Kyi May Kaung's comment on actress Emma Thompson's trip to Burma -

during which she claimed to see "change in Burma".

Left on website - 10-29-2011

"I admire Emma Thompson tremendously as an actor and activist etc.

But in this case she is MISTAKEN -

she has fallen into the trap of speaking for a non-profit which needs to be on the right side of the junta to continue in-country operations.

The so-called change is only a media whitewash so the junta can get western sanctions lifted.

Ms. Thompson needs to look at things deeper than one "fact-finding" trip sponsored by one non-profit organisation.

Kyi May Kaung (Ph.D.)"

Kenneth Lieberthal on doing business in China -

http://www.brookings.edu/press/Books/2011/managingthechinachallenge.aspx

NASA image of storm over Burma - Oct 21 -

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=38805

How much difference does one poem make? by Kyi May Kaung in PeacexPeace

Dupont Circle Metro - Washington DC with lines by poet Walt Whitman - who went alone during American Civil War to comfort wounded and dying soldiers.

Photo copyright Kyi May Kaung



http://www.peacexpeace.org/2011/10/how-much-difference-does-one-poem-make/

International scholarships, Univ. of Sydney, Australia

http://sydney.edu.au/international/international_students.shtml

Students from Burma should try.

kmk

Prize winning documentary on Khmer Rouge - Brother Number 2

Dried banana leaves - photo copyright Kyi May Kaung


http://enemiesofthepeoplemovie.com/


Chilling documentary which complements work by Nate Thayer, Ben Kiernan etc.

-- to be used in International Criminal Court.

-- he never educated his own children, who deeply resented it.

* This was sent to me by Jane Khin Zaw, daughter of U Khin Zaw or "K" - who is now a Carmelite nun. She is related to the co-director of the film.

Contact #s for interview on film website.

Kyi May Kaung's Zarganar or Pincers, Great Burmese Comic among few released.

http://asiancorrespondent.com/author/kyimaykaung/

Sarah Browning's article on Poetry Walk of Shame and Kyi May Kaung's poem, War on Roaches in Foreign Policy in Focus.

Walt Whitman's poetry carved in stone at Dupont Circle metro. Photo copyright Kyi May Kaung




http://www.fpif.org/articles/poets_stand_up



http://www.fpif.org/articles/war_on_roaches

Burmese junta firm gets exploration bid in South Africa

http://mg.co.za/article/2011-10-07-burmese-firm-gets-sa-exploration-right/

Dog meat in Vietnam

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22185

Weakness in traditional area studies approach and Burma Studies by Kyi May Kaung

I think the elephant must be a flower - two fake topiary men look at a decorated elephant - photo copyright Kyi May Kaung

from Burma Studies Conference, 2008,

paper abstract.

WEAKNESS IN THE TRADITIONAL AREA STUDIES APPROACH AND BURMA.
KYI MAY KAUNG
Burma Studies has been traditionally organized as a subject discipline as Area Studies. In this approach what happens within the national boundaries of a country (only) is implicitly treated as relevant to the study of the problems of that country. At least two decades to four decades of Burma Studies has shown that these parameters are too limited. It has resulted in scholars not talking or collaborating with each other as much as they should, and not paying enough attention to systemic and regional matters, not to mention the international setting in which Burma needs to operate and Burma studies needs to operate.

For instance academic articles and journalistic ones are event driven and have time only to speak about the most micro-economic of matters, whereas it is macro economics that we need to understand. The historians, some of whom hark back to an ultra-nationalistic model, have also failed us, as they are unable to handle the problems of the moment and apparently see nothing wrong with the SPDC's paradigm. Most of the Burma scholarship is focused on subject matter which is limited to Burma only without enough cross-system, cross-national, intra and inter-regional and international analysis. That this approach has failed is widely evident from how the junta has taken advantage of the misguided approach of Friends of Burma and the international community to "depoliticize" Burma strategy during Cyclone Nargis. As a result the aid has disappeared into the junta's pockets, Ban ki-Moon's visit did not succeed, nor did that of Mr. Gambari during the Saffron Revolution last year, nor have any of the UN Rapporteurs since 1988. At the same time Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is still under house arrest, NLD leadership and members and other dissidents have been under arrest or under severe oppression, and the junta is continuing with "business as usual" - in fact even has windfall profits from natural gas etc.

My 1994 dissertation and my article in Asian Survey that summarized this, mentioned that we need to look at systems which were then similar to Burma's such as the then Soviet Union and the PRC and economic and hopefully political reforms there. We also need to look at China and India now and their preferred position as economically strong neighbors of Burma, and China and India; the United States and the western world and China and India as strongly emerging powers in this world as we knew it. The dissident community is now highly conscious of this, but the academic is not.

I would like to propose that the Burma academic community reach out to other approaches, including the dissident community, and the artistic and writerly ones, which are now at the forefront. This would result in much more cogent advice, and much less waste of economic and human resources in the international responses to ongoing and recurrent major crises in Burma. That the crises will continue and also continue to escalate is beyond doubt.

<< back

Americana - funny funny Burma Shave signs --

http://www.stormlakepilottribune.com/story/1769705.html

From Hindustan Times - Mizoram, India to Ruili, China

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Where-China-and-India-merge/Article1-752584.aspx

From Bangkok Post - Winds of Change or Smokescreen -

Crusty old tree - Photo copyright Kyi May Kaung.



http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/259250/winds-of-change-or-just-a-smokescreen

As a poet I give you the answer,

it's a slight breeze, maybe getting a bit stronger, blowing the smoke around.

After all, smoke is not static.

Blog note Copyright Kyi May Kaung.