PyinULwin Different Perspectives Newsletter July 6, 2008

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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 worlds 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.

Thank you
Different Perspectives Staff
Edward

Recently I have returned from a 9 week tour of South East Asia and am reporting on my perspective and personal experience. Currently our newsletter is focusing on my 24 day trip through the country of Myanmar.

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My Second stop was a small city by the name of Pyin U Lwin about 100 km southwest from Hsi pau toward the City of Mandalay, Myanmar. I reached this city on an 8 hour train ride in what I was told would be 1st class accommodations but turned out to be the same class that everyone else was traveling on, that being not much more than a wooden bench seat with a not so comfortable cushion strapped to it. It was interesting
because the outside of the train car read "1st class" next to the car that was listed as "normal". Almost identical accommodations for travelers stuffed into vintage early 19 th century train cars with their luggage and some animals including a pet monkey! Hmmmm, an interesting trip ahead of me.

I sat across from a young woman with her 6 month old baby boy accompanied by the woman's mother.
I was the only westerner (IE non Asian person) on the train which would become commonplace for me as I embarked on my next 9 weeks in South East Asia.

It was a hot ride but with my seat next to the window I got the relief of the breeze and was able to stick my head out the window. Across from me a man that looked to be 40 to 50 years old carried a vintage Vietnam War era backpack. Standing in the isle with a few of her friends a tall young woman about the age of 25 stood silently with a longi or sarong on and Tha-Nat-Kha on her face. More and more I was seeing this type on make up used by many of the Myanmar people, mostly woman, that was applied to there faces and on the exposed parts of there upper body. Applied as tradtional way to beautify as well as protection for the skin from the heat and the sun. The make-up is a mixture of lime and a tree root and a litle water. The family sitting across from me all had the Tha-Nat-Kha applied to there faces. Generosity pourned into my day with humble offers of food from the other travelers and the more than willingness to let me take pictures. Myanmar was a once European Colony, and the english language is not so foreign here alowing me to converse with the myanmar people to some extent.

The humble and open friendliness of the Myanmar people accompanied me across a 300 meter high suspension bridge and jungle waterfall as well as many villages with rail side markets of untold food delights
and a buzzing population of nearly resembling prehistoric. A train trip of pleasant memories and my first real introduction to a wonderful humble seemingly content and generous people. People that have so few material possesions but the generosity to give me all they had. I'm embarrassed to say a foreign concept for me.

Arriving in the train station on the west side of Pyinoolwin I made my way to the Dalia Motel on the outskirts of town to the east. Consideribly more agriculture in this part of Myammar it was good to see farmers harvesting more healthy abundent crops than I had seen since arriving in Myanmar.

Py oo lyn is a location of significance to the current government. Scattered around perimeter of the town are various military installations such as the Defence Training Institute. It is also home to many High level goverment officials primary, second homes and retreats. Being only 60 km from Mandalay it's a ideal place to commute from. At 1300 metets above sea level the cities climate is quite desirable with cool nights pleasant days and not too much persipitation. it is home to the National Botanical Gardens, as well as a government park with 1 tenth scale models of all the significant cultural landmarks is the country (ie. Mandalays Moni
Mui Buddist Temple).

With the climate so much more comfortable than the heat in Mandalay many people come to seek the cooler temperature. The city has become somewhat a holiday location for international (although I was only 1 of a 2 or 3 westerners in the city) as well as national tourists. One of my aquaintences a man from Finland with a Myanmar wife of some political stature (her father was a high level military official before he passed in 1989. I was asked to visit their house and have tea. A humble couple with a small coffee plantation in their front yard,
one f the more well off families in the area. Out of common courtousy I was more than happy to comply with their request to not discuss politics, since my Finland friend was requiered to check in with the local athorities 1 a month. I will not deny the political tension among the people of Myanmar is quite real. Many people that I spoke with hesitated to discuss politics for fear of reprecusion by the local village government official. I was happy not to implicate my friends.

