BURMA is awash with rumours of a national uprising on August 8.
The day represents 8808 and is a significant number in a country driven by numerology and astrology.
Flyers being distributed inside Burma appeal to the foot soldiers of the military junta to turn on their overseers.
The date is strategic because the Olympic Games opens in Beijing on that day.
This links with efforts by American activists to make the Olympics a focal point of protests against oppression in Burma.
The US Campaign For Burma wants to rally one million citizens around the world to boycott television broadcasts of the Olympics unless China ends its support for Burma’s military regime.
The 8808 appeal is a powerful message for dispossessed and poorly paid Burmese soldiers working in hostile environments.
Entry into the Burmese armed forces previously consolidated a family’s future, ensured education, healthcare and a decent living in a very poor country. Now it does not.
The Democratic Alliance of Burma general-secretary Kyaw Nyunt said August 8 was an opportunity for the people of Burma to seek the justice they had been denied for decades.