The World is Watching

It's not just me, a lone blogger. There's the New York Times, Condoleeza, Laura Bush (!), Amnesty International, The UN Security Council...the eyes of the world are on you, Burma, and on the non violent protests now undertaken by the very embodiment of peace: Buddhist monks. The eyes of the world are on the military regime that did not win its power through a democratic election, but by brute force, intimidation and superior firepower.

Don't think for a New York minute that anyone outside the Myanmar civilian goon squad believes the regime's propaganda that these protests are being orchestrated by a "fringe group." Or a small contingent of wayward monks led by "outside influences." Far from being easily led, Buddhist monks, from everything I've observed and read, are some of the most self disciplined people around. Rather, it's the monks who are doing the leading in the Burma protest marches, and they--unlike the junta and the UDSA thugs-- are widely supported by the Burmese people.

How long can you expect people to live in desperate poverty with your boots on their necks, figuratively-- and in some cases literally--before they finally stand up and say enough! You have put the Burmese people's sainted heroine Aung San Suu Kyi under lock down for years--and for what --talking democracy? You, military junta/regime of Mayanmar are afraid of her, as one exiled Democracy activist told me recently. There is no legal or moral justification for your continued imprisonment of this woman.

The world is watching and the media is reporting, and the world knows that protesters and pro democracy activists have disappeared, and that others are being threatened and intimidated. The world knows that Burma, a country rich in natural resources, has been run into the ground by the incompetent greedy rulers to the point where its people live in desperate poverty, and their children are malnourished, and many are forced by the military into slave labor, while the generals live lavishly. You have a bill to pay, military rulers of Burma.

The amount due is full freedom for the Burmese people and the return of their country to them. That balance is past due.