Q from my talk at Asian-American forum, Washington, DC, Sept 2007, second day of clampdown on "Saffron Revolution" monks --
Genocide against one's own people has gotten a bad name -- Khmer Rouge, Tiananmen, Uzbekistan.
Doesn't that affect the junta's thinking at all??
(I had to say I didn't think it did).
kmk
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Welcome - stay away - notice -
Welcome all the crazy naive idealistic artistic harmless people. Dreamers and song writers.
Stay away all the power mongers, king and queen makers, cut-throat capitalists, killers, child molesters, rapists, all those who gave the order and all those "just following orders."
Uggh -- and still want to smell like roses!!
kmk
Stay away all the power mongers, king and queen makers, cut-throat capitalists, killers, child molesters, rapists, all those who gave the order and all those "just following orders."
Uggh -- and still want to smell like roses!!
kmk
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Monday, October 28, 2013
My mother found us ABBA -
My mother found us ABBA in Burma after seeing an article in Readers' Digest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQsjAbZDx-4
"Do you hear the drums Fernando?
. . .
Since many years I have not seen a rifle in your hand,"
Bjorn Ulvaes was the genius songwriter. But like many famous groups, they fell apart and each struck out on their own.
Our family friend U KHt always said, "In America (the West) the temptation to strike out on one's own is very great."
kmk
10-28-2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQsjAbZDx-4
"Do you hear the drums Fernando?
. . .
Since many years I have not seen a rifle in your hand,"
Bjorn Ulvaes was the genius songwriter. But like many famous groups, they fell apart and each struck out on their own.
Our family friend U KHt always said, "In America (the West) the temptation to strike out on one's own is very great."
kmk
10-28-2013
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Never sign a nondisclosure statement - Maersk Alabama crew suing Maersk abt Philips movie
Maersk Alabama crew suing Maersk say Philips no hero
http://nypost.com/2013/10/13/crew-members-deny-captain-phillips-heroism/
http://nypost.com/2013/10/13/crew-members-deny-captain-phillips-heroism/
Saturday, October 26, 2013
09 Maersk Alabama hijacking now movie w Tom Hanks
09 Maersk Alabama hijacking now movie w Tom Hanks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Phillips_%28film%29
but crew not happy with hero portrayal of Cptn Phillips, sueing -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Phillips_%28film%29
but crew not happy with hero portrayal of Cptn Phillips, sueing -
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Burmese govt takes back central control of Foreign Direct Investment -
http://www.irrawaddy.org/business/investment-commission-wings-clipped.html
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Monday, October 21, 2013
The straw that broke the camel's back -
Bill Clinton left a budgetary surplus when he left office.
It's the wars under the Bushes, that have bankrupted America.
ObamaCare is only the straw that broke the camel's back.
Kyi May Kaung
It's the wars under the Bushes, that have bankrupted America.
ObamaCare is only the straw that broke the camel's back.
Kyi May Kaung
Sunday, October 20, 2013
More people read this blog daily than come on my Facebook page
but Facebook due to the intrinsic design is more interactive.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Monday, October 14, 2013
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Latest review of my novella Black Rice -
BLACK
RICE BY K. M. Kaung
Review
by Rosalind Lacy MacLennan
K.
M. Kaung's beautifully crafted, fascinating BLACK RICE, told in 42 pages, is a
must-read to fully understand modern Myanmar. Fractionalized political groups, that emerged
after Independence in 1948 from the British Empire, strive for domination.
This
well-constructed narrative builds to an ultimate high point, a twist of luck,
at the end that left me gasping.
As for structure, the black rice
metaphor works well throughout the telling of the civil war with the Karens. We follow the first person account from Black
Rice, who escapes his alcoholic, violent stepfather, only to fight in an army,
struggling to hold together a split nation, crumbling apart in internecine
warfare.
It's
a jungle where no one can be trusted, far from the romantic jingoism of a
Rudyard Kipling adventure tale.
What Kaung succeeds in showing us is
the ugly and false belief that light skin is superior to dark, the divided
loyalties between self-preservation and any form of idealism.
