Beyond Rangoon

I just saw the movie "Beyond Rangoon ," about some conflict/massacre in Burma that went undocumented except by a few pictures a reporter risked his life to take. I saw a man trying to cross from Burma into Thailand, being shot in the middle of the river while running with his baby in his arms, and as he sank into the the water he handed the baby to the people around. His wife tried to get to him. You could see the blood flowing around him in the water. And he sank, and the people that had been running towards Thailand with him pulled his wife away and took her and his baby to safety.

At times I forget why I want to go to college, why I want to save the world. It's easy to live comfortably as I do, be bored. It so... incredibly easy. But it can't....

Watching this film, I was reminded by a short story by Ursula LeGuin, "The ones who walked away from Omelas." I want to be one of those who walk away from Omelas because if one of us looses, then we all do. And in Omelas, everyone is happy except for this one child, this one child that lives in absolute misery. And I'm thinking this is just one city, right? But it's actually a metaphor of our world. This perfect city which relies on one child being in agony, torture, hunger, just... mindless....whatever. Some walk away. Some, leave this city in which this has to be.

In this metaphor, Omelas is all those developed countries that rely on less developed countries that can't seem to get ahead. Omelas is the people that live comfortably, and when they see some one in poverty they think "Oh! How sad! Poor man, poor child. Thank goodness it's not me, it's not my child. I'd hate to be there," and they go on with their lives.

Posing this argument to friends they may say, "Well, you can't feel for every single one, it's not your pain," but this only conformity. I've read National Geographic for kids; there are elementary students that have felt for every single one and done things, built wells, raised funds. Where I am now, where I enjoy music, where I appreciate beauty -it's not that these things are wrong, it's not that I should appreciate these things I have- but I'm in Omelas right now. I want to walk away.

Always yours,

QueenNaxen