kelvin quee

It’s seems that the situation is worsening. After our only glimmer of hope from the UN, Mr Ibrahim Gambari, left, the junta takes its retaliations one step further by “sending troops to drag people from their homes in the middle of the night and letting others know they were marked for retribution”.

I’m disappointed that ASEAN, chaired by Singapore’s Prime Minister Mr Lee Hsien Loong, was merely “most disturbed“. In a letter to Senior General Than Shwe of Myanmar, Mr Lee wrote -

“We are most disturbed by reports of the violent means that the authorities in Myanmar have deployed against the demonstrators, which have resulted in injuries and deaths.”

I’m still hopeful. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that he “made it quite clear that that it is the political responsibility, collective responsibility, of ASEAN — and I’m going to take it as a high priority issue”.

When such atrocities are happening in our neighbourhood (I’m a Singaporean), the worst thing that we can do is nothing. ASEAN’s inaction on this issue is nothing short of inadequate.

Let me remind everyone, especially Singaporeans, that one of ASEAN’s objective is to -

The ASEAN Declaration states that the aims and purposes of the Association are: (1) to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region and (2) to promote regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law in the relationship among countries in the region and adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter.

Now, shouldn’t we be doing something?

Related Links
1. Dashing hopes in Myanmar - The Economist
2. Myanmar Troops Stage Nighttime Arrests - AP
3. PM Lee expresses deep concerns over Myanmar - CNA
4. U.N. chief plans to discuss future action on Myanmar with Security Council on Friday - IHT
5. Overview - ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS

Their album (above) is practically FREE. There’s a textbox (see below) where the price should be - You are free to key in any value! You can key in even “0.00″ (YES, I’ve tried) and the system returns a sarcastic “We value your custom. You’re currently in a queue.” Radiohead keeps their promise though and you’re later brought to a registration page.

The picture above shows me keying in $1.99 for the entire album! When you hit the “?” icon on the pricing line, it leads you to -

Hit the next “?” again and it says -

Radiohead, one of my favourite bands, have taken leadership again - this time in the distribution and pricing of their precious product - Music.

Trust that People Pay for Good Work
Trust is really important. As an artist, one must have trust his/her works. One must also trust his/her audience. Even though I’m free to download it off for free, I won’t. I’ll pay a price, a fair price, which I’m still deciding. It should be around SGD $6, I guess.

Nearly Every Cent Goes to Radiohead
From an economics point of view, note that it costs almost nothing for Radiohead to distribute the digital songs online. Including transaction costs, it may cost them just SGD $0.50 per album. As a music lover, I would rather pay $6 and be sure that nearly every cent goes to supporting the artist than to pay $19.99 to feed the entire music industry value chain (from the record label, the CD press, the logistics company, the music store, the landlord…).

In anycase, if I didn’t want to pay for the music, I wouldn’t have paid anyway and would have downloaded off Bittorrent/Limewire/eMule/whatever.

And, I’m willing to wager, that Radiohead would get far more revenue per album download than if Radiohead had went the conventional way of selling plastic CDs.

This is because most people would deem themselves to be paying for a service, than for a physical object. And, the price of service, as you would already know are highly inelastic.

Discouraging Piracy with an Infinitely Fair System
It also encourages would-be-pirates to pay for a small sum, thereby effectively preventing petty piracy. It feels good to be paying a small amount to enjoy music. It’s a ridiculously fair system of payment - You only pay for what you think the music is worth!

All in all, it’s a not a zero-sum game. In fact, it’s very much positive indeed. Who’s the one crying “Downloading is Stealing”?

Eat this, RIAA!

Related Links
1. Time Magazine - Radiohead Says: Pay What You Want
2. HOLY SHIT: Radiohead’s In Rainbows Out In 10 Days!
3. Radiohead Amazes Me

I am simply mirroring the blog post from Gorilla Radio (URL below) and doing some editing. Text in quotes are reposted as it is -

http://gorillaradioblog.bl​ogspot.com/2007/09/to-zed-​on-burma-investors.html

The objective of this blog post is to raise awareness in light of the atrocities happening in Burma/Myanmar.

This is NOT a protest. I am of the opinion that we need to look into such issues pragmatically. Cutting off all trade relations with Burma may do more harm than good. The companies listed below may be, in fact, good proxies for positive influence and lobbying.

I am also not entirely sure of the accuracy or completeness of the information. This is, perhaps, where you come in?

Singapore Companies include:

Our dear 3 banks UOB, DBS and OCBC &

“CNA Group Ltd - NEW
CNA is as Sesdaq listed company headquartered in Singapore. It was, in 2005, awarded a contract for the expansion of Yangon International Airport. Under the contract C.N.A. will design, supply, install and commission 24 engineering systems for the airport terminals. The project is to be completed by early 2007 but the CEO has commented “we will continue to expand our presence in the region (Myanmar).”

Ginnacle Import-Export Pte Ltd - NEW
Ginnacle is a company located in Singapore involved in the sales and marketing of Burmese teak lumber, decking and furniture. The Burmese regime owns all teak plantations in Burma and teak sales earn the regime millions of pounds every year.

Golden Aaron Pte. Ltd - NEW
Golden Aaron Pte. Ltd. is a Singaporean oil corporation. The company is part of a consortium which in 2005 signed three production sharing contracts with state run Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, to explore for oil and gas in Burma, both on and offshore. It is a project which will undoubtedly provide the Burmese junta with a large and valuable source of income. The same consortium signed similar deals in 2004.

Interra Resources – NEW
Singapore listed Interra Resource’s principal activities are the exploration and operation of oil fields for the production of crude petroleum. It operates in Indonesia and Burma. In Burma its subsidiary Goldwater Oil was the first foreign oil company to extract oil in Burma. It is currently engaged in oil and gas exploration and production through its jointly controlled venture with Geopetrol called Goldpetrol.

Keppel Corporation - NEW
Singapore’s Keppel Corporation is a multinational corporation with interests in three key business areas: Offshore and Marine, Property and Infrastructure. Its property wing- Keppel Land has a presence in eight Asian countries including Burma where it owns the Sedona Hotels in Yangon and Mandalay.

Kerry Logistics Group/Kuok Group
Kerry Logistics is a goods transport logistics company with branches in 12 countries, including the UK. Kerry Logistics also operates in Burma, facilitating the export of Burmese goods. Kerry Logistics is part of the Singaporean conglomerate, Kuok Group.

Shangri-La Hotels
Shangri-La Hotels is a Singaporean hotel company. It operates the Traders hotel in Rangoon. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities. In the UK, Shangri-La plans to operate an opulent 5 star hotel in the proposed ‘shard of glass’ tower block at London Bridge.”

“What’s behind the sudden surge in Western interest in ousting Burma/Myanmar’s military regime? Could it be an attack on another source of oil for petro-hungry China? Here’s some of the countries and companies invested in B/M

Last modified 29 Sep 07

In response to calls from Burma’s democracy movement, the Burma Campaign UK and other campaign groups around the world have been pressuring companies to sever business ties with Burma.

Please contact one or more of the companies on the Dirty List and ask them to cut their ties with Burma’s military government. If appropriate, tell them you will not purchase their products as long as they continue to support the regime in Burma.

Letters written in your own words are most effective. If you don’t have much time, don’t worry - just one or two paragraphs will do. Please be polite!

We would be grateful if you could send us a copy of any responses you receive.”

From -
http://gorillaradioblog.bl​ogspot.com/2007/09/to-zed-​on-burma-investors.html