Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

Poet's Eye Extra

Crying Time
10-01-07

The Poet's Eye has a tear today. According to The London Daily Mail, Thousands of the Burmese Buddhist monks who so courageously stood up to the military junta by leading demonstrations for the past several weeks, have been kidnapped and executed.

If ever there has been a situation where the use of our high-powered strike-force military would be appropriate, it is this one.

Yesterday I watched some episodes of Ken Burns' documentary on WWII. It is a good thing to celebrate. WWII was the last time that our military muscle was used for legitimate purposes. It was the last time we were really the good guys.

But we should be the good guys in Burma.

We would like to think that moral authority and the cause of right will inevitably triumph. But sometimes a rifle helps and the monks in Burma were not concealing AK-47s under their saffron robes. They are dead now.

If the neo-cons who run our military really want to play John Wayne and save the world for freedom, then here is their chance. Invade Burma. Hey, there's even oil there.

(and then there is this:
Non Violence

The article says...

Thousands of protesters are dead and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle, a former intelligence officer for Burma's ruling junta has revealed.

That's not thousands of monks, but it's thousands of people, for sure! Way tragic.

I've searched google for more stories about this and can't find even one more.

Do you have any more links?

Anybody?

if it's one monk
that's one monk too many

Absolutely! YES! Of course. It's horrible!

But accurate reporting is important.

I'd like to read this report from more than one source. Any more links? i can't find any.

Oct. 12th is a Day Day of International Action for a Free Burma Worldwide (all events at 12pm), since the Government shut down radio and internet in the country, the protesters don't necessarily realize that they have worldwide support. Locations haven't been completely listed as of yet.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a ... ge_id=1811

http://www.uscampaignforburma.org

http://www.newsdeskspecial.co.uk/2007/0 ... y-rep.html

Here's some links to YouTube, including smuggled raw footage of protests:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzNFXkys ... ed&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJyPnhV_ ... ed&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2_EKx2KZ9A&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIuSPl_x ... t.com/rch=

And here's the link to one of the main sources of information available in Burma, run by a student who grew up in Burma but now lives in England. I should mention that it does contain some disturbing images.:

http://ko-htike.blogspot.com/

Hope this helps some.

Edit I should also mention that Aung San Su Kyi was recently moved from house arrest to Insein prison. She is one of the leaders of Burma's freedom movement, and the only imprisoned Nobel Prize recipient.
Here's a letter to the UN Secretary General demanding her release, and some quotes about her (including one by our fearless leader!):
http://www.uscampaignforburma.org/assk/otherquotes.html

thanks for the links, boho

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It's amazing that Son Of A Bush decides to turn on Burma only because he's trying to distract the world's attention away from his loopy policy of his out of control agenda of going no where fast. By say hey look over there see what's going on there. Then when the world looks away he's off and running to get his things in order. So the attention isn't on him. I don't think so George not this time!!!! Just the chess master playing around with the pawns yet again. Let's see where this will go then. This government has propped up that military dictatorship for years now and now they are trying to make themselves look good. Even though they are evil and they can't hide it!!!!
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Mercedes Benz 500

bohonoto - thanks for the links!

Dave - The point is that our attention... the world's attention... SHOULD be directed to Burma! This is a horrible thing that's happening!

Yeah but having SOB directing our attention to it. Again I don't think so because he's up to something yet again. That situation in Burma been going on for 43 years now.
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Korean Forum

All I can do is sit

Artguy wrote:All I can do is sit

Ommmmm

too old a story
we only notice momentarily on the side

dead monks & martyr witnesses
blackhole alms bowls over freedom-hungry heads

marching monks & religious movement
cloistered among and not away from the masses of change-seekers

bloody monks & saffron robes
red lifefloods on gracious had-flowed orange cloths—

this is our shameful indictment,
that we only notice the glaring clash of style

we can sit, and ommm, and sign a petition
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burm ... _tf_sign=1

at least we can click.

I´ll check the links, thanks!!

the monks in the manifestations made me think in Thich Nhat Hanh, my third buddist reading after D.T Suzuki and Samuel Wolpin.

to sit, also always a good idea!

didn't D.T. support the Japanese army's impereial militarism?

Zen empire, yah!