Censorship and the Brunei Girl

I neglected to ask her for her name, but she’s my hero of the day. Her actions may seem relatively insignificant in the greater scheme of things, but to me she symbolizes the fight against injustice and idiotic government policies.  This young woman was in my bookshop this morning, browsing the shelves and starting to accumulate a rather sizeable stack of books. “I’m not finished yet,” she remarked at one point, adding another book to the stack. “In my country, some of these books are banned. But I don’t care. I really want to read them, so I’m going to take them back with me.”

 

Good for you, I said. It was at that point when I asked her where she was from and she told me Brunei. I just hope some zealot of a customs inspector back in Brunei doesn’t decide to inspect the contents of her bags and then freak out over the sight of a Salman Rushdie novel. Oh, the horror!

But this woman wasn’t the first customer in my shop to lament the existence of government censorship in their native country, or just the fact that there aren’t any good bookshops where they live. And I’m not talking about some remote island kingdom, but major Asian countries such as China, Vietnam, and Indonesia. These people appear to truly appreciate shopping in a well-stocked bookshop where they can buy whatever they desire, and that makes me feel like I’m making some sort of contribution to free choice and the passing on of knowledge, however small that role may be.

 

On the subject of unjust labor practices, in the news this week I’ve been reading about the protests of Cambodian garment workers who want slightly higher salaries. That might not seem to be related to the denial of free speech or censorship, but it’s still a human rights issue and I applaud these workers for taking a stand and demanding that they be paid a living wage. Cambodia is still a horribly poor country and people like these garment workers continue to be taken advantage of. Another story in the news this week highlighted the concerns of Singapore citizens over proposed new government restrictions on Internet sites. And then there is the extremely disturbing revelation in the USA that government agencies there are tapping phones and eavesdropping on e-mail accounts of journalists and private citizens. How can they really call themselves “The Land of the Free” with a straight face at this point? Here in Thailand, despite our draconian lese majeste law, along with other legal fuzz balls, I still consider it to be a much freer, and much safer, place to live than the United States.

Seeing this woman from Brunei thumbing her nose at her country’s censorship practices was inspiring to see. I hope more people around the world take similar stances, refusing to buckle under whatever idiotic laws and restrictions that their governments try to impose on them. Demand government accountability, responsibility, and fairness. Demand the same of banks, police departments, and big businesses. Don’t let these fuckers continue to screw us over. Really, I get so fed up with the injustices and unfairness in the world nowadays that I just want to scream. Marvin Gaye was right when he said “It makes me wanna holler.” And Public Enemy was justified when they urged us to “Fight the power!” It hasn’t changed. We need to continue fighting the powers that be.

I think back to Tiananmen Square in Beijing 25 years ago and that lone man standing in front of the tank. That epitomized defiance in the face of hopelessness. Damn, that took some balls! We can’t all make such bold statements, but neither can we allow our governments to get away with the shit that they continue to do. Maybe it’s something as subtle as sticking a few banned books in your luggage, or bolder acts such as taking to the streets and verbally protesting. But we need to do it. If want true freedom, we have to do it.

 

Mid-Week Blues

It’s Wednesday night in Bangkok and it’s raining again, although very, very lightly. Just finished listening to a World Party CD and now I have an old James Gang live album playing. “Just turn your pretty head … and walk away.” Coming up next: a compilation by The The. And if you have to ask; “The what? … well, forget it.

And I’m stumped as to what to write about tonight. It’s been a few days since I posted anything and I feel like I should write something or post some photos, but I just don’t feel inspired. Must be the mid-week blues.  

I could write about the latest rash of bombings in South Thailand; the violence that just won’t stop. Or I could write about the historic visit of Myanmar President Thein Sein to the US, where he’s meeting with Barack “O’Burma” Obama. Or to take that story a step further, I could mention the misguided protesters who think Thein Sein is some sort of heinous villain because he hasn’t been able to stop the sectarian violence between Muslim and Buddhists in Myanmar this year. Or the idiots who think that Obama should not have invited Thein Sein at all, reasoning that it’s “too early” to lift sanctions and “encourage” Myanmar without the government releasing all political prisoners, and blah blah blah. I tell you, nothing pleases these so-called “Free Burma” groups, and it would kill them to acknowledge, much less praise, any improvements or changes that the Myanmar government makes. Hell, it would kill them just to say the word “Myanmar.” I’m certainly not in the pro-junta camp, but some of these so-called human rights groups need to put things in perspective. I think some of their “policies” have done more harm than good in the past decade. I think “democratic” changes will take time to fully mature in Myanmar, but things are on the right track and Thein Sein should be encouraged and supported rather than criticized and condemned.

