Burma Activist Project

For our activist project, me and my group wanted to raise awareness of what is happening in Burma. "Burma is ruled by a highly authoritarian military regime. In 1962 General Ne Win overthrew the elected civilian government and replaced it with a repressive military government dominated by the majority ethnic group. In 1988 the armed forces brutally suppressed prodemocracy demonstrations....The country had a population of approximately 50 million. The country was extremely poor; the estimated annual per capita income was approximately $300. Four decades of military rule and mismanagement resulted in widespread poverty, poor health care, and declining educational levels. Primarily an agricultural economy, the country also had substantial mineral, fishing, and timber resources. Extensive state influence over the economy, widespread corruption, and poor infrastructure has led to rapidly deteriorating economic conditions.

The regime's human rights record remained extremely poor, and it continued to commit numerous serious abuses. Citizens did not have the right to change their government. In ethnic minority areas, security forces continued to commit extrajudicial killings and rape, forcibly relocated persons, used forced labor, and conscripted child soldiers. Disappearances continued, and members of the security forces tortured, beat, and otherwise abused prisoners and detainees. Citizens were subjected to arbitrary arrest without appeal. Arrests and detention for expression of dissenting political views occurred on numerous occasions" (Country Reports).

In North America there is not a lot of media coverage on the issues in Burma, therefore most people here do not know about the issues at all, me being one of them. So in order to raise awareness we decided to hold a benefit concert.
In total we had 7 bands who graciously volunteered to play at Reilly's in Toronto. Once we had the band line up and the venue, it was time to get to work promoting the concert and its purpose. We set up a facebook event in order to promote but also to gage how many we could expect to attend the concert. "http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=6804651173" Facebook acted as a online invitation that people wouldn't loose and could reference for date and location. We then created beautifully crafted tickets which we went door to door in residence selling for only $10. We had no intention of raising money necessarily, but we had to pay off the costs of renting the bar lounge. We also handed out and hung up posters around residence. We made announcements in the GH Atrium and in class about the concert, and reminded everyone we knew.

The night of the concert was exciting. Because we had done a lot to promote the event I was confident that people would come out to support the cause, but I have to admit there was some doubt in my mind that we wouldn't be able to pay off the down payment for the venue. However, we ended up making close to $1000!!!! All proceeds were donated to a charitable organization in support of Burma. Jeremiah did an excellent job getting video footage. I was went around getting guests to sign petitions and a large banner as keepsake of the evening. I really hope that we can make this an annual even, maybe every year we could host a similar event for different projects that are not getting the recognition they need. I really enjoyed doing this activist project and I'm glad I was part of the group. I originally had a completely different idea, but I joined this group because I liked the idea of hosting a benefit concert, and after watching a documentary and doing research on Burma, it seemed like a very worthy cause.
When first presented with the task of an activist project my original plan was to host some sort of environmental challenge. I wanted to do something like have a line up of cool prizes which people could win by bringing me and my group as much garbage as possible. The people who brought us the most garbage would win the biggest prize, etc. I found some neat websites that sold some really neat decorated fabric shopping bags, and some other neat little environmentally products that could be given as smaller prizes. However, I decided to join team Burma because the cause was something that I had never heard about. I thought our group did a good job of raising awareness, even if it were on a small scale. Everything went surprisingly smoothly and we even ended up raising money for our cause.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. October 18th 2006.
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2002/18237.htm