The Revolution will not be Incarcerated
Insight Myanmar28 Helmi 2023

The Revolution will not be Incarcerated

Episode #151: Tomas Martin is a prison researcher who presently works with DIGNITY, the Danish Institute Against Torture. His interest in prison research was first piqued when he heard about ten-day vipassana meditation courses in the tradition of S.N. Goenka being conducted in Tihar Jail outside of New Delhi. He is now focusing on how imprisonment in Myanmar, and its ramifications, and not only the prisoners, but the staff as well.

Besides the violence which often plagues incarceration, Martin pays close attention to the everyday experience of prison life. One of the more unique areas of his research has been a study of the usually foul prison air and its psychological and physical affects. He has pushed for new prison designs that encourage better ventilation, to improve the overall quality of life for prisoners.

On the subject of human rights within Burmese prisons, Martin points out the tragic truth that torture has long been used by the military regime to punish political dissidents. After they go through unfair trials, Martin explains how they then have limited contact with family, and their access to food and medicine is restricted. In addition, they are often either placed in extremely overcrowded conditions or kept in solitary confinement, two extremes that are equally detrimental to mental and physical health.

Martin has observed a paradoxical relationship between the revolution and the regime’s attempts at oppression. “Prison is where revolutionary actors and protests are being quelled. People are being locked up and even killed, to destroy the revolution. But the prison is also a place where there is opportunity to collect revolutionary actors and to produce revolutionary action and spirit!”

Jaksot(505)

Myanmar Dhamma Diaries: Sobering Up in Ingyinbin

Myanmar Dhamma Diaries: Sobering Up in Ingyinbin

In this inaugural edition of the “Myanmar Dhamma Diaries,” Joah tells the story of an alcoholic Airbnb guest from Europe who disrupts his Yangon home. Learning that the guest had chosen to stay there ...

8 Touko 20201h 23min

Swe Win

Swe Win

Swe Win’s journey has taken him from a love of British literature to the pits of solitary confinement in Insein Prison in Yangon, where he escaped harsh conditions and toxic anger by taking up a medit...

27 Huhti 20202h 28min

Sayalay Khanticari

Sayalay Khanticari

The provincial upbringing that characterized Maria Alejandra Amaya V’s childhood in the Colombian countryside outside of Bogotá could scarcely have predicted her later interest in Vipassana meditation...

9 Huhti 20202h 6min

Ashin Sarana

Ashin Sarana

Ashin Sarana may be one of the most well-known foreign monks in Myanmar today. He conducts his own meditation courses and routinely gives Dhamma talks in fluent Burmese. But did you know that his earl...

28 Maalis 20202h 45min

Daniel Mayer

Daniel Mayer

Daniel is senior vipassana teacher (Acharya) in the S.N. Goenka tradition, in addition to being a licensed acupuncturist. He was appointed a Center Teacher (CT) originally for Dhamma Santi in Brazil, ...

2 Maalis 20202h 3min

Alan Clements

Alan Clements

At a time when foreigners were only granted seven-day visas to Burma, then one of the most closed countries in the world, Alan Clements arrived in 1977 and managed to stay nearly five years, training ...

18 Helmi 20202h 1min

Sayalay Piyadassii

Sayalay Piyadassii

We caught up with Sayalay Piyadassii in Yangon, between time in her native Lithuania and as a student at Shan State Buddhist University in Taunggyi. She shares how her initial enthusiasm taking silent...

7 Helmi 20201h 57min

Thabarwa Sayadaw

Thabarwa Sayadaw

Thabarwa Sayadaw has had a meteoric rise in Myanmar. After weathering a series of crises that threatened the very existence of his monastery, the Burmese monastic’s mission is now expanding at an unpr...

31 Tammi 20202h 20min

Suosittua kategoriassa Politiikka ja uutiset

aikalisa
ootsa-kuullut-tasta-2
politiikan-puskaradio
rss-ootsa-kuullut-tasta
tervo-halme
rss-vaalirankkurit-podcast
viisupodi
rss-podme-livebox
otetaan-yhdet
rss-asiastudio
the-ulkopolitist
et-sa-noin-voi-sanoo-esittaa
rss-kaikki-uusiksi
rss-tasta-on-kyse-ivan-puopolo-verkkouutiset
rss-kalevi-sorsa-saation-podcast
rss-polikulaari-pitka-kiekko-ja-muut-ts-podcastit
rss-hyvaa-huomenta-bryssel
rss-merja-mahkan-rahat
rss-kuka-mina-olen
rss-tekkipodi