What else? Oh yeah, there was the efficient transvestite nurse that waited on me at Bangkok Hospital last week, or the Thai doctor who they sent me to at that same hospital. He had a very American-sounding accent, so I asked him if he had spent time studying in the states. “Well,” he said, “I grew up near Cincinnati, but I attended university here in Bangkok.” And the good news: they couldn’t find anything wrong with me!

Or I could write about some of the cool customers in my bookshop this week: David the 75-year-old pot-smoking fan of Louis L’Amour novels; the guy from Sweden who admitted to being “old school” and preferring real books over digital ones; the guy from Prachin Buri who bought the entire series of Gabriel Allon novels by Daniel Silva; the sweet expat lady from Poland who is reading anything we get by Evelyn Waugh, P.G. Wodehouse, or Graham Greene; or the female Thai customer who regaled us with tales of spitting on the feet of Red Shirt protesters last week; or the street guy who likes to “drop his drawers” to passing cars in front of our shop. Oh yeah, it’s a colorful neighborhood!

Or could write about the two nice guys from France that treated me to dinner at a Thai restaurant on Monday night. Good food, pleasant company, and they introduced me to a wicked-good drink that they say is popular in Brazil. I just wish I could remember the name of the drink! Yeah, it was that good. They were departing the next day on a trip to Myanmar and will be back in Bangkok in early May.

Then there were the phone calls from friends in Cambodia, e-mails from friends in Myanmar, and requests for money from friends in Thailand. In the case of my Thai friend Tam, his wife just gave birth to their third child and he needed money to buy some essentials … like food, so I was inclined to help him out.

But alas, I don’t have the energy or inclination to write about any of these things with any additional depth. All in all, it was just another weird and wonderful, and perfectly normal, week here in Bangkok. Let it rain!

 

Gay in the NBA: Play It, Don’t Pray It

The big news in the world of sports today was the coming out announcement by professional basketball player Jason Collins. He is the first “active” male player (as opposed to someone that retired and later announced that they were gay) in US professional sports to proclaim their homosexuality.

 

Collins should be congratulated for taking this bold step. I hope this is only the beginning and it will embolden many other gay athletes to make similar announcements. Actually, real progress will be made when such proclamations aren’t even necessary, and cause nothing more than a shrug of the shoulders. Of course, a lot of the value of having announced that he’s gay will be negated if Collins never plays in an NBA game again. At the age of 34, Collins is a veteran backup, a role player who plays less than 10 minutes per game, nearing the end of his playing career. He’s not a star, he’s not even a starter. With his current contract having expired, he is a free agent (after playing for both Boston and Washington this year) and there are no guarantees that he’ll be signed by a team for next season. But by all accounts he is a valuable “big man”, a Center with defensive prowess, as opposed to one that can score lots of points, and he still has some value as a player, so hopefully we’ll see him on the court later this year.

 

Collins’ surprising statement drew positive reaction and support from current NBA players such as Kobe Bryant, Baron Davis, Bradley Beal, Emeka Okafor, Kenneth Faried (current owner of the NBA’s best hairstyle!), Steve Nash, Tony Parker, Chauncey Billups, and even Metta World Peace (the controversial player formerly known as Ron Artest). There were also supportive statements from non-athletes such as Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama.  But you can bet that there are many people in the NBA and professional sports who are uncomfortable with, if not angered by, Jason Collins’ announcement. Most of the homophobes will be reticent to voice opinions at this time, but I did notice a few negative comments about Collins, not surprisingly made by the masters of intolerance, those of the Christian faith. Mark Jackson, an ex-player and current coach of the Golden State Warriors said: “As a Christian man, I have beliefs of what’s right and what’s wrong. That being said, I know Jason Collins, I know his family and I’m certainly praying for them at this time.”

He’ll pray for them? How loony is that? And he makes the typical and ludicrous Christian judgment of equating homosexuality with sin. Hey Mark Jackson; you are a moron! And yet another idiot, this one an ESPN NBA writer named Chris Broussard, said: “Personally, I don’t believe that you can live an openly homosexual lifestyle or an openly premarital sex between heterosexuals, if you’re openly living that type of lifestyle, then the Bible says you know them by their fruits, it says that’s a sin. If you’re openly living in unrepentant sin, whatever it may be, not just homosexuality, adultery, fornication, premarital sex between heterosexuals, whatever it may be, I believe that’s walking in open rebellion to God and to Jesus Christ. I would not characterize that person as a Christian because I do not think the Bible would characterize them as a Christian.”

