In 1962 Burma became another one of the unfortunate nations to have "Peoples Socialist Republic" tacked onto its name. In the same way that the Khmer Rouge later changed Cambodia into Kampuchea the once prosperous Burma became Myanmar. Thus began what was called "The Burmese road to socialism", which of course ends like so many other socialist roads did; at a mass grave filled with the defenseless. The Junta in Myanmar may have long given up the pretense of being "socialist" but the world should remember their roots and how exactly they got in power in the first place.
As easy as it is to laugh at Stallone in any given situation I'd like to know where all the usual self-righteous Hollywood blow-hards are right now. Why aren't the likes of Kevin Spacey and Sean Penn who can find so much time to hang out with their South American pal Hugo not rallying the members of their save-the-world-super-friends-club to say something about this situation. The next time some Hollywood know it all start rattling off about some half thought out cause perhaps "Tell it to the Burmese Monks" should be our response.
Sylvester Stallone gets death threats in Myanmar border
IT was just like a scene from one of his many action-packed movies. Hollywood superstar Sylvester Stallone was filming some scenes for his next film John Rambo on the border of Thailand and Myanmar when he and his crew allegedly received death threats on the set. “We were on the Salween River and we were told to get out because we were going to be shot,” Stallone said.
The actor, in an interview with Entertainment Tonight’s Mark Steines, adds that making the movie around the border exposed him to the “full-scale genocide that has been going on.”
“People are escaping from Myanmar coming over with gaping, maggot-infested wounds, their ears cut off. You saw a lot of suffering, a lot of malnutrition.”
He adds, “It’s the most brutal regime in the world and the most secretive. It has an oppressive regime that [keeps all riches] for themselves. Everyone is forced into drugs or prostitution or slavery.” Stallone says that he and the film crew received “a lot of threats” and they even witnessed some of the brutality firsthand.
The storyline of the new Rambo film follows a group of Christian aid workers who recruit Rambo to guide them up the Salween River to deliver medical supplies to an oppressed tribe. When the missionaries fail to return from Burma, the aging Vietnam vet leads a team of mercenaries back into the war-torn border region to find and rescue them.
“It’s the best of all of the ‘Rambo’s since the first one, for sure,” assures Stallone. “I wanted to do one more, but I also wanted to touch on something that has been going on for 60 years. It’s the longest civil war in the world. The most important thing is you provide entertainment, but you also put a light on this savage existence that the people in Burma have to live.”
