The Lady speaks - ASSK's Nobel speech

Beautiful Nobel Lecture delivered by Aung San Suu Kyi. She represents a voice not just of the people in Burma, but of people everywhere fighting for freedom and democracy. Her voice is the voice of political prisoners (like Ericson Acosta, Filipino poet, cultural worker, songwriter, activist who remains locked-up) struggling for the right to struggle and waiting to be freed. Please find time to read her speech (she ruminates on her house arrest and even spoke about giving the Buddhist concept of suffering, dukha, much thought). Here are some of my favorite parts:

To be forgotten. The French say that to part is to die a little. To be forgotten too is to die a little. It is to lose some of the links that anchor us to the rest of humanity. (...) When the Nobel Committee awarded the Peace Prize to me they were recognizing that the oppressed and the isolated in Burma were also a part of the world, they were recognizing the oneness of humanity. So for me receiving the Nobel Peace Prize means personally extending my concerns for democracy and human rights beyond national borders. 

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Before continuing to speak of my country, may I speak out for our prisoners of conscience. There still remain such prisoners in Burma. It is to be feared that because the best known detainees have been released, the remainder, the unknown ones, will be forgotten. I am standing here because I was once a prisoner of conscience. As you look at me and listen to me, please remember the often repeated truth that one prisoner of conscience is one too many. 

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Ultimately our aim should be to create a world free from the displaced, the homeless and the hopeless, a world of which each and every corner is a true sanctuary where the inhabitants will have the freedom and the capacity to live in peace. Every thought, every word, and every action that adds to the positive and the wholesome is a contribution to peace. Each and every one of us is capable of making such a contribution. Let us join hands to try to create a peaceful world where we can sleep in security and wake in happiness.

Access the full text here.