Kelly and Quang's Global Roam

I am shocked and horrified by the news from Myanmar. Last night, I spent a couple hours online watching news clips, reading current articles and searching for blogs on the issue. I watched a
CNN video about a man named Ko Htike.

Ko is Burmese but living in London. He is blogging furiously about the protests in Myanmar. Friends, family, strangers, journalists are emailing him photos, videos, messages about what is happening there around the clock and he is posting them to his blog.

I am extremely fascinated by this entire situation. Because I was in Myanmar a year ago, I keep searching the images of protesters in Yangon, trying to figure out if I can place where they are with where I was. I've dug out my maps, my photos, and tried to compare. It's shocking to realize I was right there. Right there. I walked that wide avenue. I walked around Sule Pagoda.

I am fascinated by the trail that technology is weaving. I can't believe how up-to-the minute some of these stories and photos are. I am impressed that images are getting out of the country. I am so overwhelmed by the bravery, courage and determination that the people of Myanmar are showing. So overwhelmed that my eyes well up with tears.

Protests aside, for these people to take pictures, to "smuggle" them out of the country by email, is a total act of courage that I don't think most of us in the West can understand.

We snap photos and send them out over the Internet so willy nilly. To friends, to family. Pictures of our dogs, our babies, our new cars, the gathering we had the other night.

The people of Myanmar are taking pictures of soldiers shooting, of their injuries, and emailing them to the world, hoping, hoping, and hoping that some of us will be affected, that some of us will help them, that some of us will be moved, stand up and say this is not right.

To find an Internet connection inside Myanmar, first of all, is daunting. The Internet was not easy to come by when I was there. And now news reports say that the military junta has cut off the Internet. The ruling powers have discovered that the people are getting out the real news and they want to shut it down. This is so scary to me.

If the ruling junta shuts off all communication to the outside world, what are the planning to do to their own people?

Look at these protest pictures closely. Some of protesters aren't even wearing any shoes. Others are wearing flip-flops.

Would you ever do that? Would you ever attend a massive outdoor protest in your country's biggest city against a trigger-happy military and do so wearing flimsy flip flops?

I pray for the people of Myanmar. They deserve freedom and peace and happiness and education and access to the Internet.

I wonder sometimes, just what it would take for Americans to ban together, care enough about one issue and rise up together.

After all, American do share something with the Burmese.

Their democratically elected president has been denied the presidency.

Hmmm. Sounds vaguely familiar.