So, I recently bought a raffle ticket and a copy was emailed to me afterwards. I was skimming the document they sent me with all the relevant dates of the drawings and prizes, and this sentence caught my eye under the section on eligibility rules:

“Anyone 18 years of age or older and a U.S. resident physically residing in the United States or Washington DC may enter.”

This was the very first time I’d ever seen wording like that, especially wording that seems to suggest that the United States and Washington DC are separate entities. Usually it says something about residents of either the 50 U.S. states or Washington DC. I have to admit that I never really bought the whole spiel about the U.S. corporation that has been talked about on here, but the way these rules were worded this time definitely caught me off guard. Also, this raffle was only just launched this year (2021) as part of an annual fundraising effort that they do. Perhaps there is nothing to this, but I’ve definitely never seen anything like this in the terms and conditions of any sweepstakes/contests in the past.

I have seen many people on this site who are unclear about the real situation in Myanmar, which is understandable given its isolated status until very recently. A bit of background: I am ethnically Asian and have previously lived in Southeast Asia for over 10 years. Below is a recent post I wrote as a reply to a thread (with some extra details added) - I simply want more people to see it and understand what the real situation is. As usual, the Western media leaves out a lot of important historical and cultural context!

Speaking as an Asian person who has lived for over 10 years in Southeast Asia, the mainstream Western view of that part of the world is stunningly simplistic and ignores the fact that the average Burmese citizen does not necessarily view the military as a bad thing. In fact, when the military junta first came to power in 1962, they were largely supported by the citizens who were dissatisfied with the elected government at the time, which they perceived to be weak, corrupt, and not prepared to solve the country’s problems. Even in 2014, a poll of Burmese citizens showed that 84% of them hold “very favorable” or “favorable” opinions of the military, ranking it ahead of the government and media. (Source: Page 18, https://www.iri.org/sites/default/files/flip_docs/2014%20April%203%20Survey%20of%20Burma%20Public%20Opinion,%20December%2024,%202013-February%201,%202014.pdf)

This narrative of “military bad, democratically elected government good” really shows Westerners’ lack of knowledge of the real situation. I am not implying that the Burmese military is perfect, but they are definitely not as awful as the way they are portrayed in Western media. The most common opinion among the Burmese is that while they acknowledge that life was far from perfect under military rule, they also view their military as essential to maintaining law and order, and believe it plays an important role. The Burmese have a long and proud military history that dates back to the 9th century, when the Burmese imperial army was one of the major military forces in Southeast Asia, and they accordingly consider it an important part of their heritage.

Also, below is some other valuable information from user u/alren who posted in the same thread as I did, who also has a great perspective:

I am an American expat in Thailand. As such, I am not intimately familiar with Myanmar, but I have a general understanding of what was happening there. Understand that the current regime led by Aung San Suu Kyi, the NLD party, was very popular a decade ago. She came to lead the government with a lot of hopes. The Burmese constitution is basically a power sharing arrangement between the military and the political establishment. Each keeps checks on the other.

Over the years people have become less enchanted with Aung San Suu Kyi. She has forged close ties with very corrupt individuals, and the high esteem she started with has eroded dramatically. Worse, Myanmar has developed a reputation as a hotbed of human trafficking. The stateless Rohingya providing a near perfect source of children for the disgusting cabal, and Aung San Suu Kyi doing absolutely nothing to stop this state of affairs at best, and encouraging it at the worst. In short, she wasn't the savior the people had hoped for. And her party was going under.

So, she did what any corrupt politician does...she cheated. During campaigning they allowed each party to have a small amount of airtime on TV to present their case to the people. But the government refused to allow these parties to say anything bad about Aung San Suu Kyi or the NLD during these broadcasts. Many parties boycotted the rigged official statements. The government also systematically hindered voting in areas critical of the NLD party. And, of course, we now know they used corrupt Smartmatic voting software to rig the vote. All of these tactics were designed to weaken the power of the military and unfairly strengthen her position. I doubt this was done without the support of the international cabal, given her compliance in providing them with Rohingya children for their sick practices.

The Burmese military is not known for being angels. In fact, they would rather not have democracy at all. But they are still viewed with more reverence by the average person in Myanmar than the corrupt police or politicians. So this is a complex situation, and I am not sure how closely it really parallels the situation in the USA. The one thing this does do however, is put the human trafficking pipelines in check for a while. And for that, I think we all have to be thankful.

Although the Q posts have given indications of a plan in place, that does not mean we should sit on our hands doing nothing in the meantime. The one place left where we can make a difference is by voting with our wallet. The American consumer still has a vast amount of purchasing power in the world, and we could collectively cripple China if we all refused to buy anything made there.

Here is a list of the most common items that are manufactured in China. If you or your business deals with these items, double check on who the suppliers are and avoid anything linked to China. https://www.sourcify.com/the-top-10-products-manufactured-in-china-in-2018/

Bonus for my fellow ladies here: the makeup and beauty industry is worth billions of dollars a year. In this case, purchasing a makeup product made in China would have serious ramifications due to the lack of ethics involved in producing said product, and it would likely contain toxic ingredients as well. Here is an article listing all the makeup brands made in China which should be avoided as much as possible: https://medium.com/@Uhapibeauty/makeup-made-in-china-fc4a33f80d08

And here is a list of makeup and beauty product brands made in the USA: https://blushinginhollywood.com/makeup-made-in-the-usa/ Feel free to comment with more links to American products that should be bought as alternatives!