Leaderboard

Sorry lads, don't laugh you might be like this yourselves when you get to my age.

By "people", do you mean posters on reddit and fb comments section with a saint complex who used to deitify her in the past and now think she's a literal reincarnation of Hitler? I would say they know little about Myanmar’s political landscape and the complexity of the country's ethnic conflicts throughout the ages. Anyway, regardless of anyone's opinion on Aung San Suu Kyi, the fact that there's another military coup in a region which already consists of very frail democracies - or rather of military-controlled facades of democracy - is worrying and sad, and will definitely hinder the stability and development of the region.

Sorry to hear that mate. Hopefully, he recovers.

None of it changes the fact that both clubs have serious financial difficulties and need to sell their most valuable players in order to survive.

You're talking Rashica here, I suppose?

Thankfully Baumann has come out and said that Milot is likely staying. Apparently Hertha just wanted to loan him with no guarantee to buy. Why would they think that would be acceptable?

Don't think it matters much to them, one way or another. They have strategical interests in the country, and they've been on pretty good terms with both the military and Aung San Suu Kyi (bar a few issues regarding the Chinese-backed armed groups in the north), so this probably doesn't change anything as much as they are concerned. If anything, international community potentially increasing sanctions on Myanmar as a reaction to the coup will likely make the Burmese military more dependent on China and strengthen their ties.

Take 'em where you can mate

I'd say that the main criticism is not for what she has done, but rather for what she failed to do though - namely, for not standing up for Rohingya, no? I understand why people in the West would have expected her to do that; but in all honesty, I think that's a very naive expectation to have. First of all, she has had limited say in what is still essentially a military rule pretending to be a democratic civilian government, a move that was made in order to improve the country's image, get international sanctions lifted and qualify for international aid. Military still has 25% guaranteed seats in the parliament regardless of the outcome of the elections, they control defense and home affairs ministries as well as the police force and border controls, former high-ranking military personnel occupy top civil positions, the generals have the majority of seats in the National Defence and Security Council which has the power to suspend democratic government, and they also have veto power over constitutional changes. So essentially any reforms that the military doesn't approve of have no chance of being implemented, and all of Aung San Suu Kyi's and her party's attempts to ammend the constitution have been fruitless. Secondly, given how divided Myanmar is by ethnic and sectarian lines, standing up for and speaking in favour of the Rohingya would be a political suicide in a country where the majority of the Bamar population holds very negative views about most of the minority groups and where numerous ethnic conflicts have been brewing for decades, with ethnic armed groups controling roughly a third of the country's territory. The anti-Rohingya prejudice, in particular, is so deep-seated among the Buddhist Bamar population, that being seen as a defender of Rohingya interests would have cost her and the NLD a significant amount of votes. A peaceful resolution of those conflicts has actually been one of Aung San Suu Kyi's and the NLD's key priorities in their political agenda. In fact, after getting elected, she requested the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State to be formed, it was led by Kofi Annan, included other international and Burmese experts, and called for improvement on human rights, a review of the citizenship law, and investing heavily into the infrastructure in order to lift the population out of poverty. Interestingly enough, shortly before their final report was released, the military moved troops into the Rakhine State, and a day after it was released, the Rohingya rebel groups launched several attacks on military/police outposts, basically starting the events that led to the atrocities and the ongoing humanitarian disaster. Other efforts for peaceful resolution of other ethnic conflicts in the country also failed miserably after proposed constitutional ammendments were blocked by the military, and most of the ethnic armed groups refused to sign the nationwide ceasfire agreement as a result. As sad as it is, both the Burmese military and the numerous armed ethnic groups as well as other countries and entities backing them all have major political and economic stakes in the continuation of hostilities; none of them are interested in peace. The extreme tribalism in Myanmar's society is another factor that significantly hinders any progress, and in all honesty, I don't see that changing, ever. So yeah, Aung San Suu Kyi definitely had to keep balance between opposing the military and working along with them in order to be allowed to be a part of the political process, and her political actions (or, in case of the Rohingya issue, her inaction) are also heavily influenced by the views and attitudes of the general population. She's not a saint, but I don't see her as a villain either. Truth is though, she is still the symbol of hope to tens of millions of Burmese, and her popularity and personality cult is probably the only thing threatening the status quo of the army rule - which is even more evident now after yesterday's coup. A bit funny how a huge military apparatus is still afraid of the popularity of a frail old woman who doesn't even have constitutional power to lead. Anyway, as I said in my previous post, regardless of what anyone thinks of Aung San Suu Kyi, a return to a fully blown military junta will only make things worse. The new acting state leader after the coup is Min Aung Hlaing, an army general and Commander-in-Chief who has prior record of human rights violations against ethnic minorities, with several court cases in various international courts still ongoing. He's the one who has been calling the shots in military crackdown against the Rohingya too, and it's a bit amusing to see how the West (and Muslim) countries prefered to ramble about Aung San Suu Kyi "not saying anything against it" instead of paying attention to the ones who were actually directly responsible for it. If anything, her tarnished image led to significantly decreased support for her internationally, and thus has only benefited the military and encouraged them to seize complete power again. It's another sad indication that the region is once again succumbing to instability, internal conflicts, authoritarianism and stagnation, while a significant part of the population is still in poverty and has little to no access to proper education, housing and health services, indicating little hope for any progress in the future.

Covid-19: Isle of Man ends second lockdown - BBC News Anyone else up for getting a speedboat over to the Isle of Man? Can crash on @RandoEFC couch? No masks, no social distancing, pubs open....lucky bastard.

If you want to see how fast the world is giving birth and people dying too have a look. http://worldbirthsanddeaths.com/

Van den Berg

Sorry to hear about that.

He's incredible. I still feel he's underappreciated by some of our own. I've seen people slagging him off on social media recently and whenever the conversation of who you'd least like to lose of the front three comes up, Salah is often the name on people's lips. I find that mad

Got myself a chicken casserole on the go. Making a nice side of cauliflower cheese to go with it.

A bit of banter would be 2 mates jokingly stereotyping each other between themselves in a harmless manner. Going around calling people the n word or abusing others is out right racism, ignorance and can never be labelled as just "banter", it's utterly embarrassing. What makes most of these clowns even worse is that they hide on twitter with some fake persona and a picture of a cartoon character, hiding their true identity. They need exposing. They are an embarrassment to this country. And there was me thinking this country had moved forward and progressed. Far from it it seems. Expose them and then film their reaction when a group of lads turn up at their door.

I wish I could take the credit for this but this is all my dad's work. Stuffed peppers with minced lamb, topped with a bit of cheese. Couscous with carrots, cucumber, peppers, red onions, bit of cabbage. Oh and for Masterchef admirers, a red wine jus as well...

Decided to be all fancy and cooked some mussels today...

You absolute melon @JoshBRFC

My grandad is really unwell with Covid. He tested positive last week. Didn't show any symptoms at first but has got worse as the week has gone on. He's 88 now and has had health problems since his 60s. In and out of hospital since my Grandma passed away in 2012 but he's always pulled through, even when things looked against him. We got to go and see him in the care home individually today as it seems like the end for him now. Wouldn't put it passed him to pull through again but like I say, unfortunately seems like one too many for him this time