References
to historical characters like Thakin Aung San, the politically savvy general
and activist, who liberated Burma from Britain, and who was the father of Nobel
Peace Prize Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, anchor us along the way.
Good
show!
FIRST
DRAFT: The deep-seeded prejudice against dark-skinned peoples, held by many
Asians, is often unvoiced. But one senses early on in Black Rice, that author
K.M. Kaung has a deeper intent. She's blasting away more than false beliefs and superstitions: such as all that's needed to raise a healthy
offspring is healthy blood and environment .
Kaung's
beautifully crafted, fascinating story, told in 42 pages, is a must-read to fully
understand modern Myanmar.
Fractionalized political groups that emerged after independence in 1948 from the British Empire
have been striving for domination. This
well-constructed narrative builds to an ultimate high point twist of luck at
the end that leaves the reader breathless.
This is
an urgently told survival, jungle story, told to the author at age seven, by
her deceased cousin "of the very pale skin," about an illegitimate,
black, slant-eyed, Chinese child,
adopted by upper class Burmese
parents, whose life is not guaranteed by
learning to speak English, backed by an education in Rangoon.
The
reality of human biology is brutal, just like the history of Myanmar. After losing ten fetuses, Pretty Lady gives up trying to have babies of her own.
Only then can she accept and adopt a child with a jet black skin. Her blood was
Rh negative and her husband's was positive.
So the fetuses with the father's blood were rejected by her body with
spontaneous miscarriages. When her tenth
baby dies soon after a live birth, Pretty Lady relieves the pain of her engorged
breasts by nursing an abandoned baby with black skin, whom she names Black
Rice, for good luck. The analogy of the name is not lost. Black rice is so
glutinous, it is used in cement that has held temples together for centuries.
As for
structure, the black rice metaphor works well throughout the telling of civil
war with the Karens. We follow the first person narrative of Black Rice who
escapes his violent, alcoholic stepfather, only to fight in an army struggling
to hold together a divided nation, crumbling apart in internecine warfare. It's
a place where no one can be trusted, far from the romantic jingoism of a
Rudyard Kipling adventure tale. Yet Kaung keeps you gasping up to the last
moment.
What
Kuong succeeds in showing us is the ugly and false belief that light skin is
superior to dark, the divided loyalties between self-preservation and search for identity , and
disillusion with any form of idealism. References to historical characters like Thakin Aung San, who was the politically savvy general and activist who liberated Burma from
Britain, and who was the father of Nobel
Prize Peace Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, help anchor us along the way.
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Friday, October 11, 2013
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Wednesday, October 09, 2013
Tuesday, October 08, 2013
Quote from James Michener's Texas - "Santa Anna's Leg"
“Santa Anna’s Leg” – from James Michener’s Texas, p. 495-6.
(Ref. Mexican General Santa Anna of The Alamo fame)
Next
morning Santa Anna revealed why he had asked Garza to make the long ride .
. . to Benito’s surprise, it did not concern the
invasion of Tejas, or even the guerrilla warfare there; it was an imperial
concern which no visitor could have anticipated: ‘My dear and trusted friend, I seek a guard
of honor for a deed of honor. In
response to demands from the people of Mexico, and also its religious leaders,
I have consented with some reluctance, for I am essentially a modest man, to
have my right leg disinterred, borne to the capital, and buried in a pantheon
reserved for heroes.’
‘Your
leg,’ Benito asked.
‘Why
not?’ Santa Anna snapped. ‘It gave
itself in service to our nation, did it not?
What leg has meant so much to a nation?
Does it deserve the treatment we give other heroes?’
‘It
certainly does,’ Benito said hurriedly . . .
. . .
Garza
was still in the capital when a vast revulsion against the pomposity of Santa
Anna surfaced, and he watched in horror as a mob tore down a gilded statue of
the dictator .
. . rampaged through the streets, and cheered when
a crazy-eyed leader shouted: ‘Let’s get
that goddamned leg!’ From a safe
distance, Garza followed the frenzied rabble as they broke down the gates . . . destroyed the cenotaph honoring the leg, dug
up the bones, and dragged them ignominiously through
the very streets where they had a short
time before been paraded with such majesty.
