News at Eleven: At that time, I had no recollection of Akhmatova's lines:

At that time, I had no recollection of Akhmatova's lines: "No, this is not me. This is somebody else that suffers. I could never face that and all that happened." It was only much later, back in my house but still under arrest, that these words of requiem came back to me. At the moment of remembrance, I felt almost as a physical force the strong bond that linked those of us who had only our inner resources to fall back on when we were most in need of strength and endurance.

Poetry is a great unifier that knows no frontiers of space or time. U Win Tin, he of the prison blue shirt, turned to Henley's Invictus to sustain him through the interrogation sessions he had to undergo. This poem had inspired my father and his contemporaries during the independent struggle, as it also seemed to have inspired freedom fighters in other places at other times. Struggle and suffering, the bloody unbowed head, and even death, all for the sake of freedom.

from BBC: The Reith lectures: Aung San Suu Kyi Lecture 1: Liberty
from BBC: The Reith lectures: Securing Freedom: 2011
then The Guardian: Aung San Suu Kyi's idea of freedom offers a radical message for the west
then Radio Free Asia: Suu Kyi Addresses Congress
then The Guardian: Is Aung San Suu Kyi rethinking her tactics?

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