Myanmar Monks and their Peaceful Protest...

Yes, it will always be Burma to me too. Being a Bengali Indian, Burma (or better still Ceylon) & Rangoon are etched in childhood memories through interconnecting folklore, drama, novels, radio, travelogues and a thousand other things. My family from both sides, is basically Bangladeshi and after partition, my maternal grandpa shifted to Rangoon instead of India. So basically Burma was our neighbour in those days. My parents are full of stories about beautiful Burmese girls, their completely different cuisine, Burmese rubies, Burma teak, Burmese fabric, the freedom and prosperity on the streets of Rangoon and what not. Even now, if ever my mom meets someone who, like her was once a resident of Rangoon, she breaks into rapturous reminiscence about the beautiful city that Rangoon was and how they enjoyed life there. So you see, it is all the more painful for us to watch the degeneration of this once prosperous, beautiful and peaceful nation. Economic sanctions will have no effect on the military regime and we all know that. Forget the USA, I am even angry at my own country for being so close, yet remaining a mute spectator. The world’s largest democracy signs off its responsibility by mouthing toothless words of protest and the only superpower lodges its protest by increasing sanctions which mean nothing to these blood-sucking dictators. They are well-off themselves filling their own coffers while the impoverished populace suffer all the more coz of these sanctions. I really feel a time has come when some neutral organization like the UN should have an army (not the UNPKF) comprising of all members nations which should have the power to actually intervene and help people in such nations where they are kept as prisoners in their own land. None can expect ordinary civilians to actually take on a military regime and win…it needs outside strength and continuous support and I definitely wish we could do something for these monks and for the people of Burma. I know I am blaberring like a child, but this is exactly how I feel (if only a hero had come and slain the monster and freed the people).

I've started a lens on squidoo linking to news coverage and ways people can show their support some terrible happenings and some really inspireing ones http://www.squidoo.com/burmainjustice

I think a couple of things are going on here that might prevent the U.S. from taking any action. Number one, you know our government doesn't get involved anywhere (most of the time), unless there's potential profit or loss of profit involved. The almight dollar certainly reigns supreme here. When we do help an impoverished nation, it's like we're just being shamed into doing it. It takes Bono to get us to help a country that isn't putting money into our coffers. Apparently, we need to hire some outside party to be a conscience for our politicians. Number Two: the whole idea of being involved in a dispute involving holy men is probably just downright scary to our government. If their military starts executing monks, their whole country will be on a bloody rampage. Well, I'm sure G.W. is going to try to stay out of this as long as possible, considering all the other problems he's got on his plate. Having said all that, I'm still glad to live in this country and feel very privileged to do so.