What Happened To Buddhism Being Peaceful?

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Attacks on Rohingya Continue
(Part of The Darkness Visible post)

As the violence in Rakhine, Myanmar continues the Buddhist population returns to allegations that the Rohingya are invaders. The charges are obviously blatantly false. Yet the Buddhist continue to attack with both words and violent actions.

Amnesty International stated this week that though the fighting had been down ethnic lines in the beginning the latest attacks have been primarily targeting the Rohingya minority. The Burmese government has not only been complacent in allowing the attacks but has commanded the Myanmar security forces to attack Rohingya villages and raid Rohingya camps. The goal of the Burmese government has always been deportation. And amidst this recent wave of violence the Myanmar government is stepping up its policies of discrimination.

We already know that the Bangladeshi government is not much better in its treatment of the Rohingya. The Bengali forces are known to use Rohingya as slaves and forced labor. The Bengali forces often uproot Rohingya and force them over the border into Burma. And in some of the worse cases have been known to kill Rohingya found along the border.

The Rohingya trapped in Burma have for six weeks now put up with mass arrest and routine attacks by biased Burmese Police. Children who go out searching for food can be subjected to beatings. Women caught outside without a male companion around are raped and often killed. The Rohingya men who aren't forced to submit humiliation by the Burmese security forces are more often than not beaten or killed.

So where is the UN and the Western world in all this?

The UN has sent observers to see first hand what is happening in Burma. Yet the Burmese government continues to keep the world at bay as it censors most everything the UN is allowed to see in the western Rakhine region of Myanmar. Security has long been an excuse for violators of human rights while they use the victims as an excuse for the violence. But the UN fails to force the issue even while knowing this disturbing trend.

The Russians, British, and Americans have all recently joined the race with China to exploit the small Asian country of its resources. Myanmar appears more than willing to let the foreign businesses in on one condition... they don't dare say a word about human rights. And as far as China and Russia go, Burma has no worries there. So where is Obama when it comes to Burmese atrocities?

Ignoring organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, Obama has given the green light to US companies who want to outsource to Myanmar. Instead of growing jobs at home Obama seems happy to export American industry to prop up a genocidal government in Burma. And still the media back home in the US refuses to even discuss the problem as they cover the "Race for Burma". It seems none of them want to talk about Obama's complacency with murder when it comes to depressing the US economy and boosting the Burmese capabilities in conducting genocide.

Some parts of the world are watching however. Some parts of the world are preparing to act. But it isn't the groups we would want to "stop" genocide.

Pakistani Taliban members have recently claimed that they will begin attacking Burma if the Myanmar government does not put a stop to the killing of Rohingya. It appears that some of the worst human rights violators are actually prepared to act more directly than the civilized Western world. And yet even with the threat of global terrorism, the Western governments continue to hide their eyes and hope for the best.

If Taliban members do begin making attacks on Burma we could witness international acts of war coming  from both Pakistan and Myanmar alike. What could easily be stopped by intervention, either diplomatically or militarily, by the Western world and the UN is starting to boil over borders. The darkness is spreading from Myanmar and Bangladesh into India and Pakistan. The sparks are starting to fly and the tinderbox of the region is ready to ignite.

How will the West and the UN deal with war and genocide as this dark night reaches its darkest hours? Syria burns as the Sudan continues to be ravaged by war and genocide alike. Yemen starves as the Arab Spring appears ready to drag the country into Syria's pit of despair. Assam shows signs of healing and yet the Muslim world prepares to wage war to get even... Assam could erupt again. Burma is just the depth of the darkness itself. It shows us what kind of world we have become. In the middle of the night... in our darkness hour... we see how weak and vulnerable we really are.

If only to save ourselves the heartache, we have turned our backs on the Rohingya just as we have turned our eyes away from Syria. We are no more capable of standing up to our promise of "Never Again" now than we were in Bosnia... Rwanda... Cambodia... or Darfur. And from what we can see now, we aren't even trying to live up to those two hollow words.

