I have never been to Burma. The closest place I have been to is Cambodia. It was during a trip I made November of last year for a photo seminar.
In the Philippines, we see monks as secluded people whom we rarely speak to. There is also a very small community of monks given that the Philippines is a Catholic country. But it was different in Cambodia. And I was oh so happy to have met and made friends with the monks of Siem Reap. They were even kind enough to let me inside their quarters.
The monks are given the highest form of respect in Cambodia. And I think this is the same case in many Buddhist countries in Asia. They live a simple life yet I saw happiness and contentment in their eyes. Thus I don’t get it when the so-called leaders of Myanmar started to disperse peaceful gatherings of the monks in the streets of Yangon. Some military officials even ordered to secure and even detain the monks inside their very own temples.
I don’t know about you but one wrong move by General Than Shwe, Myanmar’s top military leader and the head of the SPDC (State Peace and Development Council), and his subordinates and we might see another People Power.
