Myanmar: Freedom from Fear

photo from thedifferencemagazine.blogspot

Our prayers are out to the people in Myanmar. The military is closing cyber and internet cafes - which is a really bad development. Freedom of communication is greatly restricted there. No free press. Citizens of Myanmar sometimes don't know what's going on there if they do not have access to the internet. Cell phones are also being caught off.

There are reported deaths. It was reported today that the military just shot into crowds of people like they did in 1988. Only 9 deaths have been officially reported. I'm surprised the number is so low.

And, this has not been confirmed yet, but Aung San Suu Kyi - Nobel Peace Prize winner and pro-democracy leader is said to have been transferred to the notorious Insein prison. She had been under house arrest but it was said that military officials were afraid that she would get involved in the demonstrations. The road leading to the Nobel Peace Prize-winner's house has been blocked with barbed wire and sandbags.

Heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence, Aung San Suu Kyi entered politics to work for democratization, helped found the National League for Democracy on 27 September 1988, and was put under house arrest on 20 July 1989. She was offered freedom if she would leave the country, but she refused.

One of her most famous speeches is the "Freedom From Fear" speech, which begins:

It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.

Stumble It!