The Roma, Jews, Armenians, Native Americans... more than we can mention... were all offered to the flames, gas, and bullets. After those crimes we were told ourselves we would never allow those crimes to happen to anyone else. We promised the world that together we could put an end to this dark chapter in our history.

Burma shows us that it is still with us. Syria screams to us that it has never left us. And Assam cries out to us to finally put an end to this dark night.

The Shallow Grave

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For Assad or For Liberty?

Aleppo continues to be hammered as Assad's forces more heavy artillery into civilian neighborhoods all the while shelling other houses near by. What appears to be a scene from Dante's Inferno has engulfed the commercial hub of Syria. Businesses and homes alike are sacrificed to the mortars and artillery shells that rain from the sky day and night. Ramadan has no meaning for the terrified citizens who have remained trapped by ferocious fighting. And at the heart of all this sets one monster who refuses to leave.

The man who came first for the peaceful protesters in his nation's cities. The beast who then went after the innocent children of his countrymen. This is the creature that now threatens to level the city of Aleppo if only to save it from the rebels... his fellow Syrians.

On the other hand you have Hezbollah and Al-Quada trying to hijack what was supposed to be a movement for peace and democracy. The extremist who have found a new nation to plunder now threaten to make Aleppo Assad's grave. So now we must ask... for whom this grave now waits?

The resentment of Assad's excesses and the West's abandonment have fueled Syrian rebels to a fury Aleppo now bears. IEDs and RPGs now rule the roads of what was once a city. Damascus waits in line to be devoured next. Improvised weapons are being pitted against tanks and helicopters as the dogs of war claim the streets. The grave is being made ready.

Despite Assad's superior weapons one has to recall what the tyrant is up against. In Aleppo the Syrian Army can not send in tanks with the infantry escorts they require to operate effectively. IEDs (improvised explosive device) have made this impossible and sniper fire makes it suicidal. Instead Assad's tanks are being forced into narrow streets as RPGs (rocket propelled grenade) pick off the steel coffins one by one. Helicopter cover from overhead is threatened by small arms fire as they are forced to get in close to locate the guerrilla soldiers on the ground. It seems Assad's forces are being treated to the same threats United States soldiers faced in Iraq.

Syrian rebels have shown that they are willing to use suicide attacks in some cases if the reward is worth the cost in their eyes. In Damascus this was made evident when the rebels set of suicide bombs that are believed to have killed members of Assad's regime. These attacks even sent Assad into hiding for a couple days as the bombs continued to rock Damascus.

Back in the United Nations the world watches as the 2.5 million residents of Aleppo either flee or bunker down. France and other Western nations have already said that Aleppo has the potential to become the next Homs style massacre. This time around however if the regime wins the civilian death toll could be counted in the hundreds of thousands instead of just the hundreds. Innocent women and children will most likely be the number one targets of the Shabiha if Assad's regime can route the rebels.

In all wars it is expected that a small number of the dead will inevitably be noncombatants. Yet in Syria the number of innocent killed at this point outnumbers the number of combatants killed by far. To make things worse, Syria's government has targeted the nation's youth in a method of systematic slaughter not seen in modern times. This is expected only to continue if Assad can take Aleppo.

Along the border refugees escaping Assad's tyranny are harassed by border patrols. In several cases it has been verified that Syrian soldiers have shot the children of refugees while allowing the parents to escape. The motive for this is clear... the message is clear... the government of Syria wishes to demoralize and crush the spirits of anyone who opposes Assad. Fleeing the country is apparently considered treason instead of remaining loyal and waiting to die like all the rest.

I have made it clear in recent post that it is my opinion that Assad is acting like the male lion who has just taken on a new pride. He is roaming the landscape looking for the cubs of those who are now to be his oppressed slaves. And like the lion... Assad is slaughtering and devouring his nations youth. Taking from the pride any form of hope that might be left.

