"You must choose to do something," Burmese environmental activist Ka Hsaw Wa told HSPS students. "To fight for what is right, you have to have commitment, and you have to have a strategy. The truth is in your hand."
"In Burma, my people, they don't know their rights. There is no school. There is no access, no awareness of universal human rights. You ask someone, 'what is your tomorrow?' they say, 'I have no idea…'"
"Some people disagree with me because of real beliefs. Some, just to fight," Ka Hsaw Wa said, explaining that his path was not without obstacles. "Sometimes, you can talk to them. Sometimes, you can't." So he finds other means—lawsuits, international pressure, student activism outside of Burma—to advance environmental and human rights concerns in Burma.
Photo by Marc Fader with text by Helen Zelon
