Our conversation jumped from topic to topic, but we were all in agreement that everyone has a different path to happiness and if we aren't trying to find our own, what the heck are we doing here?
We decided this morning that we wanted to get up, go to the market for breakfast, then bike to the Myanmar border to witness a demonstration that was to take place at 11:00 to gain support for the freeing of Aung San Suu Kyi, a woman who I had never heard of before yesterday. As I understand it, she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. She is currently under detention (house arrest), with the Burmese junta (military dictatorship) repeatedly extending her detention. According to the results of the Burmese 1990 general election, Suu Kyi earned the right to be Prime Minister, as leader of the winning National League for Democracy party, but her detention by the military junta prevented her from assuming that role. Incidentally, it was also the junta military group who changed the name "Burma" to "Myanmar" as it is today.
Her house arrest was to be over this year, but an American crazy man swam across the border, broke into her compound, and wanted to talk to her. She refused to conference with him, as the military had forbade her to have any visitors, but even so, she was once again arrested and her sentencing is to take place tomorrow. The Burmese refugees and Western supporters organized the peaceful demonstration today to publicize this matter which has, in my opinion, been seriously ignored. Maxime, who is French Canadian, says he thinks it's just America that has been out of the loop in this news, and I have to say I probably agree.
Even though I wasn't holding a banner today, just being there felt like I was part of something. I admire the people who have the courage to stand up there and say "this is wrong, and I want to do something about it." Did you know there are more than 1 million registered Burmese refugees in Thailand, and countless unregistered ones as well? These people have spent 20 years in refugee camps on the border, in constant fear that they will be sent back to Burma by the Thai government. The Burmese military are attempting to fully take over the country, and have resorted to tactics such as burning villages and forcing the former inhabitants into farms set up by the government and run by a wealthy Burmese "owner" who resides in the military's front pocket. This way, not only do they control where the people are, they also control the food and water supply. Not to mention the power of fear.
It's really hard for me to accept that I've been blind to such an enormous problem. It's much easier to refuse to believe things are that bad, or to try to wish it away. I recognize that I've done that before, but it's much harder when you are riding in the back of a pickup truck next to a five-year-old who is holding a baby brother, who probably hasn't had a "fun" day in her whole life. I'm afraid that I will forget when I come back to the states. A few days of my comfortable bed, my fun little zippy scooter, and my healthy dogs (I can't even begin to describe the street dogs here--I saw a puppy hit by a car on the road yesterday in Burma), and I'm afraid I won't remember how I felt today, standing in front of all of those people who were begging the world to help them restore their country to a place to which they can return.
I want to remember that. I think it's important.
There's a new documentary called BURMA VJ: Reporting From a Closed Country that I would recommend to you or to any of your faithful readers who would like to learn more about the situation in Burma. Burma has no free press, so journalists risk their lives to shoot footage of demonstrations and smuggle it out of the country so that the world can see what is happening there.
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