Aung San Suu Kyi: A Prisoner No More

"The Nobel Peace Prize opened up a door in my heart." ~ Aung San Suu Kyi

Sometimes the arc of the moral universe, as MLK once said, seems to bend toward justice. Today, Aung San Suu Kyi received her Nobel Peace Prize twenty-one years after she'd won it. It's good for the soul and the future to pause and relish a victory of this magnitude. But as Suu Kyi cautioned, now isn't the time for "reckless optimism."
 

Yuko and I visited Burma in 2008, a year after the anti-government "saffron revolution" brought thousands of people into the streets. We traveled to Inle, Mandalay, Bagan and Rangoon. Despite the danger, everyone who spoke to us expressed unconditional support for Suu Kyi. She carries with her the aspirations of her people.

(Kids smothered with thanaka cream playing hide and seek @ Inle, via Yewco)

Suu Kyi was living under house arrest for 15 of the past 21 years until she was finally released in November 2010. Her crime? Defeating the junta in the 1990 elections. Her Nobel speech, delivered in Oslo, Norway, is a moving testament to the essential goodness of humanity despite the brute injustice she and Burma have lived through:

"Before continuing to speak of my country, may I speak out for our prisoners of conscience. There still remain such prisoners in Burma. It is to be feared that because the best known detainees have been released, the remainder, the unknown ones, will be forgotten. I am standing here because I was once a prisoner of conscience. As you look at me and listen to me, please remember the often repeated truth that one prisoner of conscience is one too many. Those who have not yet been freed, those who have not yet been given access to the benefits of justice in my country number much more than one. Please remember them and do whatever is possible to effect their earliest, unconditional release."

Hangman: George Orwell

"We all had a drink together, native and European alike, quite amicably. The dead man was a hundred yards away." - from "A Hanging"

To say George Orwell had a problem with authority is an understatement. He was Brando wrapped in tweed as Johnny Strabler in The Wild One. When Mildred asks, "What're you rebelling against, Johnny?" Orwell had the quintessential answer: "Whaddya got?" Not only was he right about the three biggest issues of the 20th century - imperialism, fascism, & Stalinism - he delivered their most thorough rebuke in essays and novels like Burmese Days (1934), Animal Farm (1945), and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). He had the ability to distill truth from the detritus of popular thought and relished his role as an executioner of falsehoods.

As Christopher Hitchens said:

"Orwell's first rebellion against power, illegitimate power as he thought of it, was against the assumption that the world would be ruled indefinitely by white Europeans."

I just reread Orwell's brilliant short essay, "A Hanging," based on his time as a colonial police officer in Burma from 1922-1927. Published in 1931 when he was twenty-eight, it's a perfect still photograph, rendered in words, of an execution. As a master writer, he knew what to reveal and how to shade his language in such subtle tones that his intent is both invisible and undeniable at the same time.

"A Hanging" is a scathing indictment of capital punishment and imperialism at a time when his employers (the British Crown) were in no mood to receive it. As he would continue to do for the rest of his life, Orwell railed against all forms of tyranny. He remains more relevant than ever in this age of extraordinary rendition, terror wars and despots like Gaddafi. It's no surprise that his original title for Nineteen Eighty-Four was The Last Man in Europe. Orwell knew too much to ever be duped.

"So Much To Tell You": Aung San Suu Kyi Freed

A Young Suu Kyi

Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been freed from house arrest, but the real test of her freedom will be whether the junta allows her to travel around the country meeting with her supporters. She's been locked up for 15 of the last 21 years and has been released twice before already. She could easily be detained again if the junta feels threatened, regardless of their expressed goodwill.

But for now, the mood is one of rejoicing. She greeted a throng of supporters last night when she was officially freed and then delivered an impassioned speech today encouraging them. “Democracy is when the people keep a government in check,” she said. “I will accept the people keeping me in check.” As one woman said, “I’m happier than if I won the lottery. But this is just the beginning, not the end. The political prisoners are still in jail. Everyone needs to be released!”

Kyaiktiyo Paya

When Yuko and I traveled there in 2008, it was just months after the "Saffron Revolution" that had brought thousands of monks into the streets to protest the country's brutal military regime. Deciding whether or not to visit Myanmar/Burma, a nation of over 50 million, wasn't easy. Suu Kyi has recommended tourists stay away until "genuine progress towards democratization" is made, while others such as Thant Myint-U, an historian and grandson of former United Nations Secretary General U Thant, have argued for engagement.

Top of Mount Popa

I made my decision after befriending a Burmese student in Hong Kong who had been confined and tortured by the regime. He urged me to go, meet the people and report back about his country. I knew to avoid any organized tours and meet the locals to prevent our money going directly to the junta.

Burma (Myanmar): Stay Free

This is a video/photo collage I put together from our trip to Burma in 2008. All the photos were taken by Yuko.

1. Black Mountain: "Stay Free"- Inle Lake;
2. Jane Siberry: "The Life Is The Red Wagon"- Mandalay & Bagan;
3. Nina Simone: "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free"- Yangon & Kyaiktiyo.

Aung San Suu Kyi: Case 47/2009

"I am not guilty because I have not broken any law"

While the entire world gazes on impotently, Burma's (Myanmar) military junta is trying Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi - case 47/2009 - for breaking the conditions of her already sham six-year house arrest.



The unrelenting forces of evil march on with the tacit protection of big brother, China. Next to Thailand, China is Burma's most important client with Sinopec and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) actively seeking access to its lucrative oil and gas reserves.

When Yuko and I visited last year, everyone we met expressed disgust for the junta. One young man from Inle in Shan State actually felt compelled to apologize to Yuko (a Japanese national) on behalf of the thugs in the military for murdering Japanese photographer Kenji Nagai.


Suu Kyi is expected to be found guilty for harboring an American who swam across Inya Lake to her home in Rangoon (Yangon), though her lawyers say she didn't invite the putz and asked him to leave. She faces up to five years in the notorious Insein Prison, pronounced "Insane." Here's an aerial view:


She'd been scheduled to be freed from six years of detention without trial today (Wednesday) before she was arrested. The phony charges were designed as an excuse for the junta to keep her locked up during polls it scheduled for next year as the culmination of its so-called "roadmap to democracy."

This is nothing but a farce, of course, that the junta has implemted to override Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy's (NLD) legitimate victory back in 1990. This is the NLD's flag, Burma's only democratically elected government:

Burmese Ways: Life In Orwell's Dystopia

My article on Burma (Myanmar) has been published with photos by Yuko. Here's the full version (pdf), via my website.

"When Soe hears my wife is Japanese he quietly apologizes. During the 2007 anti-government protests one of his fellow compatriots - a young soldier in flip-flops - shot and killed Japanese photographer, Kenji Nagai, at point blank range in the heart of Rangoon.

Deciding whether or not to travel into Burma, a nation of 50 million, wasn't easy. Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has recommended tourists stay away until "genuine progress towards democratization" is made, while others such as Thant Myint-U, an historian and grandson of former United Nations Secretary General U Thant, argue for engagement.

I made my decision after befriending a Burmese student in Hong Kong who had been confined and tortured by the regime. He urged me to go, meet the people and report back about his country. I knew to avoid any organized tours and meet the locals to prevent our money going directly to the junta."