Dissident Thunder

Schrank talks about how an insurgent movement of pro-democracy activist returned to take Burma's military junta by political storm. That movement was for democracy: for choice, human rights, and basic freedoms--ideas all the more enthralling for having always been denied. From underground or under the chronic scrutiny of intelligence agents and informers, Thar and Nigel and Suu Kyi and dissidents across Burma's pro-democracy movement had fought through the darkest years of military rule for a thousand daily practicalities. Their concerns, the concerns of Burma's most passionate dissidents reflected on the sense of freedom as something concrete that has to be gained through practical work, not just as a concept to be captured through philosophical argument.