Tuesday, May 17, 2011

re-posting - article about Kyi May Kaung and her art - from Asian Fortune

http://www.asianfortunenews.com/site/article_0407.php?article_id=10

re-posting - Kyi May Kaung - Shrimp Shelling and Tuna Canning in Mahachai, Thailand - from Wild River Review

http://www.wildriverreview.com/4/spotlight_shrimpandtuna.php

Pakistan - a hard country - from The New Humanist

http://newhumanist.org.uk/2554/book-review-pakistan-a-hard-country-by-anatol-lieven

Artist Francis Bacon's studio

http://www.missourireview.com/content/dynamic/view_text.php?text_id=2577

Two classics for all seasons -

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi recently called for papers on Federalism. Here are 2 never fail classics on basic principles.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=the+federalist+papers&ei=UTF-8&fr=moz2-ytff-

The Federalist Papers

+

Charles Lindblom's Politics and Markets -

http://www.amazon.com/Politics-Markets-Political-Economic-Systems/dp/0465059589

which set me on a pol. sci. path.

Actually of course she knows it all already, but this will help cinch her ideas - main thing checks and balances and the supremacy of the market (test) with government control where it should control, but not where it should not.

Kyi May Kaung

Monday, May 16, 2011

VOA Chinese broadcasts may stop

http://freemediaonline.org/freemediaonlineblog/2011/03/04/voice-of-america-journalists-protest-ending-of-voa-radio-to-china-part-four/

Dr Myint and Dr Kyi May Kaung cited on Wiki article on Dr Hla Myint

known as H. Myint - one of the founders (with Arthur Lewis)of Development Economics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hla_Myint

Dr. H. Myint advocated an open economy for Burma, and told me when I visited in Nov 2010 that he wished he had "pressed harder" with Ne Win when Taiwan liberalized, but I don't think anyone could have "pressed hard" with that dictator.

In fact according to family members, Saya Hla Myint was not even allowed to go inside Rangoon airport to see his mother, and had to talk to her while she was on the balcony from the tarmac.

I don't think anyone can persuade dictators to open up, we only think so.

Kyi May Kaung

Dr Myint and Dr Kyi May Kaung cited on Wiki article on Dr Hla Myint

known as H. Myint - one of the founders (with Arthur Lewis)of Development Economics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hla_Myint

Dr. H. Myint advocated an open economy for Burma, and told me when I visited in Nov 2010 that he wished he had "pressed harder" with Ne Win when Taiwan liberalized, but I don't think anyone could have "pressed hard" with that dictator.

In fact according to family members, Saya Hla Myint was not even allowed to go inside Rangoon airport to see his mother, and had to talk to her while she was on the balcony from the tarmac.

I don't think anyone can persuade dictators to open up, we only think so.

Kyi May Kaung

Libyan Youth Movement

http://feb17.info/live-benghazi-video-feed-mohammed/

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Children's book Hippopattamustn't that is a rare book by Children's Poet Laureate

http://www.buy.com/prod/a-hippopotamusn-t-and-other-animal-poems-an-other-animal-poems/q/loc/106/30760517.html

Demjanjuk convicted in Munich of Nazi war crimes -

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110512/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_demjanjuk

Left on Guernica site - ref. interview of poet WS Merwin

When I started writing poetry through a great sense of loss about 1994, one of the first poetry readings I went to was W. S. Merwin's on Penn campus.

I was so impressed by the skyscraper of poetry books that he had written that was as high as the podium.

I bought The Moving Target and The Lice. He selected my colleague Dr Dr Sharon Ann Jeager (2 Ph.D.s) for her translations of Riilke and Dannie Abse gave me a prize from the Academy of American Poets for my first 5 poems.

Since then reading poetry has taken me to many places, cities and countries, but I can't go back to Burma.

I remember talking to him about his translations from Eskimo.

I want to thank W. S. Merwin for his example. Neruda is another of my favorite poets. I did not know till now that he was influenced by Neruda so much. It all makes sense now.

Sad to learn of Robert Graves losing his mind, as I thought "I Claudius" was just brilliant.


We must write while we are still able.

Kyi May Kaung.

