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investment, the standard of living is raised for the average person. This in turn raises the expectations for rights and
freedoms from the government. At the same time, the heightened economy requires a free flow of information, which
boils down to technology and freedoms of press and speech. These then open up a previously closed society.
63 In Burma, the currency is virtually worthless, so foreign investors have to repatriate their profits before taking them out
of the country. The human rights community firmly believed that PepsiCo was buying agricultural goods to sell to recoup
its profits and that those goods were harvested with state-enforced slave labor. Macy’s department stores had published a
similar list, and the resulting pressure proved destructive to its investment.
64 The many such articles include a front-page report by Joe Urschel, “College Cry: ‘Free Burma’ Activists Make Inroads
with U.S. Companies,” USA Today, April 29, 1996, p. 1A.
65 Steele interview, 1997.
66 Simons interview, 1997.
67 Ibid.
68 Tiffany Danitz, “Burmese Junta Says U.S. a Partner in Terrorism,” The Washington Times, July 4, 1997, p. A9.
69 William Barnes, “Generals Fight Back Through Internet,” South China Morning Post, March 19, 1997.
70 See Appendix A [in original full paper by Danitz and Strobel.]
71 See BurmaNet Editor, The Free Burma Movement and the Internet, unpublished.
72 Ibid.; Billenness and Beer interviews, 1997 and 1996.
73 BurmaNet Editor, The Free Burma Movement and the Internet, unpublished.
74 Larmer, Revolutions Without Guns, 1995, p. 9.
75 Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Elizabeth Corcoran, “Human Errors Block E-Mail, Web Sites in Internet Failure: Garbled
Address Files from Va. Firm Blamed,” The Washington Post, July 18, 1997, p. A1.
76 See The BurmaNet News, No. 701, April 23, 1997.
77 Simons interview, 1997.
78 Electronic mail message on BurmaNet, dated May 27, 1997.
79 Information provided by Mike Mitchell, International Republican Institute.
80 BurmaNet Editor, The Free Burma Movement and the Internet, unpublished.
81 See Appendix C [in original full paper by Danitz and Strobel].
82 Zar Ni, “How to Read Burma and Burma Reports,” email posted on freeburma listserv, January 10, 1997.
83 U Ne Oo, “The Grassroots Activism and Internet,” article posted on BurmaNet, May 16, 1997.
84 For example, see Graeme Browning, Electronic Democracy: Using the Internet to Influence American Politics, Wilton,
Conn.: Pemberton Press, 1996, pp. 79–81.
85 Rushing interview, 1997.
86 BurmaNet Editor, The Free Burma Movement and the Internet, unpublished.
87 Ibid. For more on this problem in U.S. society, see Browning, Electronic Democracy, 1996, pp. 76–79.
88 Beer interview, 1996.
89 Rushing interview, 1997.
90 BurmaNet Editor, The Free Burma Movement and the Internet, unpublished.
91 Larmer, Revolution Without Guns, 1995, pp. 18–20.