A 90-year-old monk warms his hands by the fire. Shan State, Burma, in slightly calmer times.
Many of you have been asking if I have further news. Last night at the FCCT, photojournalist Thierry Falise, a member of Jerry’s agency, gave a slideshow of his work in Burma during the past few weeks. Thierry witnessed and documented the protests from their small beginnings on the country’s rainy streets, to the crackdown that left unknown numbers dead and jailed.
Thierry’s photos showed people united in anger and frustration. Some Rambling Spoon readers have asked who these monks are (were) and how they got wrapped up in this fight. Clearly the monks marched for and with the people. Burma has long ranked among the bottom tiers of most any global social or economic index. When the junta suddenly raised fuel prices by 500 percent, it crushed the population. The monks were compelled to fight for the right to eat, to live, to survive.
A discussion followed the slideshow with other journalists and audience members sharing their perceptions of Burma in recent weeks. A representative of the Canadian Embassy, who witnessed the protests, said the monks acted with utmost moral authority. They were not driven by an outside political force or a hidden agenda. They acted for the rights of their people, who have suffered enough.
Is it over? Unlikely. By all accounts, the crackdown left a bitter and angry population; a population that knows death is the possible price of protest. These issues will rise again somehow, someday.
There were many questions about sanctions, an endless debate. But sanctions only work if everyone complies. To this point, the Burmese people have gained nothing from policies that isolate them. Meanwhile, big corporations profit from the people’s suffering, but business is rarely held accountable.
Tourism? The journalists responded unanimously: Go to Burma. Travel on your own. Don’t book a package tour. Stay at small guesthouses, hire local guides, and you will help the locals.
This too is an endless debate, and a very personal one, and there is no definite right or wrong. But as Thierry relayed last night, the Burmese people he met told him: Go. Show your pictures to the world. Tell them about our life, our government. Help them to understand. And incredibly, he was allowed out of the country with all of his gear, his computer and his bags, which were never searched.
Again and again, the audience asked the journalists what should be done to fix the Burma mess; time and again, each replied: “I am only a journalist.”
It is the journalist’s job to record, document, inform. What people do with that information is another matter entirely. What has always struck me about the Burmese people — and now the monks who have sacrificed their lives — is their fortitude. Their refusal to take what is foisted upon them. I have never met an apathetic Burmese. They are an outspoken bunch, intensely interested in the world and incredibly informed in a place where information costs dearly. As we have seen this past month, the Burmese will face batons and bullets to speak for human dignity. Thanks to new technology, the world learned much more about Burma in recent weeks than it ever did during previous upheavals. The Burmese people I know — even those now living openly in other countries — will never rest until freedom is guaranteed to all.
We can learn from that. We should learn from that. What if the rest of us chose activism over apathy; information over silence?
In Burma, the people have no choice. They can’t survive in the conditions created by the junta. In my country, we have the luxury of choice. Even the poorest, most violent and tragic corners of America will never suffer the hell of Burma. That’s because our country is at least founded on the ideal of democratic freedom. We are free to hope.
But last night’s speakers said the hope they saw during the early days of protest was shattered in the crackdown. When the guns stopped firing and the blood dried, all that remained was anger and fear. And perhaps even more determination.
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It is amazing that this journalist was able to leave the country untouched with all his material. Also amazing is the sheer audacity of the Burma military government, that it can subject its people to such a state of affairs without any sign of shame or fear of incrimination. Rwanda, Darfur, Burma–we live in a constant state of shock that such atrocities can take place and the rest of the worlds does not lift a hand. The Burmese people set a brave example. How can we not be ashamed?
Hi Karen,
Thanks for the update. I’m no scholar of Buddhism, but I thought that the protests of the monks were coming out of both the practical need to survive and a tradition of “socially engaged” Buddhism where alleviation of suffering is seen as a part of Buddhist practice.
Thanks for the clarity on sanctions and travel as well.
