Concerning Life in GeneralPosted by markus Sat, March 29, 2008 13:58:44So I havn't been writing much on Singapore lately. I guess cause when I havn't been away from here I've pretty much been dwelling on campus.
I've been getting some more impressions of Singapore lately, and there's a lot of things I like, a lot things I found strange.
I LIKE:
Small suchi and chinese tea for 10SEK! We should have that in sweden.
Breadtalk! All day they bake all kinds of breads, both foody and sweet, and they range fomr 4SEK upwards, get a piece of fresh bread and coffe for 10SEK! We should have that in sweden.
They have a something like buses on rails, on a concrete platform above ground level. Not talking about the MRT (subway) but the smaller one they have locally. This is cool, it's not too futuristicly designed, but I take it as a proof that we'r actually moving into: The future. The future I like. ALSO, 30% of the water used i recycled water! The aim is to recycle 50% of the water, this is also futuristic.
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DISLIKE:
Been getting some semi-inside info on how newspaper and television is run here. I came here thinking it was very controlled, but I havn't experienced that and I've been thinking it's cool. But I know now the government actually have a lot of control, reporters know very well what they can and can't write if they want to keep thier jobs. And there are two big media-producers, both governmentally run, I don't belive they allow forign media-producers to establish temselves here. I don't see what they are afraid would be written, but it seems there's a lot of funny things going on in the scene of local politics, and they are really keen on upkeeping the image of Singapore as this perfection place, or something like that, I don't know.
Also, everything IS very business oriented, the city has deep roots in economics and little left over for culture etc. I don't like.
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I should go on working on my film project... I'm really getting in over my head, but I'm curious to see what the end result actually will be. Soooo much stuff to do, pretty much all my actor options keep dropping because they are getting payed jobs instead, it really blows, but somehow it will all come together.
Concerning Life in GeneralPosted by markus Wed, March 26, 2008 21:16:53(Featured article from
www.handlungsreisende.de. Please see original source for image galleries.)
Junta
What do you expect when you enter a country
that’s been run by a military dictatorship for almost 50 years? We
entered the union of Myanmar, a.k.a. Burma, without a good answer to
that question. The opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, is being held
in house arrest since her party, the National League for Democracy, won
decisively in the general election in 1990. The street to her house, we
are told later, is closed. We have the news report from the protests
last September fresh in mind. During this period of monk protests in
September we know that there were at least 31 official civilian
casualties. According to
Amensty International about 1.850
people were arrested, out of which the majority were monks or members
of the opposition. For a while the country was off limits to
foreigners, but now, 6 months after all of protests, the tourists are
once again welcomed. In my mind I had these stereotypical images of
what it would be like to walk the streets of a military dictatorship,
with the military constantly present. I soon discovered that these
images created by most of the media’s news coverage had no root in
reality.
Walking through the streets of Yangon, we barely noticed the military
presence at all. We saw only a few police cars, and on one occurrence a
military truck. Perhaps it was different three years ago when this was
the seat of the government. In 2005 the junta moved their staff to
Naypyidaw,
though some sources still refer to Yangon as the current capital. One
man we talk to says the motivation to move was that Naypyidaw is easier
to defend, but surely this couldn’t have been the main reason to switch
capital. Even if the junta didn’t show much in Yangon, former Rangoon,
we soon learned that people were very well aware of them. After our
talk to a monk in Yangon for a while, we asked him if he was afraid of
the government, to which he convincingly answered;
“Yes, yes, everyone’s afraid!”Media censorship
When we ask about the government, some get anxious and talk in a lower
voice. At some instances we got the feeling that people pretended not
to understand our questions. People are simply not comfortable
discussing this topic in public spaces, but then it is also forbidden
to talk publicly about politics in this country. Supposedly the
government has many spies looking for people who talk too much, we’ve
been told by two different sources. We ask a man in Mandalay whether it
is safe for journalists, to which he replies
“Nothing
will happen to journalists, as long as they are here. But they will be
chased, when the journalists get out of the country, they will come and
get you.” Meaning that as soon as this journalist has left the
country, you can expect the government to pay you a visit, wanting to
know what’s been said. It’s unclear what the consequences are for
saying too much, but we get the feeling that there are unpleasant
consequences. The man goes on;
“Spies, there are lots of spies. You got to take care. The internet, mail, telephone, they control and check everything.”
