Freedom's Martyrs

It looks as though the uprising in Burma has been put down:

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.

The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: "Many more people have been killed in recent days than you've heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand."

(Executed Buddhist monk in Burma.  Image from the Daily Mail)

Faced with such pictures, some will wonder, "Was it worth it?"  For the Burmese COULD have kept quiet - and lived.  Instead they protested - and wound up floating face down in dirty jungle rivers.  The poet once asked:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?

Rather than answer directly, I'll instead point to the consequences of another failed uprising, which took place in Europe.  The cost was staggering:  200,000 civilians dead, 85% of Warsaw's buildings destroyed, the surviving members of the Polish Home Army sent to German POW camps - then subsequently persecuted (or murdered) by the Soviets.

In short, the 1944 Warsaw Uprising was just about as complete and total a defeat as one could possibly imagine.  And yet despite that failure, the Home Army's heroism in the face of tyranny was NOT for nothing. That's because it was an inspiration, an example, for future Poles demanding THEIR freedoms, many years later.

For the Burmese, this may all sound like small consolation, particularly now.  But alas, that is all I can offer.

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POSTSCRIPT:  At the Belmont Club, Wretchard gives his assessment to a Burmese letter writer, on the way forward.

You will be lonely, but there is no help for it. I would be dishonest if I said that the road to freedom was anything else but long, wearying and full of pain. But I know that is the road that you long to take. "Death and sorrow will be the companions of your journey, hardship your garment, constancy and valor your only shield." That is the path which you will embark upon, because as men you can do no other.

Comments

[Andy Crosthwaite]

Interesting stuff. I've had an interest in Burma since meeting some Burmese monks a few years ago.

Seems the official line on CNN now is to call it both Myanmar, and Burma.

Is there anything that regular people like me can do to help?

[The Foreigner]

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Andy,

Holy smokes, sorry for not replying earlier! I've been super tired lately, and haven't been checking my blog. Must be allergy season coming up.

Anyways, Armed Liberal at the Winds of Change blog had a short post dealing with your question:

http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/009800.php

A.L. suggests writing a letter to a company that does business with Burma. Looking at the list he links to, I was surprised to note one Taiwanese company, Asian Optical, has a lens factory there. And plenty of companies from other countries are present there as well.

In addition, I suppose if you have a blog you could mention something about Burma from time to time. It's not much, but you know, a lot of people laughed at Ronald Reagan when he gave his, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," speech. But in his memoirs, Anatoly Scharansky said that when the prisoners in the gulag heard about that speech, they cheered. It let them know that somebody in the outside world cared about them.