Tonight I spent about two hours talking about Burmese freedom with a human rights activist from Burma. He is friends with a client of mine. We talked in this small studio apartment surrounded by a family of three going about their normal routine and talked global politics, Burmese freedom and general history. As we talked other refugees, also clients of mine, came in and out. I got to witness a community at work. Something normally closed off because I am simply not there to witness it. People that would not normally be found in a community with each other find themselves thrown together, their only common bond being they are all refugees. They are all new, with little or no connections…except to each other. Within this apartment building there is a family of 4 Somalians who came from a refugee camp in Kenya, a single Colombian who sent two years in Costa Rica as a refugee, a Burmese family of 3, and two Congolese brothers.

Did you know Burma has been under military rule since the 1960’s? Do you even know where Burma is? There is no free press, rape is used as systematic intimidation, there is no independent judiciary and there is no justice. Human rights are a thing unheard of.