It is now my opinion that the children trapped in Aleppo are at more risk than they have been ever before. Not only is Assad shelling the city relentlessly but he is preparing his forces for a fight to the death. The loyal Shabiha are waiting to act as the SS did in Poland. They will come in behind the Syrian Army and "mop up" the "undesirables". Women and children will be used to make an example for all the rest. For the Shabiha they are easy targets for they cannot fight back. They will be tortured and then killed. Their bodies will be beaten even after they die to make them appear worse than just a bullet to the head. This is to be a grotesque mascaraed for the conqueror... Assad. 

Many of Aleppo's 200,000 citizens who have fled will come back only to find their homes and businesses burnt to the ground. For what remains of the 2.5 million citizens of Aleppo who did not flee... Assad's reconquista will be more like the Soviets invading Berlin than it will be a return to normality. The first hellish wave of soldiers and tanks will offer only death to those trapped in the crossfire. The Shabiha will offer a burial for those who survive.

The West grows tired of seeing images like this. They claim that the Battle for Aleppo will be a decisive victory for either side. And that the war will come to an end quickly after the fall of this city. The delusions with which the West operates however only offer more images like this one.

More children will be wounded or killed as a result of Western cowardice and ineptitude. The death toll for Syria's youth will only tick higher as Western leaders like Obama kneel down to lick Assad and Putin's boots. But more disturbing than this... all hope of democracy for the youth of Syria will die as a result of a callous world that has dared to turn its back on the most visible chapter of darkness in our history.

Nobody knows what will come of Aleppo. The darkness that has been creeping over the landscape for nearly 17 months now continues to grow. Its veil blocks the light and hides all signs of hope as it devours those it now ensnares. Once again I will... neigh, I must... ask, where will this dark night take us? When will this dark night end? And how many more must perish before the world decides to act?

Assam Burns Hotter

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Death Toll Ticks Upward
(Part of The Darkness Visible post)

I have tried to remain impartial while I watch as two communities fight to survive this horrible outbreak of violence in Assam. I have tried not to invest myself into another terrible conflict. But I can't in either case. My heart goes out to the vulnerable. My soul cries out for the oppressed. And in Assam I can not remain silent as the world covers its eyes once more.

Currently the Assam tragedy is a regional issue. India makes it appear as though they have everything under control. But the region is burning. The vulnerable minority in Assam, the Muslims, are being targeted. And yet the world tells us... "well they are fighting back so its partially their fault".

When did we start telling ourselves the victims of ethnic violence should go to slaughter like sheep? My ancestors didn't disappear into concentration camps like lambs waiting for the butcher. Bosnian Muslims didn't lay down wait for the axe to fall. So why should this latest victim put their heads upon the chopping block and wait for India to hack away?

I am under no illusions of India's capabilities when I state that if India's government wanted to restore order they could in a matter of days. Yet that is how the world wants to imagine it as we pretend that India is the backward hell hole Britain use to run into the ground. We seem willing to accept the Indian governments excuses for allowing the Bodo tribesmen to loot and burn Muslim villages.

I do not accept that the men like this one above are inept and incapable of stopping untrained mobs from attacking and killing unarmed civilians. That toy in his hand isn't a BB gun. It is loaded with the same ammunition used in Russian or Chinese rifles. And that shoot on sight order is supposed to give soldiers like this one the capability to enforce the curfew India set in place in Assam. Yet the world seems willing to ignore all of this while asking the Indian government why the killing is still going strong.

For me it is clear why a Hindu country is slow to act when its Muslim minority comes under attack. When Pakistan and India were divided into two separate nations the area along the border became a seemingly endless killing field. The blood poured on both sides with such hatred that no civilized army dared to step in to stop it. And it is that same grudge that continues to this day.

India is a nation surrounded by countries who do not practice Hinduism. The nuclear stalemate between it and its neighbor Pakistan shows how this division in religious beliefs floats beneath the surface. To add to this you have a porous border with Bangladesh and its Muslim population. India is surrounded by people its population doesn't seem to get along with.

