Monks on the march again

Tad-ya-ta: Om Bhai-sha-jye Bhai-sha-jye Maha Bhai-sha-jye Ra-ja Sa-mud-ga-te Sva-ha. This is the blessing of the Medicine Buddha.

A few days ago, the Maggin Monastery was forcibly evacuated by the Burmese military, and they intend to seal it off. This monastery is significant for providing a hospice where AIDS/HIV victims could take refuge when in dire need. The authorities offered no alternatives to these sufferers.

The sadly ironic part is the move comes almost concurrently with World AIDS Day, something noted by many editorials, none of which make it into Google News’ listings, which seem to have been stripped of all primary news sources about Burma.

It is also worth noting that this latest crackdown immediately followed an outspoken editorial by Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy highly critical of the junta and ASEAN’s appeasement of their horrific policies.

All of this is major news, to be sure. Too bad it will pass hardly noticed in most of the developed world.

About 300 monks attempted today to march from their monastery to a revered pagoda in the centre of Mogok, a ruby-mining town in central Burma, writes Edward Loxton for The First Post. The local authorities blocked their way and the monks broke off their demonstration without incident.

The monks chanted the metta sutha (the words of the Buddha on “loving kindness”) as they marched. It is a mantra that has come to symbolise opposition by the monks to military rule. Local residents believed the demonstration was sparked by the summary closure of the Maggin monastery in Rangoon, which has caused anger across Burma. Troops surrounded the monastery on Thursday and ordered monks and lay people, including patients in the compound’s HIV/AIDS treatment centre and hospice, to vacate the premises immediately.

Posted by Beagle17
"RSS here": http://feeds.feedburner.com/GnnBeagle17 Grew up in Nova Scotia. Hold BSc. in Biology and Grad. Diploma Journalism. Moved to Korea in 1997, and Taiwan in 1999. Currently teaching, writing, and doing Web design. Concerned about depleted...

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