And people like this are given voices in the mass media? Are these people scary or what? Can you say: Cro-mag? Their faith dictates that they must believe this way? Sorry, but that’s just nothing but ignorance in my opinion. Comments like those only reinforce my long-standing belief that most Christians — along with any other religious zealots, whether they are Muslims, Hindus, or Jews — are clueless, dangerous characters that need to carted off and dumped on a remote island somewhere, far away from the rest of intelligent civilization.

Seriously, why is it that so many of us continue to tolerate the religious extremists in our midst, especially their absurd dangerous, fairy tale beliefs?  We can roll our eyes and call these people nutcases, but when they continue to be given a voice in the media and are able influence politicians and lawmakers, and as a result affect our lives, it’s time we woke up and took some action.

 

A group of sports writers on one website were discussing Collins’s coming out and the impact it will have on his career. One writer wondered if Collins would have difficulty with his teammates. Some thought that it won’t be a big issue, but others suspect there will indeed be some players who are either uncomfortable with being in the locker room with a gay player or who will remain outwardly hostile to homosexuals. Part of that hate, hostility and violence is ingrained in American culture and its warped “Christian values”. Here in Southeast Asia, where the tolerant tenets of Buddhism (more of a philosophy than a religion, some would say) affect the behavior of the people, being gay is not much of an issue at all. In public schools, for example, if a student is gay or lesbian, they might — at the very worst — be playfully teased by their classmates, but without any nastiness vindictiveness. Mai Pen Rai, they would say here in Thailand. But at a school in the United States you can bet that there would be a definite element of cruelty at play, if not something much worse. Remind me again of the suicide statistics for gay youth in the USA? And you can thank those “gentle” God-fearing Christians for the continuing existence of such hate and cruelty.

Thinking about the Jason Collins story and the nasty cloud of religion that hovers over so many issues, I thought of the possible repercussions from an even bigger news event. What if a major candidate for political office in the USA declared: “I am not a Christian, nor do I have religious beliefs of any kind. I remain an atheist.” Now THAT would truly rock some boats. But just like Jason Collins’ announcement, it’s time for someone to step forward and shout it out!

Faces of a Changing Nation

There is no doubt that Myanmar is changing, and changing fast. Much has been written about the myriad changes: various democratic reforms, new personal freedoms, the easing of media censorship, and even the launch of ATMs and credit cards. Cheap SIM cards for cell phones and faster Internet access are next. Yes indeed; big, swift changes have arrived and continue their determined march.

 

But if you’ve been following the news, you know that all is not wonderful in the golden land. There are still many disturbing issues that continue to fester and flare up throughout this “union of states.” Tensions between ethnic groups, and even Buddhists and Muslims, are a big cause for concern, as is the widening income disparity in the country. Yes, plenty of people are making better salaries and taking advantage of new economic opportunities, but the vast majority of the populace continues to leave in poverty, or damn close to it. The trickle-down theory ain’t working here either.

 

Here are some photos of a few of the sweet people I met in Myanmar during my trip last month. Just normal folks, trying to keep their heads above the turbulent economic water, going about living life as best they can in these challenging times.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monks & Politics

I popped into a branch of Asia Books last week to hunt down a copy of the new Neil Young biography that one of my customers said they had seen. I was ecstatic to find that book (and more about that in a later post), but I was also shocked to see another book in stock: Burma’s Plea by Dimitra Stasinopoulou.

 

The book was displayed behind the counter, but it was one of those huge coffee table-sized photo books so it was very easy to notice. My mouth must have dropped open when I saw the cover photo: a huge shot of one of the novice monks from Shwe Yan Pyay Kyaung, a monastery that I visit frequently in Shan State’s Nyaungshwe. Perhaps “frequently” is an understatement. I usually drop by Shwe Yan Pyay on a daily basis when I’m in Nyaungshwe, taking donations of fresh fruit and snapping photos, sometimes chatting with the Abbot (Saya Daw), the novice monks, or senior monks. I’ve been going there for the better part of decade and in recent years have taken groups of the monks on trips to places in the area such as Kakku, Pindaya, and Taunggyi. They’re a nice, polite bunch of kids and the Saya Daw and his assistant monks do a fine job of educating and taking care of them.

 

So anyway, I see this huge book and the cover photo was clearly taken at Shwe Yan Pyay, and even the novice monk looks familiar; I’m just flabbergasted by the whole thing. But what I found most unsettling was the book title, Burma’s Plea, along with a big quote plastered on the cover: “Please use your freedom to promote ours.”