Py oo lyn was a city of many diverse cultures, buddism, muslin and hindu all living and working together. The market area in the center of the city was a good place to experience the mixture of asian and indian people and to experiment with the foods. I made friends with many Py oo lyn residents and again experenced the generosity, and humble nature of a people with so little material possesions, but so much to give.

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Again Welcome to our news letter. As is common with our objective to shed light on positive news articles about countries in Asia including Myanmar in response to the overwhelming number of negative articles published by the west seeminl to direct popular opinion toward their political and monetary gain. Following are current articles published contridicting the articles that flooded the western media, following the devestating cyclone in Myanmar earlier this spring.

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WHO= World Health Organization ( a branch of the United Nation)
Myanmar responded well to cyclone victims: WHO
2 days ago
GENEVA (AFP) — Myanmar's military rulers provided a rapid response to victims of Cyclone Nargis last May despite criticism for shunning foreign aid, the World Health Organisation said.
"In the first week, the Ministry of Health had already sent around 50 doctors from Yangon General Hospital" to the worst-affected areas, WHO emergency relief coordinator Rudi Coninx told AFP late Thursday.
"Within the first week they had all the staff necessary... I thought that worked quite well," he said.
Coninx was the only official from WHO's headquarters in Geneva immediately able to go to Myanmar after the cyclone struck on May 2-3 as he had a current visa.
He said he found "lots of very committed people at the Ministry of Health, who were working day and night," adding this was all the more laudable given that Myanmar only spends around 1.4 percent of its Gross Domestic Product on health.
WHO's deputy regional director for Southeast Asia, Poonam Singh, said that despite media reports, the government was "actually doing quite a lot to meet the health needs of the people.
"Right from the beginning, the WHO representative to Myanmar met every morning with the health ministry and we managed to get around the visa restrictions by recruiting locals," she told the WHO's Bulletin, a monthly journal of international public health.
The WHO estimates that 84,537 people died in the cyclone with a further 53,836 missing, and that Myanmar needs two billion dollars to rebuild shattered health facilities, some three quarters of which were damaged or destroyed in the storm.
Myanmar's ruling generals drew worldwide condemnation for blocking foreign aid from entering the country in the crucial days after the cyclone pummelled the Irrawaddy delta.
Last month, the United Nations said 1.56 million dollars (about one million euros) of international cyclone aid has been lost due to the military regime's complex foreign currency rules.

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Myanmar opens to cyclone relief
BEIJING — Away from public view, Myanmar has opened up to global-relief efforts to an unprecedented degree after initially thwarting foreign attempts to help victims of a devastating cyclone last spring, a U.S. relief agency said in a report issued today. The May 2-3 rampage of Cyclone Nargis left 140,000 people dead or missing.
Myanmar's military leaders turned away U.S. and French warships offering humanitarian aid to the cyclone-wracked Irrawaddy River Delta area immediately following the cyclone, giving the impression they'd rather let victims perish than admit inability to cope with the catastrophe.
But a report prepared by Refugees International, a Washington, D.C.-based relief group, said the image of "a recalcitrant government that rejects aid from the generous nations of the world" is no longer accurate.
The group said Myanmar has issued some 1,000 visas to international-aid workers since June and offered "an unprecedented level of access" to the delta region.
The report said Myanmar, also known as Burma, has now more opened to international relief than at any time in the past two decades, and that the unfolding situation is "a story ignored by international reports that focus on the government's obstructionism."
Several Burma watchers based in neighboring Thailand, along with a U.N. official who keeps tabs on Myanmar, said foreign relief workers are now able to enter the country and travel quite freely around the southern delta region.
Win Min, a lecturer on contemporary Myanmar at Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand, said the military regime has portrayed the opening as a response to appeals from a regional political alliance, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, rather than as a response to pressure from the United Nations, the United States or European countries.
Refugees International said its employees interviewed the staffs of more than 40 humanitarian organizations active in Myanmar and that all reported freedom to "implement and monitor programs without obstruction."

