{"id":91650,"date":"2017-12-25T12:01:22","date_gmt":"2017-12-25T12:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=91650"},"modified":"2017-12-25T10:28:58","modified_gmt":"2017-12-25T10:28:58","slug":"an-irreverent-activist-and-his-years-end-gift-to-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/12\/an-irreverent-activist-and-his-years-end-gift-to-himself\/","title":{"rendered":"An Irreverent Activist and His Year’s End Gift to Himself"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘I can’t be taken down.
\nFor my feet have always been firmly on the ground.<\/p>\n

My career can’t be destroyed.
\nFor I have never pursued one.<\/p>\n

My image can’t be tarnished.
\nFor it has never been manufactured.<\/p>\n

I am unafraid to fall.
\nFor I have never attempted to climb.<\/p>\n

I can’t be ostracised.
\nFor I seek no external acceptance.<\/p>\n

I am not given into applauses or flattery. .
\nFor I know I am always less than the person that is being lauded or flattered.<\/p>\n

I don’t hold on to anything, applauses or condemnations, achievements
\nor failures.<\/p>\n

Nothing belongs to me.
\nAnd I am nothing beyond my present deeds.
\nFor Nothingness reigns supreme inside.<\/p>\n

I have no soul to corrupt;
\nnor is there a “core” to hold up as “incorruptible”.<\/p>\n

I am only a stream of deeds and thoughts held together by memory.
\nNothing lasts.
\nNot even that memory.<\/p>\n

No regrets nor jubilations.<\/p>\n

I too will pass
\nlike another dust on this earth.’<\/p>\n

_________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A Buddhist humanist from Burma, Maung Zarni is <\/em>a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>, <\/em>former Visiting Lecturer with Harvard Medical School, specializing in racism and violence in Burma and Sri Lanka, and Non-resident Scholar in Genocide Studies with Documentation Center \u2013 Cambodia.\u00a0 His analyses have appeared in leading newspapers including the <\/em>New York Times, The Guardian and<\/em> the Times. Among his academic publications on Rohingya genocide are <\/em>The Slow-Burning Genocide of Myanmar\u2019s Rohingyas (Pacific Rim Law and Policy Journal), <\/em>An Evolution of Rohingya Persecution in Myanmar: From Strategic Embrace to Genocide, (Middle East Institute, American University), and <\/em>Myanmar\u2019s State-directed Persecution of Rohingyas and Other Muslims (Brown World Affairs Journal, forthcoming). He holds a PhD (U Wisconsin at Madison) and a MA (U California), and has held various teaching, research and visiting fellowships at the universities in Asia, Europe and USA including Oxford, LSE, UCL Institute of Education) , National-Louis, Malaya, and Brunei. He is the recipient of the “Cultivation of Harmony” award from the Parliament of the World’s Religions (2015).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘I can’t be taken down.
\nFor my feet have always been firmly on the ground.
\nMy career can’t be destroyed.
\nFor I have never pursued one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":98540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}