Civil Society and Its Grateful Children

Civil Society and Its Grateful Children:  A gift to my fellow Burmese citizens

Brother, leave your revolution behind, and junk your jailed comrades.
Forget about (Aung San) Suu Kyi.  Icons are best dead.
Resistance is futile.  Ideals are for idiots.
Generals’ Elections are good for you even if they are a farce, a
travesty, and a sham.
And another world is not possible.
Get it?
Politics is bad for your health, but projects feed your children, and
treat your mama.
Hone your (project)management skills and go commercial.  Don’t forget
to keep your receipts.
Dissidents are out.  Development is in.
Civil society is good for you, and for “socially responsible” Big Business.
So sit back, relax and enjoy as the Market prepares to penetrate your
‘virgin’ economy
While “Scums of the Earth” look on , that is, dishonest diplomats,
dull developmentalists, cynical humanitarians, and parasitical local proxies,
With bottles of snake-oil in their hands, and voodoo advice in their heads
Waiting to discharge their “International Class Burden”
Of saving us Kipling’s half-childlike Natives
From our real “Three Diseases” –  Poverty, Conflict and Oppression.
We now know there is no society as we, the natives, know it,
But only your manufactured ‘civil society’, born via project-assisted delivery
Sirs! Madams!  Thank you for your Snake Oil, and for your Voodoo Midwifery.
Now we welcome you to our brave new world of “civil society” in Burma.

Zarni, Bangkok, 5 Nov 2010, on the eve of Burma’s ‘election

(Posted by the request of Author)