He was aghast when the bones were separated, some going to one part of
the city, some to another, and all of them ending in rubbish piles.
James Michener, Texas, pp. 495-6.
Path breaking 1997 book on Burma by Khin Maung Kyi et al
I was on peer review meeting as invited peer reviewer.
kmk
Sunday, October 06, 2013
Over 21,000 people have read this article of mine in Open Democracy -
21,169 reads of my 2010 article in Open Democracy
http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/rangoon_3805.jsp
http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/rangoon_3805.jsp
Saturday, October 05, 2013
Friday, October 04, 2013
Mini book review of Domique Dunne's In Another City, Not my Own --
Reading - Dominique Dunne - Another City, Not my Own - about O J Simpson trial - makes me remember what Dunne shared in essay in Marie Arana edited - The Writing Life.
Dunne, early in his career, in Los Angeles, suffered the murder of his daughter by her boyfriend, who walked free after only 2 1/2 years.
In Another City, he goes back for Simpson trial, having previously covered Menendez brothers' trial and also the trial of high society member Claus von Bulow for the murder of his wife Sunny.
Another City is written as fiction--A Novel in the Form of a Memoir, and that is why I picked it up at my local library after my enhanced flu shot today.
That is some of the compensation of living in the most educated county in the USA. This library, within walking distance and the one upstairs of my building have no due date -- I educated myself about plays entirely on books from the library upstairs.
Shakespeare, of course, and also Jean Genet (a former convict's) scariest play about prison life.
The Dominique Dunne book is written as fiction, but with all real names for public characters, even for Dunne's conversations in private with them (semi-private--at dinners and lunches in restaurants and private homes - the rich and powerfuls' homes).
It is a bit like Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, or John Barendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which mainly write about dead people.
However, Dunne does a curious thing, he fictionalizes himself, like Salmon Rushdie does in his own memoir Joseph Anton (Rushdie changed names of his security detail, of course, but not the names of his famous literary agent and others).
In - In Another City, suddenly the names from the riveting trial of the nineties come back to us, OJ, Nicole Simpson, Judge Lance Ito, Marcia Clark, etc.
It is all presented as dialogue - amazing - the snippets of info that Dunne picked up.
We know how that first trial ended, but it is still fascinating to read.
Kyi May Kaung
http://kyimaykaung.blogspot.com
Dunne, early in his career, in Los Angeles, suffered the murder of his daughter by her boyfriend, who walked free after only 2 1/2 years.
In Another City, he goes back for Simpson trial, having previously covered Menendez brothers' trial and also the trial of high society member Claus von Bulow for the murder of his wife Sunny.
Another City is written as fiction--A Novel in the Form of a Memoir, and that is why I picked it up at my local library after my enhanced flu shot today.
That is some of the compensation of living in the most educated county in the USA. This library, within walking distance and the one upstairs of my building have no due date -- I educated myself about plays entirely on books from the library upstairs.
Shakespeare, of course, and also Jean Genet (a former convict's) scariest play about prison life.
The Dominique Dunne book is written as fiction, but with all real names for public characters, even for Dunne's conversations in private with them (semi-private--at dinners and lunches in restaurants and private homes - the rich and powerfuls' homes).
It is a bit like Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, or John Barendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which mainly write about dead people.
However, Dunne does a curious thing, he fictionalizes himself, like Salmon Rushdie does in his own memoir Joseph Anton (Rushdie changed names of his security detail, of course, but not the names of his famous literary agent and others).
In - In Another City, suddenly the names from the riveting trial of the nineties come back to us, OJ, Nicole Simpson, Judge Lance Ito, Marcia Clark, etc.
It is all presented as dialogue - amazing - the snippets of info that Dunne picked up.
We know how that first trial ended, but it is still fascinating to read.
Kyi May Kaung
http://kyimaykaung.blogspot.com
Thursday, October 03, 2013
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