Suffering | El-Branden Brazil

Posts tagged ‘Suffering’

Changing Our Ways

I just scrolled through all my posts on Facebook the past few days, and I felt sad. There is so much unnecessary cruelty in the world. I try my best to bring awareness, so that people with voices will speak out. We all have to speak out! Enough violence! Enough abuse of the planet! Enough greed! Enough hate! Enough war! Enough prejudice! Enough! Enough! Enough!

Unless you have been anaesthetised, I think we all share in a very palpable fear that we, as humans, have not made the best decisions for our future. There is both an equal amount of frustration, apathy and confusion that is clouding us from making the bold decisions that we need to make, to bring a future suitable for our grandchildren. There is no time to lose, and we need to be firm in our commitment to each other, regardless of creed, to build bridges between those we feel do not understand us. We must be self-aware and see our own mistakes equally to the mistakes we see in others. We must all accept that we are flawed, but there is always another sunrise upon which to build an improved, better world.

Vision, compassion and wisdom are not some folksy terminology: They are paramount expressions of noble human activity. ACTIVATE THEM!

Shifting Sahara Sands
Photography by El-Branden Brazil

Faces Of A Challenging Childhood, India

Photography by El-Branden Brazil

Human Rights: An End To Struggle?

Struggle comes from not having the requisites to live well. Human rights are a barrier to hopefully protect people from the need to struggle.

As we all know, there are many expressions of struggle, some of which include extreme violence. If we can remove the struggle of ALL communities, perhaps we can remove the need for violence. This is why a universal application and acceptance of human rights is vital.

Human rights are not a convenience or a luxury for a few, they should be applied universally to all. Unfortunately, there are very big hurdles to be overcome for this ideal to be achieved.

In every country, every community and every ethnic group around the world, there are good and bad people. We have to accept this reality, but try our best to be one of the good people in whatever community we belong. We should be bridge-builders encouraging communication, banishing misunderstandings and encouraging a shared, mutual understanding of what human rights mean for everyone.

A Young Mother Begging In Yangon, Burma
Photography by El-Branden Brazil

Life

You cough, you breathe and then you sigh… That is life.

Photography & Words by El-Branden Brazil

Make A Difference

Let’s all work for peace, and encourage an end to all suffering.
Let’s continue to campaign for those who need help and support.
Let’s change the world with positivity and love.
Let’s find friendship with those we thought could never be our friends.
Let’s be tolerant and appreciative of the diversity of lifestyles and faiths.
Let’s try to become informed about the things we don’t understand.
Let’s make bridges between all nations.
Let’s be resolute in finding inner peace and beauty.
Let’s be wise in every decision we make.
Let’s be generous in spirit and heart to those in need.

– El-Branden Brazil

Ashin Sopaka, one of the leaders of Burma’s Saffron Revolution, has been supporting Burmese refugees and migrant workers, who live on a dump in Mae Sot, Thailand.
Photography by El-Branden Brazil

Burmese Mother & Infant At Mae Tao Clinic

Photography by El-Branden Brazil

The Mae Tao Clinic (MTC), founded and directed by Dr. Cynthia Maung, providing free health care for refugees, migrant workers, and other individuals who cross the border from Burma to Thailand. People of all ethnicities and religions are welcome at the Clinic. Its origins go back to the student pro-democracy movement in Burma in 1988 and the brutal repression by the Burmese regime of that movement. The fleeing students who needed medical attention were attended in a small house in Mae Sot.

Since 1989 MTC has grown, from that one small house to a large complex of simple buildings that provide a wide variety of health services to different groups of people. Today it serves a target population of approximately 150,000 on the Thai-Burma border. Exact numbers are hard to calculate because of the fluidity of the population. About 50% of those who come to MTC for medical attention are migrant workers in the Mae Sot area; the other 50% travel cross-border from Burma for care.

Mae Tao Clinic Objectives:

1. To provide health services for displaced Burmese populations along the Thailand-Burma border.
2. To provide initial training of health workers and subsequent corollary medical education.
3. To strengthen health information systems along the border.
4. To improve health, knowledge, attitudes, and practices within local Burmese populations.
5. To promote collaboration among local ethnic health organizations.
6. To strengthen networking and partnering with international health professionals and institutions.

Please support this vital service. maetaoclinic.org/

Unbridled Capitalism

Capitalism right now is a rigged game, where only a few have the privilege to write and rewrite the rules in whatever way suits them. As their wealth increases, and they buy themselves into the politicians’ pockets, the rest of us see social benefits in health, education and welfare stripped down, salaries reduced, bills increasing, fears growing and many families unable to adequately feed themselves.