Myanmar continues to deny visas to foreign journalists, reducing global awareness of the ongoing humanitarian crisis and hindering efforts to gather donations, especially in comparison to the torrent of aid given to Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka following the 2004 tsunami that killed more than 225,000 people.
The United Nations issued a new appeal on Wednesday for donor nations to give money for Myanmar relief, saying it had only reached 41 percent of a $481 million target needed through April 2009.

Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
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MYANMAR, Lay Catholic Social Worker Happy With Interreligious Cyclone Response
September 3, 2008
YANGON (UCAN) -- For Catholic laywoman Rose Mary, seeing Buddhist monks and Catholic priests and nuns working together to help Cyclone Nargis survivors was the silver lining of this major disaster.
As executive secretary of Karuna Myanmar Social Services (KMSS), Mary found herself busy training lay volunteers, clergy and Religious to help the survivors within days of the May 2 cyclone.
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Catholic laywoman Rose Mary, joint secretary of the Myanmar Disaster Relief Committee, the Church’s Cyclone Nargis rehabilitation program.
Initially she was appointed joint secretary of the Myanmar Disaster Relief Committee (MDRC), which the Church set up to coordinate its cyclone relief efforts. Although childhood polio limited her mobility, she traveled, walking stick in hand, to some of the cyclone-affected areas to encourage and support the survivors.
Mary was born on May 13, 1953, in Loikaw, northeastern Myanmar, to ethnic Kayah parents. She says her father encouraged her to always try to do better than other people in spite of her disability. In 1977, she received a degree in geography from the Arts and Science University in Yangon. Later, in 1993, she earned a diploma in "Rural Social Leadership" from the South East Asia Rural Social Leadership Institute of Xavier University, in Cagayan de Oro City, the Philippines.
The laywoman was instrumental in helping set up KMSS with Bishop Sotero Phamo of Loikaw in his diocese, before it became the national social service organization of the Myanmar Catholic Church. KMSS helps with community development programs including projects to help farmers, raise awareness of HIV and AIDS, and improve child care. Bishop Sotero Phamo still chairs the organization.
In addition to her main duties overseeing KMSS social welfare programs, Mary has offered training and workshops locally for clergy and laypeople, and has participated in training programs, seminars and workshops at home and abroad.

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120 days after Nargis: Children’s needs are being met but threats remain


YANGON, 1 September 2008 — Children’s needs in Myanmar are being met four months after the cyclone hit the Ayeyarwady delta and the Yangon division, UNICEF said today.

Outbreaks of major illnesses have been avoided and routine immunization has been re-established.Children are studying in temporary safe learning spaces with new school materials. More than 17,600 children benefit from UNICEF’s psychosocial activities implemented through various government departments and NGOs.
However, the risk of water shortages is looming in the coming dry season due to difficulties in cleaning contaminated ponds which needs to be addressed immediately., according to UNICEF.

“Despite ongoing efforts to pump contaminated water out of the ponds, there is a risk that not all the water ponds can be cleaned and refilled before the beginning of the dry season”, said Ramesh Shrestha, UNICEF Representative in Myanmar. “It is crucial to identify high risk areas with potential water shortages now and to work closely with the government, communities, and our partner agencies to avoid severe water shortages in the coming months.”

The Myanmar government with ASEAN, UN agencies and other partners are working together in the Post Cyclone Nargis humanitarian efforts. UNICEF is leading the operation for water and sanitation.
UNICEF has supported the cleaning of 442 ponds. With the direct support of the Myanmar Government to communities and the additional help of aid agencies, a total of 1,800 ponds have been cleaned. However, while the immediate water needs are met in most areas, there is a fear that in some areas, the number of cleaned ponds will not be enough to cover the drinking and domestic water needs for the length of the dry season.
UNICEF, also leads the education, nutrition and child protection operation.
“Even though the cyclone has caused a tremendous amount of suffering, this is also a chance to build back better and improve the situation of children and families in Myanmar,” said Mr. Shrestha.
Cyclone Nargis destroyed or damaged over 4,000 schools and more than 600 health facilities and separated hundreds of young children from their parents and close relatives. In the first 120 days after the cyclone hit, outbreaks of major illnesses were avoided thanks to the immediate provision of clean water and sanitation facilities.

