An account from Burma, and our own crime

[bhikkhu]

"Burma unrest: Account from a monastery
A Buddhism student, who experienced first-hand the events of the last two weeks at a Buddhist monastery in Burma, describes the recent unrest.


Monks watch armed police officer
Rage, disappointment and hopelessness - this is what they feel ..snip...There is always a feeling of suspicion and everyone's careful about what they say. Casual conversations have led to trouble in the past.

Burmese people protested against fuel price increases in August. The monks' first reaction was a response to the economic situation. Monasteries depend on material support from the public.

The price increases put a strain on ordinary people and in turn they couldn't spare much of their income to give to monasteries. Monks were worried that they can't survive like that and that they soon won't have anything to eat.

For those who have spent all their lives in a monastery, to leave and do something else was not an option. A few monks expressed their dissatisfaction to members of the government. "

from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7022475.stm

The media everywhere reports this as anti-government protest, as pro-democracy protest, as the seeds of the end of a military dictatorship. This is a great disservice to those suffering, and a terrible denial of the cause and effect of our (US and European) government policies. Bhuddhist monks do not protest to overthrow governments, nor do they place themselves or others in danger to serve political agendas. To suggest so, and it has been almost universally suggested, is again a disservice to the those who have been killed or injured. They protest, as is clear if one reads this one rare article giving voice to the actual protests, against hunger and deprivation. The immediate cause of this hunger and deprivation is the increase in the price of gasoline in an already impoverished nation.
But what is the cause of this hunger and impoverishment? That is what needs to be understood - 20 years of international sanctions against the government of Burma, on the grand but all too common theory that if the countries of the world can render the citizens of an offensive government poor and hungry, then those poor and hungry citizens will overthrow their government. What a fine theory! But how much death and misery has it caused! Not just in Burma, but in so many places in the world.
One the most despicable things occurs when this fine theory begins to bring fruit. When the desperately poor and miserable citizens of a government we find offensive begin to protest, and then are suppressed in the interest of maintaining public order by those means commonly available to all governments (including our own), then the media fills with accounts of tragic suffering, and we all shed tears of empathetic sorrow.
I have no sympathy for the Burmese government, but I would ask that, when the bodies are counted and the stories are laid down to history, we remember clearly the puppetmasters of this whole criminal enterprise and do not pretend to clear consciences.

[Mojorabbit]

1. touche n/t

[Karenina]

2. ...