Known for his sometimes outrageous comedies and his all-around amazing acting abilities, Jim Carrey stars in films such as, “Bruce Almighty,” “The Truman Show,” and “Dumb and Dumber.” Lately though, the comedian has turned to more serious matters, using YouTube to place a Public Service Announcement calling for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi. Aung San Suu Kyi is the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize “for her peaceful and non-violent struggle under a military dictatorship.”

Unfortunately, she is currently in prison (under house arrest) in Burma for those same non-violent struggles, and has been for the last eleven years. Jim Carrey is asking the Burmese government to free her. Carrey explains that Aung San is a hero of his, explaining that, “She’s a champion of human rights and decency in Asia, and a symbol of hope to all struggling people.” Aung San has been compared to the likes of Gandhi, but Carrey acknowledges that few people know much about her. He calls her an “unsung hero”, and she is the only Nobel Peace Prize winner to be imprisoned.

However, Carrey wants more than Aung San Suu Kyi freed and released, hew wants for the military regime in Burma to be overturned. On CBC news, Carrey said that Burma “Is a government that uses its weapons not in self-defense, but against its own citizens.” In a peaceful pro-democracy demonstration in late August, the military fired on peaceful protesters and arrested thousands of people.

Carrey blames the international community as a whole, explaining, “We have the power to bring the bully to reason without violence, and if we don’t use that power to condemn his outrageous behavior, we are, in fact, sanctioning mass relocation, sanctioning forced labour, sanctioning rape, sanctioning murder, sanctioning the recruiting of child soldiers, and encouraging the heroin trade.”

The U.S. has threatened to introduce a UN resolution against Burma, but some nations, like China and Russia refuse to side with them. The reluctance of those nations could stem from Burma’s natural resources. But Carrey points out what we already know: that human life is valuable. And we need to start treating it that way.

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