from Living in Fear towards Living Without Fear

People of Burma are living in fear of a group of people who are fear of anything and everything. Fear is the basic structure of Burma, and unfortunately, fear is also the basic block of the traditional element of culture which the previous generations had mistakenly applied (or some would say systematically manipulated by General Ne Win) to their unfortunate children in a wrong way. I have heard so many times of "Don't ask why", "Don't talk back", "Don't go take a look, stay away from trouble, no matter what", "Don't get involved", "Don't ----", "Don't ---", etc, etc. Culturally, physical punishment is considered as a good disciplinary for the children. Not only almost all children are being spanked harshly at some time by their parents, but the parents do also go and suggest the head figures of the community such as teachers, elder aunts and uncles and neighbors that to spank/hit their children if any inappropriate behaviour has ever come across in front of them. Most children are raised up in fear of who would say what and getting used to taking anything they were told to without speaking up for themselves. Traditionally, elders (authority figures) are always right and even when they do get caught being wrong, apology is rarely granted to the younger one. If we let our children live without fear, if we start teaching the children to stand up for the right thing, and if we start respecting our children for their opinions and their choices, may be --- may be --- someday in some way, younger generations of Burma will be living without fear, coming together and start deciding to take actions on choosing the kind of life that they have ever wanted.

the image is from www.ksuccess.com/post-images/fear-turtle.gif