Musings on the road from Myanmar
Trip Start
Jan 14, 2008
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Trip End
Jan 13, 2009
Somewhere in Myanmar, Myanmar
Monday, June 9, 2008
First off, the government here is not at all what we expected. I guess we've seen too many movies about the former soviet union that portray totalitarian government as Orwellian as police states. In Myanmar, instead of it being an invasive force that tries to control the actions and even thoughts of its citizens, the much maligned government seems to exist on some sort of parallel universe. In our first week we saw maybe three police men and four army soldiers; none of whom had guns. Representatives of the government were hard to find, which is of course, one of the big problems for the disaster relief effort as the government is pursuing an active strategy of doing nothing. In fact, they are trying to prevent national volunteers from even getting in to deliver food and supplies. Supposedly this is part of their strategy to get the refugees to go "home" (since they were all swept away, it's difficult to understand what "home" means) so they can plant rice (the largest cash infusion for the government is from rice sales). On top of this officials just seem callous. It is actually illegal to try to help victims of the cyclone. Not only are foreigners reportedly not allowed into the affected region, but legal donations of materials or money must go through a long bureaucratic process. Once inside the country we were able to make connections in order to make discrete donations. We were rewarded with pictures of t our supplies being delivered but politely asked to be sure that they were not published on the web or anywhere. It is a sad state of affairs when tons of aid food from western countries sits offshore rotting due to the governments paranoia.
The people we met along the way were dedicated to helping their fellow countrymen and grateful for any help they received. We met a nurse who manages over one hundred aged and aging citizens by herself with a purely donated stock of medicines. Monasteries where child monks hid from the draft were ecstatic over small donations. One of the many heart warming moments in our trip was when we visited a desolate country school in the village of Samon in Shan on a whim as we drove by. The kids were quite amazed by our presence and the administrators were grateful for the toys and books we donated there that Brenda had smuggled in from the States.
Their is such a gulf of empathy, or even awareness, between the government and the people in this country that it is difficult to fathom for those lucky enough to live in a functioning society. One good example is that they have moved the capital to a brand new city open only to government employees (which achieves one of their goals of nullifying demonstrations). Another example is transportation: the roads are atrocious and intentionally kept this way to reduce travel. Additionally, you can only legally get two gallons of gas a day thereby creating a huge black market with roadside gas houses pouring petrol out of plastic containers. Even in education the government has promoted distance learning at the university level, not to reach more people, but to keep them at home and in the villages. This ensures that they can keep producing the cash crop of rice and removes the threat of student unrest and demonstrations.
Another surprise for us was that the government does not try to prevent its citizens from leaving the country - it actually encourages it and then taxes their higher earnings - Burmese told us that the government wishes the whole population would go overseas and we're not sure if that was a joke or not.
Western societies tend to complain about irrational behavior from our own bureaucracies. But the Burmese junta and their minions take unpredictability to a whole other level. Can you name another government that changed all of it's currency to denominations that are multiple of 9 based Chinese's astrology? Or how about deciding to change the driving side on roads in the late 60's without changing the steering wheel? This has resulted in the odd practice (and perhaps unique) of the driver driving on the outside of the road (one shudders to think of the confusion and accidents that this must have caused shortly after the change). We think the number one instance of bizarre governmental practice was the habit of the leader of the country painting a horse white, gluing a horn on its head, putting it in an airplane, and sitting on it in the cargo hold of a transport plane. His goal was to ride a unicorn to ensure the longevity of his power, but a coup seemed to have thwarted his efforts.
The government is unequivocally dysfunctional. However, exactly what one should to about it is a more difficult question. Some say isolation. Some say coercion. Some say do ignore them. Currently most of the west has chosen to heavily isolate this country. So much so that there is no real industry. The country is under boycott from every western country including all the financial institutions and it is perhaps the only country where debit and credit card transactions are universally impossible. TThere is even a debate among travelers as to whether choosing to tour here is somehow supportive of the government and therefore amoral. We all thought about this before. In fact Brenda did a bit of research. We won't bore you with the ins and outs but we chose our tour carefully to reduce the amount of funds going to the government. The tourism dollars going to the government is small, much smaller than their rice and gas revenues, and not going to be a make or break for the financial stability of the regime. We asked a number of citizens, including the monks who have taken the brunt of the governments wrath lately, whether they encouraged tourism and all gave a resounding yes. The reasons were mostly economical. However contact with the outside world is cherished by the people here and can not be underestimated. The most apparent reason not to travel here is that their national heroin, Aung San Su Kyi, had a few years back stated that tourism should be avoided as it legitimized the government. However, the people of Myanmar who love their "great lady" seem to differ in opion on this particular matter. It is interesting that in terms of human rights China and Myanmar are fairly similar. Yet China is fawned over by the West, even rewarded with the Olympics, but Myanmar is completely excluded from the international community. After visiting the country we felt our decision to do so was even more justified, however anyone considering a trip here should do their own research. The initial section of the Myanmar Lonely Planet is a good intro and resource for this.
We all read a very interesting book on Myanmar called "The River of Lost Footsteps." It covers the fascinating history of this nation along with modern commentary by someone whose family has been operating in Myanmar politics for generations. Current challenges are colored by a proud and long history of kingdoms and empires that made Burma "the center of the universe" in the rulers minds; dozens of different ethnic communities with long histories wars and transgressions; a very diverse population including cosmopolitan Yangonians juxtaposed against a rural population still relying on oxcarts as a principle mode of transportation; and memories of abuse by various imperial and colonial powers. His advice was to try to influence the government with contact and carrot approaches. As we are not political experts we can only offer advice in terms of tourism and our recommendation is to go visit this mysterious land and wonderful culture. Both deserve our assistance!
