To honour the twentieth anniversary of the August 1988 uprising in Burma The Irrawaddy is, as one would expect, releasing a special edition. It should be well worth a close read. In the meantime, The Telegraph reports that:

The regime appears determined to stop any attempt to mark the date, which with four eights – 8.8.88 – is of magical importance in Burma’s calendar and of huge significance to protesters who two decades on are still trying to bring down a military government in power under a different dictator.

Obviously it is on 8 August that China also begins its Olympics. Auspiciousness and all that. With President Bush soon to arrive in Thailand, and with Laura Bush set to visit Mae Sot, Burma issues will be right back on the mainstream agenda this week.

So If there are New Mandala readers who have reflections on any of these events they would like to offer as a guest post please don’t hesitate to get in touch. In this world, there are many conversations that tend to get drowned out by Presidential pomp and Olympics excess. We are happy to host them here.