Now the scramble for U Win Tin's (intellectual) legacy begins.
I am reminded of what my mentor Josef Silverstein wrote in 60s, that he
suspected some of Bogyoke Aung San's last letters was forged by Dr
Maung Maung, to say Bogyoke believed in socialism.
It is very
likely, as Dr Maung Maung even forged/wrote an entire constitution all
on his own, the way Ko Ko Maung (U Chit Hlaing) wrote Burmese Way
to Socialism. (FYI, USA Federalist Papers were written by about 5
people, incld Madison and Jefferson, published as the writing went on
and debated quite a bit in Phildadelphia and in print. Benjamin
Franklin had a printing press.)
--
That article by Silverstein was in Asian Survey, look for it.
Silverstein gave all his back articles to The Burma Fund, spending a
bundle on postage, but when they moved premises in 2004, they hired an
intern (radio womanizer's daughter) to help tear out the articles and
junk the rest. I don't know where all the material is now.
I never told Sayagyi Silverstein as it would break his heart.
Sayagyi is very yoe siin te, straight forward, and in 2011?? he was
still hopeful and happy that Burma was democratizing--and as I
disagreed--
but I must call him.
KMKaung
4-29-2014
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
From Facebook, U Win Tin got his national ID in Burma 3 days before he died!!!
- It means he was identity or state-less before it was issued!
- Kyi May Kaung I really respect the families who looked after him all these years, decades, and we should say Thank you, and see that no harm befalls them--such as property being taken over, you know these guys.
- Well SPDC and the current government marked U Win Tin as persona non grata. The latter gave way only for the people's immense support.
- Kyi May Kaung they shld be sued for damages by win tin foundation -- and proceeds given to other victims of the regime. You know Terry Anderson? won millions fr Iranian frozen assets overseas--
- We were briefed at the University by S1 General KN that UWT was a Communist because he read so many Marxist books. I joked that could also be accused like that as the RU Library has so many such books. And S1 confiscated UWT's room at Lanmadaw government qrs. It was very unfair.
- It may be 1990 or 1991. It occurred at the Educational Research Bureau within the Institute of Education Building.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Two classic Sci Fi novels and prescient futuristic visions
I finished reading Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.
It is beautifully written and imagined, and is a bit like my other favorite, A Canticle for St. Liebowitz, which I have read twice.
Fahrenheit 451 is poetic and sparse in the writing, but not in the brutal, totalitarian, anti-intellectual world it depicts.
It's strange that I should be reading it the same week I went to see Book Thief, but these serendipidous things often happen to me.
I had F 451 a long time, but I only started reading it about 2 or 3 weeks ago.
It's definitely a classic and I am going to keep my rather large print copy forever.
KMKaung
4-28-2014
It is beautifully written and imagined, and is a bit like my other favorite, A Canticle for St. Liebowitz, which I have read twice.
Fahrenheit 451 is poetic and sparse in the writing, but not in the brutal, totalitarian, anti-intellectual world it depicts.
It's strange that I should be reading it the same week I went to see Book Thief, but these serendipidous things often happen to me.
I had F 451 a long time, but I only started reading it about 2 or 3 weeks ago.
It's definitely a classic and I am going to keep my rather large print copy forever.
KMKaung
4-28-2014
My review of U Win Tin's What's That? A Human Hell-
My review of U Win Tin's What's That? A Human Hell, in Truthout
http://www.truth-out.org/archive/component/k2/item/89101-a-review-of-u-win-tin-whats-that-a-human-hell-in-burmese?Itemid=228article
http://www.truth-out.org/archive/component/k2/item/89101-a-review-of-u-win-tin-whats-that-a-human-hell-in-burmese?Itemid=228article
So happy--by KMKaung
I am so happy I don't need to live my life all over again.
No more not being told of the facts of life in detail nor in a timely manner.
No more preying male servants.
No more unwelcome adolescence.
No more getting married and having children, no matter how wonderful.
No more in laws, sigh sigh, what a relief.
No more the stink of the clogged up lavatories at the Inst of Eco.
No more only one map of the world to look at my whole life.
No more stinking The Monkey Cries Tree.
No more Burmese culture.
No more pretend pretend till your dying day.
No more thinking how to leave.
No more adapting and trying to survive in a new country.
No more calculus.
No more radio station from hell with its jerks, transgendered big bust women, womanizers and air heads.
No more media and interviews and being politically correct, and truthfully incorrect and diplomatic.
Now more reaching over my right ear to touch my left one. No more contorting myself like a pretzel, flung around, twirled around, twisted, boiled, then baked.
