Monday, 03-29-2010

YPIN: Mac McClelland on Burma’s Never Ending War

Did you know that Burma has produced more child soldiers than any other country in the world, that the CIA inaugurated its first secret war there, or that much of the United States' heroin supply is Burmese in origin? Burma is the Darfur you’ve never heard of.

The Young Professionals International Network invites you to experience Burma through the eyes of Mac McClelland as she presents her new book For Us Surrender Is Out Of The Question: A Story Of Burma's Never-Ending War.

In 2006, Mac McClelland arrived to volunteer in Thailand and found herself unexpectedly living with associates of a US-designated terrorist organization battling Burma’s dictatorship. This staggering debut explores the world’s longest-running war through her housemates — hot, heavy-drinking refugees who risk their lives documenting their government’s secret ethnic-cleansing campaign.

For Us Surrender is Out of the Question: A Story of Burma’s Never-Ending War is an engaging hybrid of literary journalism, popular history, and personal narrative about the war in Burma between ethnic Karen guerrillas and the Burmese junta. Breakthrough details on how the US is funding the war are exposed, along with an examination of the United States’ historical entanglements in Burma. McClelland’s book holds critical insight into a torn country that is set to explode onto the international news scene in the next coming months as Burma’s military junta plans to hold its first governmental elections in 19 years.

Mac McClelland is a special correspondent for human rights for Mother Jones. Mac's work has appeared in The Nation, Orion, GQ South Africa, Hustler, and various other publications and anthologies.

Books will be available for purchase at the event and a book signing will take place following the lecture and Q&A.