Song of a Reformed Headhunter

 Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . Guest editorial column by Burmese poet and activist Ko Ko Thett. The following poem responds to the  announcement  by Myanmar's military junta on June 3, 2022, that "it would execute four people whose appeals were rejected following grossly unjust closed-door trials." Among the four are activist Kyaw Min Yu, known as “Ko Jimmy,” and opposition lawmaker Phyo Zeya. They were sentenced to death on January 21 under Myanmar’s overbroad Counterterrorism Law of 2014. On the Ropes By Ko Ko Thett In all manners of capital punishment  hanging is  the most hideous. To ancient Greeks the rope takes away more than life.  It takes away decency even in death.  Had the Romans hanged Jesus —instead of nailing him on a crucifix— the Christian church wouldn’t  have had much impact. Would you hang around  your neck an icon of a broken-neck Jesus,  hanging by...

 Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . We are living in a new Age of Authoritarianism, and it is incumbent on all of us to fight its oppressive spirit wherever we find it, even when it is within us. Technology has created new tools for state surveillance, mass disinformation, and capitalist exploitation, but it has also given us new means to highlight injustice, organize resistance, and express solidarity. The Civil Disobedience Movement in Myanmar does not concern just the Burmese, but all of us. One year after the military coup against a democratically elected government, if we permit the Burmese dictatorship to legitimize itself, we reinforce the powers of totalitarianism and weaken the forces of liberty everywhere. We need to heed the voices of resistance in this vital anthology,  Picking Off New Shoots Will Not Stop the Spring: Witness poems and essays from Burma/Myanmar 1998 – 2021 . The voices are many and various, but they all say,...