Monday, May 09, 2011

The Sartorialist

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sartorialist

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/fashion/article5874273.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1

Rosett Report on VOA, Burma and Iran

http://pajamasmedia.com/claudiarosett/why_is_voice_of_america_speaki/

Burma's Billionaire - Forbes Magazine 2007

http://www.forbes.com/global/2007/0423/058.html

Article about Bin Ladin from Time magazine

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2068858-6,00.html

Anne Sexton -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Sexton

Pains of the Poet and Miracles - by Lance Morrow

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,973887-1,00.html

I think she was right and the family was just blaming the victim. Psychiatry was not as advanced as it is today.

Kyi May Kaung

Music swims back to me, by Anne Sexton

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171271

Thai government bans Burmese dissident meeting in Chiangmai

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21258

Sunday, May 08, 2011

Kentucky Derby Hats -

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Kentucky-Derby-hats/ss/events/us/050711kyderbyhats#photoViewer=/110507/483/urn_publicid_ap_org774c7fa646954a969d3becb5acd2da61

Anderson Cooper of Royal Wedding Hats: "I mean, you can't really wear them again, can you? You can't dress them up." :)

Mothers' Day Message -


stone inscription - Nothern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL - photo copyright Kyi May Kaung

Must you write in Burmese to be a Burmese poet?

Must you write in Burmese to be a Burmese Poet.
Sunflower Sutra (Naykyar Pan Thoke) after Allen Ginsburg.

Old gay man, renowned poet
son of a communist mother Naomi
which is your best poem, I ask
Kaddish, Kaddish, definitely Kaddish

you give me permission to talk about Buddhism
Tibetan,
sphincters, old railroad lines
old lines of old stories
going back to the old country

maybe incest in some families
the promise and the failures of the new
new country, the I country, the You country.

Is it a take down, an assassination, an execution
do we do this in America
Michael Moore saying, to CNN, I am glad he's gone
Bin Ladin, but we lost something.

My art work - being made of old recycled things
does not necessarily mean
the artwork is inferior
it does not necessarily mean, work made of expensive materials, is
necessarily better.

You give me permission to be Angry.

Vajrapani, the bodyguard of Buddha
sometimes depicted with blue skin a necklace of skulls
sometimes shown the Gupta period, as a Greek man with curly
hair, Hercules.

I only saw Ginsburg once at a reading at
the University of Pennsylvania
I got in because the house manager asked me
dead pan - You're downstage guard today, aren't you.

Maybe down stage guard for life regarding Burma.
Must you write in Burmese to be a Burmese poet.

Isn't it enough to just be "a poet" of no nationality or all nationalities.

What a sad life Bin Ladin must have lived in Abbottabad
named after a certain British Mr./Sir James Abbot
as Maymyo in Burma another hill station named after a Colonel May. But now it has a Burmese name. Pyin Oo Lwin.

The family never went out, never called out for pizza
maybe ate goat meat, how many different ways.
The wives never went to shop for their own clothes or their own food, never gossiped in the bazaar, never chose their own eggplant purple, to cook, how.

No flowers in the grey yard, though said to have been a pet rabbit. Everything barricaded and the last meal
perhaps would have been either red beets or red tomatoes and hard-boiled eggs lying in a concrete sink.

The journalists said he lived in relative comfort but
give me Allen Ginsburg's untidy life and sunflower sutra any day. Ginsburg did not kill anyone.

Never met but once briefly yet went to his funeral
Naropa Institute Boulder Colorado, where
they played a tape of the dead Ginsburg reading his poems
while
a photograph was ceremonially burned and became
right before us, Ashes.

Give me his memorial service any time.

This poem copyright Kyi May Kaung.
Written May 7, 2011

Saturday, May 07, 2011

George Lucas - film maker

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lucas

Sunflower Sutra by Allen Ginsburg


Sunflower Sutra- tribute to Allen Ginsburg - art work and photo- copyright Kyi May Kaung.


http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/179382

and here is my own Sunflower Sutra (Naykyar Pan Thoke)after Allen Ginsburg.

old gay man, renowned poet
son of a communist mother Naomi
which is your best poem, I ask
Kaddish, Kaddish, definitely Kaddish

you give me permission to talk about Buddhism
Tibetan,
spincters, old railroad lines
old lines of old stories
going back to the old country

maybe incest in some families
the promise and the failures of the new
new country, the I country, the You country.

is it a take down, an assassination, an execution
do we do this in America
Michael Moore saying,to CNN, I am glad he's gone
Bin Ladin, but we lost something.

my art work - being made of old recycyled things
does not necessarily mean
the artwork is inferior
it does not necessarily mean, work made of expensive materials, is
necessarily better.

you give me permission to be angry.

