencing style for all biomedical journals. They decided on an â€Å"author–number† system. This uses numbered citations to point to entries in a reference list, where the author and text are named. However, Vancouver is not a â€Å"system† in the strict sense. Instead, it is a reference style with several variations (e.g., style of punctuation and use of italics). As such, if your school or publisher suggests using Vancouver referencing, make sure to check your style guide carefully. Citations in Vancouver As mentioned above, Vancouver uses numbers to point to an entry in the reference list. The exact format for citing a source can vary, but this usually involves parentheses (1), square brackets [2], or superscript numbers.3 If the author is named in the text, the citation usually comes after their name. If not, the citation goes at the end of the relevant passage. For instance: According to Smith (1), X is Y. However, some studies disagree (2). Each number refers to a different source, with sources numbered in the order they are first cited. If you then cite the same source again, simply repeat the number you used the first time. Advanced Citations As well as basic citations, you can cite more than one source at a time by including more than one number. And if you quote a source, you should also include page numbers: If X truly is Y (1, 3-5), then â€Å"Y must also be X† (6: p. 24). For example, with the first citation above, the author is citing sources 1, 3, 4, and 5 from their reference list. With the second citation, they are citing page 24 of the sixth source in the list. The Reference List Like with citations, the format of a Vancouver reference list will depend on the version of the system used. However, they all have two things in common: Sources are listed in the order they are first cited in your document. All references should include enough information for the reader to find the source used. A reference for a book, for example, might look like this: (1) Smith A. X and Y: A Study of Similarity. New York: PI Publications; 2012. The number at the start matches the citation in the main text. After that, we have the author’s name, the title of the book, and the publication details. This level of detail will usually suffice. Reference List or Bibliography? Some versions of Vancouver distinguish between a â€Å"reference list† and a â€Å"bibliography.† Usually, the reference list is only cited sources, while a bibliography may include additional reading. This terminology can vary, though, and which you need will depend on the version of Vancouver used. This, again, makes it wise to check your style guide if you’re unsure how to proceed. But as long as you’re clear and consistent in how you cite sources in your work, you’ll be on the right track! And if you’d   like someone to check the referencing in your work, let us know.