Free Burma

Today is "Independence Day" in Burma, now called Mayanmar by its brutal ruling military junta. Lest we forget what independence means to these people:

Okay, so I am an optimist.

My head asks what a spontaneous action by five thousand or so bloggers could possibly achieve against a regime that is so clearly driven by powerlust or, if you are that way inclined, Evil that it will, seemingly without any qualms, take thousands of monks, devoted to a peaceful belief system, and imprison or torture or kill them.

My heart on the other hand says that the superconnectivity of individuals enabled by the internet and globalized communications is part of a new world order in which those individuals can make their will known to the world in a way not possible before. A new world order that allows us from the total safety of our computer screens reach out and join with the suffering they are enduring and use our voices to continue spreading that message that they are now being to viciously prevented from mouthing.

But actually this message is for China, and I already know that my blog does not reach behind the red curtain, so maybe it won't do any good. Burma is practically a vassal state of China it seems to me. Leaders in Beijing have reason themselves to fear the possibility that the monks will win out just over the border from Tibet. But I do not believe that even with their patchy historical human rights record, they can with good conscience sit back and watch what's going on in Burma now and continue to support the regime of the tin-pot generals.

I do not, I don't think, support the idea of economic sanctions if there is any possibility that they could compound the suffering of the ordinary people of Burma. But I do believe that the leadership in Beijing, and to a lesser extent Delhi, could effect change in Burma with a wave of a hand, or a single telephone call. And so my anger is directed at those regimes who have the power to do so but don't.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

There must be some good men and women in places of power in China and India who could change the current situation in Burma in a matter of days. If they do not, they compound the evil.