It is certainly going to be a permanent dark spot in the history of mankind, like Rwanda, Srebrenica, Cambodia and many others, whether we like it or not.

It is particularly sad that this has happened in a predominant Buddhist country where metta, which means loving-kindness, friendliness, goodwill, benevolence, fellowship, amity, concord, inoffensiveness and non-violence, and compassion should be the practice and order of the day.

As we are now being bogged down by multitude of problems, some self-made and some inherited, the leadership and all stakeholders should look forward and use every means available to pull the country out of all these seemingly unsolvable woes.

Maybe the teaching of His Holiness Dalai Lama would guide us – sinners and victims alike – to reconcile, tread the right path and give us strength to overcome the nightmare we are facing today.

He said: “There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe, do, and mostly, live.”

Link to the story: Myanmar violence may have killed more than 1,000: UN rapporteur