Letters to the Editor
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Also - Why is this story so far down the page?
I really think it belongs higher up at #1 or #2, not between Garrison Keillor and TV Daily!
Even Video Dog rates higher?
Thank you for having this story out, but it deserves more prominence I believe.
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Burma and Non-Violence
What's going on in Burma needs great attention. The actions of the monks show the strength and courage of non-violence in action. Coincidentally October 2nd was declared by the UN as the International Day of Non-Violence in honor of Gandhi's birthday...and this Oct 2nd will be the first time ever observed. Many events are being organized around the world to celebrate Ganhdi, Martin Luther King, Jr and Silo, a humanist leader of non-violence from South America. Now we will also honor Aung San Suu Kyi and the monks for their extraordinary actions of resisting violence with non-violence. They need the world's support and the world needs their model.
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Hypocrisy
The Burmese uprising is one of the most important revolutions occurring in the world today. I hope and pray that peace and non-violence can win the day, but we all know that there is going to be horrific violence, and many innocent lives and land taken before this is over. Maybe my main hope is that whatever happens, it isn't back to status quo for the brave and long-suffering Burmese people.
But what I'm really boiling about is India's refusal to enter the fray and speak honestly about this issue. I suppose the 75 million dollar deal the India owned ONGC (Oil and natural gas Corporation) signed with the govt of Myanmar has something to do with this pointed silence. I can understand the value of looking after one's own strategic interests, but it cannot be mutually exclusive to supporting democratic values. The pro-democracy movement, led by the great Aung San Suu Kyi, is cast in the mould of the Indian freedom movement under Mahatma Gandhi. I don't harbour any such expectations from China, but for the Indian government to disregard democratic and peaceful ideals in its neighbouring country, and not even make an attempt to start talks with the military establishment in order to pave a way for Myanmar to reengage with the world, is unacceptable. Unrest and unhappiness in any region close to ours affects all of us, at some point or the other, and we should have learned this lesson by now.
(As for me, I'm helping to build up support in the local Buddhist community (my area has the 2nd largest concentration of Buddhists in India), and get the local bureau of our national newspaper to run some in-depth articles on the issue. Small steps, baby.)
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you cannot but despair when you have to admit compassion is cosmic error
non-violence is ineffectual. if the Buddhists would communicate to china and india that stabbing Mother Earth and sucking out its blood (oil) is Evil (in other words, crazy religious talk) and are willing to die to disrupt oil supplies they'd have far more effect than peaceful protest. and when those countries discover there are other factions that are more "reasonable" they would be overjoyed to negotiate change. yes, more buddhists would die than in the present circumstances, but less than in the years of oppression that seem foreordained. you have to look twice to see how crazy this regime is. they are building an entirely new capital city, far from any traffic. they spend lavishly on junta weddings. meanwhile people starve. realize the proximate cause of this uprising. the junta discovers that they can sell oil - so it raises prices 500% locally. even the crazy middle east, subsidizes, not steals, from its own. international "outrage" does nothing. how much help was richard gere able to do for "his" buddhists? and there was no oil there. what burma needs is white south african mercenaries, blackwater rangers(forced from iraq, paid "on the come"), jihadist soldiers experienced in pipeline disruption. they would make contact with the bordering states, thailand(pirates), malasia (jihadists), assamese hill peoples. yes, it makes for a hollywood movie. but it's either a hollywood movie financed by oil or an Eternal Evil Oz.
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ignore my last post, it was written in frustration
nobody(at least judging by the amount of letters (versus Glenn Greenwald or Cary Tennis)) is interested. what will happen is what happened a generation ago. a couple of massacres and life will go on like before (deprived and impoverished except for the ruling junta). people will wear "buddhist beads" (no, there's no such thing) and cluck cluck and that will be it. same as with north korea. these things are done with indian and chinese connivance and without america objecting - with MONEY, will continue.