Imagine a long road lined with spectators. For as far as the eye can see, fill the road with 20,000 monks and nuns in saffron robes, walking, quietly asking for compassion from the military junta of Burma. The further they walk, the more spectators join them. Eventually the crowd is at least 100,000 strong.

In Burma (also known as Myanmar) there are 100’s of thousands of people in the streets as you read this. They have been led there by the actions of peaceful monks protesting the military junta that has held Burma in its repressive stronghold since 1969. Protests have come and gone in Burma since then. Uprisings began again in August this year and slowly diminished. But 20,000 Buddhist monks and nuns stepped in during mid September and began to walk, to walk and protest a regime which has become known for corruption, sexual slave trading, and humanitarian abuses on every level.

And the military has started killing the monks. Eleven are reported dead, plus a Japanese photojournalist who was shot while filming. This site has some amazing photos and video. This site also has Jim Cary speaking out in support of the imprisoned Burmese activist woman, Aung Yang Suu Kyi, the only Nobel Prize winner to ever be imprisoned.

Richard Bacon posts email from a Christian missionary in Burma who got this report out before the internet access out of Burma was closed down by the military. He also speaks of spies., and having to hold Christian worship in secret.

The Buddhist monks continued doing demonstration every day. In spite of the political situation it was heavily raining every day and so we didn't get out from home for five days. The Buddhist Association of Myanmar announced that today at noon the monks will lead demonstrations in every town and the community will follow them. When they did a demonstration many women hold their hands one another and guarded the monks from disturbance by the military force…
The monks, who took over a faltering protest movement from political activists, already had managed to bring people into the streets in numbers not seen since the 1988 pro-democracy uprising snuffed out by the army at a cost of thousands of lives.

Soldiers are very concerned that news not leak out., This source says that people are being inspected by soldiers for cameras and cell phones.

ABC news said “In Myanmar, there is a law that says that if you have a camera, a computer or a satellite disk without a license you can be jailed for seven years. And most of the people that are doing those things now, they [have] already spent years in jail, Despite this risk, they are doing it."

Whistle and Fish says

With sudden silence from Myanmar, as the military junta has cut access to cell phone use and the Internet, media are getting creative keeping the story before the public consciousness. A number of venues, but most notably National Geographic, the MIT Technology Review, and Reuters, are pointing to satellite images as documentation of ethnic cleansing, forced relocations and other human rights abuses. High-resolution photographs taken by commercial satellites show a growing military presence in 25 sites across eastern Myanmar, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
AAAS researcher Lars Bromley told Reuters in an interview, “We found evidence of 18 villages that essentially disappeared. We got reporting in late April that a set of villages in Karen state had been burned. We were actually able to identify burn scars on the ground—square-shaped burn scars the size of houses.”
BBC News has turned to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, for its lead. Mr. Brown says he believes loss of life in Burma is “far greater” than has been reported by the junta. After holding talks with U.S. President George W. Bush and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabo, he said he hoped combined international pressure from the United States, China, the European Union and the United Nations would “begin to make the regime see this cannot continue.”
Britain’s Daily Mail says the death toll in Myanmar is “at least 200,” a far cry from the ten deaths the government says have occurred. But the most grisly line in their story is this: “Last night there were rumours that the military was preparing to parade the bodies of dead marchers in the streets or on television as a warning to the demonstrators.”

Wikipedia tells us this alarming fact about the military:

The Junta has reportedly ordered some monk's robes from a factory, and have told army units to shave their heads. This could be a sign that they are preparing to use their old tactics of infiltrating the monks and framing them by causing violence.

To keep up with the news, you may want to read Human Rights Watch

I have a friend, now living in Australia, who was raised in New Zealand after her family fled Burma during the 1969 coup. Her father was a political prisoner for some years. Her aunties take care of a group of Buddhist monks in New Zealand. My friend will be here to visit in early October. Right now she is traveling through Europe with her daughter. I cannot help but worry for her and for what she must be feeling as a Buddhist from Burma. Knowing her makes this story s deeply personal one for me.

I remember her talking about the role of the monk in Burmese culture, and how the monks are involved in the everyday lives of the villages, familiar spiritual leaders to all -- not lofty clerics at all.

I am surprised by how few women are blogging about it. There are three women already referenced in recent articles from our own Erin Kotecki Vest here, and here.

Then I wonder, as an American. so many miles from what is the largest country in S E Asia, if I didn’t know my friend, Wynsome, would I be writing about Burma today? If I hadn’t seen the fire in her eyes when someone called it “Myanmar” and she swiftly corrected them -- would I be calling it "Burma"?

Horribly cruel things happen every day in countries all over the world, including our own. Our souls can barely keep up. But we must. The citizen on the streets of Rangoon is not different from us. She worries about her family, struggles to make a life – just as we do, although her obstacles may be different, her heart is not. That is why we all gather at BlogHer, because we know that we are connected. And because we understand in our hearts that what happens to one, impacts us all.

With the government closing down internet and cell phone communication out of the country, our usual sources of information have fallen silent. There are rumors of bodies lining streets. There are stories of many monks being locked in their monasteries.

But there are no stories that what is being called the “Saffrom Revolution” is about to stop.

Please, remember the Burmese people in your prayers and meditations. Speak of what is happening there to other people. Be the voice of news that the military is trying to silence.

Please post any blogs that you may find to be helpful about this topic here.

--Mata H also blogs at Time's Fool", her personal slice of life.