Socially Engaged Buddhism -- Buddhist Peace Fellowship -- site

http://www.bpf.org/html/about_us/history/history.html

"Do something, do something!" Gunter Grass

Here is an organization to help -- in 2008 and beyond -- note call for papers for special issue on Burma in Spring 2008.

Kyi May Kaung

Heart warming story from Burma -- missionaries from Wyoming help girl with deformed foot.

http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2007/12/30/news/wyoming/31c3d742a50b973f872573c10005c8e8.txt#blogcomments

Burma piece found on net --

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=12489

I have no idea if this is so or not.

Pakistan -- Military Rule and Democracy -- Jan. 25th 2008, 7.10 PM to 8.30 PM

The late Ms. Benazir Bhutto with former Presd. George Bush, Sr. From Time photo essay on line.


Talk:

Jan. 25th Friday.

7.10 PM to 8.30 PM --

Pakistan: Military Rule and Democracy -- by political economist Dr. Kyi May Kaung

at Kefa Cafe, 963 Bonifant St., Silver Spring, MD.

Dr. Kaung wishes to add that she is not an expert on Pakistan, only a supporter of world wide democracy. This event was first planned in October 2007, after the first assassination attempt on Benazir Bhutto of the Pakistan People's Party. Ms. Bhutto survived.

Since then, we sadly mourn her loss and worry for Pakistan's future.

For this event there are no specific book reading assignments other than to read the news. We look forward to a discussion which will add to our understanding of this complex region.

HAPPY NEW YEAR --

Kuan Yin the Goddess of Mercy who rescues the shipwrecked --photo copyright Kyi May Kaung.


For everyone in Burma, stay alive and well --

For Americans, please be less self centered.

Don't give me a version of "Why should we care?"

I have heard it one time too many.

We need to care because we are all interconnected.

"When a butterfly flutters its wings in one part of the world, it can eventually cause a hurricane in another . . ."

From Edward Lorenz and Chaos Theory.

Part III of interview of Dr. Kyi May Kaung on Political Economy of Burma by RFA --

Go to RFA.org

and find BUR-2007-1230-1930

program is 15.47 minutes into the whole broadcast.

Thanks for listening.

Summary: I said that analysts should take a more macro economic approach rather than a micro economic approach and that due to the command economy of the Burmese junta, the people will have a hard time and real economic development will not take place.

Things will be mitigated somewhat by the geographic proximity of the booming Chinese and Indian economies and the discovery of natural gas deposits in Burma.

But very little will trickle down to ordinary people.

I presented a similar argument with more detailed figures in a recent article in Mizzima.com

You can find everything I have written by Googling my full name.

Copyright Kyi May Kaung.

Going to KyaikHtiYo -- The Golden Rock Shrine in Burma --

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/travel/story.html?id=762d978d-f47d-4b6d-9e4e-b76a777ca810

Glad I never went -- relatives who did described it the same way.

Part II of Interview of Dr. Kyi May Kaung by RFA on the political economy of Burma -- in Burmese --

As before, pl go to

http://www.rfa.org/burmese/ahthan/

then to "ah than" in Burmese --

where you should look for

ProgName-Bur-2007-1228-1930

2nd part starts at 24.01 mins into the program, you will hear female voices -- rest of broadcast sounds all male. Use fast forward button and cursor.

Regards,

kmk

World's best (controlled) implosions --

Stormy sky --photo copyright Kyi May Kaung


http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2007/12/29/relerford.old.file.cabinet.stocks.whdh

Do I hear my friends in poor countries like Burma going, "Oh, oh, oh! -- Perfectly good buildings!"

Notice how skillfully the implosion is carried out.

Don't you wish it were a neat metaphor for old defunct systems like dictatorships and command economies? Unfortunately, political and economic systems don't (can't) go down, or be brought down, that neatly.

Kyi May Kaung

Poem -- Seeds of Truth - by Kyi May Kaung

Ah May Pu's House -- acrylic on canvas --painting copyright Kyi May Kaung -- private collection.

This is one of the paintings I created and exhibited in Chiangmai in July -- based on green vines and black house outside my veranda.

http://peajaypee.blogspot.com/2007/07/words-1-seeds-of-truth-by-kyi-may-kaung.html

Poem copyright Kyi May Kaung --

I took a bit of poetic license here -- rosselle seeds do not cling to your clothes like some grass seeds - but it's emotionally true, as they say on TV interviews.

Kyi May Kaung

Detailed analysis of Benazir Bhutto assassination:

http://www.democracynow.org/2007/12/28/pakistan_in_turmoil

Very sad --

92 year old, self-exiled Indian artist Husain's work attacked in Dehli --

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/sena-activists-attack-mf-husains-delhi-art-show/55108-3-1.html

It art so threatening?

Burma on DownwithTyranny Blog

http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2007/12/update-to-howies-post-from-myanmar-no.html

Part I of interview of Dr. Kyi May Kaung on Economics of Burma by RFA

http://www.rfa.org/burmese/ahthan/

it's in Burmese, abt 15 mins into the program -- 2007/12/25

ProgName-BUR-2007-1226-1930

-- economist colleagues in Burma apparently heard it.

Day of great sadness -- Benazir Bhutto is dead.

The nascent orchid of promise -- Photo copyright Kyi May Kaung


http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/27/us.pakistan.ap/index.html

1930 Time magazine review of F. Tennyson Jesse's The Lacquer Lady, set in Burma 1886

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,738566,00.html

Great movie, script and review -- There Will be Blood

http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/12/26/movies/26bloo.html?th&emc=th

I read the script, leaked by Paramount on line, and it is masterly.

Daniel D. Lewis is one of those wonderful classically trained British actors.

He was scary also in Gangs of New York, as the Butcher -- I feel this role is played in the same way.

Strange no one picked that up.

I "watched" Gangs with my eyes half closed most of the time -- so much -- too much blood and graphic violence -- but the story was still mesmerizing.

In the end that is all that counts, the story.

Kyi May Kaung

Pearl Lam Gallery in Shanghai -- Astronomical Chinese Art Prices

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/25/arts/gallery.php

Remains of 22 Burmese retrieved from Andaman Sea near Ranong in Thailand.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/23/news/Thailand-Myanmar-Bodies.php

We don't even know who they were, and their families may never know what happened to them.

New Yorker Review of There Will be Blood.

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2007/12/17/071217crci_cinema_denby

It's interesting how the movie adaptation, a loose one, focuses on character -- and it's disintegration, and "loses" the socialist literalism of Upton Sinclair's original.

The director and the actor revealed very little plot, but analysed character a lot in a recent interview with Charlie Rose.

I haven't seen the film yet, but think the screenplay -- leaked by Paramount, is masterful.

Kyi May Kaung.