That’s more than a little creepy. I can understand and even empathize with the desire to promote “freedom” and other human rights issues in the country I know as Myanmar (I’ll leave the name debate alone for now; that’s something I’ve written about in the past), but I find it troubling that they are using the photo of a young novice monk to highlight their human rights agenda, no matter how righteous it may be. What does this young monk have to do with promoting freedom? You can rest assured that novice monks like this kid have scant knowledge of politics or human rights issues. Yes, many older monks in Myanmar are known to voice their political opinions and some have marched in various protests in recent years (witness the famous, but misnamed, “Saffron Revolution” in 2007), but novice monks from Shan State have not been among the participants. This book, published in 2011, looks like a gorgeous one (see the “YouTube” link below), containing 407 pages of photographs that highlight various parts of the country. While the photos may be captivating they don’t seem to focus on “freedom.” In any case, the author and/or publisher really should not have used a photo of a novice monk on the cover to make a political statement.

 

And what’s with that horrible book title? Burma’s Plea? It almost puts the locals on the same pitiful level as beggars: Help us because we can’t help ourselves! I have a problem with Westerners sticking their noses where they don’t belong, particularly when it comes to domestic political issues in other countries. I look at any sort of intervention or “assistance,” no matter how dire the situation may appear, to be the wrong course of action. To title a book “Burma’s Plea” makes it sound like “those poor pitiful people” can’t fight for their rights without the benevolent assistance of Westerners. I think that most people in Myanmar have enough pride that they don’t want to be seen as helpless in the eyes of the rest of world. That’s not to say that they don’t appreciate — or need — development work and humanitarian assistance, but whatever political problems the country may have, let them work it out amongst themselves without know-it-all Westerners trying to butt in and dictate the “proper” way to make changes or do things.

 

I’m also still not clear where the proceeds from the sale of this book are going. On the website of The Border Consortium (an organization that has an office in Bangkok) it states that:

“This private edition is available in Thailand from TBBC’s Bangkok office for 1,500 baht each. Dimitra has generously agreed that proceeds of books sold by TBBC in Thailand will be used for TBBC activities.”

And those “activities”, judging from what they say on their website, include a lot of worthwhile projects. But a news report on the Mizzima.org website, states that “funds from the sale by the TBBC will be donated to Burma Campaign UK.” Now that gets a little trickier. Frankly, I’m not a big fan of Burma Campaign UK. They are one of those organizations that used to strongly discourage (condemn might be a better word) tourists from visiting Myanmar, deeming it not only politically incorrect but tantamount to enriching the coffers of the military junta. But in 2010, after Aung San Suu Kyi (along with her NLD party) changed her tune and decided that tourism ain’t such an evil thing after all, the folks at Burma Campaign UK, in parrot-like fashion, followed her lead and no longer opposed the idea of tourists visiting the country. Except for package tourists: they were still evil and were helping the generals get richer. At least that’s the opinion of Burma Campaign UK. Their heart may be in the right place, but I think that the strident, no-compromising stance of groups like Burma Campaign UK has done more harm than good over the past 20 years.

During one of my trips to Mandalay I saw a shocking reminder of just how negative and counter-productive that these “campaigns” can be. I was visiting the Moustache Brothers (the famous dance and comedy troupe who are very politically active, two the “brothers” having spent time in prison) at their house one afternoon. In between serving me tea, Lu Zaw (the “funny one”) played a DVD that had a public service announcement produced by Burma Campaign UK. It was in such bad taste, and catered to such pathetic stereotypes, that I was appalled. I don’t even think Lu Zaw — who has always encouraged tourists to visit his country and see the situation for themselves — was properly aware of just how insulting and one-sided that this video message was. It certainly wasn’t going to help his business or encourage anyone to visit Myanmar.

You have to wonder what organizations like this do with all the donations that they receive (consider their overhead, for starters: they have to pay healthy salaries for their director and staff members, rent an office, etc.) and how much of the money really goes to helping the people in Myanmar/Burma? On their website, they state their goal as:

“We play a leading role in raising awareness about the situation in Burma, and pressuring the international community to take action in support of the people of Burma.”

Okay, those appear to be admirable goals on the surface, but what does “pressuring the international community to take action” involve exactly? More boycotts and sanctions? A lot of good that did! In other words; not at all. Meanwhile, all those “misguided tourists,” ones who defied calls for a boycott, visited the country over the past two decades, met many local people, and were able to put money directly into those people’s pockets, something that groups like Burma Campaign UK could never do.

http://www.dimitrastasinopoulou.com/

http://theborderconsortium.org/announcements/2012-01-16-news-burmas-plea.htm

http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/index.php/burma/donate/burmas-plea

 

Bangkok Governor Election

It’s been a veritable noise fest on the streets of Bangkok in recent weeks. Yes, Chinese New Year reared its noisy head once again, providing all the idiots who love playing with firecrackers an excuse to create more racket. But the added factor in the decibel level was the start of the campaign for Bangkok governor.