No more conferences and seminars.
No more simultaneous translation of
essential junk and lies. No more reading the news under pressure.
No more make up.
No more hair dye.
No more hair dresser.
And one day I ran into J. and asked how Pearl was, and he said, "She died last Monday."
"Oh.
I hope her passing was peaceful."
"Oh yes, oh yes," J said.
Pearl once married to such a rich Mexican, she lived in San Miguelle de Allende http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Miguel_de_Allende
Her in laws bred horses and her brothers in law and her husband rode around in red livery.
No more feeling so guilty as that day the snow just stopped for one day, and I went grocery shopping,
black crusted snow caked up in piles 3 feet high on cleared paths
one of the most affluent and well-educated
counties in the USA.
And looking over the green pineapples and the not ready yet mangoes and seeing
J hanging helplessly on his shopping cart.
And being unable to go help him as so shaky myself.
No more.
And J the head of the Cuban section, and wrote a best selling book about an earthquake that still reads well.
And J and Pearl on 9/12, setting out by Greyhound bus to take a look at newly re-named Ground Zero because,
"Well, that's his job," and both already about 80.
And Ground Zero still probably smoking and smelling of
Death and dead people.
And Pearl telling me, "Today I fired my doctor
because he does nothing but keep giving me medicines, and making me feel bad.
And now I am going to a Tibetan healer."
And you wonder why I am selective about who I will befriend.
Well, just look at them.
KMKaung
4-28-2014
No more not being told of the facts of life in detail nor in a timely manner.
No more preying male servants.
No more unwelcome adolescence.
No more getting married and having children, no matter how wonderful.
No more in laws, sigh sigh, what a relief.
No more the stink of the clogged up lavatories at the Inst of Eco.
No more only one map of the world to look at my whole life.
No more stinking The Monkey Cries Tree.
No more Burmese culture.
No more pretend pretend till your dying day.
No more thinking how to leave.
No more adapting and trying to survive in a new country.
No more calculus.
No more radio station from hell with its jerks, transgendered big bust women, womanizers and air heads.
No more media and interviews and being politically correct, and truthfully incorrect and diplomatic.
Now more reaching over my right ear to touch my left one. No more contorting myself like a pretzel, flung around, twirled around, twisted, boiled, then baked.
No more conferences and seminars.
No more simultaneous translation of
essential junk and lies. No more reading the news under pressure.
No more make up.
No more hair dye.
No more hair dresser.
And one day I ran into J. and asked how Pearl was, and he said, "She died last Monday."
"Oh.
I hope her passing was peaceful."
"Oh yes, oh yes," J said.
Pearl once married to such a rich Mexican, she lived in San Miguelle de Allende http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Miguel_de_Allende
Her in laws bred horses and her brothers in law and her husband rode around in red livery.
No more feeling so guilty as that day the snow just stopped for one day, and I went grocery shopping,
black crusted snow caked up in piles 3 feet high on cleared paths
one of the most affluent and well-educated
counties in the USA.
And looking over the green pineapples and the not ready yet mangoes and seeing
J hanging helplessly on his shopping cart.
And being unable to go help him as so shaky myself.
No more.
And J the head of the Cuban section, and wrote a best selling book about an earthquake that still reads well.
And J and Pearl on 9/12, setting out by Greyhound bus to take a look at newly re-named Ground Zero because,
"Well, that's his job," and both already about 80.
And Ground Zero still probably smoking and smelling of
Death and dead people.
And Pearl telling me, "Today I fired my doctor
because he does nothing but keep giving me medicines, and making me feel bad.
And now I am going to a Tibetan healer."
And you wonder why I am selective about who I will befriend.
Well, just look at them.
KMKaung
4-28-2014
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Highly recommended, VOA interview of renowned 1988 democracy leader, U Moethee Zun
Highly recommended--Interview of 1988 leader U Moethee Zun by VOA correspondent Thar N Oo--in Burmese, about 8.30 minutes into the You Tube clip.
MTZ talks about admin barriers to his resuming Burmese citizenship, setting up a party and entering the 2015 elections.
It does not look very hopeful, but MTZ himself has a good vision.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtUQ-aCZYw4&list=UUv-YbGueeYCp8_CdjgXQD3A
MTZ talks about admin barriers to his resuming Burmese citizenship, setting up a party and entering the 2015 elections.
It does not look very hopeful, but MTZ himself has a good vision.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtUQ-aCZYw4&list=UUv-YbGueeYCp8_CdjgXQD3A
The Felicity Harwood of my novel Wolf, coincides with the name of a real person!!
