An appeal to Burmese intellectuals;

[nin@xxxxxx]

Subject: An appeal to Burmese intellectuals; missing words are filled

I saw few words missing in the previous posting. Please do accept this
corrected version.
 ........................................................................................
Subject: FOOD FOR THOUGHT; an appeal to Burmese intellectuals


	Dear ALL,

	Let me express my thoughts in a written form with the hope
	that it would in turn serve as food for your thought. 
	
	I am thinking about two items as follows:
	#1. What is the difference between refugees and
		idp(internally displaced persons)
	#2. What is the difference between humanitarian refugees 
		and academic refugees
	
	For item #1, I donot see any difference between refugees and idp in general. 
	The total amount of suffering is the same under the different headings. The 
	later can be named as "slow genocide". The point I would like to make here 
	is not that which one suffer less but that who can help whom. Can refugees 
	help idp or can idp help refugees? 
	No, no way. As a Burmese saying goes, this is the case which
	"Southern-King can't be helped by the Northern-King".
	"Taung-min-go-myaut-min-ma-cae-naing"

	For item #2, I can see a bit of hope that later can help the
	former. Yes, indeed. Academic refugees can be the great help for the 
	humanitarian refugees. No, not money wise. I know that almost all the 
	academics who fled the country are either unemployed or under-employed except 
	for the few percentage. Even if all the academic refugees are very wealthy and 
	quite willing to help refugees in terms of financial assistance it would not 
	be a successful solution. It will only worn out the resources until and unless 
	the cause that forced people to flee is prevented. Let me quote, "The best 
	solution of the refugee problem was the prevention of the causes that forced 
	people to flee" said (Asda Jayanama, Thailand) (source:UN Third committee 
	conclude debate on refugee issues).

	Therefore the question here and now is, "How can Burmese academic 
	refugees (this term is used because they fled the country for academic
	survival) help those Burmese humanitarian refugees? in what way?"
	
	There are many ways:
	(1) by the selective service, not working directly or indirectly with
	    undemocratic government(s) 
	(2) not to be instrumental for those who formulate, benefit and
	    implement the opressive and undemocratic policies
	(3) not to be called as academic white washers, we can live up
	    with our ethical codes
	(4) give the free time to read the current developments on
	    the democracy movement of Burma
	(5) squeeze your talents to get ideas how can you stop this
	    deterioration in Burma in your own way, with your own style
	    Note: one person can make a difference!!!
	(6) be instrumental for the people who are less fortunate than you
	    at least in power of thoughts at most in every way
	(7) collective actions could be an effective way to work together
	(8)...
	(9)...
	(10)...
	(11)...

	....

	????
	.....
	Could you please fill in the blanks?
	If you do not want to answer this call publicly, please send
	direct e-mail to my account.
	
	
	Thanks for your time and for reading it.
	With metta and solidarity,
	NiNi