Kalaw Different Perspectives Newsletter July 20, No. 1 2008

Dear Patrons:

Welcome to our news letter. The Staff at Different Perspectives try to bring a clearer picture of current events effecting China and Asia . Although we believe the international media driven primarily by western world's interests, is bringing the public events as they happen, we at Different Perspectives are independent and non biased without an agenda for prestige or monetary profit. We simply feel the western world may be somewhat isolated from news that is local to our office here in Beijing, China .

We hope you enjoy the news from a different perspective. Please contact us with your questions or comments. We Look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you
Different Perspectives Staff
Edward


Sunday July 20, 2008
Danu Tribe Village
25 km west of Kalaw, Myanmar

Leaving our Danu Tribe family home we hiked along some railroad tracks east for about a distance of 5 km. The sun was coming up ahead of us as we looked out over the landscape of rice paddies tended by the local farmers. Along the railroad tracks we met with village residents hauling their harvested vegetables to the train station for transport to the city further east about 10 km. Men, woman and children supporting baskets of 50 lbs or more on their backs.

When we arrived at the railroad station the sun was bright and it was a beautiful morning. A quiet railroad station absent of the hustle and bustle of a larger village. We had Indian Tea at the station tea shop while Kyi made a phone call to reserve our long boat ride
across Inlay Lake the following evening. I bought a notebook and pen to jot down some notes on the tribes that we were to visit. The Indian Tea was delicious and had enough caffeine in it to keep me happy. Legs crossed I sat looking out as the farmers came and went across the loading platform. In the not to far distant the rice fields being attended to. I don't think I had ever enjoyed a more peaceful
moment.

About 12pm we stopped for lunch at a small shop adjacent to a farm. The farmers were unloading eggplant and weighing the baskets
for shipment. A scene that would be reminiscent of the mid west of America, only on a smaller scale, a surrounding terrain of rolling farm land. I was grateful and felt happy for the people in Myanmar to see an abundance of fresh vegetables. Most of the other areas in Myanmar that I had visited, struggled with a consistent supply of any type of fresh food or frozen for that matter. In other words it was a pleasant site for the first time in 3 weeks to see an abundance of delicious purple green and blue eggplant within arms length.

Kyi had the woman in the back of the shop make up some delicious soup to go with our tea. A few men came and went on motor scooters and Kyi mentioned that they were local government officials and that they had stopped by to see who "the visitors" were. Each village had a government leader that collects taxes of 20% and oversees political compliance with the government. Kyi was nervous that they were spying on us. I stayed cool as to not implicate Kyi or the villagers. These men looked tough big shot like and the only ones on motorbikes in the area.

On to our next destination the Pao Tribe Village. We arrived there about 4:30 pm, after a quick decision to cut the days trek short to
seek shelter from the incoming rain.

Our accommodations again quite basic. No electricity or running water, so to wash up required fetching water out of the well. Making and eating dinner was accompanied by candle light. Kyi again cooked up a delicious meal of fried vegetables, including potatoes. He
went out to the local cafe to fetch some sweets to top of the dinner.

The Pao family that we stayed with were more reserved than the Dau family. It was different to be among a family that didn't interact with us as we were use to throughout Myanmar. It made me somewhat uncomfortable. I couldn't figure out who was who since there
seemed to be a number of people coming and going through the house. There was a man in his sixties that Kyi said was a widow, and a couple of younger woman that Kyi said one of them was his daughter. Then a least one other woman and a couple of men and young
children were in and out of the house. Sleeping was difficult that night since the family we stayed with had fewer blankets to spare, so the floor was harder. The older man kept Kyi and I awake snoring.

Monday July 21, 2008
Pao Tribe Family House.
40 km east of Kalaw, Myanmar

In the morning Kyi made breakfast of Myanmar style french toast and pineapple. It was delicious. I was ready to go, a quick dump in the hole in the floor outhouse I was experienced now. A less amazing experience at this village but got some good photos ,and the food was great as it has been in this part of the Shan State.

Kyi stopped at the shrine to pray for 20 minutes while I waited on the porch of the second flood house looking down at a farmer fixing his horses to the wagon preparing for his day out in the fields. A woman was fetching the days water supply from the well. Kyi explained that in this part of the country the houses are built in 2 stories. On the first story, ground level the animals stayed and the second flood the family lived. So we slept above the water buffalo last night. They didn't snore.

