Sunday, May 17, 2009

Haiku 051709

shadows
of fluttering leaves --
spring winds

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Recently, we read the following:


New York Times: "After Years of Isolation, a Dissident Still Torments Her Tormentors" by Seth Mydans

“ ‘Why are you so afraid of us?’ Aung San Suu Kyi called out, taunting the military government of Myanmar as thousands of rapturous supporters listened in the rain, whistling and cheering from under a sea of black umbrellas.

“That was 13 years ago, during a temporary period of freedom from house arrest, and Suu Kyi was putting into words the dynamic that has kept her under detention for most of the past two decades.

“The seemingly all-powerful junta, which jails its opponents and crushes popular uprisings by force, is afraid of Suu Kyi, 63, the pro-democracy opposition leader in the country formerly known as Burma, and of the continuing undercurrent of support she commands among the people.

" ‘Her achievement has been to concentrate the values that are associated with democracy and freedom into one person,’ said David Steinberg, an expert on Myanmar at Georgetown University.

“On Thursday, the generals who rule the country demonstrated their continuing fear of this lone challenger by charging Suu Kyi with violating the terms of her most recent, six-year term of house arrest and locking her inside what it calls a prison 'guesthouse.'

“She faces a hearing on Monday on charges that could result in a prison term of up to five years, a harsher form of the isolation she has endured for 13 of the past 19 years….

“But the circumstances of the latest charges against her have a touch of the absurd. They stem from the capture of an American adventurer, John Yettaw, 53, who twice swam across a lake to her house where, according to her lawyer, he delivered her a Bible, although she is a Buddhist.

“Suu Kyi is on trial for violating the terms of her house arrest, though her lawyer describes the American as an intruder, not a guest….”

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And we thought:

…. Who knows: this alleged American intruder, John Yettaw, could in fact be working for the rogue Myanmar military government -- precisely to set up Suu Kyi for additional charges and continued imprisonment.

Unfortunately, Myanmar has nothing to offer economically, politically, or diplomatically to U.S. politicians at this time. Thus, this deafening silence in Washington about the plight of this pro-democracy, Nobel Peace prize winner....