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FOOD FOR THOUGHT; an appeal to Burm
- Subject: FOOD FOR THOUGHT; an appeal to Burm
- From: nin@xxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 08 Nov 1996 12:49:00
Reply-To: Khin Ni Ni Thein <nin@xxxxxx>
Subject: FOOD FOR THOUGHT; an appeal to Burmese intellectuals
Dear ALL,
Let me express my thoughts in a written form with the hope
that it would in turn serve as food for your thought.
I am thinking about two items as follows:
#1. What is the difference between refugees and idp (internally displaced persons)
#2. What is the difference between humanitarian refugees and academic refugees
For item #1, I donot see any difference between refugees and idp in general. The total
amount of suffering is the same under the different headings. The later can be named
as "slow genocide". The point I would like to make here is not that which one suffer
less but that who can help whom. Can refugees help idp or can idp help refugees?
No, no way. As a Burmese saying goes, this is the case which
"Southern-King can't be helped by the Northern-King".
"Taung-min-go-myaut-min-ma-cae-naing"
For item #2, I can see a bit of hope that later can help the
former. Yes, indeed. Academic refugees can be the great help for the humanitarian
refugees. No, not money wise. I know that almost all the academics who fled the country
are either unemployed or under-employed except from the few percentage. Even if all the
academic refugees are very wealthy and quite willing to help refugees in terms of
financial assistance it would not be a successful solution. It will only worn out
the resources until and unless the cause that forced people to flee. Let me quote,
"The best solution of the refugee problem was the prevention of the causes that forced
people to flee" said (Asda Jayanama, Thailand) (source:UN Third committee conclude debate
on refugee issues).
Therefore the question here and now is, "How can Burmese academic
refugees (this term is used because they fled the country for academic
survival) help those Burmese humanitarian refugees? in what way?"
There are many ways:
(1) by the selective service, not working directly or indirectly with
undemocratic government(s)
(2) not to be instrumental for those who formulate, benefit and
implement the opressive and undemocratic policies
(3) not to be called as academic white washers, we can live up
with our ethical codes
(4) give the free time to read the current developments on
the democracy movement of Burma
(5) squeeze your talents to get ideas how can you stop this
deterioration in Burma in your own way, with your own style
Note: one person can make a difference!!!
(6) be instrumental for the people who are less fortunate than you
at least in power of thoughts at most in every way
(7) collective actions could be an effective way to work together
(8)...
(9)...
(10)...
(11)...
....
????
.....
Could you please fill in the blanks?
If you do not want to answer this call publically, please send
direct e-mail to my account.
Thanks for your time and for reading it.
With metta and solidarity,
NiNi