Zipped Lips, Bloodshot Eyes
(part of The
Darkness Visible series)
Alders Ledge:
March 30,
2013
Every
since the end of the October massacres the few strong voices on Twitter and the
blog-a-sphere have warned us of the coming "third massacre". Hate
groups such as 969 in Myanmar have been feeding the fires that fuel the hate
for Muslims across Burma. This was the same sort of fuel that had sparked the
flames of the first two Rohingya pogroms. The religious fervor that they feed
upon has not been subdued or left to die as the Buddhist monks help prop it up.
And it was this basis that had led many of the Rohingya activist around the
world to fear the next wave of massacres.
Jamila
Hanan on Twitter (@JamilaHanan) spends countless hours warning her 8 thousand
plus followers of the both present and coming massacres. Yet the vast majority
of them remain silent or stuck in the world of retweets as the genocide goes
unabated. Their voices remain silent as the screams of the Rohingya people echo
out of the abyss Myanmar has created.
Apathy
kills.
Aung Aung
out of Sittwe, Burma (@AungAungsittwe on Twitter) is one of the few voices
coming out of Myanmar can only get 2.5 thousand followers? Is the voice of the
suffering not important enough to warrant some attention? Or is Justin Bieber's
36 million plus followers just too fixated upon an idol to be bothered with the
agony of their fellow man?
We may not
all be able to travel to Burma to help the few NGOs still delivering aid to the
Rohingya do their jobs. We may not all be able to gather the attention of
millions of online followers. But we all can take a few moments out of our busy
days to be human... to pay some attention to the plight of the most overlooked
people on the planet. Our few voices raised together can help those in the most
need. And yet our lips remain zipped.
I for one
have been watching the horrible news scroll pass on a daily basis. The lack of
help from others has left me jaded to the point of wondering what it would be
like if genocide started here in the US tomorrow. Perhaps if the Myanmar monks
used the phrase "nigger" instead of "kahlar" to describe
the Rohingya than perhaps the West would pay attention. Perhaps if the Rohingya
were not Muslim but rather Christians than US citizens might find them more
ready for their help. Or perhaps if the Rohingya were not wrongfully accused of
being "illegal immigrants" than perhaps conservatives could find it
in them to scream for the Rohingya.
Or perhaps
this post is just a result of my bloodshot eyes and jaded mind. Whatever the
case, the plight of the Rohingya people leaves me to ask just how much better a
world it would be if there were more people willing to scream?