On to Inlay Lake and our 17km day trek. The terrain was again very moderate, slightly rolling farm land and horse cart paths. The scenery beautiful with healthy crops abounding and farmers at work in the reflecting sunlight. Kyi and I had some conversation about the government, his connections to the NLA (National Liberation Army) and his friends in Yangon. Kyi was careful and nervous almost a little scared to talk to me about it, but wanted me to know, that some of his friends in Yangon knew Aung San Suu Kyi and some had been in trouble with the government. It was a very delicate sensitive subject for him to talk about.

The sun was hot but always a nice breeze since we were travelling through about 1500 m elevation. Kalaw being about 3500 m elevation msl. My many photographs showing a simple life of farming by hand the way it was done 100 years ago in the west. A
hard and difficult life but the acceptance and generosity of the people is extraordinary under the conditions. A profound lesson for me to learn.

Our schedule to today was less flexible since we wanted to get to our boat in time for our launch across Inlay Lake. Instead of lunch we had few short stops. We snacked under I think a mahogany or teak tree at the top of a hill. With inlay Lake in the distance to the east about 10 km we munched on some cookies and juice that Kyi had gotten for us a few kilometers back, next to a one room elementary school in the middle of a farm surrounded by farm crops. The tree we were resting under had a trunk of about 3 feet across and stood at least 20 feet high. The branches spread out in a diameter of about 30 feet. At least 2 of these huge branches were held up by supports of dead wood stuck into the ground like columns. Kyi explained that the supports were put in place in memory of a deceased villager in hopes that the support will help carry the deceased to nibanna (nirvana). Very strange the way Kyi explained it to us as we sat under this tree alone in the wilderness overlooking the hills of Myanmar.

Our approach to Inlay Lake brought us out of the rolling hills down the soft red clay of the cart paths and onto flatter terrain as we lost about 1500 m in elevation. We arrived at the boat sloop on the west shore of the lake about 1 1/2 hours later. It was a beautiful approach over looking the lake from a distance of about 5 km with the farmland, the Danu and Pao villages behind us, I was glad to be arriving. After 19 days in Northern Myanmar I would finally be in Yangon the countries capital in less than 48 hours.

We visited where the longboats were docked for about 1/2 hour. After washing up a bit in the river, coping a liter of fresh water and using the bathroom, the 3 of us shoved off in the longboat, single file, me at the front, Grace in the middle, Kyi following and Kyi's friend operating the motor which had the standard 3 foot long boat boom shaft. The long boat was quite comfortable with captains chairs and plenty of room to stretch. It felt good after 3 days and 50 km of hiking.

We were headed to the other side of Inlay Lake and to a village by the name of Nyaungshwe. My eyes and mind somewhat tired but relaxed gazed over the bow of the boat at stilted houses along the shores, boats with fishermen repairing nets and hauling in fish.
A popular site to see here in Inlay Lake are the long boat fishermen who fish alone standing up at the back of the boat using both hands 2 fish with one leg to balance themselves and the other leg wraps abound an oar to row and steer the boat. I think their called
"the long boat fishermen".

We disembarked from our longboat about 4pm, paid the 750 knat passenger fee and headed away from the river toward our diggs,
The Bright Guest House. Settled in fairly quickly $5 usd/night and headed out to check my location and acclimate. Tomorrow morning
I'll get some food and look for an Internet cafe to download my digital camera and to check my e-mail since leaving Bagan.

Wednesday July 23, 2008
Bright Guest House
Inlay Lake, Myanmar

Had a good day today, made some plans to leave here for Yangon via Air Bagan at 9:20 am tomorrow morning. Had breakfast, wrote some and just relaxed on the veranda, with real Myanmar grown black coffee. After breakfast I had some laundry done and headed out
to book my trip to Yangon and book a taxi to the airport. I got a motorbike taxi for 8 knat and the flight was $72 usd. The Myanmar couple that I bought the tickets from were great. They let me use their Internet and taxied me for free across town to another Internet cafe were I could download my camera. Not being too comfortable with the Internet accomodations, I traveled to another cafe
stopping first to chat with a Chinese man for a while and practice my Chinese. There are many Chinese nationalist immigrant in this part of Myanmar and ethnic Chinese influences. I had something eat at a cafe and chatted with the family. Mother and father cooking and managing, daughter and son waiting on customers. An open air market type restaurant. I told them that I was American but living in China. The family was very friendly, except for the father with a glare in his eyes who seemed not to care to much that I was there. I remember shortly before I got up to leave a military soldier was peeking around the corner about 30 feet away. When I
caught his eye he quickly walked by me and out of site.

