i suppose, this is me helping them in my little way. but do go sign the petition. it's an outrage that such an atrocity is being committed, not in one, but two countries right in our backyard. i'm vilified, outraged, and stunned at this. it really makes you wonder, with such things happening, why is it that the world's media have ignored it for so long? how really, can ASEAN sit back and pretend nothing is happening. Shocking isn't it? that the big news companies of the world focus all their attention on Americans dying in Iraq when atrocities like this are being committed? i thought such genoicides, ethnic cleansings happend only in far-flung places like africa, i.e. Darfur, but it's happening right here in ASEAN. No wonder US Sec of State Condoleeza Rice decided to skip the ASEAN Regional Forum. DO SOMETHING! SOMEONE!

it's an outrage, really that innocent people are dying, killed for believing in something, for being different. it is the indomitable human ego that thinks that i am right and everyone else is wrong. How hitler is that? Now i read a considerable number of publications, Newsweek, Time, The Economist, Straits Times, online stuff... but i have never once come across an article written about the Hmong and Burmese refugees. Perhaps an article or two were published, but they sure didnt hog the headlines like Iraq did. Heck, i even watch Oprah and nothing was mentioned! (though im positive it's not her fault). Crazy that it turns out to be a group of civic-minded Singaporean students sending out mass emails over yahoogroups that made me know about this situation. Darfur is a terrible situation, and the recent news was that the UN and African Union will be sending peacekeeping troops there to try put an end to the genocide. I do hope some world leader speaks up for these people. C'mon Bush, Brown, Sarkozy, Merkel, Abe! Anybody! Hu Jintao, Roh Moh Hyun, Susilo Bambang Yudoyuno, Gloria Arroryo, Abdullah Badawi, Mr. Lee Hsien Loong SIR! Heck, Mahathir, even! whoever, do something, say something!

watching the video, i did feel like crying. especially when i saw the boy's intestines hanging out. i am ashamed to admit i originally thought this wasnt a real problem until the tears and heart-wrenching stories convinced me you cant fake anything like that. i was too shocked, too stunned to even feel anything. it was just...

i do feel that Refugees SG can do something, can make a difference. Last i checked, 96 people signed the petition. We need more! more!!! Asean recently created a human rights commision. but it would be unwise to rely on that since it is predicted that it would take an eternity to get one off the ground and up and running. Especially since Asean decides things on consensus among all its 10 member nations, inducting it into the Charter would be difficult considering Myanmmar's violent oppositions. Neverthless, i do hope that more people will speak out against this travesty and bring their situation to light.

i'll be meeting Ms Irene Ng (recently MADAM Irene Ng) on monday, and i have a good mind to bring this up to her, depending on the circumstances, of course. and i do believe that Singapore can do something, considering our economic and military powress in the region. and Singapore, as a constitutionally democratic and free state, should speak up on such an issue. Perhaps Bush might change his mind and decide to come to the Asean summit in Sept, than i do hope somebody tells him about it, if not, tell China, or the EU, or the UN. as long as somebody who can do something hears about it.

for now, what else can i do but spread the word?

My heart goes out to these unfortunate people, whose lives were destined to be hard and painful by mere virtue of their ethnicity. My prayers go out to these people as well. Jesus loves them, and he will save them.

"Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry." Exodus 22:22-23

Lord hear their cry, breathe life into these dry and thirsty souls.

Open the blind eyes, unlock the deaf ears,

come to your people, as we draw near.

Hear us from heaven, touch our generation

We are your people, crying out in desperation