Ignorance
In 1988, when students and monks were massacred in Myanmar, Universities were closed and the education system completed its deterioration. A whole generation of young people were left without a means of education. Many students found ways to teach themselves, but in general the lack of higher education along with the system of memorization used in elementary through secondary levels resulted in a huge loss of the potential human resources of the country. In this way the younger generations were handicapped, taught to accept and internalize the twisted histories and other lies fed to them in state run schools instead of being taught how to use their brains, how to think, and how to question. They were taught fear instead. The news and media surrounding them was always manipulated and controlled by the Junta. Myanmar is a country in which rumors fly as no where else. When the US invaded Iraq this last time, many respectable Burmese sincerely believed that the US had tanks lined up on the border of Myanmar and Thailand, finally coming to free them. In reality, the US government marked Myanmar down on their black-list as a dangerous country harboring evil terrorists out to destroy the American people.
When I look at what the education system in the United States of America has become it doesn’t seem very different from that in Myanmar. We are not being taught how to think but only to accept what we are given. Even at our University levels we are rewarded for parroting back what we are fed. It is now common knowledge that our media is controlled by a few groups whose purpose is to keep us in fear of the outer world. It has just been over the last couple years that the majority of Americans have realized this. Still today, many of us believe everything we see on the news. We are constantly surrounded by commercialism and fed mind-dulling nonsense about what is healthy for our bodies, and then told the opposite the next day. This keeps us all confused and in fear of cancer, terrorists, bad-credit, other religions, fires, tornadoes, you name it, that we dare not think for ourselves any more.
And I know what I have said to those Burmese is the truth, the US of A is no longer the land of freedom where anyone can pursue and fulfill their dreams of happiness.
Division
One of the methods that the Myanmar military government is renowned for is dressing up some of its thugs in the clothes of monks and starting riots with the Muslim populations, especially in Rakhine state. Muslims are an easy target for the military as many Buddhist Burmese already have prejudices against them. The government divides the people by causing them to look at each other and to fight amongst themselves instead of looking at their oppressors. We see this same thing in the US.
The division of rich and poor in Myanmar is drastic. Buses packed to overflowing drive past huge new pathfinders on the streets of Yangon. Many of the people in the buses can hardly afford their bus fare. The amount of betel nut being chewed in the past few years has increased to the point that the streets are nearly completely spattered with red blood-like splotches. Betel suppresses the appetite and gives energy, especially for day laborers and trishaw drivers. Every time I am in Myanmar I hear stories of young men dying, mostly from alcohol; if I ask a little street urchin where their father is, they tell me he has died, when I ask them from what, they tell me alcohol. The cheap alcohol in Myanmar is tainted with rubbing alcohol which causes blindness and ends in death. Please don’t get me wrong in comparing the United States to Myanmar. I am not blind. I can see that the situation in Myanmar is much more drastic, severe and desperate than the situation here in America.
All I am pointing out is that we need to learn from the situation in Myanmar, the potential for our country to follow the path of the greed and resulting paranoia and insanity of the Myanmar Generals is not so unthinkable. The division of wealth is not quite so blatant here, just yet, or is it?
Fuel and Basic Necessities
Many of us thought that the Burmese people wouldn’t dare to rise up again after the slaughter they faced in 1988 and the dehumanization and suppression that they have existed under since the end of World War II. The military regime pushed too far in doubling the price of fuel overnight - leaving people stranded, unable to get to work, unable to eat, to provide for their children and with nothing more to lose. Many of us still wonder what it will take to get the American people to get off of our sofas, get away from our TV or computer screens to throw off the fascist state our country is becoming. Unfortunately for us in America, the government is clever enough not to double the price of gas overnight, but simply to ease it up over a few months.
The country has been on a system of rotation for electricity for the last few years. The people are told there is not enough water in the lakes, or that one of the transformers needs a part. But there are stories of light-bulbs bursting in Pyinmana (the new ‘Capital’) because there is too much voltage. Now, in the middle of the rainy season, with floods ravaging the country there is still not enough electricity. In the meantime the military is building a series of ecologically damaging dams in conjunction with China and Thailand, displacing thousands of Karen, and other tribal groups from their homeland. The electricity generated by these dams goes directly to Thailand and China. In 2006, the price of onions and garlic doubled overnight, because the majority of the crop was being exported to China and India. Onions and garlic with ginger form the base of the curries and salads of the Burmese cuisine. Over and over again, the regime blatantly disregards the needs of its own people in their greed.
Visit Myanmar (Burma)
The people of Myanmar still hope that America will come to rescue them and set them free. For many of them the United States of America is the knight on a white horse. The land of Freedom, Liberty and Happiness a veritable Shangri-La. I personally am disappointed and sickened by our policies and what we, the American people have allowed our country to do around the world. For those of us who still believe that NO ONE should be treated with such contempt and that EVERY PERSON has a basic right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, I beg you, along with the people that have treated me with such love and hospitality, go to Myanmar and show your solidarity for the demonstrations in Myanmar.
I have lost my confidence in the US government and distrust the use of military might. This is why I believe there is another way. Perhaps, even for us so far away, these monks, marching day after day in the pouring rain demanding that their people be treated with respect are offering their lives to inspire all the people of the world to reject the greedy, self-serving exploitation that has taken away decent humanity from all of us.
We are not so different.