do something today for Burma

Go here and sign this now if you care about the disaster in Burma. Even if you sort of care or are too numb by other world disasters, please take a minute to sign the petition HERE at Avaaz.org and tell your friends.

Brion from New Zealand wrote to me about this and provided the link to Avaaz and the opportunity for action. Thank you, Brion. Doing something is better than doing nothing and one of the awful things about this whole ugly mess is feeling so helpless while our world governments could help, but won't.

If you have a blog or an email list, please pass it on. Sometime soon (I hope), when this nightmare in Burma hasn't got me so distressed, I will tell you all the so-funny-I-wet myself story Brion told me via email. It was the best laugh I've had in months and months. Sign. Please.

monks massacred, thousands dead

My heart is broken. The heartache is fueled by the memory of the monks' statement when they began this effort in Myanmar. They believed they would be safe and could march for the people, because their country had such respect for them.

A military intelligence officer:

I decided to desert when I was ordered to raid two monasteries and force several hundred monks on to trucks.

They were to be killed and their bodies dumped deep inside the jungle. I refused to participate in this," he said.

Dissidents hiding along the Burma border said thousands of monks had been locked up and were being beaten inside blood-stained temples.

The International Herald Tribune blames India for a disgraceful failure to act. India responds by saying it is an "internal matter," noting that India has a good [business] relationship with the military junta in Burma. The Canadian Globe & Mail reports fewer deaths, but notes that there is little good information coming out of Burma:

Shari Villarosa, the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar, noted her staff had visited up to 15 monasteries around Rangoon and every single one was empty.

She put the number of arrested demonstrators, monks and civilians in the thousands.

"I know the monks are not in their monasteries," she said. "Where are they? How many are dead? How many are arrested?"

The monks' strategy seems to be based on a faith that the world will take action against the regime that showed its brutality in the crackdown last week. But early signs suggest that the junta will escape any serious consequences from key neighbouring states.