Wow, a fictitious name I picked out of the air, Felicity Harwood, was a real person, and the daughter of Clement Atlee!!
http://www.socialregister.co.uk/felicity-harwood/
Wow, what a coincidence.
I liked the surname Harwood, as a director of an art co-op I was in had that name, and also, much later 2012, I realized that a first cousin --
anyway, I thought a first name for the great love of my hero Wolf, should have a simple, pure name, and so I gave her the name Felicity.
Now I find her listed in the society columns.
I can't get over it.
It must be a sign for me to hurry up the Wolf novel.
KMKaung
4-27-2014
http://www.socialregister.co.uk/felicity-harwood/
Wow, what a coincidence.
I liked the surname Harwood, as a director of an art co-op I was in had that name, and also, much later 2012, I realized that a first cousin --
anyway, I thought a first name for the great love of my hero Wolf, should have a simple, pure name, and so I gave her the name Felicity.
Now I find her listed in the society columns.
I can't get over it.
It must be a sign for me to hurry up the Wolf novel.
KMKaung
4-27-2014
My Twitter page has a new profile --
My Twitter page has a new profile, with an oil painting of a bikkhuni (female monk, not nun) that I painted myself.
I like it/her.
She has had a home since about 2007, and therefore she is not for sale.
She is in our Kaung Family Collection.
https://twitter.com/KyiKaung
I like it/her.
She has had a home since about 2007, and therefore she is not for sale.
She is in our Kaung Family Collection.
https://twitter.com/KyiKaung
Maybe the antidote to Das Kapital--
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117498/pikettys-capital-sold-out-harvard-press-scrambling
Amazon bestsellers are on the economy
Amazon bestsellers= books on the US Economy- and Capital --
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/24/elizabeth-warren-amazon_n_5208807.html?hpt=hp_bn18
Amazing--
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/24/elizabeth-warren-amazon_n_5208807.html?hpt=hp_bn18
Amazing--
Saturday, April 26, 2014
From Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is excellent--here's an excerpt fr the climax of the story--p. 123
The house was silent.
Montag approached from the rear . . .
"Mrs. Black, are you asleep in there," he thought. This is not good but your husband did it to others and never asked and never worried. And now since you are a fireman's wife, it's your house and your turn, for all the houses your husband burned and the people he hurt without thinking.
. . .
He hid the books in the kitchen . . .
. . . he phoned (in) the alarm at a lonely phone booth . . .
Then he stood in the cold night air, waiting . . .
Good night, Mrs. Black, he thought.
The house was silent.
Montag approached from the rear . . .
"Mrs. Black, are you asleep in there," he thought. This is not good but your husband did it to others and never asked and never worried. And now since you are a fireman's wife, it's your house and your turn, for all the houses your husband burned and the people he hurt without thinking.
. . .
He hid the books in the kitchen . . .
. . . he phoned (in) the alarm at a lonely phone booth . . .
Then he stood in the cold night air, waiting . . .
Good night, Mrs. Black, he thought.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Help is on the way for the sight impaired--
Help is on the way for sight impaired--
http://ext-vttts-us.readspeaker.com/cgi-bin/nph-voicetext/a728916405af1b3c94d3831b6429df17.mp3
This is Al Jazeera on U Win Tin.
BTW, all my books published on Kindle are also with text to sound (auto voice) option.
When I have time and or money, I will produce audio editions of all my books.
Right now I am only focusing on text editions.
KMKaung
4-25-2014
http://ext-vttts-us.readspeaker.com/cgi-bin/nph-voicetext/a728916405af1b3c94d3831b6429df17.mp3
This is Al Jazeera on U Win Tin.
BTW, all my books published on Kindle are also with text to sound (auto voice) option.
When I have time and or money, I will produce audio editions of all my books.
Right now I am only focusing on text editions.
KMKaung
4-25-2014
Gift offer for SIX book reviews-- Inkkas Shoes
Hey hey,
If you review all SIX of my new novellas and go all the way through to posting those on your website or blog site AND ALSO on the relevant Amazon (Kindle and Create Space) sites and send me links--I will give you ONE pair of Inkkas shoes, (I will choose the design and color), as a Gift. At that stage you may give me your shoe size.
Go for it.
KMKaung
4-25-2014
If you review all SIX of my new novellas and go all the way through to posting those on your website or blog site AND ALSO on the relevant Amazon (Kindle and Create Space) sites and send me links--I will give you ONE pair of Inkkas shoes, (I will choose the design and color), as a Gift. At that stage you may give me your shoe size.