I stopped for some fried noodles and vegetables with rice then headed home packed, washed my boots and hit the sack early. A fairly
relaxing day, off to Yangon in the morning.

Friday July 24,2008 4pm
May Fair Inn room 108
Yangon, Myanmar

I slept OK in my last night in Inlay Lake. In the rainy morning the hotel had breakfast ready for me at 7:05 am. Eggs, toast fruit, juice and coffee, on the veranda. I packed my laundry, gulped down breakfast with lots of coffee and waited for the weather to break until my motorbike taxi arrived. Hustling a bit to make sure my pack stayed dry on the ride to the airport, we rolled out into the rain shortly after 7:30. My moto taxi driver held my pack covered with a bag between his legs while I covered up with my rain jacket on the back of the bike. Dark and cloudy we rode through mostly dirt roads along the river where people were walking or riding bikes to work or going to school. Wilderness for the most part very sparsely populated river villages, I was nervous that the driver would dump the bike onto the wet muddy road. With precision he safely navigated us out onto a paved road and on up into the hills to the airfield beyond.

Looking down over Inlay Lake again from the back of of my moto taxi as I had a couple days earlier coming out of the farmland
the clouds were breaking up as they passed quickly across the small groups of stilted dwellings lining the edge of river below.

Our flight departed on time about 9:20 am. In the terminal I met a Spanish couple and started chatting about the lack of tourism in Myanmar when a young plain cloths man interrupted us and suggested with authority for us to stop talking about that. He aggressively offered that there might be people that do not want to hear us discuss that issue and acted like we should know better. I didn't question him although let him know that we would talk about whatever we pleased. At that point the Spanish couple agreed to comply with the man at which time I walked away and got a picture of the young man from a distance. There were many Myanmar military officers at the airport, I got a close-up of a General (with a smile) and his assistance. No questions asked.

The one hour flight to Yangon was un-eventful other than an American tourist photography group on "safari". I sat next to a blond hair, blue eyed single woman from Miami, who made it clear "she also has a office of course in New York". She asked me if I always travelled alone? I laughed and said "yes and I don't have any plans to travel with anyone."

Next time on Different Perspectives join me as I explore the city streets and neighborhoods of Yangon, and visit the largest Buddhist Temple in Myanmar.

Also a special section on an eyewitness view of the "new" multi-million dollar US embassy on the beautiful shores of Inya Lake in Yangon's exclusive lakefront neighborhood. Don't miss it.

We hope you will join us. Until then

"Those who accept that we all die someday settle their quarrels"
Dhammapada
Peace

Edward
Different Perspectives

Written by Edward Mangan c2008
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Again Welcome to our news letter. As is common with our objective the following articles are of interest in upholding the purpose of this newsletter to offer a different perspective.

Italics text by Different Perspectives


MYANMAR: Cyclone-hit monasteries in need


Photo: Lynn Maung/IRIN
With so many monasteries damaged by the cyclone, many monks, such as this one, are waiting for outside help to rebuild
AYEYARWADY DELTA, 20 November 2008 (IRIN) - Scores of monasteries in cyclone-affected Myanmar are in urgent need of repair almost seven months after the category four storm struck.

According to the social welfare department, 740 monasteries were destroyed and 3,235 monasteries were badly damaged when Cyclone Nargis made landfall on 2 and 3 May, leaving nearly 140,000 people dead or missing.

Monasteries play a pivotal role in Burmese society and frequently function as schools to thousands of underprivileged children.

According to the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) report released by the Myanmar government, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the UN in July, there were 308 registered monastic schools serving more than 51,000 students in Yangon and Ayeyarwady Division in 2008.

In addition, monasteries often act a first line of defence during disasters. In the initial weeks after the cyclone, many monasteries served as shelters for the homeless, as well as a focal point for the distribution of food, clothing and other relief supplies.


Photo: Lynn Maung/IRIN
Thousands of homeless cylcone victims sought shelter in monasteries throughout the affected area
Lack of cash

While the monasteries open their doors to laypeople for spiritual guidance, the monks look to the community for food and money.

But with most cyclone survivors struggling to provide for themselves, the monasteries are losing out.

"We're seeking adequate materials from our donors to rebuild a monastery, but don't know how long we have to stay in this makeshift hut," said Kawvida, pointing at the hut he shared with another monk along the roadside between Pyapon and Bogale townships in the Ayeyarwady delta.