More than 25,000 children have received measles vaccination and Vitamin A supplements. Over 130,000 essential learning packages have been distributed to primary school students, more than 100 safe temporary learning spaces have been established and almost 800 schools repaired.. More than 17,600 children are benefiting from psychosocial activities in 101 Child Friendly Spaces. Over 130 health assistants, nurses and midwives have been deployed to the worst affected areas for six months to support outreach activities. Some 18,000 latrines have been constructed
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Myanmar steps up carrying out weather forecast program


www.chinaview.cn 2008-08-18 12:17:13 Print

YANGON, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar is organizing a quaternary committee involving international institutions to carry out program on releasing weather forecast news and weather-related public education, aimed at minimizing the loss in case natural disaster strikes the country, a local weekly journal reported Monday.
The committee is consisted of MDH, World Meteorology and Hydrology Headquarters, MDH of Thailand and Myanmar private enterprises, the Flower News quoting the Meteorology and Hydrology Department (MHD) as saying.
Myanmar has earlier planned to introduce three more new seismographs this year with the help of foreign organizations as part of its bid to reinforce the country's seismological facilities.
In cooperation with the Thailand-based Asian Disaster Preparedness Center and China Earthquake Administration, one seismograph will be set up in western coastal Rakhine state's Sittwe, while the other two will be established in northeastern Shan state's Namhsan and northernmost Kachin state's Myitkyina respectively.
Besides, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) is committed to help Myanmar develop an early warning system for tsunami and other natural disasters by setting up two seismograph stations and two sea-level measurement stations on Thamihla Kyun (Diamond Island) in Ayeyawaddy division in the coming years.
Moreover, the Japan International Cooperation Agency is also helping Myanmar establish an early earthquake warning system by setting up seismographic network and record center in the country.
Furthermore, Myanmar and India will cooperate in monitoring tsunami, saying that details of the warning projects for the natural disaster will be discussed between the MHD and India's Ministry of Geology and Science.
In the latest development, Thailand is seeking to establish in Myanmar an early warning network system against cyclone and a delegation, led by Minister of Information, Communication and Technology Mun Patanotai, has recently visited Yangon.
Following the onslaught on Myanmar by a severe cyclone storm inearly last May, the United Nations has also set up an emergency telecommunication center (ETC) in Yangon to help for quick communication access in disaster relief and restoration works.
Meanwhile, Myanmar said it will air weather forecast news from the country's new capital of Nay Pyi Taw starting from the end of this year.
The installation of such facilities is nearing completion, the MHD said.
Besides, the Myanmar Government has also granted spending of 300,000 U.S. dollars to purchase earthquake-monitoring equipment to establish its first central seismological observatory in the new capital to strengthen the country's earthquake warning facilities.
The planned Nay Pyi Taw seismological observatory will be the one of its kind following the Kaba Aye in Yangon, Mandalay in Mandalay division, Sittway in Rakhine state and Dawei in Tanintharyi division respectively set up during the past 24-year period between 1961 and 1985, according to local media.
A deadly cyclone Nargis, which occurred over the Bay of Bengal, hit five divisions and states on last May 2 and 3, killing 84,537 people and leaving 53,836 others missing and 19,359 injured.
Three months after the Nargis tremor, an over-one-hour typhoon swept some villages in Mudon and Mawlamyine in southeastern Mon state on Aug. 8-9, causing some damages.
Meanwhile, the country is also building cyclone shelters in 500villages in the cyclone-affected regions to resist cyclone and earthquake attack in the future.
The project, estimated to be cost about at least 15 million U.S.dollars, will be implemented by the cooperation of the Myanmar Engineers' Society (MES) and the Geological Science Society (GSS).
Accordingly, with the assistance of experts from the Tokyo University of Japan and with the combination of technical know-how applied in most cyclone-hit Bangladesh, Pakistan and India, and that of Myanmar's local regions, a first-ever cyclone-resistant model village is under construction.
Forecasting that another cyclone could develop in Myanmar in October-November's post-monsoon period, private media have called on the country's people to strictly observe the weather forecast warning, take lessons from the severe cyclone Nargis and take preventive measures.

