Beyond images of a rainbow wave of monks to the background soundrack of U2's Walk On, my mind has been caught by the tension between a philosophy striving for equanimity and the overcoming of attachment, and protest action to bring about social change.
Aung San Suu Kyi calls on us to use our liberty to promote theirs - and as South Africans, mindful of the role played by others in supporting our own liberation struggle, many of us feel it is our moral duty to do so.
What we can do:
- Sign the petition (see link below)
- Support International Bloggers' Day To Support Burma on Thursday 4 October (see details below)
- Join the Facebook group to Support the Monks' Protest in Burma and
- Take part in the Day of International Action on 6 October (see details below)
Burma is ruled by one of the worst military dictatorships in the world. This week Buddhist monks and nuns began marching and chanting prayers to call for democracy. The protests spread and hundreds of thousands of Burmese people joined in -- they've been brutally attacked by the military regime, but still the protests are spreading.
I just signed a petition calling on Burma's powerful ally China and the UN security council to step in and pressure Burma's rulers to stop the killing. The petition has exploded to over 200,000 signatures in a few days and is being advertised in newspapers around the world, delivered to the UN secretary general, and broadcast to the Burmese people by radio. We're trying to get to 1 million signatures this week, please sign below and tell everyone!
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/tf.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK
Thank you for your help!
Free Burma: International Bloggers' Day
Details on http://freeburma.stots.de/doku.php
International bloggers are preparing an action to support the peaceful revolution in Burma. We want to set a sign for freedom and show our sympathy for these people who are fighting their cruel regime without weapons. These Bloggers are planning to refrain from posting to their blogs on October 4 and just put up one Banner then, underlined with the words „Free Burma!“.
Here, we are coordinating a effort of these bloggers and webmasters. The links in the german section of this paragraph show how the idea came into being.
You can keep up with the changes to this wiki by pointing your feedreader to http://freeburma.stots.de/feed.php
A Day of International Action for a Free Burma
Free Aung San Suu Kyi & Support the Monks in Burma
Saturday 6TH OCTOBER 2007
Time: 12 NOON in every major city across the world
We are marching in solidarity with the monks and ordinary people of Burma who are risking their lives for freedom and democracy.
We appeal to all religious and secular communities across the world not to look the other way while the people of Burma cry out for international support.