KyiMayKaung

Burma, America, The World, Art, Literature, Political Economy through the eyes of a Permanent Exile. "We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the oppressed. Sometimes we must interfere. . . There is so much injustice and suffering crying out for our attention . . . writers and poets, prisoners in so many lands governed by the left and by the right." Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize Speech, 1986, Oslo. This entire site copyright Kyi May Kaung unless indicated otherwise.

Thursday, June 04, 2026

Duck Soup original screenplay.

https://www.scripts.com/script.php?id=duck_soup_971

Duck Soup--political satire --1933 Marx Brothers--

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_Soup

I post this not because I want to show off--well only a little--but because I want all those struggling on the borders to take heart.

If I can do it, so can you. Below--fabric design Kyi Kaung on Spoonflower.

Tribute to me--written by my former MA student in Burma--Daw Khin Pwint Oo--

Posted with her permission.

Me at the Institute of Economics Convocation, Rangoon Univ, 1981--AI restoration also by KPO.

Tribute to my Mentor Dr. Kyi May Kaung

By Khin Pwint Oo

In one’s life, it is important to pay tribute to someone who provides fair unbiased guidance and helps identify one's strength.

The very first time I came to know of her (later as Dr. Kyi May Kaung) was in my high school days where I found a piece of her writing in our MEHS Annual School Magazine Swaying Palms. It inspired me to put pen to paper like her one day.

Later I was told that she is the elder daughter of Sithu U Kaung who was awarded the honorary title "Sithu" first instituted by the democratically-elected Prime Minister U Nu.

To give a short account of his life and profession, U Kaung served his country leaving his imprint in many capacities as a Director of Education; first Chairman of the Burma Historical Commission; writer; artist; tennis and golf aficionado; to name a few.

He was also well known for his signature on the Burmese currency notes printed by Delarue Company in the UK and issued in Burma. These were famous among the Burmese populace as "Maung Kaung notes".

At the time, U Kaung was sent by Bogyoke Aung San to be on the Burma Currency Board in London and to look after Burmese state scholars stranded in the UK during World War II.

These included Dr. Hla Myint, commonly known as H. Myint, who with Sir Arthur Lewis invented Development Economics, as well as Dr. Hla Pe, Burmese linguist.

Dr Hla Pe married Dr. Kaung's maternal aunt once removed and settled back in Moulmein, Burma, with the help of General Ne Win in the 1970s.

U Kaung should not be confused with his son U (Dr.) U Thaw Kaung who was chief librarian at the University of Rangoon, who also was granted the Sithu title and also became Chair of the renamed Myanmar Historical Commission.

Honestly, I admire her as herself and not because of her being a daughter of the well-known Sithu U Kaung.

I would like to acknowledge a little bit about her professionalism and some background on dedication and achievements in her own career and life.

During her Matriculation examinations, she placed 5th in the whole of Burma, the only woman among the top five--the others were all men, graduates of Saint Paul's High School and Science majors.

Her first two degrees, a Bachelor and a Masters, were in Economics from the University of Rangoon, Burma in the 1960s.

In 1982 she qualified for a Fulbright Scholarship in Transportation Economics as specified by the then Burmese Education Ministry and Head of Department of Economics Dr Than Nyun after apparently talks with Fulbright. Her Master’s thesis showed the need for a shadow interest rate in the Polish Economy and her thesis supervisor was Dr. Ronald E. Findlay who passed away in 2021 while serving as Ragnar Nurkse Professor of Economics at Columbia University in New York City. https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/trade-development-and-political-economy-life-and-work-ronald-findlay-1935-2021

Dr. Findlay, with Saya Aye Hlaing and her Penn professors and famous historian of Old Burma Prof. Gordon H. Luce https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Luce were her closest, earliest and most influential advisors.

She obtained an MA in City Planning and a doctorate in Political Economy (Theory)--the Study of Systems, from the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, in the United States of America in 1994.

Not only is she brilliant in academics but as well in arts, winning awards from the Academy of American Poets in 1993 and a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Award for her play "Shaman'' in 1996. She also was a Pew finalist twice, amongst several other literary prizes.

Over the years she is somebody who finds her passion in painting and creative in needlework.

I continued knowing her when I became a student at the Institute of Economics, Rangoon where she taught Economic History to Masters Students.

