Team Burma Event Guide
Thank you for hosting a Team Burma event!
It’s critically important that while the world turns its attention to the Olympics, people are made aware of the fact that Olympic host China is the biggest supporter of Burma’s military regime, which tortures and kills, uses rape as a weapon of war, denies aid, and turns children into soldiers.
Six athletes will comprise Team Myanmar at the Beijing Games from August 8 to 24. But a limitless number of people will make up Team Burma during that same period of time and beyond. Refugees, activists, men, women, young, and old – Team Burma includes all individuals around the world who want to see an end to military dictatorship and the beginning of a free and democratic Burma. Team Burma is you.
Here’s a summary of how you can host a Team Burma event:
- On August 8, 2008 – a global day of action – and after until August 24, you’ll set up a table in a public place. You’ll station one or two people at the table handing out flyers and getting contact information for Team Burma, while the others gather people in a circle for a game of chinlone, Burma’s national sport, using a special Team Burma chinlone ball. See suggested roles for volunteers under “Steps to Set Up Your Event.”
- You’ll ask everyone who walks nearby to join Team Burma. They can take a pin or a flyer, or jump into an ongoing Team Burma chinlone game.
- To join, all they have to do is sign up with their contact information and step into the Team Burma chinlone circle.
- You should invite local media to come cover your event.
Chinlone is a great way to bring new and old faces in the Burma movement together. The rules are simple: don’t let the ball touch the ground and don’t use your hands! Because there aren’t competing teams, players have to work in unity and, in the end, everyone wins.
This is why we chose chinlone as a way to connect Burma’s situation to the Beijing Olympics and the principles of the Olympic charter – human dignity, peace, and brotherhood.
Also, the game is fun! Team Burma’s slogan is “Giving Dictatorship in Burma a Good Kick!” Every time someone gives our chinlone balls a kick to keep it in play, he or she makes a statement about military dictatorship in Burma – that it needs a good kick.
