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VOLUME 18
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Welcome to Volume 18 of The Mark of a Leader E-zine. If you are a CCGD or MPI member, there are just a few weeks left to take advantage of our 25% Discount program for any conference you are holding in 2006 or 2007. Many of you already have booked events with us, and we're excited to be working with you. I was very pleased recently to be part of the 2006 International Xerox Women's Conference. This tremendous event brought together hundreds of women from across the company for several days to learn, grow, share experiences, and celebrate some of the leaders in their ranks. It was an exceptional event and it was a thrill to be part of it! This month's story is, appropriately, about a remarkable woman who is setting an example for the world. Sadly, she is doing it at tremendous sacrifice to herself. Her story is a telling reminder that we have to stand up for ourselves, and for those things we believe in, no matter the cost. For the things we believe in - our principles and our goals - are what define us as people, and as leaders. I hope you enjoy this month's inspiring story. Yours in leadership
Please visit our website at www.themarkofaleader.com |
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FEATURE
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QUOTABLE QUOTES The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. Nelson Mandela To be one, to be united is a great thing. But to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater. Bono |
AUNG SAN SUU KYII - "THE LADY"To the best of my knowledge, no war was ever started by women. But it is women and children who have always suffered the most in situations of conflict. 
1947. A father and political activist named General Aung San has successfully led Burma's struggle for independence from Britain when he is cut down by assassins' bullets. His 2 year old daughter is left fatherless; left only with the heroic stories of a leader whom she will never know. But those stories leave a deep imprint. She is fortunate enough to go to school in India and then England, get a college degree from Oxford, continue studies in New York, and see the world first-hand working for the United Nations. But she never forgets the struggle in her homeland, and senses that she may someday be needed to pick up where her father left off. She marries and has children in England. In 1988 she returns home to Burma to care for her dying mother. While she is there, the general who heads the brutal military government steps down, leaving a chasm. It is her time, and she does what she knows in her heart she is supposed to do. |
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QUOTABLE QUOTES I want to work for a company that contributes to and is part of the community. I want something not just to invest in. I want something to believe in. Anita Roddick |
Along with several other freedom lovers, she begins a powerful pro-democracy movement, and a group called the National League for Democracy. She speaks at hundreds of rallies, preaching non-violence in the tradition of Gandhi and Rev. Martin Luther King. She calmly and fearlessly stares down the barrels of soldiers' rifles on many occasions. Her peaceful, Buddhist based demeanor is loving and kind. But this is a determined and committed lady. She instantly becomes a national hero. And that, of course, is exactly the opposite of what any ruling military junta in the world wants. She might as well have painted a target on her chest. Thousands of other Burmese are killed and tortured for standing up for their beliefs. But the military leaders are smart enough not to make a martyr of her. So in 1989, Suu Kyi is placed under house arrest. She is not allowed to venture outside her home, and her communication with the outside world is largely cut off. Her country is renamed Myanmar. In 1990, an election is held, and her National League for Democracy wins 80% of the parliamentary seats. The military junta refuses to hand over power. International pressure on the corrupt government intensifies, to no avail. 
In the same year, the European Parliament awards her the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. The next year, Aung San Suu Kyi wins the Nobel Peace Prize, and donates the entire $1.3 million prize to a trust for health care for the citizens of Burma. In 1995, she is released from house arrest and, quietly, told she is free to leave the country. In fact, she is encouraged to leave. A bit obvious. She knows that she will never be allowed back in her homeland if she goes. She is left with a heart-wrenching choice: go to England to be with her beloved husband and children, whom she has not seen for years, or stay to fight for freedom. She stays. So deep is her commitment to her people, her country, and to the legacy of her father that she cannot go. Her new-found freedom inside the country proves to be problematic. She rouses the spirit of the people, and is once again a threat to the government. |
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QUOTABLE QUOTES I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. Nelson Mandela |
She receives notice that her husband has prostate cancer in England. He is not allowed to visit her, and again, she knows she cannot visit him if she ever wants back into her country. In 1999, he succumbs to cancer. 1000 people join her at her home to hold a private ceremony in his honor. Soldiers takes their names as they leave. They are clearly now on a 'watched' list. Over the next few years she is in and out of house arrest. Then while out in 2003, a convoy she is traveling in is attacked by soldiers from the state-run Union Solidarity Development Association (USDA). USDA thugs beat close to 100 of her supporters to death in a failed assassination attempt. She is returned to house arrest under the veil of protection, from which she has not yet emerged. And so it goes to this day. Only occasionally allowed out of her home, with next to no communication with the outside world, her home has become her 'cage'. As Bono described it, she understands and lives in "a place that has to be believed to be seen". That place is not called "Burma" or "Myanmar". It is called "courage". 
She will not take up arms, nor have her supporters take up arms. How long will her struggle go on? We can only watch, wait, and support her as we can through the UN and human rights groups. And probably the most important thing any of us can do spiritually for her is never, never, never take the freedom we have for granted. Not for a moment. The struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma is a struggle for life and dignity. It is a struggle that encompasses our political, social, and economic aspirations. The people of my country want the two freedoms that spell security: freedom from want, and freedom from fear. |
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Please visit us at www.themarkofaleader.com. Copyright 2006 Mark of a Leader |
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