So for those Muslims who live on "the wrong side of the border"... life is hard to say the least. For the Muslims in Assam life is getting hard to hold onto. The separatist groups (exp. the Bodo Liberation Tigers) in Assam want this minority population permanently expelled. They do not want to live in peace next to Bengali Muslims (ironically many of which are as much Indian in nationality as the Bodo themselves) any longer. This is a divide that must be recognized. And the violence that arises from it must be smashed with extreme force the very moment it occurs.

It is never acceptable to have women and children suffer the politics of a nation. Babies should never be born in refugee camps while their mothers fight to find food let alone medical attention. Children should never be forced to live in tents while their fathers remain missing in the fog of battle. This entire situation is headed to the same scale of tragedy that is occurring in Myanmar. And sadly, it shouldn't be happening at all.

Western government which have been helping India's economy boom should now be less worried about jobs being outsourced and more about the human cost of this drastic change in India's societies. With the changes of economic growth and social influences from the outside world the possibility of human rights violations grows. In Assam it is not clear how these factors affect the crisis. But it is clear that the Indian government is failing.

From Washington, London, Berlin, to Paris... the West needs to start upholding its promise of "Never Again" when it comes to the devastating effects of human rights violations. We can not wait for the Indian government to act. We need to spur the Indian government to act and to do so quickly.

No Good News...

...As the Darkness Spreads.
(Part of The Darkness Visible series)

Many Americans have never heard of India's state Assam. More Americans have no idea about why this state in India is important today. And yet the spread of darkness across the globe doesn't care what we know or what we think we know.

Ethnic violence has been growing in Assam for some time now. For about five days now the rioting in Assam has flared out of control. Bodo villagers in Assam have been reported to have sparked the riots when they killed four Bengali Muslims. The fighting really sparked when a fifth Bengali was found dead in a rice field just days later. The fact that Assam police refused to arrest anyone in connection to the killings didn't help at all.

Now the Bodo villagers are resorting to handmade weapons and are attacking Indian security forces. The local's aggression has put the death toll at 40 so far. To add to the problem, thousands of people have been either internally displaced as a result of the fighting forced back over into Bangladesh.

All of this can only be highlighted by the suffering of the most vulnerable portion of the population that is suffering once again. Children of Bengali immigrants (leaving suffering and persecution in Bangladesh) are now being forced to relive the nightmares that had brought them to Assam in the first place. As seen in the face of the child in the picture above, the suffering of these innocent victims can not be ignored.

As far as the actual fighting itself the world must take note that the fighting occurring in Assam mirrors that of what happened in Rwanda. Those who have died are already known to have been killed in hand to hand combat in which the attacker used a machete to disband the unarmed victim. This is a personal style fight. There is no way for an attacker to slaughter a victim in this manner without an incredible level of hatred being involved. This isn't as simple as shooting their victims. To use a machete you have to watch as your victim dies. All the while you are covered in their blood.

We must also understand that the region has long been home to the Bodo Liberation Tigers and their separatist goals. It is an area of India in which the ethnic tensions that sparked this outbreak have run beneath the surface for some time now. And it is a region of India in which this sort of conflict may become a regular occurrence. That is why India's Western allies should be acting now to help in any way they can to help end the fighting.

It is important for every country in the developed world not to just stop ethnic violence where and when it occurs but to also prevent it. We promised ourselves after the Holocaust that this sort of fighting would "Never Again" happen on our watch. Now we are watching as one of the world's fastest growing economies wrestles with its demons. And now we must ask ourselves... can we... will we uphold our promise of "Never Again"?










