Ramadan is a month for spiritual introspection — time for one to reflect deep on the self and reinforce one’s beliefs. But reflections are not confined to an examination of the soul. The holy month does not leave us isolated from events happening around us or somewhere else in this big wide world.

Even as I reflect spiritually, I take in happenings near and far in an effort to comprehend this growing madness we call our world. Take the case of the radical events of the past few days in Myanmar (Burma). A bloody crackdown on protests by the military junta, who took over Myanmar in 1982, left an unspecified number of Buddhist monks and other demonstrators dead and injured and hundreds under arrest. Although it is not clear how many protesters were killed when tens of thousands of people led by Buddhist monks took to the streets, brutal violence has been reported by some of the news smuggled out of the country.

In spite of the media blackout enforced by the Myanmar regime, diplomats in Yangon have warned that the death toll may be much higher, and activists speak of up to 200 killed by security forces.

The United Nations Human Rights Council is expected to hold an emergency session next week to discuss the rising tide of violence against civilians in one of its member nations.

And yet this same world body has once again ironically refused to consider Taiwan’s appeal for membership in the associated organizations that make up the UN. Myanmar enjoys voting privileges in the UN General Assembly, but Taiwan, a peace-loving and democratic nation of 23 million people. is denied just that!

In the words of one Taiwan resident in the Kingdom, “Taiwan has been trying for at least 15 years, only to have its every attempt blocked by China. Taiwan’s latest bid failed again on Sept. 19. It’s ironic that a democratic and free country such as Taiwan is banned from the UN...

“It contradicts the UN’s own charter, that its membership is open to all peace-loving states, that it reaffirms faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human being, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small.”

And yet within this period, Myanmar has attracted enough attention, so much so that US President George W. Bush recently declared “The world is watching the people of Burma take to the streets to demand their freedom, and the American people stand in solidarity with these brave individuals. The ruling junta remains unyielding, yet the people’s desire for freedom is unmistakable.”

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown went on record to state: “I condemn the violence that has been used against the unarmed Burmese protesters who have been exercising, with great bravery, their right to peaceful protest. I had hoped that the Burmese regime would heed the calls for restraint from the international community. But once again they have responded with oppression and force. This must cease.”

Calling Burma’s government an “illegitimate and repressive regime”, Brown continued: “I want to see all the pressures of the world put on this regime now — sanctions, the pressure of the UN, pressure from China and all the countries in the region, India, pressure from the whole of the world.”

While Bush and Brown have entreated the world to act on Myanmar, nobody listens to Taiwan’s passionate pleas for legitimacy and recognition. Just who will act on their behalf, they wonder.