Thanks for keeping up the information flow.. Too bad the Chinese seems to think they way they do, it seems it’s just helping the Burma junta a chance to breath and regroup while creating more fear in the meantime…Thanks for the link to Thierry’s work.
As always, thanks for your comments and interest in this issue. Ed, yes, it is amazing that journalists were able to cover these protests with no questions from authorities. Of course, the military showed its might by shooting Kenji Nagai. As Thierry pointed out, many people were taking photos during those weeks and many of the most telling images were taken by Burmese.
Tisha, yes, in many places monks have taken on the role of social activism (this is very true in Sri Lanka as well). On the other hand, monks are theoretically expected to remain free of political issues — which makes their participation in politics that much more significant. This uprising differed from that of 1988, when students led the initial protests. In any case, Buddhist monks always add a critical twist to such incidents, given their esteemed role in society. In the eyes of the people, harming a monk is about the unholiest thing a person can do. The same held true during Cambodia’s protests in 1998, when many monks were injured and killed.
Andy, the junta has little reason to care about world opinion. It’s doubtful anything will change unless Burma’s investors (eg, oil and telecommunications companies) and economic allies (China, India, Thailand, Singapore, to name a few) do something dramatic to stop the oppression.
I wouldn’t say that the Buddhist establishment in Sri Lanka has been a voice for peace or justice! I guess that goes to show that religious activism can go both ways.
I remember getting off the train in Colombo a few years ago and being bombarded by a crowd of chanting monks. They waved signs and shouted slogans against the LTTE. Jerry talked to one of the monks (they didn\’t talk to me because I\’m a woman…. which is an interesting thing, to compare the myriad reactions a foreign woman receives from Buddhist monks in different Asian countries… but that\’s another story for another day). The monk said they were protesting for a united Sri Lanka, but Jerry recalls the monk\’s words being remarkably intolerant. We were both surprised by the confrontational manner of the whole scene.
On the other hand, we also visited monks at a temple on the island of Nainativu, just outside of Jaffna in the troubled Tamil north, where Hindus and Buddhists shared the land peacefully. We had to cross through a military checkpoint to get to the temple, which the Buddha visited on his second trip through Sri Lanka (interestingly, to stop a war). It\’s a small island populated by Tamil villagers, Sinhalese soldiers and these monks. Everyone we spoke with said the entire island worked together; the Buddhist temple and Hindu kovil cooperated on projects to better the lives of the island\’s people. Tamils even helped build the Buddhist temple wall. And the monks spoke for peace in the region. Their tone was very different from that of the monks we saw at the Colombo train station.
I have no idea what has become of that island or the people we met. It was a remarkable place, but war has swallowed the north again.
[...] Global Voices points us to recent photos of the crackdown in Burma, via Rambling Spoon, a Bangkok-based journalist, who writes: Is it over? Unlikely. By all accounts, the crackdown left a bitter and angry population; a population that knows death is the possible price of protest. These issues will rise again somehow, someday. [...]
Thank you, Thierry Falise.
You’re a duty-conscious photojournalist.
Since many of our buddhist-monks laid down with blood, our revolution has got just-silence for a while. But those cruel events would not be ended. We have to go on such activities against junta by ours and also other countries’ help. Be the world with us.
It’s great that at long last the stories are being picked up by the media and presented to the world at large. This story has been happening not only this year but even before the 1988/89 period, back to the poor withdrawal by the British who left Burma, India and most of it’s colonies in a poor administrative state.
Regionally, now that Vietnam is no longer a story, nor Lao PDR, nor Cambodia, what is left for the media but finally Burma the story with few headlines but long sustained resistance that few could endure. This is something the west could fix. Only now when hydrocarbon reserves are becoming ever more scarce does the west start to pay attention. The battle is on for Burma oil.
