Aung San Suu Kyi ~ Persecuted Writers Reading Event

Aung San Suu Kyi

this saturday i had the opportunity to read, as part of a reading event for persecuted writers from around the world, a passage by Aung San Suu Kyi from her book Freedom From Fear. sitting and listening to the voices of all the readers, seeing pictures of the writers they were reading on behalf of, and learning about these people and their courage was incredible. i felt overwhelmed by all the efforts and voices that i have not heard, but encouraged by their existence and this coming out of silence - or perhaps i should say this coming into voice(s)...

i felt so privilegded to read for this woman, having been conected to her from lyn whom ben and i met in chaing mai, and the energy from the room plus a conscious awareness of her strength halped me still my mind and direct my voice. wow.

here is the passage that i read (and if you want to know more about her i urge you to make efforts to do so);

"In an age when immense technological advances have created lethal weapons which could be, and are, used by the powerful and the unprincipled to dominate the weak and the helpless, there is a compelling need for a closer relationship between politics and ethics at both the national and international levels. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations proclaims that 'every individual and every organ of society' should strive to promote the basic rights and freedoms to which all human beings regardless of race, nationality or religion are entitled. but as long as there are governments whose authority is founded on coercion rather than on the mandate of the people, and interest groups which place short-term profits above long-term peace and prosperity, concerted international action to protect and promote human rights will remain at best a partially realized struggle. There will continue to be arenas of struggle where victims of oppression have to draw on their own inner resources to defend their inalienable rights as members of the human family.

The quintessential revolution is that of the spirit, born of an intellectual conviction of the need for change in those mental attitudes and values which shape the course of a nations development. A revolution which aims merely at changing official policies and institutions with a view to an improvement in material conditions has little chance of genuine success. Without a revolution of the spirit, the forces which produced the iniquities of the old order would continue to be operative, posing a constant threat to the process of reform and regeneration. It is not enough merely to call for freedom, democracy and human rights. There has to be a united determination to persevere in the struggle, to make sacrifices in the name of enduring truths, to resist the corrupting influences of desire, ill will, ignorance and fear.

Saints, it has been said, are the sinners who go on trying. So free men are the oppressed who go on trying and who in the process make themselves fit to bear the responsibility and to uphold the disciplines which will maintain a free society. Among the basic freedoms to which men aspire that their lives might be full and uncramped, freedom from fear stands out as both a means and an end. A people who would build a nation in which strong, democratic institutions are firmly established as a guarantee against state-induced power must first learn to liberate their own minds from apathy and fear." (Aung San Suu Kyi, Freedom From Fear)

((thanks))