Going Home - MEMO 2

Reflection: Of all the activities, there are a few that we think important to be evaluated so that we could learn from the strengths and weaknesses of our experience in order to better our future activities:

Meetings & Discussions and town-hall meetings with Various Groups

We met with the youth and students group based in Karenni camps 1 and 2, had a town-hall meeting with leaders of KNPP, and we also had a day long meeting and intensive discussion with leaders of Mutraw District/5^th Brigade of KNLA.

Most meetings we had were semi-formal and topics for discussions were picked by our participants to address the currently prevailing concerns over the situations. The issues ranged from what make national leaders to the increasing departure of our people for third countries and its psychological and practical impacts.

From these meetings and discussion with the youth, students, and our leaders, we learned that our people continue to live in various forms of fears and that any positive improvement of situation has been disproportionately small despite so many rapid activities going on along the Thai-Burma border as well in the international community. While we would very much like to be encouraging, we are aware that being able to assess the realities to the fullest extent possible is the only way we can move forward. Our discussions were often painful as we all had to swallow the bitter truth about deterioration in our revolutions – the highest calling to fight against dictatorship and ethnic chauvinism.

Nevertheless, we also found strengths in many of our remaining peoples and leaders whose courage and commitment to bring forth change continue to stand unwaveringly. Likewise, our people living in the active war-zone also continue to demonstrate their determination to retain our homeland at any cost even while many of us are far and away from that land.

Essentially, we found that there should be constant communications that aim to develop meaningful discussions, debates, and thereby better understanding of and cooperation among groups in different countries. We also found cohesiveness of ideas and orchestrated activities are imperative if we are to succeed as a people doing revolutions.