Many of his fellow monks have moved to monasteries not damaged by the storm, placing added responsibility on his shoulders.

"The villagers would be discouraged spiritually if we didn't stay," said another monk in the village of Naungtawgyi in Pyapon Township.

The role of monks

Monks play an important role in rural Myanmar and are often credited with maintaining community resilience.

In some cases, they can prove more powerful than village chiefs and local authorities.

Private donors, who were instrumental in getting relief to affected communities when much of the area was restricted for international aid agencies, would often not trust the village chiefs to distribute their aid and called upon the monks instead.

This in turn added to the monasteries' importance, with survivors looking to the monks for basic relief supplies, including food, clothing and shelter.

"If there was no monastery in our town, I don't know where we should go for shelter," Kyaw Thein, 50, from Kunchangone town, Yangon division, told IRIN.

Even aid workers on the ground today cannot deny their unique role.

"As we try to set up disaster-resistant buildings, we should also help rebuild the monasteries," one aid worker, who asked not to be identified, told IRIN, adding: "We mustn't forget the important role the monasteries played in saving people."

lm/ds/mw

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Burma's Exports Hit by Global Economic Downturn
By KYI WAI Monday, November 17, 2008

RANGOON — Burma's exports have been severely hit by declining orders from some of the country's key trading partners, including China, Thailand, Singapore, India and Malaysia, which are reeling from the economic effects of the world financial crisis.

"The global financial crisis is also affecting Burma's trade and economy," said a senior government official.
A trader inspects some black lentils at the Bayintnaung commodity wholesale market in Rangoon. A deepening global economic recession is beginning to take a toll on Burma's exports, as demand for agricultural products falls in neighboring countries. (Photo: The Myanmar Times)
"The effects of the financial crisis in the US have reached China, and now China's economic difficulties are beginning to impact our country, as demand for agricultural products has fallen," the official added.

Read the full article at:
http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=14642








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November 12, 2008 12:20 PM

Myanmar To Introduce Wireless Internet System Next Year

YANGON, Nov 12 (Bernama) -- Myanmar is striving to introduce a wireless internet system of WiFi by early next year, Xinhua quoted the local weekly 7-Day News as reporting Wednesday.

Arranged by the local IT company of Exotic Wing, the system will be in service starting with the coverage of 16 main townships in the former capital city of Yangon, the company sources was quoted as saying.

Provisionally, such system is being granted for use in Yangon's Hyper Market and Sakura Tower only and WiFi hot spots are being installed in the hub of the city to enable that the system could formally start running in early next January, the report said.

By then, laptops with the WiFi system can enter the world from any corner of the city, the Chinese news agency quoted the report as saying.

Meanwhile, Myanmar has planned full coverage of public access centers (PAC) in every township in the country by next March to facilitate communication links.

There are so far 240 PAC in Myanmar, according to the Myanmar Info-Tech.

The telecommunications authorities also revealed that the number of internet users in Myanmar has also reached nearly 300, 000, up from merely dozens four years ago.

Myanmar has been striving for the development of ICT to contribute its part to the national economic development.

In December 2007, Myanmar's first largest ICT park, also known as the Yadanabon Myothit Cyber City, was introduced in Pyin Oo Lwin, a northern city of Myanmar in Mandalay division.

The cyber city, which covers an overall area of 10,000 acres (4, 050 hectares), is located in the hilly Pyin Oo Lwin near a highway, 67 kilometers east of the second largest city of Mandalay in the north, and 20 percent of the cyber city area produce software and hardware.

The internet of the cyber city not only links with the whole country but also connect neighboring China, Thailand and India.

Meanwhile, more and more local and foreign information technology (IT) companies have sought investment in the cyber city for the development of IT business undertakings.

According to the authorities, it has allotted 372 acres (150 hectares) of land plot for 35 more local and foreign IT companies to work in the cyber city.

Myanmar has been lunching ICT development master plan under the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) and detailed programs to link international networks are also being carried out in accordance with the master plan drafted by the Myanmar Computer Federation.

Being a signatory to the e-ASEAN Framework Agreement initiated at 2000 Singapore summit, Myanmar has formed the e-National Task Force to support the IT development.

Besides, the country has also signed a series of memorandums of understanding since 2003 with such companies as from Malaysia, Thailand, China and South Korea on ICT development.

-- BERNAMA

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