I have no problem with the idea that if you work hard, then you should be rewarded. However, I do have a problem with individuals driven merely by an unquenchable, psychotic thirst for money, who place higher value on greed than compassion for their fellow humans. I have a problem with those of limited talent, but due to birthright, are allowed unfettered privilege. I also have a problem with individuals who are paid millions and millions of dollars in pay-offs and bonuses, whilst smirking and sneering at the rest of us, as we are exploited, sold-out and perennially broke. I despise that those who almost destroyed the global economy, neither see jail cells nor are reprimanded, but instead see their wealth grow on the back of our misery; misery they helped to create. Worst of all, are the scum who find profit in wars.

All I wish to see are mechanisms that are fairer, compassionate and allow for a more even distribution of wealth. The sooner this unbridled capitalism becomes aware that, just like tooth fairies, there is no such thing as sustainable, infinite exponential growth, the sooner we can reel things back in, protect the planet, end poverty and raise sustainably the living standards to a level better for all.

Photography by El-Branden Brazil

Shattered

Shattered dreams shredded
Upon a stage of broken glass:
Beneath lies crystal shards
Disintegrating on mass.
Above the dark abode of night
Hangs low upon the hearts deceased.
Talons grasping at tearing flesh.
Mauled corruption released.
Poison clawing into the minds of those deposed
In coup detat by generals.
And for a brief glance
Upon the winding frosted path,
The prisoners of life abound –
Their shackled minds executed
Like slaughtered beasts in an abattoir.
Death delivers gentle whispers
Into the torn ears of each,
And the Blind Man on a distant perch
Observes through punctured eyes.

Drawing by El-Branden Brazil

Reflections On Our Turbulent World

ISIS is behaving like the Khmer Rouge, but on a much larger global stage. Their brutality needs to be stopped quickly.

More than the acts of terrorism, it is the aims of ISIS that scares me. There is a very strong chance that if nothing is done, this savage caliphate will take root and spread its tendrils throughout the Middle-East and perhaps beyond. What kind of society do these beasts wish to achieve, after their caliphate is established upon the blood and bones of so many innocents, killed horrifically? I do not use words like “evil” lightly, but as with the Nazis and the Khmer Rouge before, ISIS absolutely is a manifestation of evil, demonstrating the most depraved and perverted aspects of humanity.

I am extremely concerned about the global ramifications ISIS will bring. Unfortunately, it is just one component of a rapidly deteriorating global arena, where crises of great magnitude are springing up, all symptomatic of a general malaise that can be felt across the world. I wish to be optimistic, but I find it harder and harder, as the environment continues to be damaged with little genuine efforts to abate it. It feels like we are fatalistically slipping back into the Dark Ages, lead by leaders more concerned with the fantasies promulgated by corporations and economics, rather than driven by true vision to propel and improve humanity.

Currently, no one in power is brave enough to implement bold ideas to lead humanity towards a brighter future, that are both socially and most importantly, ecologically beneficial.

We can all feel the rot in the current system, desperately fantasising about what could be. In the meantime, whilst we both hold onto the memory of past glories, as well as fumble without vision towards the future, violent radicalism, such as ISIS, is manifesting their extremist beliefs in the ideological vacuum we have left. It seems for the time being, however bloody, they are succeeding in ways that we are not. I find it truly perplexing and tragic that young Europeans, particularly Brits, are being drawn to the front lines in Syria and Iraq, to fight for an ideology of extreme barbarism. That they should find beheadings and the slaughter of children more appealing than what is offered at home.

We need to find a way to share values that can be universally embraced, and that will neutralise the appeal that the current spate of extremism seems to have for some. We must be better than bombs and guns. We must lead by example and show that compassion and love for all trumps violence always, whilst never forgetting the finiteness of our time on this precious planet that we share.

This Is What I Believe

I believe in compassion as a universal truth.
I accept that my spiritual beliefs are no more provable than anyone elses.
I have no interest in trying to convert others.
I believe that there are great unknowables worth enquiring about.
I understand that nothing is knowable without enquiry.
I seek peace for all.
I view love a better partner than hate.
I support same-sex marriage, because love is to be celebrated.
I believe in elevating women to positions of power. The world would be better.
I accept that differences of opinion will always exist, and thank goodness.
I celebrate differences, because this is what drives creativity.
I will not allow differences to be used as a tool for hate.
I celebrate our shared humanity.
I despise nationalistic mythology of tribal identity.
I hail those that can think outside the box.
I support those who sit outside society.
I believe in freedom.
I seek freedom for those with none.
I support government that represents the people.
I disdain government that represents corporations.
I fight for justice.
I cry for where there is none.
I believe in fairness.
I support the hungry and needy.
I will never turn my eye away from cruelty.
I believe in human rights for all.

– El-Branden Brazil –