Monks on the march
I am so, so, so (guardedly) happy about this.
Happy, because it's so long in coming, and because I can't think of a single more clear-cut good-vs.-evil issue that I've ever seen in my life. And because my emotional reactions to working with Burmese dissidents and refugees are so strong that, five years later, I still can't write about them, and because in the last couple of years, I've watched some of these same young people as they've fruitlessly tried to get even just a second of the world's attention, and felt absolutely helpless.
Guarded, because the regime has already identified some of the key organizers -- the people who were patiently and skillfully waiting for an issue like fuel price hikes to come along -- and arrested them. And so far, of course, the US is not so much as even denouncing these arrests, and the bad faith in the peace road map they evince, and we're being craven with regard to Burma in other respects, too, but there's a line I need to walk, here.
The point is, the Burmese people are doing this all by themselves. And these protests will be studied for years to come, regardless of the eventual outcome, as a reaction to a huge coordination problem: The junta are evil; no one in Burma who isn't military doesn't think they're evil. If everyone protested, democracy might be restored; if the action is less than perfectly coordinated, the price to the first protesters and their families is too high to undertake.
But they've got momentum now...
One other ray of hope: this might not necessarily be a case of "we've overthrown the government; now what?" I've been to the Karen camps on the Thai border, where people have languished in legal and existential limbo for years, not even being allowed to plant gardens or display other signs of "permanence." And what astonished me: these were not people lying in bed and getting drunk and fighting. They were running a government in exile, and planning and organizing, and waiting...perhaps for a time like this.
And another thing: if the SPDC falls, go to Burma. Immediately. I certainly will. Not only will you be infusing a virtuous young government with desperately-needed cash, but, touristically-speaking, this is one of the last unspoiled places on the planet. With a wonderfully gentle culture and awesome food to boot. Seriously: within five years, they'll have traded their forests for beer bars, like Thailand. And, like Thailand, it'll still be worth going. But go just as a new Burma meets the modern world, and it'll be amazing, I promise you.
(You may not, under any circumstances, go before the regime falls. If you're wavering, email me.)
Happy, because it's so long in coming, and because I can't think of a single more clear-cut good-vs.-evil issue that I've ever seen in my life. And because my emotional reactions to working with Burmese dissidents and refugees are so strong that, five years later, I still can't write about them, and because in the last couple of years, I've watched some of these same young people as they've fruitlessly tried to get even just a second of the world's attention, and felt absolutely helpless.
Guarded, because the regime has already identified some of the key organizers -- the people who were patiently and skillfully waiting for an issue like fuel price hikes to come along -- and arrested them. And so far, of course, the US is not so much as even denouncing these arrests, and the bad faith in the peace road map they evince, and we're being craven with regard to Burma in other respects, too, but there's a line I need to walk, here.
The point is, the Burmese people are doing this all by themselves. And these protests will be studied for years to come, regardless of the eventual outcome, as a reaction to a huge coordination problem: The junta are evil; no one in Burma who isn't military doesn't think they're evil. If everyone protested, democracy might be restored; if the action is less than perfectly coordinated, the price to the first protesters and their families is too high to undertake.
But they've got momentum now...
One other ray of hope: this might not necessarily be a case of "we've overthrown the government; now what?" I've been to the Karen camps on the Thai border, where people have languished in legal and existential limbo for years, not even being allowed to plant gardens or display other signs of "permanence." And what astonished me: these were not people lying in bed and getting drunk and fighting. They were running a government in exile, and planning and organizing, and waiting...perhaps for a time like this.
And another thing: if the SPDC falls, go to Burma. Immediately. I certainly will. Not only will you be infusing a virtuous young government with desperately-needed cash, but, touristically-speaking, this is one of the last unspoiled places on the planet. With a wonderfully gentle culture and awesome food to boot. Seriously: within five years, they'll have traded their forests for beer bars, like Thailand. And, like Thailand, it'll still be worth going. But go just as a new Burma meets the modern world, and it'll be amazing, I promise you.
(You may not, under any circumstances, go before the regime falls. If you're wavering, email me.)
2 Comments:
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Anonymous said...
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- 2:37 PM
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esquiver said...
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- 8:23 PM
Post a CommentI almost can't wait ... but of course I will wait (until the SPDC falls). I'm cautiously optimistic, too.
A few years ago, I was at a conference where small talk was being made during one of the coffee breaks. A fellow attendee commented on how much she loved her recent trip to Burma.
The other participant in the three-person conversation was a fellow whom I'd assumed to be a card-carrying right-winger. (Four kids, beach house in the Carolinas, etc.) He surprised me by revealing, politely (as he was the host of the conference) but firmly, his astonishment that she could even consider going there, given the flagrant human-rights violations being perpetrated against so much of the population.
Her lack of even the slightest acknowledgment of his point made me never look at her the same way again. (She worked at a competing firm in a similar capacity to me.)
Nor could I ever look at the host in the same way again; only in this case, I could only admire him. The hosts at these conferences usually engage in client flattery of emetic proportions, but in this case, he basically risked pissing off a client to make his point about a topic that I didn't even suspect would make the radar of a Person Like Him.
I'm not surprised! That's the kind of black-and-white situation I mean; it really ropes people in (provided they "get" it in the first place, of course). I ended up very pal-sy with a bunch of cowboy evangelicals in Thailand, just because we had our views on Burma in common (well, and one in particular was very hot). But seriously -- the People Like Him that you mention tend to find their way into it because so many of oppressed ethnic minorities are Christian (their own indigenous culture and religion thus destroyed, but this is actually one of those instances where I'd say whatever works for the greater good...).
Unfortunately, I'm feeling less optimistic than anxious right now. Although I don't officially know much about the situation, I talk to people who do, and they're pretty agitated. And even I can see that Bush's "stop! or we'll say 'stop' again!" speech was not the signal that would prevent the junta from slaughtering monks.
This regime would fall if we sneezed, I think, but we don't seem to have the right incentives to so much as clear our throats. It's incredibly frustrating.
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