 

Naturally, a forest of gaudy campaign signs has sprung up all around the city, a most visible clue that the election is coming. But to supplement the signage, many candidates have embraced the idea of hiring vehicles to drive around town, blaring campaign slogans and playing songs, with the occasional “live announcer” yelling more nonsense through the amplified sound system. How loud is it? You can hear them coming from blocks away.

 

One of the more visible candidates is the incumbent governor, Sukhumbhand. Despite the fact that he’s done a pretty good job during his first term, based on his cringe-worthy collection of wimpy-looking campaign signs, I’m willing to wager that he loses the election big-time. In some of the photos, Sukhumbhand bears an eerie resemblance to Grandpa Munster. But at least old Mister Munster bared his teeth when he smiled. Sukhumbhand has apparently lost his choppers, judging from the fact that he avoids showing them when he tries to smile. Or is that a grimace? In another unfortunate set of photos the guv is shaking his fist at the camera, and again NOT showing any teeth. The fist-in-your-face pose (there are both right-fist and left-fist signs for some reason; maybe targeting the ambidextrous vote?), however, just comes off looking silly. Is he trying to look tough? Menacing? Determined? Once again, the word “wimpy” springs to mind. This guy is going to lose.

 

The other leading candidate, Pongsapat (he, the darling of the ruling Pheua Thai Party, the latest incarnation of the Thaksin regime), has a look of utter surprise in some of his photos. “Can you believe they picked me to run in this thing!” In yet another photo he is making some sort of odd hand gesture, as if he accidentally lost the flute he was playing. Thinking of that missing flute, visions of old Jethro Tull songs from the 1970s spring to mind. “Bungle in the Jungle” baby! No, let’s try “Living in the Past.”

 

The other candidates are the usual mish-mash of ex-police dudes, university graduates (these guys love posing in their cap and gown, or showing off their military medals), and eccentric types who are running for reasons only known to their family and Facebook friends.

 

This campaign has been going on for over three weeks already, and we still have another full two weeks to go before the elections on March 3. As campaigns go, this one may not be ugly, but it sure is loud and annoying. I think most Bangkokians will be breathing a carbon monoxide-laced sigh of relief when this madness finally ceases.

 

KL’s Little Burma

There has been a lot of excitement in the past year over various reforms in Myanmar, the most dramatic changes being the release of political prisoners, democratic elections, more freedom of the press, and opening the country to foreign investment. But one thing that hasn’t changed in the country is the dire employment situation and stagnant economy. Maybe all this “investment” and “development” will equate to better employment opportunities for locals at some point, but, to quote the great song by John Hiatt: “It hasn’t happened yet.”

 

Because finding a good paying job — hell, any sort of job — is so difficult, many natives of Myanmar are still seeking work in other Southeast Asian countries, particularly in Thailand and Malaysia. In Bangkok, it’s quite common to find people from Myanmar working in jobs in the construction industry, in bars and restaurants, or as maids. I’ve met two waiters just in the past month; one from Mawlamyine and the other from Chin State. When I was in Kuala Lumpur last month one of the young men working at my hotel was from Mandalay. He’s been working there for several years and I always enjoy chatting with him in Burmese when I stay there. Not far from the hotel, near KL’s Central Market, or Pasar Seni, is a street lined with several businesses either managed by people from Myanmar or catering to customers from that country. This “Little Burma” seems to get larger every time I’m in town.

 

When I’m in KL, I make sure to stop at the Gantawin Restaurant a few times for hearty bowls of monhinga for breakfast, or good meal and a bottle of Myanmar Beer at night. The waitresses always look a little apprehensive when they see a western customer enter the establishment, but once I smooth talk them with a bit of Burmese, the ice is broken. One more bottle, please!

 

 

 

Ma Thanegi’s Prison Memoir

Just published this month by Things Asian Press is Nor Iron Bars a Cage, Ma Thanegi’s memoir of the three years that she spent in Yangon’s infamous Insein Prison, from 1989 to 1992. But don’t go expecting grim and horrific tales of prison life. Ma Thanegi and the other female prisoners created a supportive, caring community within their prison, and this surprisingly upbeat and defiant memoir is full of touching and often funny anecdotes. As one reads this fascinating account of life behind bars in Myanmar, you can’t help but admire the spirit and determination of Ma Thanegi and the other female prisoners. As Ma Thanegi writes in the book’s forward: “We were supposed to be miserable, and we were damned if we’d oblige.”

