8/3/2023

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            Have you seen the photos of the unveiling of the Maravijaya Buddha in Naypyidaw, Burma? No one is fooled, except perhaps the generals themselves, into thinking that the 63-foot-tall statue, sitting atop an 18-foot-tall throne, means that the military are devout. I read on the RFA website that Waryama, an anti-junta Buddhist monk, said “generations of tyrants & dictators in our country build these temples & pagodas to cover up their atrocities & killing of the people… [it’s like] hiding a dead elephant with the skin of a goat.” I’d rather see the junta building Buddhas than buying bombs, so I am not complaining.

            The latest coup in Niger reminds me of Burma, where the military has gone amok seeding fear. In Niger’s case, the junta has US weapons that we’ve been supplying to them since 2012 with a provision of $500 million in military aid. When will we learn that WINTA & that tools of violence often end up being used in unintended ways. Next time let’s send that money to provide women with the means to control their reproduction.

            Since half the Niger population is under 14-years old & only 35% of the adults are literate, many are vulnerable to propaganda, so I worry that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rhetoric welcoming the military takeover as a “fight against the colonizers” is compelling to those who do not realize that Russia could be accused of being the “colonizers” of the new millennium.

            Let’s use our best atrocity prevention tactics in both Burma & Niger & every other vulnerable place in this world.

            I have to hurry off to meditate so must stop,

            Enjoy your vacay,

            BYBS,