We must not believe the many,
Who say that only free people ought to be educated,
But we should rather believe the philosophers
Who say that only the educated are free….. Epictetus.
SPDC forced entire villages from the ethnic areas to new places far away from their origins; but as there are no proper infra structure like roads, water supply and as most of the lands on which they are relocated are infertile, people used to run away from their relocated camps. But they could not go back to their original native villages lest they would be killed or raped or kidnapped as forced labourers for Burmese Army. And so, ultimately, they become displaced persons within or without the boundaries of the country.
Usually, refugees and migrants know and accept who they are. The hardships and numerous problems they had suffered in their old places are still fresh in their memory. They are willing to accept all the preconditions, restrictions, rules and regulations just to be allowed to stay in the new place, or a new country. They are glad to struggle and overcome all the hardships they encounter. But that alone is not enough.
We need to educate our refugee children, both abroad and internally, so that their future life-struggle would be more productive and less tiresome. The Brain can earn more than the Brawn. Skilled hands guided by education are more productive, can add more values to the finished products and can earn more.
We must educate our refugee children (abroad and at home, i.e. IDP) so that they would be relevant to this globalization era of borderless battle of Brains, where the fate and economic progress of a nation is decided by the efficiency, creativeness and competitiveness of its people, especially the skilled labourers and intelligent professionals.
Aristotle once remarked that the fate of empires depend on the education of the youth.
We may need to get more help from the developed countries, and the UN, UNDP, UNICEF etc., to educate our refugee children. And we also need our own volunteers to teach our refugee children. In fact, we all need to do more, at our best, for the future of our downtrodden refugee children.
Unfortunately for IDP children inside Burma, international humanitarian organizations’ efforts to help them are seen by SPDC as an interference in the internal affairs. The SPDC dare not give international organizations free access to IDPs in Burma because it will expose their atrocities and ethnic cleansing activities.
But there are some good news coming from Thai-Burma border region; the All Ethnic International Open University AEIOU Program in Chiang Mai is making the very First Graduation Ceremony, and we here congratulate the AEIOU Program’s success for such a great achievement for the future of the children of Burmese Diaspora.
source: http://www.tayzathuria.org.uk/bd/2007/5/06/e/soa.htm