When you have no choice but to save yourself, you, too, dear reader, will understand why when people have nothing left to lose they have no reason to obey.
We get as much tyranny as we tolerate.
Rise up, while you still can.
https://intercontinentalcry.org/indigenous-peoples-officially-launch-the-salween-peace-park/
From the story:
Last month, indigenous Karen communities, the Salween Peace Park Committee, and the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN) officially launched the Salween Peace Park in the Mutraw District of Myanmar’s Kayin State.
A three-day event in mid-December 2018 that featured traditional Karen ceremonies and performances was held to mark the ratification of Salween Peace Park’s charter, which was developed by Karen communities to embody their “aspirations for genuine peace and self-determination, environmental integrity and cultural preservation,” according to a statement.
The event also included a memorial service for indigenous leader and environmental activist Saw O Moo, a fierce advocate for the Salween Peace Park who was killed by members of the Myanmar military last year.
The Salween Peace Park is the result of several decades’-worth of grassroots efforts such as the establishment of community forests, the enforcement of fish conservation zones, and the demarcation of “Kaw,” or traditional indigenous lands.
The park initiative was spearheaded by local communities, Karen civil society groups, and Mutraw District leaders in order to protect these community-based efforts as well as “to demonstrate what truly good governance could be and provide a people-centered alternative to top-down, militarized development,” according to a brief on the Salween Peace Park Charter circulated by KESAN.
In particular, the park was created as an alternative to allowing the construction of hydroelectric dams and mining in the Salween River Basin.
“The Salween Peace Park initiative works for the purpose of bringing peace, freedom and security to the area,” Padoh Ten Der, chairman of Mutraw District, said in a statement.
“This is the land of Mutraw Indigenous Karen people.
To preserve and protect our existing ancestral land, environment and culture, we established the Salween Peace Park initiative.”