We’re told that sometimes even photo-enthusiastic tourists will get
followed as well. If this is true we don’t know, but it doesn’t feel
very comfortable. We ask a guide in Mandalay if he thinks the situation
has improved since September, to which he replies
“No, not better”, we ask him if he wants democracy and he replies
“Yes,
yes, we want it very much. The government is very bad, does nothing for
the people. So the people stay very poor and there is no help.”
We talk to a man in Taunggyi, about his thoughts on the future. We ask
him if he thinks the situation will turn to the better, he smiles
bitterly and shakes his head. He says he doesn’t really know what it
means to live in a democracy, he doesn’t care so much what form of
government rules Myanmar, as long as he’s free do whatever he wants to
do. This is not the case today. He says he would like a government that
cares for the people, and not just for themselves. He lights one of his
dirt-cheap cigarettes, some children nearby are watching a local
hip-hop show on VCD. We ask him about the media in Myanmar. He tells us
there are four tv-stations, all run by the government, he says that all
the press and radio is also owned by the junta. After some later
research however, it seems that there is one TV-channel and a couple of
paper which are not government-owned, but these channels are of course
still strictly censored by the government. On top of this, every book
that is published, or any music CD that is published, needs to be
approved by the government.
Internet shutdown
The regime does not only have total control over the media, but also
over communication and transportation. We speak to a man in Mandalay
who tells us how all international phone calls go via the government.
He claims that all international mail is read by the government, same
for e-mail, and webpage-visits are supposedly logged. What we found
hard to believe is that the government actually could shut down the
Internet! It just happened so during our first two days in Myanmar that
Internet was shut down! We were told that it had something to do with
the visit of Ibrahim Gambari, who is the U.N. Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon's special adviser on Myanmar.
Explosions under Surveillance
In 2005 there were bombs exploding simultaneously in Mandalay and
Yangon. It is rumored that some opposition group was behind these
attacks. After this the government started a major campaign of
searching trains and buses for explosives. We were told that during one
period, the trains between Yangon and Mandaly passed through 12
checkpoints! As we travel on bus from Taunggyi to Mandalay, we see this
campaign in practice even today. We get stopped at a check-point, where
they search our bus for mines. A man thinks Jonas is acting
suspiciously as he is taking pictures of this event, but when he
realizes that we’re tourists he becomes friendly and explains what’s
going on;
“They are searching for explosion mines. This is part of the governmental security policy.”.
When we later travel from Mandalay to Nyaungu on a night-train we
notice that the train staff, while most of the 8 hour ride, search the
moon-lit countryside with their flashlights as we pass by. We never
asked why, the railway is government-owned, maybe this is some form of
precaution against sabotage.
Also, as a foreigner, wherever you go with public transportation, and
wherever you spend the night, there’s a record of it, your name on a
list. But not only foreigners are monitored, we are told by a man in
Mandalay that local citizens wanting to travel by train sometimes have
to answer to a lot of questions and go through a lot of paperwork
before being allowed to go. On top of this, large areas of the country
are off limits to foreigners unless you have special permission to go
there.
Tax-Registrations
As a foreigner, you also have to be prepared that the government wants
to earn as much profit from you as possible. The exchange rate at the
government-owned money-exchangers is terrible! If you go by train, as a
foreigner, you’re obliged to travel in the more expensive couches. And
for departing using the only international airport, you need to pay a
so-called airport-tax of USD10, though we get the feeling this money
goes straight to the Junta. In Nyaungu we found out that there is also
a tax that hotels pay for each accommodating foreigner. This tax is
fixed at USD1 per foreigner and night. Strangely enough it doesn’t seem
that there is a common tax on the salary for general workers and we get
to know that only workers in offices pay a tax on their salary.