Go for it.
KMKaung
4-25-2014
My novella The Lovers, set in Chile and the USA, is now available in a Kindle edition as well as a print edition
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JX3IG0Q#reader_B00JX3IG0Q
The print edition is on Create Space and all my books are published by Words Sounds and Images.
The print edition is on Create Space and all my books are published by Words Sounds and Images.
Thursday, April 24, 2014
How very strange--poem in honor of U Win Tin by Kyi May Kaung
How very strange
(in honor of U Win Tin)
that someone who had no time to get married
no time to have a family
should now have a family numbering in the thousands.
A place to sleep
people to bathe him in death
bury him
see him off on his last journey
share merit for him, not that he does not have enough of his own
rich people to set up a foundation
help the people he wanted to help.
I am truly sorry I never got to meet you
I am not able to come to your funeral or yet le soon.
But I will do as I promised
get your words translated into English
publish What's That? A Human Hell.
That's all. As you would say.
K.M.Kaung-- 4-24-2014
Washington, D.C.
(in honor of U Win Tin)
that someone who had no time to get married
no time to have a family
should now have a family numbering in the thousands.
A place to sleep
people to bathe him in death
bury him
see him off on his last journey
share merit for him, not that he does not have enough of his own
rich people to set up a foundation
help the people he wanted to help.
I am truly sorry I never got to meet you
I am not able to come to your funeral or yet le soon.
But I will do as I promised
get your words translated into English
publish What's That? A Human Hell.
That's all. As you would say.
K.M.Kaung-- 4-24-2014
Washington, D.C.
Market or real prices, my Black Rice phenomenon--
Market or real prices.
My Black Rice phenomenon.
I haven't sold that many copies, and as it's POD (Print on Demand) there aren't that many copies out there.
The Kindle editions (of almost everything, not just my books) are controlled as to electronic shares, though some authors opt to give out copies free.
Anyway, a curious thing is, whenever I look at my Black Rice page, I find more and more used copies on sale, and the price of the used copies are higher than the list price of new books.
Now, I am certainly not the one buying and then reselling. I don't even know how to do it and don't think it's worth the trouble, and like art, the original creator does not benefit.
But for a maybe very good reason, such as the quality of the goods, and I stand by my products, it must be being considered a collector's item.
It's very strange as it's only been out a year.
I actually had to raise my list price in response.
It may be due to there being a small supply out there, and only available on line, as again it's POD. NOT "pay on delivery"
Anyway, as the market test is the best test, why should I complain.
It is worth $10 if it remains a true gem forever.
BTW, I only autographed one copy for a special friend, she knows who she is, and that's the only copy I ever signed.
I hope my other gems also will sell well and become instant classics.
Like Paul Bowles' The Delicate Prey.
KMKaung
4-24-2014
My Black Rice phenomenon.
I haven't sold that many copies, and as it's POD (Print on Demand) there aren't that many copies out there.
The Kindle editions (of almost everything, not just my books) are controlled as to electronic shares, though some authors opt to give out copies free.
Anyway, a curious thing is, whenever I look at my Black Rice page, I find more and more used copies on sale, and the price of the used copies are higher than the list price of new books.
Now, I am certainly not the one buying and then reselling. I don't even know how to do it and don't think it's worth the trouble, and like art, the original creator does not benefit.
But for a maybe very good reason, such as the quality of the goods, and I stand by my products, it must be being considered a collector's item.
It's very strange as it's only been out a year.
I actually had to raise my list price in response.
It may be due to there being a small supply out there, and only available on line, as again it's POD. NOT "pay on delivery"
Anyway, as the market test is the best test, why should I complain.
It is worth $10 if it remains a true gem forever.
BTW, I only autographed one copy for a special friend, she knows who she is, and that's the only copy I ever signed.
I hope my other gems also will sell well and become instant classics.
Like Paul Bowles' The Delicate Prey.
KMKaung
4-24-2014
A mother tells her child of seven to go work in Thailand
My two stories, Dancing like a Peacock and Koel Bird are also available on Create Space, print edition. Published by Words Sounds and Images--
A seven year old girl is sent off across the border to earn a living and send money home to Burma. A computer expert finds--
https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=K+Kaung+dancing+like+a+peacock&sitesearch_type=STORE
A seven year old girl is sent off across the border to earn a living and send money home to Burma. A computer expert finds--
https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=K+Kaung+dancing+like+a+peacock&sitesearch_type=STORE
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