I never thought she would become my Master’s Thesis supervisor and personally as my supervisor who stoutly helped me defend my capstone on two adjoining villages.

It made me grateful to have met her and come to know her my mentor because those years that I worked with her were extremely beneficial to me in building up my self-confidence.

Her reputation will forever be inscribed in my heart and I will consider her one of my guiding lights.

God bless you Ma Ma (Elder Sister) Kyi May.

* * *

Wednesday, June 03, 2026

House votes to stop war in Iran--copied and pasted fromAP--

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House for the first time Wednesday approved a war powers resolution that would halt the U.S. military action against Iran, defying President Donald Trump as a handful of Republicans joined with Democrats to end the three-month-long conflict that has reordered politics at home and abroad.

https://www.aol.com/articles/us--iran-us-congress-194324903.html

House Speaker Mike Johnson had tried to prevent an outcome that would show the mounting opposition to the war, abruptly shutting down floor action two weeks ago when the resolution was on the verge of approval. But displeasure has only grown as the conflict drags on and as Trump struggles to negotiate a plan for peace.

"Enough is enough," said Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who led the effort.

"It is time for the president to do the right thing," he said. "The people are tired of suffering because of his war of choice — suffering at the gas pump, suffering at the supermarkets."

The roll call Wednesday was 215-208, but next steps are uncertain. Trump would likely reject any measure from Congress to limit his commander-in-chief authority. Still, the tally, with four Republicans joining Democrats, was a rebuke of the president's war strategy, and cheers erupted in the House chamber. Opposition to war grows

It's the fourth time the House has tried to curb the U.S. war against Iran. The Senate advanced its own war powers resolution last month when a handful of GOP senators broke ranks with the Republican president in a rare show of political pushback from his party.

Each time Democrats have pushed forward the war powers resolution, the vote tallies have inched higher as political unease with the U.S. war swells. Trump had campaigned for the White House on a promise to end U.S. entanglements abroad and focus more on domestic issues, but the war has shifted attention back to the Middle East.

Johnson insisted Trump is "laser focused" on the domestic front, particularly ahead of the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.

The speaker said he spent three hours at the White House with the president this week and Trump is calling on allies to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume the flow of commerce.

Since the U.S. joined Israel in launching the Feb. 28 strikes on Iran, Americans have seen gas prices spike at the pumps, adding to inflationary pressure on consumer spending.

Iran has been able to interrupt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital channel for a large segment of the world's oil, natural gas and related products such as fertilizer.

"We're working on that final piece," said Johnson, R-La. "The entire world has an interest in the Strait of Hormuz being reopen for commerce. That what he's working on."

While a ceasefire in the conflict was declared in April, it remains uneasy and uncertain. Talks for a more durable end to the fighting have dragged, increasingly complicated by Israel's broadening war with Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. Meanwhile, military strikes between the U.S and Iran continue to flare. Congress exerts its war powers authority

The war powers resolution from the House would not immediately stop the war, but it would provide a symbolic — if not legal — step against further military action.

The resolution next goes to the Senate, where four Republican senators last month joined Democrats in advancing a similar measure to curtail the U.S. campaign against Iran. The Senate has yet to take a final vote to approve or reject its own war powers resolution.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Wednesday at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing that the Iranians would think that the administration's "hands are going to be tied" if Congress approved a war powers resolution. He said they would think "we won't be able to do anything to them, so why make a deal?"

It's not the only action Congress is taking in the national security arena as Democrats, in the minority, work to peel off Republican support for measures beyond the war against Iran.

The House also voted Wednesday on another Democratic-led effort, a procedural step toward a measure that would authorize U.S. support for Ukraine's military operations as it battles Russia and would help reconstruct the war-torn country. That vote is expected later this week. The House also expected to consider a war powers resolution to block U.S. action in Lebanon.

While Congress has the authority under the Constitution to declare war, the president also has power as the commander in chief to engage in military action, creating a legal dispute over which branch of government has ultimate say in matters of war and peace. If Senate joins the House to approve the resolution, it could set the stage for a fresh legal test of war powers.

Under the war powers act, the White House has a 60-day window to seek approval from Congress for military action. The administration, however, has indicated that because a ceasefire has been declared in the current conflict in Iran, the hostilities have ceased. ___

Associated Press writer Ben Finley contributed to this report.