So most of the people don’t pay a tax to their government. In general,
you don’t sense the presence of the regime. Furthermore, the government
seems to leave the people to care for themselves. Needless to say
there’s no social security net whatsoever. We get the feeling that the
people and their government live in something like a state of mutual
ignorance towards each other. Most of the people we speak to are fairly
young, or at least below 40, meaning that they have never experienced
any other government than the military dictatorship. Even if they want
a change, they don’t have a clear picture of what they want, and they
have no high hopes on the situation improving any soon time. Towards
the regime, I would say they are negligent if anything. The monks have
a tradition of carrying forth the people’s voices, but the people
themselves rarely appear to back them up. Why is this? We find no good
answer to that question.
Final steps to democracy?
The military regime of Myanmar actually
has
a program for becoming a democracy. They call it; the seven-step
roadmap to democracy. The information minister of Myanmar,
Brigadier-General Kyaw Hsan, has announced that since they in February
completed the draft for the new constitution, for which there will be
national referendum in may this year, they are now on the
forth step
on their way to democracy. The new constitution includes a multi-party
democratic general election in 2010, with free campaigning by political
parties and everything. And the constitution would also enforce that
the governor of Myanmar cannot be married to a foreign citizen. The
constitution would also imply that the prime minister, to be elected in
2010, must have a military vision for the development of Myanmar, also
one quarter of the seats must go to generals. Needless to say, there
has been demands that this constitution should be amended, but the
government refuses to do so.
It would seem that 50 years of military dictatorship is finally to be followed by what is tempting to call... a fake democracy?
Concerning Life in GeneralPosted by markus Wed, March 26, 2008 19:49:27(Featured article from
www.handlungsreisende.de. Please see original source for image galleries.)
People
We have our first meal in Myanmar sitting on
miniature plastic furniture that typically surrounds the street vendors
in Yangong (a.k.a. Rangoon). We pay our 600 Kyat ($0.60) meal with the
smallest denotation we have, 1000 Kyat, and before we have time to say
“keep the change” our chef has run over to a store nearby to find some
change for us. We pick up our cameras and leave before she gets back,
not thinking about anything. Two minutes later she finds us in the
streets and hands us our change... On the topic of pick pocketing, our
guidebook says that if you drop a wallet, you can be sure someone will
come running after you with it; pick pocketing is not a problem. The
guidebook actually has put it in print that this people are the
sweetest people on earth. After our five days stay we are overwhelmed
by the truthfulness of this statement.
Wherever we went, we tried our best to understand the living conditions
of the people around us. In Taunggyi we asked a man about the
employment situation. He said it was difficult to find a job, and if
you had job, e.g. at the local sugar factory or teashop, you would earn
a monthly 30 - 45.000 Kyats ($30-45). We asked the same question in
Nyaungu where were told it is slightly less. It would seem that a one
day salary might average to $1. This seems just barely sufficient to
survive, and then it’s important to note that the areas we travelled to
are probably much better off then the major parts of the country. We
found ourselves stunned by how everyone, despite these harsh
conditions, seems to be so at peace and happy. Anywhere we went, we
were greeted by a smiling face, and we felt welcomed with a remarkable
hospitality. There was so much… goodness. It breaks my heart that this
goodness is trapped beneath the boots of military dictatorship.
In five days it is of course impossible to understand the roots of a
culture, but I wonder if this goodness must not derive from the rich
tradition of religion and spirituality. I read somewhere that this is
the country where monks have more admiration than rockstars. 85-90% of
the population are Theravada Buddhists, and in Myanmar, this religion
finds one of its deepest roots and most devoted followers. It is not
called the land of pagodas for nothing, the religion really seems to
play a large part in people's everyday lives. I think of the more or
less atheistic Swedes back home, and I imagine what walking through the
streets of Stockholm would be like if we had the spirituality of this
people. The world would for sure be more at peace, if this kind of
spirituality could flourish.
