From the Irrawaddy: “Burmese pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi spent her birthday on Friday as she has done for 14 previous years—in detention. Since her arrival on Burma’s political scene in August 1988, Suu Kyi has known only seven years of freedom. The Irrawaddy looks back over those 21 eventful years…” (see amazing chronicle and pictures) Still, after all this, she keep speaking for hope and reconciliation, if all parties are willing…
Author: Teresa Norman
Married to the love of my life and my partner in everything for almost 42 years, proud mother of three amazing adults, grandmother of some high energy little angels. Grateful child of God.
When it’s all been said and done….
At the end of your life, what’s gonna matter? I had quite a few hours to think about that one yesterday as I sat by my Mom’s bedside and held her hand, tried to keep her calm, and listened to her talk. Her monologue made more sense than usual-was less combative and demanding, occasionally, even kind. My sister-in-law commented on the different than usual theme in Mom’s monologue: yesterday, Mom seemed to value her family. It’s not always like that, so for us, it was a gift. She was able to admit wanting to die, and being scared. Up close and personal real emotions, not the things she would normally have expressed. She was grateful for a hand to hold, and to not be alone.
Today, she’s still hanging in there. Doctors say it could get better slowly or worse quickly. So for today, I’ll be grateful for being present for that one day when it seemed she was present too, being able to be there for her.
The end of her days….?
I’m not sure what people are supposed to feel at this point….when the hospital calls and says “Your mother is going downhill fast, and may end up on a respirator tomorrow”…when they want you to fax the paperwork that tells them what her wishes are for how things go from here…when you look at the mixed blessing that her life has been at times….and you question if you have done enough to be a bearer of light to someone who at times seemed like darkness…and you pray for grace to be graceful under pressure and to let her know in whatever way she can receive it, that you know it was her illness, not her intention, when she was difficult, unreasonable or impossible…and you pray again for grace to be light and to help family members as they struggle with the enigma that is her life…..if this is the end of her days, I pray she finds peace, and that as a child in His arms, she is at rest, undamaged, at last….
Still need: soap, toothbrushes, clothes….
The Irrawaddy today states: “If the fighting continues, at least 8,000 more villagers will have to escape across the border,” said Zipporah Sein, the general secretary of the Karen National Union (KNU).
“The key thing now is to provide them with more adequate shelter,” said Sally Thompson, the deputy head of the Thai Burma Border Consortium (TBBC). “They have food and medical attention, but the flimsy, makeshift homes they are now in provide inadequate protection from the weather.”
Local Thai authorities are drawing up an Action Plan, which would then be discussed with the international aid agencies and local NGOs before implementation.
Many recent refugees are crowded into the grounds of a Thai temple, a couple of kilometers inside the Thai border, where they lack access to basic necessities, aid workers said.
“They are in relatively good condition,” said Kitty McKinsey, the regional spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Mae Sot.
“They are not emaciated, though many have walked for more than seven days to escape from the Myanmar [Burma] army,” she told The Irrawaddy. “They hurriedly left with nothing but the clothes on their back.”
Ma Theingyi, 33, the mother of five children, said: “We desperately need soap, toothbrushes and cooking utensils. More than anything though, we need clothes for our children.”
Zipporah Sein , (see link for full statement) requests the world community to continue providing humanitarian assistance to the recently displaced and support for the many Karen CBOs working to provide both emergency needs and further community development for those displaced in Karen State.
As the Mom in the article says, they still need soap, toothbrushes, clothes for their kids, and cooking utensils. Another source in the area asked for hammocks so they are out of the mud to sleep. Partners Relief & Development, and Free Burma Rangers/World Aid, Inc., are a couple of the organizations contributing to that effort.
Reality Check–Cyber Psalm 15
Our friend, Dan, had a heart attack this week. Scary. So that made it doubly cool to get a perspective challenging email from him this morning with this Cyber Psalm from a blog he likes by David Ker, a Wcliffe Bible Translator in Mozambique.
Cyber-Psalm 15
NOVEMBER 23, 2007 by David Ker
What would heaven be like
if books of theology were written by children not men?
