Someone informs me that demanding asylum for Rohingya refugees in whichever country they choose with visas & full refugee rights is not “realistic,” that they need a more reasonable demand. Given the character of the Burmese military & Suu Kyi regime, their demand for the end of genocide must also be “unrealistic.” For that matter, Palestinians fighting unarmed against a military state to end the occupation & win self-determination or Kashmiris fighting unarmed against the same odds for the same political goals are also then unrealistic pipe dreamers. Human rights activists in the Philippines standing fearlessly against Duterte’s death squads & undocumented immigrants in the US protesting for rights would also be considered naive dreamers. All those fighting against oppression might as well give it up as “unrealistic.”
Social revolutions against war, occupation, persecution, & genocide are not fought or won by those who accept the parameters of “realistic” as defined by oppressors but by those who redefine those parameters based on the demands of justice & the highest human values. There’s a long way to go before we even see the horizon of justice because when it comes to human rights, the sky is the limit.