Opera about City Planning (my subject for my 2nd MA)
http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/28/story-cities-32-new-york-jane-jacobs-robert-moses
My first MA from Rangoon Univ--was in Cost-Benefit Analysis for public investment projects
(in Burma and Poland--where at that time interest rates were not in use. Terrible top down decisions for instance in locating factories--)
Some of these cases I brought up again in my PhD. thesis at Penn--available from Proquest. Like the chopstick factory--
By that time I had segued in secret to Political Economy.
Only 6 people knew what I was really working on--
they were (from non-Penn to Penn)
Ronald E.Findlay,economist--International TradeTheorist,Columbia U-Ragnar Nurkse Prof of Ecos.
Josef Silverstein-Burma expert, Rutgers U.
P
enn--disstn committee
Disstn Chair: Henry Teune--Political Scientist--Systems Specialist
Disstn Committee Chair--Herbert Levine--Russia and China specialist--economist
Dept Head--Seymour Mandelbaum, City Planning (theorist) Univ of PA.
Penn--Burma specialist Donald E. Smith.
Then there were the 3 comprehensive examiners--Levine, Mandelbaum and an Indian economist from Wharton.
My family nuclear and otherwise don't really know who I am. Even less anyone in Burma or from Burma.
People know me "in segments".
If I take paintings to sell--they ask for postcards--
If I show short stories to an agent, she asks for a novel--
On a village tour bus--yes,I live in a village too--when I said I sell opera coats I make myself,
one lady asked if I was a seamstress--
No--I am not--I am an artist and writer who sometimes makes my own clothes.
I don't really like painting commissioned portraits.
B
ut as we were about to get on our tour bus, in Mystic, CT, about 5 woman gathered around to hear what I was saying.
2 times an African-American woman in the seat behind me--started talking to me about Burma--from the seat behind me--full 2 hours--
another time a Prof of Journalism, a woman introduced to me to share double-room costs
bombarded me with Qs (about Burma) the entire 2 1/2 hours--total 5 hours to NY City and back--
and also she got so engrossed in reading my published short stories--she didn't go to the Eleanor Roosevelt House the way she planned during the only morning we had onour own--I went to see my cousin and her husband.
That's what's nice about living in the West, in a village--
Jane Jacobs' book as well as Rachel Carson's Silent Spring were recommended reading.
I once tried to catch up with Walter Isard on campus--the founder of Regional Science--he was about 70, I about 40--I could not catch up.
More about Isard here--
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Isard
At least on Zoom people have to sit still.
H
Have a nice day full of creative energy.
Kyi May Kaung
12-14-2023
