Burma

Go the people of Burma! The fact that this time the revered monks in Burma started the protests will hopefully ensure something actually changes. Lots of blood will be shed in the process no doubt. Sitting here in Jakarta, watching snippets on television in the comfort of a luxurious air-conditioned apartment, I wish there was something I could do. Short of marching on the streets and getting shot, there’s nothing probably. The same old question keeps arising in the minds of people who really have no power to change anything. How can we keep living the way we do when so many people in the world have nothing and not even simple rights such as access to safe drinking water? We ordinary and insignificant people living in comfort are pathetic really, but it’s the people who do hold the power and have the influence and the money who are far worse. They could actually make a difference - but they don’t. They don’t even have a mindset, which considers or comprehends what it must mean to live in such a place and deal with the repressive, violent regime that controls the lives of people in Burma. They may pretend to care and pay lip service to what needs to be done, but when it comes to action, nothing will be done. It’s been a strange time in Jakarta this time for me. The visa application has not been done in the five days it took last time. I had a strange phone call on Wednesday about it with lots of questions from the woman at the Australian embassy. She seemed to be suggesting that a multiple entry visa was going to be more applicable to my needs but with them who knows what is going on. From past experience I have usually found from them that no news is usually bad news. Monday I will check the website again and see. Had two diamond rings stolen from me on Friday night but given what I’ve said above - it’s so unimportant that I should let it go. But I won’t. It deserves a separate blog sometime more appropriate.