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An Interview With the Founder and Director of the Free Burma Rangers
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This week, we present our interview with the founder and Director of the Free Burma Rangers. In all of our recorded media this week, we are not going to use the name of our guest in Episode 13 of the Westside Café for several reasons. |
The first is that in order to do their work, the Free Burma Rangers are always in tenuous diplomatic positions in the countries in which they work. It is sensitive and dangerous work in parts of the world with governments not friendly to what they do.
The second reason is far more illustrative of the character of our guest. He is a modest and self-effacing man who genuinely feels that the true heroes of this story are the relief teams of the Free Burma Rangers and the beleaguered people they serve. He feels any attention given him is far better focused on those he serves with and those his organization serves. A true servant’s heart.
Many other writers and reporters also don’t use his name. Our guest is often referred to in print as “Tha-U-Wa-A-Pa” which in Karen means “The Father of the White Monkey.” Like many fathers of gregarious children, our guest nicknamed his daughter “White Monkey” and, in the custom of the Karen people, he became “The Father of the White Monkey.”
In his book “A Land without Evil,” Benedict Rogers adds:
“He later discovered that the Karen had a legend that claims when the people are oppressed, a white monkey will come and help them, so the name had a deeper significance.”
To quote from the September, 2008 article in the Atlantic, “Lifting the Bamboo Curtain” by Robert Kaplan:
"In 1997, after (a) trip inside Burma, he started the Free Burma Rangers, a relief group that has launched more than 300 humanitarian missions and has 43 small medical teams among the Karens, Karennis, Shans, Chins, Kachins, and Arakanese—across the parts of highland Burma that embrace on three sides the central Irrawaddy River valley, home to the majority Burmans. As he told it, the Free Burma Rangers is an unusual nongovernmental organization. “We stand with the villagers; we’re not above them. If they don’t run from the government troops, we don’t either … There is a higher moral obligation to intervene on the side of good, since silence is a form of consent."
Central-Produced Media About the Free Burma Rangers
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Episode 13 of the Westside Cafe - "Perfect Love, Interview with Director of Free Burma Rangers" We often talk about the Bible being "the living Word" and here, just as we are finishing Daniel 2 in our study of the Book of Daniel, a living example of how oppressed people under brutal political rulers respond with love and compassion walks into our church and sits down to talk. You don't want to miss this special episode! Click here for the media page for this episode. All of our Westside Cafe episodes are also available on iTunes. Subscribe to our free Westside Cafe podcast by clicking on the icon below.
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Sunday's Sermon Click here for the media page for the May 24th Sunday message. All of our Sunday sermons are also available on iTunes. Subscribe to our free Sermon podcast by clicking on the icon below.
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The Free Burma Rangers
From their Facebook Causes page:
The Free Burma Rangers (FBR) is a multi-ethnic humanitarian service movement. They bring help, hope and love to people in the war zones of Burma. Ethnic pro-democracy groups send teams to be trained, supplied and sent into the areas under attack to provide emergency medical care, shelter, food, clothing and human rights documentation. The teams also operate a communication and information network inside Burma that provides real time information from areas under attack. Together with other groups, the teams work to serve people in need.
The teams are to avoid contact with the Burma Army but cannot run if the people cannot run.
Men and women of many ethnic groups and religions are part of the FBR.
There are only three requirements for team members;
1. Love- Each person strives to do this for the love of the people and no one is paid. They still belong to their parent organizations.
2. Ability to read and write- due to the medical, documentation and other skills needed, literacy in at least one language is required.
3. Physical and moral courage- they have to have the physical strength and endurance to be able to walk to crisis areas, and the moral courage to be with people under attack and to stand with them if they cannot flee.
In addition to relief and reporting, other results of the teams' actions are the development of leadership capacity, civil society and the strengthening of inter-ethnic unity.
The FBR has trained over 90 multi-ethnic relief teams and there are 25 full time teams active in the Karen, Karenni, Shan, Arakan and Lahu areas of Burma. The teams have conducted over 300 humanitarian missions of 1-2 months into the war zones of Burma. On average between 1,000-2,000 patients are treated per mission with 2,000 more people helped in some way. Since 1997, the teams have treated over 350,000 patients and helped over 700,000 people.
What To Learn More or Make a Contribution?
To learn more about the Free Burma Rangers or make a conribution to support their work, please visit their website at http://www.freeburmarangers.org/
Report: A Campaign of Brutality
Click here to download a PDF copy of "A Campaign of Brutality," a report and analysis of Burma Army offensives and ongoing attacks against the people of Northern Karen State, Eastern Burma. From the Free Burma Rangers.
Background on the Work of the Free Burma Rangers
The following videos are embedded here but served directly from YouTube. These videos will provide insight into the humanitarian- and medical-relief work performed by the Free Burma Rangers.
Please note that some of the imagery in these videos are graphic and disturbing.
Video: "Steps to Freedom"
Video: "Fear and Hope"
Video: "In Hiding"
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Daniel 1:17 - 2:24
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