austraLasia #2406

Message of Compassion marks Cyclone Nargis anniversary

PATHEIN (Myanmar): 3rd May 2009 -- In the absence of any official government commemoration of the night of 2nd May 2008, when Cyclone Nargis swept 40 kms inland into the Irrawaddy Delta region of Myanmar's southern coast killing at least 138,000 people but perhaps as many as 150,000, religious leaders of Buddhist, Muslim and Christian Faiths gathered in Pathein to commemorate the event with an inter-religious prayer service.
    Archbishop Charles Bo sdb delivered a powerful message on compassion (all of which you can read in the 'Burma' collection on SDL), indicating of those who died that "we are painfully aware that they are not just numbers, they are fathers, mothers, husbands, wives and children to those who survived".
    The Archbishop reminded his listeners, who came from Buddhist and Muslim as well as Catholic faith backgrounds, that Compassion is one of the noble truths of Buddhism, and that of the attributes of God in the Islamic tradition ' the God who is merciful and compassionate' is one. And of course he spoke of the central role of compassion in the human being who lives by Christ's Beatitudes.
    The message retold a number of the gripping stories which came out of Nargis and which emphasised the religious message he was delivering.  "On that sad night last year, provoked by the colossal tragedy and inspired by our religious beliefs, we, the people of Myanmar, rose as a one family on the first week of Cyclone Nargis. Every one, the poor and the rich, even from the far off Myitkyina, rushed with whatever they had. Compassion broke even the walls of Jails. Some 50 Myanmar men locked inside the Thai Prisons rushed in with a gift of 120 US dollars – all that they managed to collect. Down the Phyapon river, the Buddhist monks were swimming across the violent waves to save Christian women while the Christian groups were reaching out to the Buddhist villages with emergency supplies. The Muslim brethren in Yangon organized one of the biggest emergency food supplies. The Hindu temples organized community meals. We were one, we were one family".
    He retold, too, stories of profound human suffering and courage. "Beyond Laputta in a village, as the waves were rising, a man was scrambling up the Coconut tree with his wife and children on one side and his own mother on the other side. After sometime, holding on to all became an ordeal to the man and he had to make a painful decision when his mother told him  'I am responsible for you, since I gave you life. But you are responsible for your wife and two children. Let me go and save them'. The man with great reluctance let his mother go. This is the height of compassion, the supreme sacrifice".
    The Aljazeera Agency's English service, while not commenting on the inter-faith service, devoted a lengthy item to the situation for many of the survivors today, noting that both the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies believe that more than 100,000 people are still living in tents and in need of permanent shelter. 

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Title: australasia 2406
Subject and key words: EAO Provinces MYM Nargis commemoration
Date (year): 2009
ID: 2000-2099|2406