Save the Uighurs

The Uighurs are a tribe of Turkik, Muslim, people who live in East Turkestan (also known as the Uighur Autonomous Region); and for decades they have been the victims of systematic human-rights abuses at the hands of the Chinese government.

In November, 20 Uighurs, including two children, escaped their homeland and sought asylum in Cambodia. Initially, the Cambodian Foreign Affairs Ministry announced that it would cooperate with them and offer them asylum. However, two days later, these poor people were declared “illegal entrants,” handcuffed, and detained. On 19 December 2009, a Chinese plane, under cover of darkness, departed the Phenom Penh airport carrying the 20 escapees back to China, where they will undoubtedly be mistreated severely, as former escapees from that country have been treated. Chinese practice has been to declare such persons criminals without any proof of that charge.

Why did this happen? Cambodia is the recipient of hundreds of millions of dollars of aid from China and $1 billion in foreign direct investment from China. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has called China Cambodia’s “most trustworthy friend.”

Hmmm...! I wonder, could this deportation of 20 Uighurs be due to a bribe? Let us remember that as these poor people are abused unjustly, so are we, fellow members of the human race.

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of your friends or of your own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” John Donne 1572-1631

Humble Settings for Our Lives

One part of the Christmas story we often forget is the part which tells where Joseph led his family to live after the danger from Herod was past-—Nazareth, a small town in Galilee, an insignificant place. Jesus lived there, grew there, learned there, and worked there. What a small and ignominious situation that must seem to us, who seek and strive after fame, glory, and importance! Yet, it was not too mean and insignificant for our Savior. He, the young prince of Glory, worked in a carpenter’s shop. He moved among humdrum tasks, petty cares, village gossip, and trifling trade. He was always faithful in that which was least.

When I am tempted to repine
That such a lowly lot is mine,
There comes to me a voice which saith
“Mine were the streets of Nazareth.”

So mean, so common and confined,
And He the Monarch of mankind!
Yet patiently He traveleth
Those narrow streets of Nazareth.

It may be I shall never rise
To place or fame beneath the skies
But walk in straitened ways ‘till death
Narrow as streets of Nazareth.

But if through honors arch I tread
And there forget to bend my head
Ah! Let me hear the voice which saith,
“Mine were the streets of Nazareth.”

Excerpted from Springs In The Valley by Mrs. Charles Cowman