Vajrapani, the bodyguard of Buddha
sometimes depicted with blue skin a necklace of skulls
sometimes shown the Gupta period, as a Greek man with curly
hair.

I only saw Ginsburg once at a reading at
the University of Pennsylvania
I got in because the house manager asked me
dead pan - You're downstage guard today, aren't you.

Maybe down stage guard for life regarding Burma.
Must you write in Burmese to be a Burmese poet.

isn't it enough to just be "a poet" of no nationality or all nationalities.

What a sad life Bin Ladin must have lived in Abbottabad
named after a certain British Mr Abbot
as Maymyo in Burma another hill station named after a Colonel May. But now it has a Burmese name. Pyin Oo Lwin.

The family never went out, never called out for pizza
maybe ate goat meat, how many different ways.
The wives never went to shop for their own clothes or their own food, never gossiped in the bazaar, never chose their own eggplant

no flowers in the grey yard, though said to have been a pet rabbit. everything barricaded and the last meal
perhaps would have been either red beets or red tomatoes and hard boiled eggs lying in a concrete sink.

the journalists said he lived in relative comfort but
give me Allen Ginsburg's untidy life and sunflower sutra any day. Ginsburg did not kill anyone.

Never met but once briefly yet went to his funeral
Naropa Institute Boulder Colorado, where
they played a tape of the dead Ginsburg reading his poems
while
a photograph was ceremonially burned and became
right before us, Ashes.

Give me his memorial service any time.

This poem copyright Kyi May Kaung.

re-posting - Paper by Dr. Bruce Mathews - State oppression of Burmese-Buddhist clergy

http://www.faqs.org/abstracts/Regional-focus-area-studies/Constitutional-reform-in-a-repressive-state-the-case-of-Burma.html

Bruce Mathews paper was written in 1993.

The Saffron Revolution of 2007 and the resulting crackdown, also on monks, in addition to the general population, shows how prescient he was.

In my view Burma studies and political science and commentary in general pays too much attention to the here and now, and does not go deeply enough into the reasons why things happen.

Kyi May kaung.

Re-posting - Dr. Kyi May Kaung addresses Senator Webb


big shiny fig leaf - photo copyright Kyi May Kaung


Sr. General Than Shwe throwing rose petals at Gandhi's grave - from Internet.


http://burmadigest.info/2009/10/04/dr-kyi-may-kaung-addresses-senator-webb/

Commission of Inquiry Petition with 5,000+ signatures delivered to British Foreign Office


Three Generations - painted with permission of Free Burma Rangers - painting and photo copyright Kyi May Kaung


http://www.chinlandguardian.com/news-2009/1307-coi-petition-delivered-to-british-foreign-office.html

Monday, May 02, 2011

US war casualities and their hometowns - from CNN site

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/index.html?hpt=C2

Council on American-Islamic Relations' statement on Bin Ladin death

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR):

"We join our fellow citizens in welcoming the announcement that Osama bin Laden has been eliminated as a threat to our nation and the world through the actions of American military personnel. ... Bin Laden never represented Muslims or Islam. In fact, in addition to the killing of thousands of Americans, he and Al Qaeda caused the deaths of countless Muslims worldwide. We also reiterate President Obama's clear statement tonight that the United States is not at war with Islam."

