In the last week, Buddhist nuns, who in Burma are called Keepers of Virtue, amongst other honored
titles, shyly left their shelters and joined with Buddhist monks to protest Senior General Than Schwe’s policies that have purposely bankrupted Burma so he could float in diamonds and rubies while the people drowned in poverty.
My correspondent relays that there is nary a nun to be seen anywhere. The fears are high that something very bad has taken place and is being hidden by Than Schwe.
And Senior General Than Schwe? just this… if You in any way allowed, encouraged or did not stop the violation, physically or sexually, of even one of these innocent nuns… you’ve committed public almacide,* murder of your own soul in broad daylight before the entire world.
There are over 30,000 Buddhist nuns in Burma. 30,000 faces, General, show them all to us, show us all Burma’s holy women in good health and whole.
As you say you are fair and just, then please show us just how fair, just how just you are, by showing us the true faces of fairness and justice, by bringing before us on camera live, Burma’s 30,000 Feminine Faces of the Gentle and the Just.
We’ll wait. But, not forever, General, for we are imperfectly perfect holy people. We are not as evolved in patience as the holy people of Burma. Thus, we will wait for you to produce the living nuns, monks and novice child monks to prove they are all alive and well.
We’ll wait, General, but only for the moment.
You may not be conversant with an ancient holy writing that speaks of the irrevocable future of despots; The following passage comes true as often as the saffron sun rises: In recent times, it came true in Nazi Germany, in Soviet Union Poland, in Soviet Union Hungary, in Saddam’s Iraq, in Mussolini’s homeland, in Ceausescu’s Romania… wherever a diseased leader leaks his sickness into the mettle of his military:
The meek shall inherit the earth… wait a bit meek people, and it shall come to pass… that the one who showed the gnashing teeth, the one who turned the sword against the poor… the Lord laughs at the wicked, for He sees that the wicked one’s day is coming. The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose way is upright. But, the wicked ones’ swords shall enter their own wicked hearts, and their bows shall be broken.
We’ll wait Senior General, but only for a little while.
for other stories on Burma by Estés: http://themoderatevoice.com/author/clarissa
* almacide, a word I coined long ago, for I could not find an apt word in English for ‘murder of one’s own soul.’