So I've gotten a ton of joking references to monks, saffron, robes, Halloween, etc. This naturally leads me to images currently in the news of similarly shaved Asian heads marching for justice in Myanmar. The more I read about it the more upset I am about the situation over there. I don't really know what to do about it, obviously, but...
The point of my *cough* experiment was to heighten my sensitivities, I think... toward how I perceive others, how they perceive me and to reevaluate the lens through which I view the world. It's interesting how a little bit of air on my scalp can make me so much more aware of what's going on.
The Myanmar government has decided to close off the country by "turning off the Internet," apparently.
I think the idea is that this government understands the human nature. Right now people care because they have been bombarded with images of what's happening there right now. But if the government can effectively plug the source of the "leakage" of the truth happening in the streets right now, then the rest of the world will quickly forget. We are a culture acutely attuned to immediate sensory gratification. Turn off the TV, and we forget almost immediately.
That's what they want. And that's what's probably going to happen unless we do something about it.
I've never been one of those activist kids going around door-to-door collecting pennies for trees or anything like that, but this one really touches my heart (and not just 'cuz of all the saffron jokes I've heard lately).
I've been keeping up with this story (admittedly at first for class), but since the government there "decided to shut down the Internet" to further isolate itself from public awareness, I can only imagine the despair engulfing the country right now.
What's the protest about? Myanmar recently hiked up the prices for oil and oil-related items and services in the country (formerly Burma). In a country where the annual per capita income is about $225, the daily transportation fare now costs a worker about 60% of his or her salary. In public outcry at this outrage, the monks of devoutly Buddhist Myanmar began marching through the streets last week, defying the government to ignore their protest.
Instead of paying attention, the government is shutting them up - not with hoses, like during the Civil Rights movement - but with guns.
It breaks my heart to think of so many men and women marching for the rights of their people, dying for what they stand for, serving the country in one of capacities as the "keeper of the souls" of this primarily Buddhist country. Well, let me retract that. It doesn't entirely break my heart - I think it's a beautiful ultimate sacrifice - but the goal is to show the government through their actions that what they are doing is hurting the people of Myanmar. And now the government is trying to cover up that embarrassment, not by rectifying their actions, but by shutting off outlets to the outside world and instead killing them undercover. That's horrible.
Why is the government so afraid of the Buddhist monks? Here's what the New York Times says about their actions:
AS they marched through the streets of Myanmar’s cities last week leading the biggest antigovernment protests in two decades, some barefoot monks held their begging bowls before them. But instead of asking for their daily donations of food, they held the bowls upside down, the black lacquer surfaces reflecting the light.
It was a shocking image in the devoutly Buddhist nation. The monks were refusing to receive alms from the military rulers and their families — effectively excommunicating them from the religion that is at the core of Burmese culture.
That gesture is a key to understanding the power of the rebellion that shook Myanmar last week.
The country — the former Burma — has roughly as many monks as soldiers. The military rules by force, but the monks retain ultimate moral authority. The lowliest soldier depends on them for spiritual approval, and even the highest generals have felt a need to honor the clerical establishment. They claim to rule in its name.
Begging is a ritual that expresses a profound bond between the ordinary Buddhist and the monk. “The people are feeding the monks and the monks are helping the people make merit,” said Josef Silverstein, an expert on Myanmar at Rutgers University. “When you refuse to accept, you have broken the bond that has tied them for centuries together.”
Here's an interesting comparison from that article. The military and the monkhood are technically facing off. Both are about 400,000 strong. They share a religion, these young men from the poorer classes of Burma - "brothers," the NY Times says they could well be. The dictatorship heading the military has been cut off from its spiritual and its popular base, and now it can only rely on force to maintain its power.
I posted another NY Times link last week with a quote from a young nun around my age that struck a chord with me. She said, "Perhaps we should go home. They're just going to kill us here." It saddened me deeply because if I were there I would want to comfort her, but there are no words for me to say that will contradict her in any way. Quite likely she will die, be tortured, beaten, starved in the effort of the government to silence her mute protest. She isn't wrong. She's just standing up for the rights of others.
I'm an inherently selfish person, and somehow it's easier for me to ignore the plight of others when they're far away and I'm safe and sound at home. But I cannot ignore these people - my age, my race, my looks, even (with that new hair) - who seemingly have had their last rays of hope for outside rescue denied them. Are we going to leave them hanging? Are we going to watch the government shut down communication and shrug, walk off and go watch the newest episode of "Desperate Housewives?"
I guess that's the twisted beauty of citizen journalism - there are so many images, so many independent voices swelling together to cry out for justice for these people - that even those so firmly entrenched in their self-centeredness cannot avoid the reality of it all.
Final side note: As a Christian, I personally believe the only way to heaven is through salvation in Jesus Christ. I personally believe that good deeds, no matter how sacrificial, are not enough to get a person to heaven at death. And it wrings my heart out to think that these quiet young men and women are dying by the dozen right now as I type, doing their best to live and die for others... with no reward in sight.
I know this isn't relevant to some of you who read my blog, but to me this is the saddest note of it all.
For those of you who generously offered to donate to my *cough cough* project a while back, I think... this one... might be the one toward which I would like to dedicate my efforts. I'll see if I can scrounge up something at some point.
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