Thursday after work I went to Lulu's with some coworkers to enjoy some delicious Thai food. We enjoyed some tasty eats and delightful conversation. The light mood was filled with laughter and good times.
We then made our way to the Screenland theater for the showing of a documentary on Burma. Oh how the mood quickly changed...
*Burma: An Indictment--a film by Jeremy Taylor
Thursday, February 10th 2011 - 7pm
Theme: Burmese Refugees
“Learn the truth that reveals the secrets of Burma”
Murder! Rape! Slavery! Torture! - part of the daily routine for the Burmese people. “BURMA: AN INDICTMENT” shows the inhumane conditions the gentle Burmese people suffer every day.
Watch families snake their way across the Thai border to receive the most basic health care. Experience the hell of a man who was kept in solitary confinement for fifteen years! Listen to the monks _ now living in exile – who started the “Saffron Revolution”.
Witness the squalor of the Thai refugee camp and view shocking footage of Cyclone Nargis victims. “BURMA: AN INDICTMENT” exposes a wealthy country whose people are starving in the streets helpless at the hands of a brutal military dictatorship.
Click here to watch the trailer on YouTube (warning: it's not pleasant)
It was hard to watch. It is so much easier when you know bad things are going on in the world but you don't have a personal connection to it. But watching this movie, all I could think about was how I now personally KNOW so many people that have experienced this horror. And so many of their family members and friends still are experiencing this horror.
The junta rules by fear. In the black zone they kill anyone they see. They take child soldiers from their parents by offering them food and money. They make civilians walk in front of them so that the civilians get blown up by the landmines and not the soldiers. They ransack villages and force everybody out, placing landmines where they know villagers have stored food so that when they come back for it they are killed. They make the people do whatever they want them to because frankly, if they don't, they'll die. They imprison and torture anyone who speaks out against them.
Burma is a land of GREAT natural resources. And yet it is the poorest country outside of Africa.
I once wondered out loud at work - "How do our clients stand these awful, painful, de-humanizing jobs they are working at in the United States?" And someone quickly reminded me - "It's a lot easier than running through the jungles of Burma being shot at." Sometimes I forget what my clients have been through. This movie was a good (and by good i mean awful) reminder.
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