José Steinsleger/ III y última
Myanmar forjó su conciencia patriótica en la lucha contra el colonialismo inglés. Sin embargo, la carencia de un pensamiento articulador como el de Mao en China, Gandhi o Nehru en India u Ho Chi Minh en Vietnam frustró la cohesión del nuevo Estado nacional.
Los constituyentes birmanos diseñaron un precario Estado federal en el que participaron liberales de perfil occidental, marxistas en versión oriental, y fuerzas político-religiosas muy influyentes que fijaron la fecha de independencia en consulta con los astros.
Con una población cercana a 60 millones (75 por ciento rural), Myanmar figura entre los países más paupérrimos del mundo. De origen birmano (69 por ciento), la mayoría de la población profesa la fe budista (80). Siguen los shan y los mon (budistas, 8.5 y 2.4), karen (cristianos, 6.2), rakhine (islámicos, 4.5) y los chin y kachín (animistas, 2.2 y 1.4 por ciento). Oficialmente reconocidos existen 135 grupos étnicos que hablan 108 lenguas.
La escuela budista therevada (Birmania, Camboya, Laos), la más antigua que se conoce, se caracteriza por un mayor apego a la letra y difiere en matices del budismo mahayana (Tibet, China, Vietnam). El therevada se mezcla con las creencias locales de tres grupos budistas: apotropic, kammatic y nibbanic. No todos los monjes (más de medio millón) combaten a la despótica junta militar y algunos la apoyan.
Desde su independencia, el país cambió cuatro veces de nombre: Unión de Birmania (1948), Unión Socialista de la República de Birmania (1974), Unión de Birmania (1988) y Unión de Myanmar (1989). Lo único que falló fue la unión.
Los gobiernos de Myanmar jamás pudieron doblegar las insurrecciones políticas y étnicas en su territorio. De ahí el régimen militar que desde 1962 trata de conjurar, por medios violentos, a las fuerzas separatistas y periféricas que amenazan la integridad del Estado controlado por la etnia birmana, en detrimento de las demás.
En 1950 aparecieron los primeros movimientos armados en la estratégica provincia de Shan, limítrofe con China, Tailandia y Laos. En alianza con los karen, la CIA y Gran Bretaña, el gobierno de Rangún autorizó al Kuomintang (nacionalistas en desbandada tras el triunfo de la revolución china) con el fin de combatir a la Organización Voluntarios del Pueblo (comunista). Tal es el origen del famoso Triángulo Dorado, región que hasta la fecha ocupa el segundo lugar mundial en producción de opio y heroína, luego de Afganistán.
En el decenio de 1950 el “gran líder” político birmano fue U Nu (1907-95, “U” en birmano equivale a “señor”). Primer presidente del país asiático, U Nu pasó del antifascismo al anticomunismo pueril y adquirió fama mundial traduciendo al birmano Cómo ganar amigos, de Dale Carnegie. Aunque, posiblemente, algo tradujo mal, pues en 1958 fue derrocado por un golpe militar de impronta socialista.
La coalición gobernante se dividió y el ejército intervino creando un gobierno provisional de 18 meses. La elección de 1960 volvió a dar un triunfo notorio a U Nu, quien decía que Birmania tenía “16 mil problemas”. Entonces, decretó el problema 16 mil uno: el budismo, religión de Estado. Temiendo que el ejército (compuesto de miembros de todas las minorías) perdiese unidad y disciplina, el general Ne Win (1910-2002) acabó con su gobierno (1962).
La “vía birmana al socialismo” de Ne Win acabó en desastre. A fines del decenio de 1970 el régimen impulsó la liberalización parcial de la economía y, atendiendo a su consejo de astrólogos, arrió las banderas de izquierda “para combatir a la derecha”. En el decenio de 1980, el gobierno de Ne Win emitió billetes de 45 (4+5=9) y 90 kyats, dando por sentado que el 9 le traería “buena suerte” a la economía.
En 1978, más de 200 mil birmanos musulmanes del estado de Arakan cruzaron la frontera de Bangladesh. Y en 1992 cerca de 125 mil (rohingyas) huyeron al país vecino, donde el influyente partido Jamal Islami reclama al gobierno que ayude a sus hermanos en lucha por un “Arakan musulmán independiente”.