Sources Used (note not all sources are listed)

The Hindu
http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article3686491.ece

The National
http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/south-asia/police-shoot-rioters-as-ethnic-violence-in-indias-assam-continues

The Globe And Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/ethnic-violence-rages-in-northern-india/article4439651/

And We All Come Tumbling Down

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Syria's Downward Spiral Continues
(Part of The Darkness Visible series) 

As the two sides wave their flags and celebrate hollow victories the death toll rises. And with each tick upwards in those numbers comes the suffering for those who upon the war if forced... Syria's innocent... the children.

In recent days the battle for Damascus has grown so fierce that the innocent civilians trapped inside the city have nowhere to go. Government troops have been keeping the city on lock down while rebel forces send reinforcements into the area. Bombs continue to rip the heart of Syria apart while bullets fill the air like rain. Government shelling has been nonstop in civilian areas so as to draw rebels out into the open. While rebel bombs have been exploding in the Government's back yard.

Is there no chance for peace?

The answer once again this week seems to be no. The fighting in Syria has no end in sight. The burning of Damascus now threatens to engulf the region. And as a result has put the world on notice... yet nobody is listening.

Washington's ears perked this week when the Assad regime stated boldly that they were willing to use chemical weapons if the outside world intervened. To make things worse, nobody in the West seems to know just what weapons Syria has at its disposal. It is thought by many that Iraq's weapons (whatever they may have been) could have easily been transported across the border when American soldiers first appeared. And then there is the question of what kind of weapons Syria has developed on its own.

We do know that the classic chemicals such as mustard gas are probably readily available to Assad and his thugs. For the unprotected civilians and the Free Syrian Army, this one type of gas alone would spell disaster. All one has to do is think back to Saddam's use of such weapons on the Kurdish population in Iraq.

We can't wait for Assad to become desperate. Even worse we can not wait of terror groups like Hezbollah to get involved in this conflict. It is evident that groups like Hezbollah would simply transport the chemical weapons out of Syria and over to the Israeli border. And in a matter of days the Syrian disaster would become a regional war that could easily spread out of control.

If Israel were to be attacked with weapons obviously leaked out of Syria it would be a spark that could draw the United States back into the Middle East. Our armed forces would be sacrificed to a war that would at that point be out of control. And the fight would be characterized by its critics as "Zionist" despite obvious Islamist aggression.

All of this could be prevented from even being a possibility if the West had just simply ignored Russian interference and acted to end Assad's genocidal regime. We should not have to rely upon murderous countries like Russia, China, or Iran to stop this bloodshed. Instead the free societies of the West should put their principles of liberty and justice to practice and if necessary back these up with the use of force.

Instead we are stuck here... watching the inferno grow as Assad continues to slaughter his own people.

No Rest for the Weary

Quislings and the Roma

For longer than any living person can recall there have been Roma in Europe. They came westward before we had any idea what laid east of Jerusalem. And they have continued to live amongst Europeans for hundreds of years. Yet in Norway the Populist would like you to believe that these are eastern invaders. That they are taking everything you own while doing nothing to benefit the society they wish to destroy. 

These same socialist parties were around when Adolf Hitler took power to the south in Germany. They have been around before World War One and every since the unification of Germany. And not surprisingly these socialist ideologues have not changed their message in all these years. They still want to kill the Jews and Gypsies no matter how polite they are forced to sound in public today.

Norway is no exception. One fifth of Norwegians voted for the populist (socialist) Progress Party. The shift toward fascism has been going on in Norway for some time now. And their "tolerant" society is starting to show just how intolerant Norwegians have become.

And as with any shift toward the "right" the climate in Oslo has become far less hospitable for the Romani. Stories in Norwegian newspapers have stretched every supposed fact almost paper thin to try and link all Norwegian Roma to Romanian immigrants. The xenophobic attitude is only bolstered by the Progress Party leader Siv Jensen as she calls for all Norwegian Roma to be deported.

