Saturday, April 13, 2013

Expat views - on line Facebook dialogue with Peter Popham - biographer of Aung San Suu Kyi -

  • Kyi May Kaung, I would like to take a stroll through Burma with you
  • Kyi May Kaung Hi Peter, I am not in Burma - these are shares. Do you mean you wish to interview me about Burma?
  • Peter Popham No I just like your selection, and your comments - the views of the country of people born and raised there but long absent are valuable and fascinating. Let's talk when I am back in London in a week or two - I'm currently in Tokyo, where I lived decades back but had not visited for many years, so am enjoying my own Rip van Winkle moment here
  • Kyi May Kaung I see -- well, I am glad you take the view that exiles have something to contribute - I was always very aggravated when I was on the international seminar circuit between 2001 and 2010 and "experts" would say "I just came from Burma" or "I was there on Wednesday" -- and I lived there 30 years ago - There is a saying in Burmese "The wise person thinking from afar, is more accurate than running to take a look." I first found this out when I was taking a diploma course in Warsaw, Poland in 1969 - the distance gives much better perspective than when you are literally sunk right in the middle - I look fwd to chatting with you. I can't remember the Dhammayangyi story very well, but I think built by king who murdered his father. Or he smothered his father to death in there.

This reviewer in Slate likes latest Murakami novel--the walled city--the walled garden.

https://slate.com/culture/2024/11/haruki-murakami-book-city-uncertain-walls-severance-review.html