And when this story runs it course, will the media pick up on the UXO’s, unexploded ordinances, of Laos, the cluster bombs that were dropped 30 years ago and more, many of which along with other devices did not explode at that time but do now. Even as we speak 8 to 10 children a month are dying as they have done each month since the cluster bombs were dropped.
On a peace program a couple of years ago with Nobel Peace prize winners as guest speakers in Thailand even Jesse Jackson was loath to address the problem. So who will? Little oil here to bother about so why worry?
The countries responsible for dropping such devices should not be allowed to get off with it. The same countries that drop these cluster bombs leaving them to kill and maim innocent folks are doing so in the name of peace and democracy. It was done again 30 years later for Iraq oil.
Industrial companies are being brought into line to clean up their chemical waste. Surely the governments that impose such controls should impose similar laws on themselves to clean up their war waste.
Were all these UXO’s in their back yard who would then be elected if their kids were dying? But then what value is the life of a child of a hill farmer in the mountains of Lao PDR on the old Ho CHi Minh trail against that of any western political zealot hoping for career advancement.
[...] time to follow Karen Coates and Jerry Redfern on their wonderful travel blog, Rambling Spoon. Their writing on the situation had a lasting effect on me and prompted me to take a closer look at the suffering [...]
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Welcome to my ramblings on food, drink, travel, politics, history and all the other avenues that converge in life. I’m a journalist, author and media trainer; and for five years I was Gourmet's Asia correspondent until the magazine's recent closure. I’m a bit obsessive in the kitchen. Much like my mother, I start thinking about dinner well before breakfast….
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October 11th, 2007 at 11:44 pm
It is amazing that this journalist was able to leave the country untouched with all his material. Also amazing is the sheer audacity of the Burma military government, that it can subject its people to such a state of affairs without any sign of shame or fear of incrimination. Rwanda, Darfur, Burma–we live in a constant state of shock that such atrocities can take place and the rest of the worlds does not lift a hand. The Burmese people set a brave example. How can we not be ashamed?
October 12th, 2007 at 12:19 am
Hi Karen,
Thanks for the update. I’m no scholar of Buddhism, but I thought that the protests of the monks were coming out of both the practical need to survive and a tradition of “socially engaged” Buddhism where alleviation of suffering is seen as a part of Buddhist practice.
Thanks for the clarity on sanctions and travel as well.
October 12th, 2007 at 4:22 am
Thanks for keeping up the information flow.. Too bad the Chinese seems to think they way they do, it seems it’s just helping the Burma junta a chance to breath and regroup while creating more fear in the meantime…Thanks for the link to Thierry’s work.
October 12th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
As always, thanks for your comments and interest in this issue. Ed, yes, it is amazing that journalists were able to cover these protests with no questions from authorities. Of course, the military showed its might by shooting Kenji Nagai. As Thierry pointed out, many people were taking photos during those weeks and many of the most telling images were taken by Burmese.
Tisha, yes, in many places monks have taken on the role of social activism (this is very true in Sri Lanka as well). On the other hand, monks are theoretically expected to remain free of political issues — which makes their participation in politics that much more significant. This uprising differed from that of 1988, when students led the initial protests. In any case, Buddhist monks always add a critical twist to such incidents, given their esteemed role in society. In the eyes of the people, harming a monk is about the unholiest thing a person can do. The same held true during Cambodia’s protests in 1998, when many monks were injured and killed.
Andy, the junta has little reason to care about world opinion. It’s doubtful anything will change unless Burma’s investors (eg, oil and telecommunications companies) and economic allies (China, India, Thailand, Singapore, to name a few) do something dramatic to stop the oppression.
October 12th, 2007 at 11:04 pm
I wouldn’t say that the Buddhist establishment in Sri Lanka has been a voice for peace or justice! I guess that goes to show that religious activism can go both ways.
October 13th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Tisha,
Yes, politics goes many ways.