The monks are everywhere, crowding in the streets with their red robes.
They are in the trains, general stores, airports etc. Each morning we
saw them walking the streets with their pots, receiving donations from
the people. We learned that it is common to give about ten percentage
of your income to the monasteries, which seems remarkable considering
the full income would be barely enough to survive. In addition to this,
there is also a great deal of sacrificing directly to Buddha, and some
important Buddha images are continuously clad with new layers of leaf
gold, financed by the common people.
We became friends with a monk who approached us by a pagoda in Yangong.
He gave us some insight about his daily life, telling us how each
morning he gets up at 4 a.m. and dedicates the two first hours to
meditating and exercise. After this he usually has his breakfast. His
second meal is around noon, after which he cannot have any more “hard”
food until the next day, but only fresh fruits and water. He showed us
around the Shwedagon Pagoda, standing 98 meters height it’s the largest
pagoda on earth. It strucked me how passionately he told us about
Buddha and the Buddhism practices, he makes sure to tell us which out
of the hundreds Buddha images are the most powerful ones. He says we
shouldn’t waste time praying by the less powerful ones.
The tradition is that everyone spends at least two weeks in a monastery
during his lifetime. A Buddhist man we speak to in Nyaung, laughs as he
tells us of his experience with the monastery;
“I only spent two days in the monastery. There were too many rules for me to follow!”
During the first time in the monastery, there are eight rules to live
by. When you advance in your studies you have to live by 119 rules, and
as a real monk there are 227 rules to follow. Those young followers who
chose to continue their religious studies after the first two weeks
shave their heads and wear the white robes until they pass their exams,
at around 15 years age. Once they have passed the exams, they get to
wear the red robes. Our monk friend however though wore orange to be a
more fashionable color, and had a friend in Bangkok sending him an
orange robe. Women monks wear pink robes, and they shave their heads in
the same fashion as the men. The people are simply very devoted to
their religion. And on top of the religious duties, the monks also
carry a tradition of bringing forth the peoples voices to their leader.
We saw a clear example of this just this last September, when a lot of
monks were arrested as results of their peaceful protesting. Our monk
friend tells us how he himself was afraid, and he fled to the Thai
border to hide. He tells us that many are still afraid today.
Monasteries do not only teach religion and bring forth the peoples
voices. We learned that they actually form the society’s backbone of
oral English teaching. The monks traditionally learn English in order
to go abroad and spread their religion. However the monk we spoke to in
Yangon had plans beyond this. He wants to get a job outside of Myanmar
and make
“real money”
that he can send back to his family. He has a contact in Canada who is
trying to help him arrange a Visa, but the status is still pending, he
doesn’t know yet if he is able to go. His family lives close to Sittwe,
a poor area bordering to Bangladesh, an area that you need special
permission to access as a foreigner.
A guide in Mandalay confirms the monasteries importance for language
teachings, he explains that the ordinary schools only teach how to
write and read English. He says that he attended university himself for
4 years, and he found that not even on university level could he find
anyone that could teach him proper English. If he returned to
university he would have had a degree within a year, but he says that
no-one would care about an academic degree today so he’s better off
working. He carries a notepad in which he’s taken notes on German
grammar and vocabulary, with the ambition to teach himself the
language. Jonas helped him to add a grammar section to his notes. The
people we met seemed very keen on learning foreign languages, the
explanation is probably that it helps in earning money from tourists,
but still their enthusiasm about it impressed us. We talked to a
nine-year-old girl in Amarapura, and she told us that in school, she
learns English, French, German and Italian. But regretfully she only
had time to attend school in the evening. During the day she needs to
work with selling necklaces or helping her mother to sell a selection
of handcrafts made out of watermelon-seeds. During the weekends,
however, she goes for further studies in the monastery.
