FreeCulture Diaries

Lessons From Myanmar

culturallyfree — Thu, 22 May 2014 15:12:00 GMT

When I left to visit Myanmar (formerly Burma) for two weeks with the Alternative Break program, I expected to learn about the Myanar people’s fight for a democratic transition through education reform. However, I didn’t expect that fight to leave such a lasting impression on me, and one that should reverberate through the American college student body and our generation as a whole.

In Myanmar, we met with many inspiring, passionate individuals, including an 18-year-old college student who was a political prisoner for six months and walked 800 miles to promote peace in Myanmar. Another student produced a documentary about her fight for liberty in Myanmar and is now considered to be a potential opposition leader to the Burmese government.

After meeting with these students, something clicked in my head: it’s noble to criticize a government that is abusive and oversteps its boundaries. History frequently honors leaders who were anti-government in the ways they promoted peace, freedom and equality. Aung San Suu Kyi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. are just a few examples of people who fought for democracy and equality through peaceful means and were also anti-government in their nature.

One Burmese student asked me what I found most distressing in the U.S., and my answer surprised him. The National Defense Authorization Act is a law with a clause that allows the U.S. government to detain anyone indefinitely without due process or a fair trial. The student said this is something he would expect out of the military junta, not the country that symbolizes individual freedom.

It was the U.S. government and our founding fathers that decided a black man was considered three-fifths of a person in terms of population. It was an American president who decided to relocate 110,000 Japanese-Americans into internment camps. This abuse of power continues today as an American president authorizes warrantless wiretapping, torture, kidnapping and detention. It is anti-government activists who continuously fight to overturn these injustices and crimes against humanity.

Yet when anti-government or pro-individual freedom activists address these concerns, they are either silenced or perceived as idiotic and preposterous. That’s hypocritical if we honor past heroes who did the same for their country.

In Myanmar, the country’s independence and rebirth has been driven almost entirely by students. Students like Aung San (Aung San Suu Kyi’s father) drove the colonial British out of their country, built the foundations of their military powers and fought for liberty.

In the U.S., students have the opportunity to challenge government authority in the same pursuit of freedom, equality and liberty. The difference is that our path is not obstructed by genocide and warfare. Here at the United States especially, where many students will go on to write and shape policy, there are lessons to be learned from Myanmar.

Photos: Myanmar

culturallyfree — Thu, 22 May 2014 15:06:00 GMT

Myanmar: Golden Pagodas & Golden Dreams

A Boy Band and an Authoritarian Dictatorship

culturallyfree — Wed, 14 May 2014 05:04:29 GMT

The walls are bare and unadorned save for a photo of the Lady – Aung San Suu Kyi looking gracefully down with white innocent flowers pinned to her hair, beneath which sits an unassuming young buddhist monk in maroon drapings, shaved head, waving and grinning at my presence. It is a Sunday morning in Phaung Daw OO (PDO), an orphanage and monastic school in Myanmar, and the the room is packed with dozens of young Burmese children, smiling little girls in white shirts and floral longyis, boys playing futbol with their barefeet, and a handful of school children in attendance.

“Are you the girl that’s making movie about One Direction?” asks Theingi, a young girl around 12 years old, She stands in front of me, deep brown eyes widened, as the room reverberates with the chatter and laughter of children around me. I feel someone holding my hand and look down to see a young boy, face dusty from the motorcycle air of Mandalay smiling, leaning against my leg. I look back to Theingi. “Yes, I am,” I said while motioning to grab my camera, “would you like to be in it?’”

Her face lights up and a beautiful, wide smile emerges on her face. She looks around excitedly and motion her friends sitting on the footsteps of their dormitory to run over. “Yes. I love One Direction very much, yes.” The crowd listening with rapt attention. I am curious. How can a British boy band’s influence become so strong in an authoritarian dictatorship?

I was intrigued. I wanted to know if One Direction meant something else for Thiengi than it did for my sister back in Chicago. I put my hands on my knees, my black longyi already dusty from the motorcycle air of Mandalay. “Why do you like One Direction?” I asked with such strange curiosity.

The crowd of children is silent for a split moment. The girls and boys looked at each other. The many hands leaning on my back are released. Theingi spoke up with a sincere, yet serious tone. “We like One Direction a lot, because they express how they want,” said Theingi with some hesitation to find the right words, “We don’t have that in Myanmar. One Direction songs make us happy and we feel like them -- like we are same. We feel hope and we like it very much.”

I nodded and smiled. “That is beautiful, Theingi,” I said with my voice quivering at the delicacy of the matter, “can you say that to the camera?” She beamed and nodded.

I’ll never forget that day. The smiles, beautiful faces, and the faint melody of school children singing “One Thing.”