Burma: Hopes Burn Brightly

Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel does not organize travel to Myanmar, and has never sent anyone to Myanmar. Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel has traveled to Myanmar on a fact finding mission and have supported a vetted non profit organization that brings much needed fresh water to a community there. However, Exquisite Safaris does not organize travel to Myanmar at this time.

There was something about the girl, Gregg Butensky told me.

There was something so bright, so positive, so full of potential so bright, so positive, so full of potential amid the stunning poverty that engulfs Burma, that a chance meeting in 2003 turned into a commitment to her.

"She comes right up to you and wants to practice the little English she had, invite you in her `house' for tea," recalled Butensky, a Web designer who was trying to explain to me why a 44-year-old American cared about Burma and why he cared about its citizens being able to reach anything they seek on the Internet, without the worry of government spying.

He is trying to explain how a 17-year-old girl living with her mom in an open lean-to on a muddy river bank showed him she could still dream of learning about computers. And he wants to know why Sunnyvale-based Fortinet is helping to keep this girl and thousands like her in the digital dark.

Burma, of course, is not called Burma anymore. It is called Myanmar by the military junta that has ruled it for nearly two decades. On the scale of repression and poverty, Burma is right up there with North Korea. Right up there with China in erecting firewalls to prevent free access to the Web, and in trying to monitor what people see and say there.

Outside our consciousness

But we don't hear much about it, since its government killed an estimated 3,000 student demonstrators in a Tiananmen Square-like massacre in 1988. Since it put the charismatic, 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for leading a democratic movement.

We don't hear much from that part of the shuttered world. But Butensky, who has one of those dream careers that gives him the freedom to travel for months at a time, followed Burma's fortunes after an unforgettable trip there in 1987.

In October, the Open Net Initiative, a collaboration between the University of Toronto, Harvard University and Cambridge University, reported that 84 percent of sites containing Burmese political content was blocked, as well as free e-mail sites such as Hotmail and Yahoo. It was accomplished using a Fortinet product, despite formal U.S. sanctions against companies doing business with Burma. Sites like the Irrawaddy, a news magazine started by Burmese expatriates, is one of the sites blocked.

Victor Win, president of the Burmese American Democratic Alliance, wrote a letter to Fortinet in August asking for a meeting to talk about Fortinet's technology in places like Burma. He asked whether the company had violated U.S. sanctions. The response didn't answer their questions - so this week, I asked.

Knowing your customers

Fortinet representative Michelle Spolver said the company had reviewed its practices and is confident of its compliance, but doesn't know how its product ended up in Burma. So they made some changes. `"We've gone a step beyond this thing to look really, really hard at our practices," she said. Since customers need continuous updates through Fortinet's subscription services to keep the filtering current, Fortinet has blocked those updates to Burma. Without updates, Fortinet contends the filtering becomes ineffective.

It's not convincing to Butensky, but he can only hope for equally sophisticated advances on the part of those who want to bypass filters like the ones from Fortinet and others.

Butensky's foster daughter, whom he has helped with school tuition, a bicycle to get there, and housing, is improving to the point that she might get a good job soon.

It's an uncommon, but not unheard of, brand of philanthropy you see among travelers wearing their conscience on their sleeves.

There's just something about Burma. And a child wanting to learn. Both worth caring about.

This Mercury News article is replicated in the interests of transparent histories. Readers are encouraged to view the original located here:
By L.A. Chung Mercury News Columnist

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Take Action for Burma Democracy: Philanthropic Travel
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