And what if sermons were delivered by the poor.
And devotional books were written by the hungry.
And hymns were composed by the sick and the old.
The Sermon on the Mount requires no interpretation,
unless you are fat and happy.
If our hope of heaven were colored
with children’s crayons and felt tip markers.
And our theology of hell were tempered
by the dying breath of those who suffer.
The hair-splitting and hand-wringing
of over-educated men in ivory towers
goes largely unnoticed by grandmothers in their kitchens
and office workers in their cubicles.
They go on putting silly magnets on their fridge
And trading forwarded e-mails about heaven.
Two thousand years of systematic theology
Disturbs them not a bit!
God is honored and praised
Hoped for and prayed to
By myriads who never learned Greek.
Their revelation is not a scroll
But a hope vaguely imprinted
On a soul made by God.
The sick and the blind and the poor
Receive Jesus with gladness.
The Gospels require no spiritualized application.
Feed us, friend Jesus.
Our stomachs are empty.
You are the one our hearts hope for.
Heal us who are sick.
We ache and we suffer.
Save us in death.
We are dying in darkness.
Savior Jesus, our hope at life’s end.
Silence Is the Enemy (Rape)
Nikolas Kristof writes about ending the silence associated with talking about sexual violence. A report this week from Free Burma Rangers breaks the silence on the recent gang rape of a 12 year old girl in Shan State, Burma–part of the continuing crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing being carried out by the Burma Army.
Rape is one of the oldest weapons used to terrorize women and children and whole communities. A google search on “rape, why women stay silent” turned up this article about women in DR Congo.
Last year, the UN recognized rape as a weapon of war-something victims have recognized for centuries (see article from Human Rights Watch). It’s almost exactly a year later….has anything changed? More words from the UN-good words, but, maybe I haven’t looked hard enough to find it, but have any of the regimes using this weapon been made accountable for their actions/inactions? Are they being prosecuted? Is it being stopped? How do we make it stop being OK to rape?
A Man Named Rainbow Tells Their Story
News of the families and communities being driven from their homes continues to come from the border, both through conventional news sources, and those working there. In the first link below, a man named Rainbow tells some of his community’s story. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8095137.stm
(We met Rainbow briefly several years ago, when, after we delivered rice donated from folks here in Seattle. We accidentally disrupted his class-our friend Noah (at about 6′ 2″+) stood out in the crowd. The kids were fascinated with this friendly big guy in the bright yellow shirt (and distracted from their lessons), so Rainbow told Noah to come teach them something).
A rainbow, in the Bible, was a sign God would not forget His promises, (and that the rain had stopped). Here, according to friends yesterday, they hope it keeps raining–the shelling stops when it rains…..
God, please remember Rainbow, and all the others under attack at the moment. They are not a news story-they are real people having families, having schools, doing life in a real hard place.
Some of the news links from this week:
Continued Exodus from Karen State
The Irrawaddy (link to story) today reports several thousand more people continue to flee the ongoing attacks by the Burmese junta and DKBA in southern Karen State.
I tried to get my mind around this, and I can’t. As a country girl from Whidbey Island, I tried to picture all of the people in Langley (1018) and Coupeville (1915), being chased from their homes to avoid either mortars or being taken for forced labor and other crimes, instead of just going about their business trying to make a living and raise their families. Then I still had to add in another 3000 people from surrounding unincorporated areas of the county to come up with this many people . It’s a lot of people! I probably don’t know 6000 people, do you?
Love Is…
Yesterday had parts that were hard, and parts that were really beautiful. The beautiful part was making it down to Karen Church in Kent and being able to be there for the celebration of the 50th wedding anniversary of a couple who have poured their lives into loving God, their family, their community and seems like most other people who cross their path.
People from Oregon, Vancouver, the Seattle area, and maybe some others gathered to honor their lives and their relationship. It was pretty neat to see this 70+ year old gentleman talk about how it had always been his hope to get to celebrate this moment with a community of his countrymen, but since he had brought his family here in the 70’s, that had seemed pretty unlikely. Wish I knew the language and could have gotten the whole story, but I could catch the essence of how much he loves his wife (and vice versa), and the strength of their love and faith which has brought them through many challenges.
