When I was a freshman in high school, I was very young at Age 14 🌱☀️😊 and I was enrolled in Mountain View High School 🏫🎒, and our World Studies classes had an end of school year Country Report project.....All the other freshman World Studies classes had been taken by their teachers earlier and picked the more popular and well-known countries on the list by the time my World Studies class led by my teacher Mr. Art Mori took us to pick the countries that had not already been chosen.....I chose the nation of Myanmar (which earlier had been known as Burma). If I had the full list of countries to choose from I still remember I wanted to choose a country in Europe or some cool advanced country which seemed more interesting and cool. Though I found Myanmnar interesting too and I respected its history and Buddhist traditions. All of us freshman year students had to prepare a formal written report and a class presentation on the nation we had chosen. I remember putting a significant amount of time and effort in preparing both the formal report and class presentation, I asked my parents to drop me off several times to the Mountain View Public Library for the specific task of researching books on the nation of Myanmar. I felt stress and pressure to be preparing such a big project at this age and stage, I remember I was probably sweating while researching all those books in the Mountain View Public Library because I felt such stress and pressure...LOL...😂 but I remember I got the report in and I performed the class presentation competently enough, though I do not remember my exact grade it was likely a solid B not sure though and I long ago now lost the original report with graded comments, as it was never preserved long-term and was I remember among many of all my Mountain View High School papers Thrown Away by my mother when I was in my Twenties. 😣😅 In my report and class presenation, I remember I made sure to highlight the story of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her prosecution by the military dictatorship in Burma. Last year there was an uprising of the Burmese monks and civilians against the corrupt military junta in control of the country. It's a disgrace that a pro-democracy leader such as Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for decades and is being prosecuted for simply allowing an American to visit her house. I believe sometimes military action is necessary, and having a coalition of world forces enter Myanmar and set up a democratic government is in my view a good thing. The population wants it and it is the right thing to do. But right now the US and Britain are focused on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These are wars of choice against a population that generally does not want to be occupied by foreign forces.
In more recent years, I have read that Myanmar democracy leader Auung San Suu Kyi has been criticized by human rights groups and international monitors for reportedly prosecuting Muslim minority groups in Myanmar. I have not studied that issue in full detail. However, I will say that if such reports are true then I would certainly agree that such actions are wrong and immoral. Having a demoractic nation over a nation ruled by a military dictatorship does not mean it will be a society free from any problems. However, a democratic nation should mean also that groups which the majority disagree or find differences in should be able to live in peace and non-violence and in a democratic nation there needs to be respect for the rule of law and the rights of others. So I hope that any kind of prosecution and abuse or violence towards Muslim minority groups or any other minority groups in Myanmar does not continue in the future.
Edited on July 28th, 2024 by the author, Simeet Gandhi
