As I have mentioned before, we have a very large population of Burmese here in Fort Wayne, growing by the day. I think around 300 have been resettled this fall with 800 more coming in the first part of 2008. Here’s a piece from today’s paper with views of what is currently going on in Burma from several residents – they are generally optimistic for the future of their country.

Chan, 42, is the resettlement director for Catholic Charities in Fort Wayne. He helps refugees from all countries, including Burma, when they come to Fort Wayne after seeking political asylum. Requests for his services have sharply increased this year. Many of the Burmese living in Fort Wayne, like Chan, were no longer safe in their country because they participated in the 1988 student uprising.
He came to Fort Wayne 13 years ago. He was a history major during the 1988 uprising.
Chan has two feelings about the current protest: worry and hope. “I feel worried about the people,” Chan said. “When we demonstrated in 1988, many thousands of people got killed, more than 10,000 people fled from Burma to join the revolution.”
He has no delusions that the government won’t harm the protesters, but he says the uprising is needed to transfer power to the elected civilian government. In 1990 Aung San Suu Kyi won a parliamentary election, but the regime ignored the election results and placed her under house arrest.
He thinks the popularity of the monks and the peaceful Buddhist tradition they represent will make it more difficult for the government to oppose the movement.
“Life and death, there really isn’t much difference for the average people in Burma. We want the U.N. to step in before it becomes a real killing field. This is the only way to remove the military government,” Chan adds. “They can kill hundreds of people in Burma, but they can’t kill the movement.”