The facts however point to the issue that most Romani in Norway today have lived in Western Europe for generations. These are the same families that were persecuted by the Nazis and Quislings in Norway 70+ years ago. They are the same families who suffered forced sterilization by Norwegian law right up till the 1980s and some as late as the 1990s. Yet the Norwegian socialist point to a small minority amongst the minority and claim that all of the Roma are Eastern Europeans (thus new arrivals).

Now, just one year after claiming Norway would not change due to one right-wing gunman, the Roma are faced with the threat of expulsion. Many Roma who stand to be deported have never been East of the German-Polish border. They and their ancestors have called Norway home no matter how hard it has been to do so. Yet this is what "tolerance" is to them... the Progress Party.

Roma however are not alone. Norway's Islamaphobic right wing also wishes to expel any Muslims they can get their hands on to. This means that any "asylum seekers" in Oslo are under threat to be sent back to countries either currently hostile to them or in a state of civil war. Muslims in Norway who would not be sent back are constantly waiting for a French style "burka ban" in which they loose their freedom to observe their religion. (In France Muslim women caught wearing a headscarf of any type can be detained by police. Depending on the officer they could face a fine.)

All that is left now is for the world to wait and watch to see if Norway will revert back to its Quisling past. Nazism took barely two weeks to capture Oslo. This time around it may take longer.... but it is still pressing along as the radical right rears its ugly head once again.

Rewarding Evil

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Obama's Support Of Genocide

On July 11Th the Obama administration got what it has been pushing for as the United States began to lift restrictions on trade with Myanmar. Obama's White House has been pushing the country into bed with the ruthless dictatorship in Burma every since Obama took office. The irony of allowing our free society to fraternize with a country as cold and callous as Myanmar can not be overstated. And yet Obama wishes to play Mr Nice Guy with a government that currently committing genocide.

For over two months now the pogrom of the Rohingya people has been grinding along without mercy. The Burmese government has distributed machetes to the supposedly peaceful Buddhist Rakhine. Myanmar's military has played an active roll in hunting down the defenseless Rohingya and has committed countless massacres of innocent civilians. But all of this was to be expected in a place as hellish as Myanmar.

In recent post I have pointed out the blatant disregard Europe has shown when dealing with Aung San Suu Kyi as they pamper the murderer. It is disheartening to watch the supposedly liberal and humane West bowing to a genocidal regime. And yet here we are...

The 'Kalar' (the slur Burmese use for the Rahingya) are being killed without remorse. This is a push by the current Juntas to rid Myanmar of its most vulnerable minority. And the world is trying desperately not to notice.

These victims died in massacres without names. They were not given the respect one would give an animal being sent to butcher. They were simply killed for being "dark skinned" and of a different faith. So remind us again Hillary Clinton why we want to lift our embargo on Myanmar? How much gold and plunder is worth ignoring this?

Obama has offered his support once again to the wrong side of history. We are a nation who has to constantly ignore how we slaughtered entire races of men to take the Old West. We are a people who live on land stolen from those who got here first. And now we are a country who is willing to ignore the suffering of others if the price is right.

Myanmar has spent decades killing its own people. The Rohingya have suffered without the world even noticing or daring to take notice for as long as they have been alive. Now the world is getting smaller. The backyard killings of a tiny country such as Myanmar can no longer be ignored. They are on your television (when the media dares to talk about it). They are on your phone (when YouTube's cat videos ironically lead you to something more worth watching). They are on your computer (when Google fails to censor the unpleasant). And they are spreading across the globe.

Syria is burning. Myanmar is bleeding. And the West is slipping into bed with the people doing the killing. How long can we remain silent? How many more pictures and videos of these victims do you have to see? Its time you wake up and start to speak out. After all, it is much like that old poem goes...

First they came for Libya,
I was not Libyan so I said nothing.
Then they came for Syria,
CBS didn't tell me about it so I forgot.
Next they came for the Rohingya,
School didn't even teach me about Burma.
Now they come for Me.
And there isn't anyone left to speak up.

(I have posted that actual poem here so many times it doesn't take much scrolling down to find it.)