Depending on which weekday you are born, you can approach special
shrines by some pagodas. These are prepared so that you can use a small
cup to pour water over a Buddha image. The tradition is that you pour
one cup for each year that you have lived, and an extra one for
longevity. In Yangon we met a man who, with the help of his special
calendar, helped us find out on what weekdays we were born. He told us
that he used to be a history teacher, but seven years ago his
generation of history teachers was fired. The junta wanted to teach
history in a different way, a new version of history, and they didn’t
want to keep the teachers who had previously taught the original
version. He appeared to be in his late sixties. With the lack of social
security nets, even after so many years of service, there’s no pension.
He makes a living begging and showing tourists around in Yangon.
As our flight departed from the overstaffed international airport of
Yangong, I laid back in my seat and closed my eyes; I find the images
of the people we’ve met flashing behind my eyes. I think of the stories
they told and what they shared of their thoughts on their situation. No
one seemed to think the situation was getting better, everyone wished
for the situation to change, yet in some odd way they seem to be
content, at peace and even happy. This intrigued me. Perhaps this is a
façade that I’m mistaking for contentedness, and it’s really some form
of neglectfulness. Which perhaps would be the most appropriate way to
deal with the situation, some form of neglectfulness, seeking solitude
in faith. Perhaps they blame their karma? They’ve been living under
army boots for almost 50 years, maybe they’ve just gotten used to it,
if that is possible. One thing is for sure, to even glimpse an answer,
it would take a much longer stay then five days.
I would like to encourage anyone travelling to this beautiful
country to actually spend time talking with the people, that is when
you get a feel for the spirit of the land. And its spirit is kind. I
dare to promise that you would find it rewarding. Both me and Jonas
agreed that, even in so short time, we felt some sort of bond, and we
were surprised to find ourselves feeling sad to leave. My heart goes
out to the people Myanmar, Burma, land of a thousand pagodas and of
kind souls. It is with sceptical eyes I watch the junta declare for
their ten step roadmap to democracy, but I hope maybe a few of those
steps could take the country in the right direction. I hope soon the
people will breathe the air of freedom and security they so humbly
deserve.
Concerning Life in GeneralPosted by markus Mon, March 17, 2008 17:03:04I'm saving most of the material for an online gallery I'm working on, also some photos will show on a German blog and in a photo essay that I will publish online soon. Meenwhile, here's the sneak peak of our Myanmar (Burma) coverage.
Concerning Life in GeneralPosted by markus Fri, March 14, 2008 20:09:20Internet access has been down for three days, but today it's running
again and I have so much to say about this country I don't know where
to begin. I'm already in love with the people of Myanmar, it saddens me
that conditions are so bad here, and it saddens me that on this trip I
have only five days to get to know them and to see their country.
We had planned to do Myanmar by bus and train, but we soon discovered
the size of the country and the bad conditions of the roads. So now
we'r actually doing two domestic flights in order to get where we want
to be. So much for traveling on a shoestring... but we really want to
get the most of our short stay here, and couting all the experiences so
far it's money well spent. So already on thursday morning we took a
plane from Yangon, in the south of the country, to Inle Lake which is
in the central/east region. From there we took a night-bus to Myanmar,
the old capital and the junction located in the middle of the country.
So we arrived here this morning at 5 a.m. and tonight already we'r
leaving by night-train to Bagan, western region. So we will be able to
spend 24 hours in Bagan before we return by air to Yanong where we
await or flight back to Singapore. That's the plan for the 5 days,
which I wish were 5 weeks.
I will now explore the streets of Mandalay before my train takes off.
Plenty of pictues and additional notes will be available soon!
Finally, I cannot enough emphasize how much I would recommend each and
everyone of you to go here and experience this country, it is truly
wonderful.
We just had a power failure at the internet cafe, haha! All the
computers are equipped with additional power units though, they all
started to beep just now as they went into action. I better just hit
the streets before this computer dies though.
Concerning Life in GeneralPosted by markus Tue, March 04, 2008 00:15:10
