Amnesty International USA of Providence will sponsor a presentation, discussion, and booksigning by Dr. Christina Fink of Cambridge, MA, on Friday, June 1, from 7 to 9 pm. The presentation will be held at Borders Bookstore, Providence Place Mall. The featured book is Living Silence: Burma Under Military Rule.
The presentation continues a series of activities, sponsored by the Providence group of Amnesty International, to bring awareness to the repressive situation in Burma. The group has been supporting the release of a prisoner of conscience, U Nya Thaung. Burma had gained its independence as a democratic society in 1948 and came under military rule in the 1960's.
The featured study, Living Silence, reviews Burma's historical context in southeast Asia and makes tangible the events which have led up to a series of coups and military rule and the renaming of Burma as Myanmar. The talk will focus on life in Burma and efforts to bring about a democratic order. Living Silence is published by St. Martin's Press.
Dr. Christina Fink, who was supported by an Open Society Institute fellowship, is an anthropologist who has conducted extensive interviews inside and outside the coutnry. She provides careful accounts of people from all walks of life in Burma. The experiences of urban workers, students, journalists, authors, teachers, and filmmakers are particularly telling of the loss of democratic and human rights. The Nobel Prize Winner who is still under house arrest in Rangoon, Aung San Suu Kyi, says that Christina Fink's book, is "particularly valuable for its study of the psychological effects of military rule on the people of Burma."
The presentation and book signing is open to the public, and there will be an opportunity to raise questions for discussion.
Ms. Fink will be available for a media interview.