A más del narcotráfico, los recursos de la dictadura militar provienen de inversiones de India y China, de las petroleras Total (francesa) y de otra tailandesa, y la Chevron estadunidense. Estas compañías controlan las reservas de gas natural de Myanmar en altamar, enviadas a Tailandia a través de un gasoducto construido con mano de obra esclava de birmanos.
En 2005, el gobierno militar decidió que la capital ya no sería Yanghoon (antes Rangún), sino Pyinmana, situada al norte y en el centro del país, atrincherándose contra una eventual invasión estadunidense, y en mejor posición geográfica para combatir las tendencias separatistas.
Actualmente Myanmar soporta tres frentes guerrilleros, a más de la rebelión social causada por el drástico paquete de medidas económicas de septiembre pasado: los rebeldes kachín (norte, procedentes del sureste del Tibet); los nagas (noroccidente, que reclaman territorios de Assman, ocupados por India); y al oriente la narcoguerrilla cristiana de los karen, apoyada por la CIA y Taiwán.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Quigley
Joan Quigley, of San Francisco, is a famous astrologer best known for her astrological advice to the Reagan White House in the 1980s. Joan Quigley was born in Kansas City Missouri on April 10, 1927.
She was called into service by First Lady Nancy Reagan in 1981 after John Hinckley's attempted assassination of the president, and stayed on as the White House astrologer in secret until being outed in 1988 by ousted former chief of staff Donald Regan. Regan later said of her service, "I revealed that the president's schedule and therefore his life and the most important business of the American nation was largely under the control of the first lady's astrologer."
Early relationship
Quigley first met Nancy Reagan in the 1970s on the "The Merv Griffin Show." She reportedly provided astrological advice during Reagan's bid for the Republican nomination in 1976. Their association grew significantly larger in the 1980 election between candidate Ronald Reagan and then president, Jimmy Carter. Nancy brought Quigley onto the Reagan campaign team. Quigley became very trusted by the Reagans for her accuracy. She claims to have set the time, with detailed reasoning, of Reagan's successful debate with Carter in October, which is credited by some with affecting the outcome of the election a week later.
Quigley was not the first astrologer the Reagans had consulted. Ronald and Nancy Reagan had a long history of involvement with astrologers and psychics. During the 1950's and 1960's, Ron and Nancy enlisted the services of Hollywood astrologer Carroll Righter, and later Jeane Dixon. In his 1965 autobiography, "Where's the Rest of Me?", Reagan said that he and Righter were "good friends," and that "every morning Nancy and I turn to see what he has to say about people of our respective birth signs." (It was on Righter's advice that Reagan postponed his inauguration as governor of California for 9 minutes, until the auspicious moment of 12:10 a.m.)
[edit] Protecting the President's Life
After the election, Quigley was no longer needed and her relationship with the First Lady ended. But, the following year, Hinckley shot Reagan. Nancy grew concerned and asked Quigley if she could have foreseen, and possibly prevented, the assassination attempt. Quigley answered affirmatively, that had she been looking, she would have known. From that moment on, Quigley became Nancy's most trusted confidant. Nancy even had special private phone lines installed in the White House, and at Camp David, expressly for talking to Quigley. Explaining why she turned to Quigley, Nancy later wrote, "Very few people can understand what it's like to have your husband shot at and almost die, and then have him exposed all the time to enormous crowds, tens of thousands of people, any one of whom might be a lunatic with a gun... I was doing everything I could think of to protect my husband and keep him alive."
Quigley concluded that Reagan's charts were very similar to assassinated President Abraham Lincoln's astrological signs, with both being born in February, and both being elected in a year that ends in zero. Every detail about the timing of the White House schedule that could be manipulated was under the direct influence of the First Lady and her astrologer for the next seven years.
Quigley later wrote a book about her experiences, titled "What Does Joan Say?", which is a phrase Reagan used often during his presidency. Quigley writes, "Not since the days of the Roman emperors- and never in the history of the United States Presidency- has an astrologer played such a significant role in the nation's affairs of State." Whether this is true or not, no other White House ever used an astrologer to the extent the Reagans did. Other First Families known to rely on astrologers include the Lincolns, and the Hardings. Likewise, President Richard Nixon relied on Jeane Dixon during certain situations.
Astrology was used widely by other political leaders, such as Senator Everett Dirksen, a Republican from Illinois. Dirksen's son-in-law is former Senator Howard Baker, a Republican from Tennessee. Baker replaced Donald Regan as chief of staff after Regan lost a feud with the First Lady, prompting him to out Quigley in his book, "For The Record."
