We must speak!

“..Elephants a-piling’ teak
In the sludgy, smudgy creek,
Where the silence ‘hung that ‘heavy you was half afraid to speak!”

With apologies to Rudyard Kipling

In August when the gas prices rose in a giant leap to $5 a gallon the protest began, quickly turning into pro democracy rallies. In a country that reveres it monks, and each boy must enter the priesthood for a time, the monks spearheaded the protests. On Monday several satellite firms cooperated with AAAS Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights project after more than 70 reports of right violations.

Whole villages have disappeared, armies are amassing, and internet contact has been cut off. Yet still the whole world is watching. An estimated million and a half people have fled, many going to a refugee camp near the border of Thailand…..you was half afraid to speak!

In Myanmar’s main city of Yangon residents have begun a “silent protest” turning off their light and TV. sets for 15 minutes during the state run news program, it began Monday and continued today…….you was half afraid to speak!

Their saffron robes gone at least 1000 monks and some activists are held inside a windowless warehouse awaiting their fate. Many more monks have simply disappeared, have either been killed or forced back into their villages….you was half afraid to speak!

A military van goes through the neighborhoods, the loudspeakers barking orders “You must stay inside, we have pictures of those we are looking for. We will arrest them”. Sniffer dogs and troops control the streets, bus stops and landmarks where much of the protests occurred…….you was afraid to speak!

As of last Friday the images of the protest that had flooded the rest of the world stopped. The government of brutality realized the world was watching ~they cut off Internet access. A pro democracy web site, a leading source of the current news mysteriously got a virus~ “The Irrawaddy” apparently the victim of government hackers…you can not speak!

Several times in my life I have watched a small group of people stand up to brutality and restrictive governments~ each time I think there goes the Spirit of our own revolutionary fore fathers. Unfortunately I have watched Poland, China, Tibet, too many others and now Burma suffers. Yet the idea of human rights, freedom never dies…..WE can speak and we must speak!