Unplayed Piano

I was going to start this post by claiming 'we are all Burmese now' and that anybody who believes in human rights and democracy should be supporting the protesters in Burma. But I promise I'll try to avoid such cliches...

The simple fact of the matter is, thankfully, it is very unlikely we will ever be able to fully understand the situation in Burma. In the United Kingdom and the United States, we have reasonably free elections, due process, freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, freedom of thought and the right to blog about most things. These are the same rights being called for in Burma today.

As the Burmese monks and nuns march through the streets of their cities, they are being supported by democracy-loving citizens who long to see their elected leader, Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Ky, restored to power.

It was reported in the media today that the military dictators of Burma have already murdered, at the very least, one monk. Given their past record they are unlikely to stop there.

We can encourage our democratically elected leaders to support the Burmese call for democracy and ask them to maintain this conviction despite the resistance of China, Russia and India. We can sustain this pressure on our governments by supporting groups like the Burma Coalition and the Burma Campaign.
 

Unplayed Piano (Chris Lord-Alge Mix)

Damien Rice

2 comments

Okay, where is the music?

On June 20th 2005 Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan released "Unplayed Piano' to celebrate the birthday of Aung San Suu Ky. It is a harrowing yet beautiful song about Suu Ky's captivity. It was written in July 2004 after a visit by Rice.

Suu Ky is an amazing international figure, who takes inspiration from Martin Luther King and other similar characters. In total, she has spent nearly 11 years in captivity because she believes in a democratic Burma. I wonder how many elected leaders around the world would make the same sacrifice for their people. This song is a fitting tribute and I hope you enjoy it.

For more information on Burma see above links. Thank you for your time. 

As an aside, fans of Lisa Hannigan must pay a visit to her myspace page where they will find four downloadable songs.

 September 26, 2007 09:25 PM  Ryan my♥posts Free Burma

vu wrote: Sep 26, 2007 6:27 PM

Four killed in Myanmar protest crackdown

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This is pretty horrible. Four monks are already murdered, and there's tons of report about the mistreatment of the protesters.

It's grown to 100,000 marchers and the largest demonstration in over 19 years.  What it really boils down to is that the government is not looking good the way they are handling the situation: with brute force and an iron fist.