From CNN site

Locked in, tied up - Burma's disciplined democracy

http://www.burmapartnership.org/2011/04/locked-in-tied-up-burma%E2%80%99s-disciplined-democracy/

from Alt-ASEAN

the alternative ASEAN

Abbotabad resident who unknowingly "live blogged" Bin Ladin raid -

http://www.suntimes.com/news/5139787-417/man-unknowingly-liveblogs-bin-laden-operation.html

Bin Ladin's NYTs obit - written in 2010 by correspondent who has since passed away.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/world/02osama-bin-laden-obituary.html?pagewanted=7

Full text of Presdt Obama's statement announcing Bin Ladin's death - from White House website -

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/05/02/remarks-president-osama-bin-laden

Bin Ladin buried at sea after being killed by US special ops - from Washingtom Post - 26 minutes ago

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/osama_bin_laden_is_killed_by_us_forces_in_pakistan/2011/05/01/AFXMZyVF_story.html?wprss=rss_world

Sunday, May 01, 2011

Endangered places and animals

http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-39412377

Amazingly prolific writer we knew as Jean Plaidy etc -

now Victoria Holt or Philippa Carr etc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Plaidy

100 m books sold!! I thought Jean Plaidy was long dead and other two were young - 3rd generation writers -- truly amazing.

Found her while looking for books about Catherine Valois and her gardener lover Owen Tudor, who set up the Tudor Dynasty.

Guide mentioned when I went to Leeds Castle.

Kyi May Kaung

Swan upping on the Thames -

http://www.royal.gov.uk/RoyalEventsandCeremonies/SwanUpping/SwanUpping.aspx

from British Royal official site.

I leave you to read for yourself and find out what that is.

Bob Dylan sings Blowing in the Wind

http://www.bobdylan.com/sites/www.bobdylan.com/themes/dylan/player.php?song_nid=108&album_nid=6245

site will only let you listen to a bit free.

Bob Dylan's song - "Blowing in the Wind"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowin%27_in_the_Wind

Kim Aris (Aung San Suu Kyi's son) and Dr Myint sing Blowing in the Wind

http://drkokogyi.wordpress.com/2010/12/03/blowing-in-the-wind-u-myint-kim-aris/

Gaddafi family tree -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12531442

Ice skating free dance champions

http://www.universalsports.com/video/assetid=7a1114a0-173b-43c1-b569-917c83e5adc8.html#daviswhite+free+dance


It takes years of practice, not to mention many falls and pulled muscles and even broken bones, to learn to be free like this.

BTW, the woman dancer has a "Daw Suu hairstyle and a flower in her hair" actually a Spanish flamenco style.

Kyi May Kaung

Kyi May Kaung's comment on Burma - "Dr. Myint among Thein Sein economic advisers"


Dead fish out of water a long time (actually a shad or nga tha lauk) ready to be cooked. Photo and plate, copyright Kyi May Kaung.


I tried to leave this on the Irrawaddy magazine site, but it was too long.

kmk


"Dr. Myint is a fine individual and economist, though in this case maybe, a tad naive.

Since at least the mid-90s, I have been advocating economic reforms in Burma. See my Ph.D. dissertation from the University of Pennsylvania at their Penn Commons on line site. In this work I argued that economic reforms need to be in conjunction with political reforms. (This is the only time "Myanmar patriot" and I agree.)My Chinese classmate in fact went home to a think tank created for her.

The junta may re-jigger the prices a bit, and have more pretend privatizations, but will it give farmers their land back? I doubt it. And look what happened when IMF and WB in 07 advised liberating fuel prices (only).

Nothing will happen even if God were advising them. In past, their PR took out "political remarks" of Nobel economist Joseph Stigltiz.

BTW, I met Dr Myint twice in 04 and 05 at undisclosed locations at international conferences. In 04 Khin Nyunt was purged even as they were still abroad.

Now I worry they will "shoot the messenger."

My doctorate is from Penn in Political Economy. I studied the economies of Burma, Zaire,the USSR,India and the PRC etc in detail and formulated my own theory that only if central control is relaxed, can there be Development.

A micro-economic, sectoral approach won't cut it without human rights, among them right to work where we wish, say what we want,live where we want, associate with whomever we want.

I just hope Dr. Myint is not made into a scapegoat.

But I do admire his Courage and that of Daw Suu, the NLD and All.

Being optimistic while being pessimistic,

Kyi May Kaung (Ph.D.)"

Specialpost--Ellen Bernstein--expose of World Bank Rohingya project--

https://www.irrawaddy.com/culture/books/hellfire-and-damnation-in-myanmar-ex-world-bank-country-head-recounts-rohingya-catastrophe-response....