Hearing him read 1st Corinthians 13 makes it very fresh in my mind today, and I read it with new respect for what is possible if you spend your life trying to live out love…..
” 4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8Love never fails…”
Within Range of Mortars
Five kilometers (about 3 miles) is just within range of an 81 mm mortar. You may not care, since there’s none pointed at you, but families in Ler Per Her IDP camp (within range of the mortar mentioned above) are increasingly concerned by them and some are heading to Thailand in case their camp (housing about 1200 people) is attacked again. (It has been burned down several times in the past by the Burma Army. (See today’s report from the Karen Human Rights Group ) for details. 
The US Campaign for Burma lists ways we can all help speak for their freedom. In other countries, murderers go to jail. Here they are in charge, while the UN and others make statements showing their concern…. 
Partners Relief & Development is helping ethnic leaders provide basic necessities for those impacted by the continuing oppression of the Burma Army, including the new arrivals at Ler Per Hur. They can use our help!
Still More Families Displaced by Burma Army
Friends on the ground in Burma now report another 300 IDPs have just arrived at a village near the Thai-Burma border (along with the 200+ who arrived days ago). These people are fleeing the continued fighting and oppression of the Burma Army and DKBA, usually arriving with only what they can carry. While this is a more secure location than being under attack in their home villages, this is still a place where kids have to learn in school what a landmine looks like so they don’t accidentally pick one up!
Urgent needs (other than peace and freedom) in order of priority:
1. rice and cooking oil
2. plastic tarps for emergency shelters
3. mosquito nets
4. blankets
Anyone wanting to help out with life-saving resources can donate through our friends at Partners Relief & Development .
“Almost” A Grandma
I feel sad for some of my friends….the ones who think it’s not a” baby” until after it’s born-just a “product of conception” or a “fetus“. They miss out on an extra seven months or so of the almost inexpressible delight I experience each time our daughter calls to say that the little one’s heart beat was strong, or that the ultrasound showed him/her sucking it’s thumb, or that it’s kicking wildly at night. I can’t imagine not being wildly protective of this little one’s present and future, and in awe of the fact God has a plan for this little life already-this much awaited little person is a gift from Him.
Parenting is never easy. Nothing I know of can fill your heart as fully, break it completely, and be as worth it. For our daughter and her husband, parenting has already begun as they celebrate, plan and prepare space in their home and their lives for this new little one.
I’ve been meditating on Psalm 139, with much gratitude, looking forward to exciting days ahead…
Psalm 139: 13-18
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days were written in your book before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.”
How You Can Help
The following from the US Campaign for Burma tells one way you can help!
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For years, Burma’s military regime has carried out brutal human rights abuses against its own civilians. Their abuses include the conscription of tens of thousands of child soldiers, the destruction and forced displacement of over 3,300 ethnic minority villages, widespread rape of Burmese women, the killing of civilians, and forcing hundreds of thousands of Burmese people into forced labor, what some call modern-day slavery.
These are not simply human rights abuses — they are mass atrocities called “crimes against humanity” and “war crimes,” meaning that they are illegal under international law such as the Geneva Conventions and Rome Statute.
In the past, the United Nations Security Council has voted to create a “Commission of Inquiry” to investigate abuses of a major magnitude
— such as in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and the Darfur region of Sudan. The Commission of Inquiry then makes recommendations to the U.N. Security Council for action. However, no such Commission of Inquiry been created for Burma.
Now, two leading members of the U.S. Congress, Joseph Crowley (D-NY) and Don Manzullo (R-IL) have organized a letter to President Obama asking him to press the U.N. Security Council to create a Commission of Inquiry to investigate crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by Burma’s military regime. They are circulating a letter in Congress and asking other Congressmembers to sign-on. They want as many members as possible to sign the letter, which will then be sent to President Obama.