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Myanmar strives for increase of literacy rate of people


2008-09-02 11:23:02 Print

YANGON, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar has been striving for the increase of the country's adult literacy rate annually with the figures attaining 94.83 percent in 2008, the official newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Tuesday.
The report attributed the attainment to the concerted efforts of the Ministry of Education, international agencies, governmental and non-governmental organizations, regional and local authorities and the communities.
Further increase of the literacy rate is being strived, it said.
Noting that Myanmar's special literacy program in border areas, initiated in 1996, is regarded as one of the best practices in Asia and the Pacific region, the report said, initiation of Community Learning Centers (CLC), being introduced by the Education Research Bureau, helps newly literate learners to gain good foundation for basic literacy.
The report underlined that self-reliance village libraries, initiated by the Ministry of Information, are of great support forneo-literates for the attainment of literacy and other literate persons for the enrichment of their knowledge and information aimed at rural development.
To help support the literacy-related activities, Literacy Resource Center was established in 2000.
Myanmar's adult literacy rate stood 94.35 percent in 2006, 94.1percent in 2005 and 83 percent in 1996.
In its drive to increase the adult literacy rate annually, the government has extended informal primary education program and mobile school program for economically difficult people to attend classes and over-school-age children.
In the mean time, literacy for illiterate adults and continuing education programs are also being implemented nationwide.
In the formal education sector, efforts for 100-cent enrollment for all school-age children and all students to complete basic education have been made as a mass movement.
To increase student enrollment rate, the government has opened over 6,000 post-primary schools, while exerting efforts for children to finish primary education and to complete their middle school education.
Other official statistics also show that Myanmar had 40,553 basic education schools as of 2007, of which 1,694 are with multi media classrooms. The number of teachers and students went to 260,000 and 8.83 million respectively.
The education authorities also urged more active participation in the literacy campaign to improve the education and socio-economic life of the people.
Meanwhile, Myanmar and its fellow members of the Southeast Asia Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) have agreed to cooperate in bringing down the number of illiterate children in Southeast Asia.
According to a memorandum of understanding reached recently between Myanmar and the SEAMEO, a more structured framework for expanding cooperation in education, science and culture across the region is to be worked out.
SEAMEO was formed in November 1965 as a chartered international organization to promote cooperation in education, science and culture in the Southeast Asia.
Myanmar joined the SEAMEO in 1998.


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Bush reiterates position on Myanmar
Larry Jagan, Foreign Correspondent
• Last Updated: August 09. 2008 10:29PM UAE / August 9. 2008 6:29PM GMT
BANGKOK // In Beijing, George W Bush managed to raise the issue of Myanmar with Hu Jintao, his Chinese counterpart, at their dinner on Friday evening, according to Chinese government officials. It seems the Chinese leader rebuffed Washington’s efforts to get Beijing to step up pressure on its neighbour’s military junta.
The Chinese position is clear - democracy and freedom in Myanmar, often referred to by its former name, Burma, are an internal matter - and they believe the generals are progressing on their own “road map to democracy”, having recently adopted a new constitution, with elections scheduled for 2010.

For most analysts, Beijing holds the only possible key to encouraging the military regime to make the transitional process towards democracy transparent, including holding free and fair elections. “We don’t trust the junta,” said Zin Linn, a leading spokesman for exiled dissidents.
“See what happened when the National League for Democracy convincingly won the last elections in 1990 - they simply ignored the result and refused to hand over power,” he said. “The only way to avoid a repeat of that is for the international community, especially China, to play a critical role in supporting genuine democracy in Burma.”

