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Published: August 19th 2007
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Mandalay..
Flying fishes? I'll settle for a breeze ship me somewhwere's east of suez
where the best is like the worst
where there 'aint no Ten Commandments
and a man can raise a thirst
For the temple bells are callin'
and it's here that I would be
by the old Mountain Pagoda
looking lazy at the sea. I couldn't help hum Kipling's poem as another cramped bus ride carried me over the bridge into Burma's second biggest city- the romanticism wasn't lost, but I was simply happy to have found a warm breeze.
The wind blows constant, filling the plain of the city w/ dust. These gusts are much welcome to my continuously sweat-soaked t-shirt. bus station chaos abounds as I step off, of course downtown is still 11k's further down the road but i don't mind, I've stopped sweating. the only tourists around are my compatriots, so all eyes are on us. Not quite ready to haggle, a cold beer and sit in the breeze is welcome. Surrounded by enriched flour, fried everything in cheap palm oil, my love for bananas and mangos grows exponentially. no taxis will consider a ride for less than 3000 kyat, they persist until a tall man steps forward-
joe joe and I.
we took turns pedalling. I wore the hat. 'Trishaw, 3 people, 3000, no problem'. My man! I liked 'joe joe' from the beginning. He's sweating and smiling, his wingman and long time buddy Aung 'snow' puffs behind to keep up. The trishaw creaks under our weight as he manuevers about the rubble. He's 40 w/ 5 kids about my age and comes from a village not far from the new capital city. He now lives several miles from downtown Mandalay, a college grad, and a trishaw driver. He can't contain his excitement when he finds i've read Pascal's book Land of the Green Ghosts- he's even more excited to find I have it with me, "Where'd you find that??!!" Before I can suggest, he asks if we can sit down for tea later and chat. Pascal turns out to be a classmate of his back in 1984, a year ahead of himself at Mandalay University. 'joe joe' is very interested. we'd talk over tea and cold lemon soda until the city closed down at promptly 11pm- he would be a guide, a confidant, and friend for the duration of our stay in mandalay.
we pedaled all over the city, but the memory of his acquaintence Pascal and
The living Buddha
the more deeply one practices, the more one is able to 'see' Buddha's spirit- the statue is said to smile, cry, and blink. Men only are allowed to enter this final hall to place thin pieces of gold leaf on the base of the statue. my intrigue of the university system in burma were the focus of our conversations. it had cost his father's income to send joe joe to university and he would go to study history. we would see some of his old friends from school about the city and they would call out with a smile.. joe joe would respond politely, but he mentioned he felt embarrassment at the reality of his trishaw driving occupation. no fault his own he would admit, he had studied hard and done well in school, but the nature of the course work never encouraged independent thinking, never asked for his opinions on historical matter. he was told what to learn and when he graduated he was told he would not have an occupation in his field. He showed me where he lived during these years, a monastary a few miles from his campus. Mandalay University has long since scattered campus facilities great distances... joe joe smiles posing the question, "and you understand why they have done this?" An educated population in a concentrated area has historically led to political unrest in burma, at the price of many human lives. thousands of nameless students have been massacred
over the last half century, the numbers hardly being agreed upon between the locals, the government, and the international press.
see:
NY Times Coverage '88 I had also wanted to see the Palace where Burma's last monarch lived before the british invasion in 1885- the palace has long since been stripped and remodeled (one of the many public works courtesy of slave labor) though the original outside walls stand. the palace holds a 2km square block surrounded by moat. at each of the four entrances red paint proclaims the honor of burma's military might- "The people, join forces and crush all who oppose the union" one such banner read... at roughly a 10 dollar fee we declined to enter a palace remodeled by chained gangs of those who did oppose the union...
From his memoir I have mentioned earlier, Pascal Khoo Thwe writes of such forced labor from his own experience living with student rebel groups on the fringe of Burmese territory (territory still occupied by similar groups where the government will permit no tourist to see):
"People who were obviously civilians began emerging from the jungle into the clearing in which the headquarters stood. They came
out in pairs, chained together and clearly in a state of abject terror. They were civilian porters, kidnapped like the others we had seen and forced to carry munitions and walk ahead of the troops through minefields ... The first pair stumbled on to a landmine. There was a huge explosion, the dull boom of which echoed through the jungle ... severed body parts - hands, eyes, legs - of the sacrificial victims flew instantly into the air mingled with a cloud of dust. But the chain that bound them was unbroken, so their trunks collapsed on to the ground with a hollow thud, while arms, feet and fingers were scattered among the bushes."
Before leaving, joe joe agreed to take us to the chinese restaurant where Pascal worked during his time in Mandalay and where he met Dr. John Casey, the man who would modestly be responsible for Pascal's eventual flight, graduation from Cambridge University, and contributions to english literature as well as the political plight of the burmese people.
we left with smiles, hugs, and a few snapshots I wish I could post here, but feel it not worth the safety of these men and their families due to any military retaliation. most significantly we exchanged books- such literature is banned by the government and I'd encourage any conscious traveller to not only read up on the political history, but bring these volumes and disseminate conspicuously should you decide to go to Burma. Any of the myriad free burma groups could provide a thorough annotated bibliography.
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