 

The positive, almost light-hearted tone of this book may puzzle readers who are expecting horrific tales of torture and cruelty. and because it doesn’t paint such a grim picture of Burmese prison life, it will no doubt infuriate critics of the Myanmar government and various “Free Burma” groups, some who seem to perversely relish the aspect of hearing about more human rights violations and unjust prison sentences. But Ma Thanegi is no stranger to controversy and expects such reactions. Some critics have gone so far as to absurdly brand her a “government apologist” simply because she refused to support misguided ideas such as tourism boycotts, or justified the usage of “Myanmar” as the country’s official name. Being a staunch defender of human rights and democracy, such criticism only serves to awaken the wrath and fury of Ma Thanegi.

 

In addition to this memoir, last year Things Asian Press published Defiled on the Ayeyarwaddy, Ma Thanegi’s travelogue of a trip she took on Myanmar’s most famous river. Those who enjoyed her first travel book, The Native Tourist, will find this book even more memorable. In addition to being a descriptive account of her river journey, the book offers an enlightening window into Myanmar society and culture, and it’s funny as hell. Ma Thanegi has also written books on subjects as diverse as Myanmar cuisine, the history of Shwedagon Pagoda, and Burmese Marionettes. In between a handful of other writing projects (she’s a regular contributor to many travel magazines) and recovering from a cold she caught during a weekend trip to Bagan, I pestered her with questions about her book and current life in Myanmar.

You were released from prison in 1992, and now, 21 years later, you have finally written a memoir of that experience, Nor Iron Bars a Cage. Some might ask “What took you so long?” but obviously this was a book that could not be written, or at least published, while the previous Myanmar government was still censoring publications. Have things changed enough within the country that you feel like the time is now right — and safe — for books such as yours to be published?

Actually I had been writing this book secretly off and on since 2000. I was busy with other projects so I was working on it off and on and after I finished it I must have done it over a 100 times. I told no one. I did not want the military government to find out about it. But it’s not so much the fear; it has been my policy since I was young that if something is meant to be secret I tell NO ONE. Yes, things have changed; there are other books of jail time by ex-political prisoners out in Burmese, for example by Zargana and Ma Thida. The latter is the doctor/writer I mentioned in the forward of Nor Iron Bars a Cage. Ma Thida was ill and had a really, really hard time, which she too faced with meditation and strength of character.

Many prison memoirs dwell on the negatives of the experience and the abundance of cruelty, yet you focused more on the positive aspects of the experience, along with the spirit and determination of the other prisoners. Did you approach writing this memoir as one that would have a positive tone, or did you agonize over whether to write about the bad stuff too?

This was how we lived and so how I wrote it. I had nothing to agonize over or bad stuff to write about. I left out only personal stories about some inmates, not what bad things anyone suffered. Actually, my friends in jail have young children and elderly parents in ill health to worry about, which I don’t, but they were all strong women, too. None of us, in telling other people our experiences, has ever moaned and groaned over anything AT ALL. We are all not the self pitying type. As I wrote “It is in the Myanmar nature to face all things good or bad with pride and dignity, and not to lose face by “losing it.” For us, courage is shown by facing life calmly and without any display of anger. It is a weakness to allow others to humiliate us or break our spirits. The same is true of self pity, which we think of as disgusting. So much so that when I got out, people who truly loved me, told me how bad they felt about me being in jail, I found myself lashing out at them for pitying me. Recently when a group of us co-inmates (we call ourselves the “inside” family) met and when I told them how I was lashing out like that, each and every one said they were doing the same. We Myanmar people have a lot of pride. Our pride is in our strength of character and not how much wealth we have or how high our positions. Well, of course there are those who are vain about wealth and position, but that is vanity not pride.

Your book describes a very colorful and proud group of female prisoners. I understand that you are still in contact with some of them. Do you usually meet them individually, or do you have anything like group reunions on a regular basis?

We meet individually or in group reunions, as with groups of friends or family. It’s not a strictly regulated officious thing. At reunions there is so much noise and jokes and teasing!

In addition to this memoir, you recently wrote a travel book (Defiled on the Ayeyarwaddy), will re-publish one of your Myanmar cuisine cookbooks, and have written various other books on Myanmar culture and temples. What else are you working on right now, or are planning to write?

I’m superstitious about telling people what I’m working on, sorry!

You are quite the food authority, having written or translated books and magazine articles about Myanmar Cuisine. On the subject of food, for tourists visiting your country, what are some of the “must eat” dishes that will give a visitor a true taste of the local cuisine?