We need your help to get more members of Congress to sign. When members of Congress organize letters like this they are called “Dear Colleague” letters. We want you to call your member of Congress and ask them to sign this “Dear Colleague” letter.
Every American is represented in the U.S. Congress by one member of the U.S. House of Representatives. We would like you to call your Congressional office to urge your member of the U.S. House of Representatives (NOT the U.S. Senate) to sign the “Dear Colleague” letter along with Congressman Crowley and Manzullo. You do not have to be a citizen; just live or work in your Congressperson’s district. Below are specific instructions on how you can do this.
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Click here for the rest of the instructions…….
More Families Displaced by Burma Army
We just got an email this morning saying another 33 families (204 people) have been forced from their villages in Burma and are moving to a safer location (safer, not SAFE) near the border of Thailand. The place they are fleeing to has been burned down by the Burma army several times in the past. Their situation is a direct result of the continued oppression of the Burma Army, which has destroyed over 3,300 villages in the last 10 years. If the world were just, fair, or remotely reasonable, it would be the generals on trial and Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma would be free. Instead, she faces prison, and they continue driving families from their homes and taking or destroying the little they own.
Former UN Envoy Speaks Out
The New York Times this morning published the following Op-Ed piece by the former envoy to Burma:
End Burma’s System of Impunity
SAO PAULO, BRAZIL — The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has spent 13 years under house arrest in Myanmar. This week, the Burmese junta is likely to extend her detention for up to five years under the trumped-up charge of allowing a visitor into her compound.
During eight years as United Nations Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, I repeatedly called on the Burmese junta to release Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma’s 2,100 other political prisoners, to no avail. It is imperative that she be released immediately for the country’s process of reconciliation to move forward.
But while Suu Kyi has deservedly received a great deal of international attention over the past two decades, Myanmar’s ethnic minorities — more than one-third of the population — have suffered without international outcry. For Myanmar’s process of national reconciliation to be successful, the plight of the minorities must also be addressed.
Over the past 15 years, the Burmese Army has destroyed over 3,300 villages in a systematic and widespread campaign to subjugate ethnic groups. U.N. reports indicate that Burmese soldiers have frequently recruited child soldiers, used civilians as minesweepers and forced thousands of villagers into slave labor.
An official policy of impunity has empowered soldiers to rape and pillage. According to one account, in December 2008 a Burmese soldier marched into an ethnic Karen village in eastern Myanmar and abducted, raped and killed a 7-year old girl. Authorities refused to arrest the soldier; instead, officers threatened the parents with punishment if they did not accept a cash bribe to keep quiet.
In 2002, I received a report about 625 women who were systematically raped in Myanmar ’s Shan State over a five-year period. There was not a single account of successful prosecution.
I repeatedly documented the military’s many abuses in reports to the U.N. General Assembly and the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. My work is only one example of U.N. efforts in Myanmar — since 1990, U.N. representatives have visited the country 37 times in an attempt to facilitate dialogue and promote human rights.
They have exhausted all domestic and diplomatic remedies without achieving human rights protection and national reconciliation in Myanmar. And while the U.N. General Assembly and the U.N. Human Rights Council have passed over 35 resolutions regarding Myanmar, the U.N. Security Council has yet to pass a single one. The United Nations will not be successful until the Security Council acts to directly address our stagnant efforts.
It is clear that the attacks in Myanmar will continue. It is equally evident that the country’s domestic legal system will not punish those perpetrating crimes against ethnic minorities.
It is time for the United Nations to take the next logical step: The Security Council must establish a commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity and impunity in Myanmar. The Security Council took similar steps with regard to Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. The situation in Myanmar is equally as critical.
Creating a commission of inquiry will accomplish three important goals:
First, it will make the junta accountable for its crimes with a potential indictment by the International Criminal Court. Second, it will address the widespread culture of impunity in Burma. Third, it has the potential to deter future crimes against humanity in Myanmar.
For two decades, ethnic minorities in Myanmar have suffered while our diplomatic efforts failed to bear fruit. The time has come for the Security Council to act.
Jewels in the Ashes 