I remember getting off the train in Colombo a few years ago and being bombarded by a crowd of chanting monks. They waved signs and shouted slogans against the LTTE. Jerry talked to one of the monks (they didn\’t talk to me because I\’m a woman…. which is an interesting thing, to compare the myriad reactions a foreign woman receives from Buddhist monks in different Asian countries… but that\’s another story for another day). The monk said they were protesting for a united Sri Lanka, but Jerry recalls the monk\’s words being remarkably intolerant. We were both surprised by the confrontational manner of the whole scene.
On the other hand, we also visited monks at a temple on the island of Nainativu, just outside of Jaffna in the troubled Tamil north, where Hindus and Buddhists shared the land peacefully. We had to cross through a military checkpoint to get to the temple, which the Buddha visited on his second trip through Sri Lanka (interestingly, to stop a war). It\’s a small island populated by Tamil villagers, Sinhalese soldiers and these monks. Everyone we spoke with said the entire island worked together; the Buddhist temple and Hindu kovil cooperated on projects to better the lives of the island\’s people. Tamils even helped build the Buddhist temple wall. And the monks spoke for peace in the region. Their tone was very different from that of the monks we saw at the Colombo train station.
I have no idea what has become of that island or the people we met. It was a remarkable place, but war has swallowed the north again.
October 13th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
[...] Global Voices points us to recent photos of the crackdown in Burma, via Rambling Spoon, a Bangkok-based journalist, who writes: Is it over? Unlikely. By all accounts, the crackdown left a bitter and angry population; a population that knows death is the possible price of protest. These issues will rise again somehow, someday. [...]
October 15th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Thank you, Thierry Falise.
You’re a duty-conscious photojournalist.
Since many of our buddhist-monks laid down with blood, our revolution has got just-silence for a while. But those cruel events would not be ended. We have to go on such activities against junta by ours and also other countries’ help. Be the world with us.
October 16th, 2007 at 3:21 am
Thanks for sharing the lovely story of Nainativu. I hope those monks and villagers are able to keep their oasis of peace.
October 27th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
It’s great that at long last the stories are being picked up by the media and presented to the world at large. This story has been happening not only this year but even before the 1988/89 period, back to the poor withdrawal by the British who left Burma, India and most of it’s colonies in a poor administrative state.
Regionally, now that Vietnam is no longer a story, nor Lao PDR, nor Cambodia, what is left for the media but finally Burma the story with few headlines but long sustained resistance that few could endure. This is something the west could fix. Only now when hydrocarbon reserves are becoming ever more scarce does the west start to pay attention. The battle is on for Burma oil.
And when this story runs it course, will the media pick up on the UXO’s, unexploded ordinances, of Laos, the cluster bombs that were dropped 30 years ago and more, many of which along with other devices did not explode at that time but do now. Even as we speak 8 to 10 children a month are dying as they have done each month since the cluster bombs were dropped.
On a peace program a couple of years ago with Nobel Peace prize winners as guest speakers in Thailand even Jesse Jackson was loath to address the problem. So who will? Little oil here to bother about so why worry?
The countries responsible for dropping such devices should not be allowed to get off with it. The same countries that drop these cluster bombs leaving them to kill and maim innocent folks are doing so in the name of peace and democracy. It was done again 30 years later for Iraq oil.
Industrial companies are being brought into line to clean up their chemical waste. Surely the governments that impose such controls should impose similar laws on themselves to clean up their war waste.
Were all these UXO’s in their back yard who would then be elected if their kids were dying? But then what value is the life of a child of a hill farmer in the mountains of Lao PDR on the old Ho CHi Minh trail against that of any western political zealot hoping for career advancement.
Ahhh, western civilisation.
October 31st, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Thanks for your comments, Robert. It’s good to hear from others who are aware of these issues and find them as appalling as we do.
January 17th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
[...] time to follow Karen Coates and Jerry Redfern on their wonderful travel blog, Rambling Spoon. Their writing on the situation had a lasting effect on me and prompted me to take a closer look at the suffering [...]