The salads, and noodles, and pickled tea leaf salad. Must eats: Ohn No Kauk Swei, Shan Kauk Swei, and Monhinga (those three are noodle dishes commonly eaten for breakfast). Also, Steamed Hilsa, or Nga Tha Lauk, a fish that’s cooked until the bones are soft. This fish has a deeper taste than other fish. Alos, butterfish, a very creamy flesh and no bones at all, and village style chicken with lemongrass and gourd, and giant river prawns. Be sure to eat the tomaly in the head.

Have you read any recent novels by Myanmar writers that are so good that you think they should be translated into English and other languages?

Yep, Khin Khin Htoo’s Anyar Sway Myo Myar … vignettes of her upcountry relatives. And a short one on the feasts of rural people, Taw Ahlu, by her husband Nay Win Myint. Not recent releases, but this couple has the whole literary greatness covered! Also, a recent publication by Ma Thida about HER Insein Jail experiences titled Sanchaung, Insein, Harvard.

Along with the political changes happening in Myanmar, a deluge of developers and investors are descending on the country like locusts. Obviously, there are good and bad aspects to such “progress”. What visible changes have you seen in Yangon recently?

Too long to list. First is I think, we’re just so damn RELIEVED to be out from the military rule. When I think of people who were saying we must (must? Who the hell did they think they are?) boycott the elections of 2010, I wonder at the number of idiots out there.

Amidst all globalization and other western influences that are creeping — or perhaps stampeding — into Myanmar, are you optimistic or pessimistic that your country can retain its unique culture and traditions in the coming decades?

Progress, or anything in life for that matter, usually comes with risks to the good old things. There is nothing that I or anyone can do. ‘Educating’ people will be like trying to stem a flood … people will do what they want…. idiots will do idiotic things and smart people will do smart things. That’s their democratic right, isn’t it?

 

Dan Simmons and his ‘Flashback’ predictions

The new Dan Simmons novel Flashback, is a fascinating, wild, and disturbing tale, set in the USA — bouncing between Denver and Los Angeles — in the year 2036. As the back cover blurb states: “Terrorism and ultra-violence plague a once powerful society, whose only escape is to numb itself on flashback; a euphoric yet cripplingly addictive regression drug.”

 

In this novel, set barely two decades in the future, the US is being governed by Japanese, American armed forces are fighting in China —- on the side of Japan, most sports stadiums (such as Coors Field in Denver) have been turned into federal prisons, shopping malls have become glorified housing projects, Texas has declared its independence, most commuters now ride bikes to work, and basically all hell is breaking loose around the country.  And those are only a few of the outlandish scenarios in this novel. But the more the chapters pass, you start to wonder: will any of this stuff really come true?

Toward the end of the book, on page 482, there is an out-of-the-blue reference to Thailand in one chapter. One of the characters has fallen ill and is given medical treatment by a Thai doctor living in Denver. Here’s an excerpt:

Dr. Tak’s real name was Sudaret Jatisripitak but everyone in the mall called him Dr. Tak. He’d fled from Thailand during their last “Thai Rak Thai” (Thais Love Thais) revolution that had killed a fifth of the nation’s population and found that he could make a decent living, without being medically certified in the United States, simply by giving black market medical care to the few thousand residents of the Cherry Creek Mall Condominiums.

The scary thing is that the writer’s prediction of a fifth of Thailand’s population perishing in a Thai Rak Thai battle isn’t so far-fetched. Judging from the last Red Shirt “protest” — which was more akin to a state of siege as Red Shirt hoodlums set up camps and held central Bangkok hostage for nearly three months — an even more bloody confrontation isn’t that remote a possibility. The colored-shirt political divide here in the kingdom is as entrenched as it ever was, with no signs that unity anywhere in sight.

 While Flashback is a very entertaining and thought provoking novel, there is also a disturbing right-wing slant to some parts of the book. Take this passage, where a Japanese mafia character is lecturing an American detective who he has hired to investigate the murder of his son:

“More than twenty years ago,” said Nakamura, “a group of my fellow Nipponese businessmen and myself watched as your new young president gave a speech from Cairo that flattered the Islamic world — a bloc of Islamic nations that had not yet coalesced into today’s Global Caliphate — and praised them with obvious historical distortions of their won imagined grandeur. This president began the process of totally rewriting history and contemporary reality with an eye toward praising radical Islam into loving him and your country. The name for this form of foreign policy, whenever it is used with forces of fascism, is appeasement.