Mr Bush is reported to have reiterated the US position in his short discussion with the Chinese president - including the immediate release of Ms Suu Kyi and eligibility for her party, the NLD, to run unhindered in free and fair elections in two years.
In a presidential election year, few will heed Mr Bush’s position on longer-term international issues. In deference to his hosts, the US president tried to make his clarion call for democracy and freedom before his visit to China. He did this in what was billed his last major policy speech on Asia, when he addressed diplomats, politicians and students in Bangkok last week, en route to Beijing.

“Tyranny in Burma must be brought to an end,” he told his audience. Then in a strongly symbolic gesture, he had lunch with a small group of Myanmar activists at the residence of the US ambassador to Thailand. “The American people care deeply about the people of Burma and dream for the day the people will be free,” he told them.
The dissidents who met the president were impressed. “It was great; he was relaxed and joked with us,” Win Min, an independent academic from Myanmar, now at Chiang Mai University in northern Thailand, said after the meeting. “He seemed to know a lot about Burma.”

Nevertheless, Mr Bush still cannot pronounce the detained opposition leader’s name and he has not mastered the name of Senior Gen Than Shwe, the military leader.
He never once mentioned him by name during the lunch discussions, according to the dissidents. “You notice I’m saying ‘general’ because it’s generally viewed as a one-man regime,” he told a group of Myanmar journalists that interviewed him after the lunch. But diplomats and observers are concerned that Mr Bush is blowing in the wind and will not have any effect - either in Beijing or Myanmar. “The cause of Burma’s freedom, democracy and human rights was poignantly served, but whether Mr Bush and his wife’s gestures will make any difference on the ground is doubtful,” according to Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a senior political analyst at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.
“With six months to go, he’s a lame-duck president and cannot hope to affect things in Burma,” said Derek Tonkin, a political commentator and former British ambassador to Thailand and Vietnam. “As for the generals … things are going along quite well for them; there are no signs of serious opposition, and as military men, they have successfully completed the first four stages of their road map. They see absolutely no reason to change course.”
Some of the dissidents, who met Mr Bush in Bangkok, urged him to consider changing policies towards the junta.

“The US government should engage the Burmese generals for the long-term strategy of democracy and development on the country,” Aung Naing Oo, an independent analyst based in Thailand, told the president.

Mr Bush apparently remains convinced that US sanctions are working. “I think our strategy is the right strategy … I am trying to convince others to join us on the strategy. In other words, it would be better if we could all speak with one voice,” he told the journalists. Over lunch he was more considered: he told the activists that a change in policy now would reward the generals for having done nothing, according to Win Min.
Mr Bush acknowledged that what was needed was an international united front on Myanmar that included the US, Europe and Myanmar’s Asian neighbours. So far that has been virtually impossible, he conceded. “But it’s been difficult with some of the countries in the neighbourhood here, because we don’t share the same goals. My goal is democracy. Their goal is stability,” he said.

Mr Bush is certainly in the right place to start quiet diplomacy. China remains the key to future international efforts to mediate in Myanmar. Although China still supports the junta, Chinese leaders are worried about the future stability of the regime, according to Chinese diplomats.
Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, met Thein Sein, Myanmar’s prime minister, in Beijing before the Games. China hoped Myanmar could sort out its problems “through democratic negotiation”, he said after the meeting.

“China will continue to follow a good-neighbourly policy towards Myanmar, and work with the international community to help Myanmar overcome its difficulties,” Mr Wen was reported to have said.
This may not be as blunt as Mr Bush’s approach, but clearly the Chinese leaders are concerned about Myanmar’s economic woes and its political impasse.

After the Olympics, they may just heed international concern and even consider other strategic options to encourage change in Myanmar.

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Next Time on Different Perspectives we travel to Mandalay, the second biggest city in Myanmar, where buddist
temples and islamic mosques are filled with pilgrims praying side by side. Please join us.



The Different Perspectives Staff
Edward


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

Copyright © 2008 Different Perspectives

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