Flowers for Aung San Suu Kyi

With Aung San Suu Kyi visiting the UK this month, along with other parts of Europe. Peace routes highly recommends watching the film 'the Lady', 'based on the incredible true story of pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi'. In Burma she was known as 'The Lady' because it was dangerous to even mention her name. The film is available from the library.

Last years news

Aung San Suu Kyi urges care as world reaches out to Burma

Frank Jordans

Thursday, 14 June 2012

Foreign investment must help — not hurt — Burma's goal of moving toward full democracy, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said today as she welcomed efforts to reach out to her country as it emerges from decades of isolation under military rule.

The Nobel peace laureate said the exploitation of Burma's oil and gas riches was a particularly sensitive area and recent deals between the government and China are shrouded in secrecy. Western companies, too, have been eager to invest in the south-east Asian nation as the sanctions it faced under military rule are gradually lifted.

"Any new investment that comes in because of the lifting or suspension of sanctions should add to the democratic process rather than subtract from it," Suu Kyi told reporters in Geneva, a day after landing in the Swiss city on her first visit to Europe in 24 years.

"I would like to see a sound, effective energy policy in Burma and this should be related to the kind of extractive investments that we invite in," she said.

Suu Kyi's two-week visit to Europe began in Geneva with a speech today to the annual meeting of the International Labour Organisation, whose campaign against slavery and child labour in Burma drew constant attention to the junta's exploitation of its people.

The ILO decided yesterday to reward Burma for reforms undertaken so far, lifting restrictions on its participation in the organisation's work that had been in place since 1999.

From Switzerland, Suu Kyi flies to Oslo, where on Saturday she will make a belated acceptance speech and accept the Nobel Peace Prize that was awarded to her 21 years earlier while she was detained by the military after leading a pro-democracy party to victory in Burma's 1990 election.

Asked by The Associated Press whether she could forgive the junta for ignoring the outcome of those elections and keeping her under house arrest for 15 of the next 22 years, the woman who is seen as an icon of the democracy movement took the high road.

"In some ways I don't think they really did anything to me," she said. "I do not think I have anything to forgive them for."
AP

Best wishes to Suu Kyi for her birthday on 19th June.

  

May mandala in June!

                                    Another one thousand peace crane mandala

Tent of Nations

A recent report from Palestine told of 'settlers' torching a 1,000 year old olive tree. Imagine what this tree has lived through in 1,000 years. Holding a fossil can feel incredible, being so ancient, and fossils aren't living things, yet this olive tree, was a living thing, it may even have still been producing olives! Such ancient trees often inspire wonder and reverence. There is something tragic about the 'settlers' who didn't feel the same reverence for the tree.To not 'feel' for the tree, the land, or the people that cared for the tree, shows a  loss of sensitivity as a human being to others suffering. May this loss be transformed into awareness and compassion.

   

Tent of Nations: A Role Model for Self-Sustainability.

Tuesday May 29, 2012 11:38 by Sarah Snobar - IMEMC & agencies

The Tent of Nations, situated outside of Bethlehem, has become a symbol of self-sufficiency and self-sustainability for Palestine as the Nassar family fights for the land it has owned for nearly a century.

The Nassar family has been fighting for the right to keep their land since 1991, when it was threatened with confiscation. Legal battles have been the norm ever since and more recently a demolition order was posted on the May 21, 2012 but the family and their lawyers were quick to appeal the decision the following morning.

The Tent of Nations was established in 2000 and a portion of the land was given by the Nassar family to the Tent of Nations project so locals and internationals would have a place to ‘build bridges of understanding, reconciliation, and peace on a broad base.’

Due to the threat of demolition the family cannot build permanent structures on the land, and therefore the family and volunteers live in temporary structures such as tents and caves.

The Nassar family and the volunteers of the Tent of Nations live off of profits from Daher’s vineyard, the family’s farm which covers around 100 acres where olives, wheat, grapes and much more are grown. An order to stop cultivation was also part of the demolition order of May 2012.

Those living on the land have developed a system of self-sufficiency for water and electricity as the farm has never had access to either. Rainwater and solar power are their main sources for water and electricity.

Daoud Nassar calls on Palestinians to learn to be self-sufficient as a non violent approach to resisting the occupation. He also believes that donations only weaken Palestine by making it dependent on others.

Many volunteers have gathered at the Tent of Nations to help maintain and cultivate the land as Israel uses the justification that any land that is not being maintained and cultivated can be confiscated.

bethlehem | non-violent action | human interest news at imemc dot org

Related Link(s): http://www.tentofnations.org/