This president and your country soon followed this self-mockery of a foreign policy with ever more blatant and useless appeasement, attempts at becoming a social democracy when European social democracies were beginning to collapse from debt and the burden of their entitlement programs, unilateral disarmament, withdrawal from the world stage, a betrayal of old allies, a rapid and deliberate surrendering of America’s position as a superpower, and a total retreat from international responsibilities that the United States of America had long taken seriously.”

Doesn’t sound like an Obama fan, does he? As with most right-wing arguments, they attempt to grossly simplify a complicated situation, conveniently leaving out certain facts and details. The previous tirade, for example, neglects to mention the global destruction caused by decades of American imperialism and economic blackmail (read any book by John Perkins for details on America’s alarming practices). The USA is definitely not some sort of benign, innocent party in the war on terrorism.

 

On the other hand, I think Western leaders HAVE shamefully tried to appease the radical Islamic element far too much, absurdly referring to Islam as a “great religion,” for example. Does anyone seriously think that most Westerners, Christians in particular, have the slightest understanding of, or respect for Islam? Bush, Cheney, Clinton, Obama, take your pick; they all speak with forked tongues. And conversely, why should any other sane individual on the planet have any respect for the loony right-wing Christians who go around trying to force their warped “morals” and bizarre doctrine on others? It’s all wrong. I remain puzzled when politicians and “concerned citizens” make pleas for religious freedom. Why should there be such “freedom” when it’s so obvious that most devout followers of religions all over the world have an extremely radical agenda with no tolerance for those who don’t believe the same as they do, all of which contributes to further hate and bloodshed. Which leads to the question: whose intolerance is justified?

Teachers Targeted … to Die

Wednesday’s Thai newspapers detailed a vicious crime, one that’s occurring with disturbingly frequency lately: another teacher shot down and killed in Thailand’s notorious “Deep South.” And this wasn’t just any regular teacher, but a school director in Pattani, one of the three provinces in South Thailand where Muslim “insurgents” have been on a rampage for most of the past decade.

 

In an article this week the Bangkok Post gave a sobering tally: since the violence surged in January 2004, there have been 155 teachers killed. Read that again: 155 human beings slaughtered because they were only trying to do their job and provide local children with an education. Teachers! That’s just … intolerable. Fuck those insurgents.

 

Sadly, it’s not just teachers that are being killed, although that group appears to be one of the various insurgent groups’ prime targets. Buddhist monks have been shot and beheaded; police officers murdered; soldiers and “defense volunteers” ambushed and killed; bombs going off in markets and teashops, killing and maiming yet more people. A news article in Bangkok’s The Nation newspaper back in March put the total number of people killed in the region at 5,086, and the number of injured at 8,485. But that was over eight months ago, and those numbers are obviously even higher now. While Muslim groups appear to be the ones who are instigating the violence, it’s not clear how they are determining their targets. The number of Muslims who have died is higher than the number of Buddhists (2,996 to 1,952, according to the article), yet the number of Buddhists injured was nearly twice that of Muslims (5,141 to 2,751).

 

So what is causing this senseless violence? Oddly, it’s hard to get an accurate answer to that question. On Wikipedia, for example, it says:

A striking aspect of the South Thailand insurgency is the anonymity of the people behind it and the absence of concrete demands.

And that’s one of the reasons that efforts to quell the violence have been so ineffective. There’s no obvious, declared enemy, no one group to take aim at, to attempt to negotiate with or eliminate. Some say that the whole thing is a continuation of a long-running separatist movement, the border provinces (next to Malaysia) wanting to create their own independent state. Others think that the root of the violence is because the mostly Muslim locals feel ignored and economically disenfranchised by the central Thai government.

 

No matter what the cause, one would think that eliminating this scourge of violence would be a priority for the Thai government, but various incarnations of the Thaksin Regime, and even the Democratic Party, have all proven to be either inept or not particularly interested in solving the problem. The mindset seems to be along the lines of:

“Hey, it’s just those three border provinces down south, so why worry? Most of those people are Muslim and don’t even speak Thai anyway, so they are not really the same as other Thai people.”

 

Maybe when the insurgency travels north to Bangkok the government will finally start to take this problem more seriously. Thus far, the violence has been confined down south, but how much longer will that remain the case? Meanwhile, 332 schools in Pattani were closed temporarily this week “for a review of security measures.” One idea is to have teachers stay and live at their schools, rather than risking a commute to and from home. But for those with families, that’s not a realistic option. Frankly, it’s a wonder than any teachers still bother going to work in those provinces with the constant turmoil. At some point, you have to look at the madness surrounding you and gauge if it’s worth putting up with or not. If it was me, I’d be on the first bus out of that hellhole.