perception

we saw another level of poor today as we crossed the border into burma or myanmar if you want to be politically correct i guess. myanmar used to be one of the richest countries in the world and was flourishing according to my understanding. then complete corruption happened. the whole country is now run by the corrupt army. there is no middle class. EVERYONE is poor... extremely poor. it is so bad that the burmese people try to flee and cross the river into thailand (this is the second picture) and stay in refugee camps and villages that have been set up here in thailand. however, the conditions of these are horrific. these refugees have it beyond rough here in thailand yet this is what they choose rather than being in burma. just last night we were told about how the burmese army will shoot into these refugee camps from helicopters to kill them. they try to get them back to burma to plow fields to prepare them for mining the rubies and then they kill them. they view their own people as disposable. the army has so much control that when we went we were only allowed to stay until 5pm because they don't want foreigners there. in fact, as you are walking across the bridge 99% of the time someone will come up to you in normal clothes and try to be real friendly and find out about you and why you are going into burma. these are spies that get paid about $3 a week by the army. compare that to the $5 a month salary a school teacher makes there.
also, just a crazy food for thought. we checked out some of the buddhists temples and discovered where all the money is! there were huge containers filled with money at the feet of each idol. meanwhile the country is starving. the fist picture is an example of this.
so many of the people that life impact is now responsible for come from burma. they are extremely friendly people... even while we went through the town people would shout "hello" to us and smile. yet they are so oppressed. it is all they have ever known. the country has been like this for about 60 years now. let's all remember to pray for burma.