Indeed, Quigley worked extremely hard (even using a computer analyst) to calculate to the exact fraction of a second, the president's schedule. This included the most mundane activities, such as the president's daily itinerary, including the arrival and departure time of Air Force One.
[edit] Presidential Scheduling
Quigley fixed the times for the public signing of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or INF Treaty, and Reagan's debates with Walter Mondale. She set the time of the nomination of Anthony Kennedy to the Supreme Court, instructing the White House staff to use a stopwatch to make the moment perfect.
Chief of Staff Donald Regan elaborated on what it was like having to make adjustments to the President's schedule based on the zodiac:
"Mrs. Reagan passed along her prognostications to me after conferring with [Quigley] on the telephone--she had become such a factor in my work, and in the highest affairs of the nation, that at one point I kept a color-coded calendar on my desk (numerals highlighted in green ink for "good" days, red for "bad" days, yellow for "iffy" days) as an aid to remembering when it was propitious to move the President of the United States from one place to another, or schedule him to speak in public, or commence negotiations with a foreign power." --Donald Regan, "For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington"
"According to a list provided by Mrs. Reagan to [scheduling aide] Bill Henkel, [Quigley] had made the following prohibitions based on her reading of the President's horoscope:
Late Dec thru March bad; Jan 16 - 23 very bad; Jan 20 nothing outside WH--possible attempt; Feb 20 - 26 be careful; March 7 - 14 bad period; March 10 - 14 no outside activity!; March 16 very bad; March 21 no; March 27 no; March 12 - 19 no trips exposure; March 19 - 25 no public exposure; April 3 careful; April 11 careful; April 17 careful; April 21 - 28 stay home
Obviously this list of dangerous or forbidden dates left very little latitude for scheduling." --Donald Regan, "For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington"
"The frustration of dealing with a situation in which the schedule of the President of the United States was determined by occult prognostications was very great--far greater than any other I had known in nearly forty-five years of working life." --Donald Regan, "For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington"
In 1989, in an NBC News story, reporter Andrea Mitchell said:
"Intelligence officials say the CIA went nuts when it learned the First Lady was discussing US-Soviet relations with an outsider [Joan Quigley] on non-secure lines. Some White House officials were also horrified that presidential security was being breached. And, according to former White House officials and Quigley, the astrologer was involved in everything. She picked the departure time for the Reykjavik Summit, the optimum time for signing an arms control treaty, the best time for the trip to Moscow. And, when Mrs. Reagan was upset about a controversial trip to Germany in 1985, Quigley plotted every takeoff and landing. Her scheduling for that visit to the Bitburg cemetery was so complicated that former White House aide Michael Deaver sought permission from Mrs. Reagan to talk to the astrologer directly.
The President knew what was going on. Deaver told NBC News that if Mrs. Reagan wanted a schedule change, she would say, 'I told Ronnie and that's what Joan recommends....' Former aides say Ronald Reagan was a man who read his horoscope and the 'funnies' before the rest of the paper. They say he wasn't only indulging his wife--that the former president also believed in astrology."
[edit] The End of the Reagan Years
After being outed, she was dismissed as the White House astrologer by Nancy Reagan, who told Quigley to "lie" and never tell anyone anything. A major controversy ensued. Reagan's conservative Christian supporters were most appalled, but jokes and humor were the staple of the era. Nancy said, "Nobody was hurt by it- except, possibly, me."
Quigley has been quick to note that she considers astrology a science, related to astronomy, and that it is more precise now because of the discovery of modern planets. Quigley believes that astrology is not related to psychic abilities, nor has she ever claimed to be psychic. She says astrology has a long history, that the New Testament magi were astrologers, and astrology was even used by Biblical prophets in the Old Testament.
Since leaving the Reagans, Quigley has written a successful book on the subject, and has been working hard to promote astrology in the media and on the Internet.
[edit] References
- Quigley, Joan. "What Does Joan Say?: My Seven Years as White House Astrologer to Nancy and Ronald Reagan". Carol Publishing Group. New York, NY; 1990.
- Regan, Donald. "For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington". Harcourt. New York; 1988.
CHRONICLEBy SUSAN HELLER ANDERSON
Published: February 15, 1990
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