The Traveling Duo

Powerless

After traveling for four months, we have gotten used to certain things:  twelve or more hour bus/train journeys, uncomfortable seating, foul smells, and tight corridors.  Usually these journeys are made more bearable by the kindness of strangers.  People who point the way to the toilets or invite you to join in their meal.  Our trip from Mandalay to Yangon was no exception.  The distance wasn’t as vast, a mere 386 miles, but due to frequent stops and poor rail conditions, it would take us 18 grueling hours under the hot, hot, sun.

To pass the time, we spent a couple hours chatting with a published Burmese poet, his wife, a friend of theirs, who owned a beauty shop, and their dog.  Over local Burmese sweets and scrumptious bananas, we talked about our families, superficial differences between life in America versus Burma, and American politics (the poet mistakenly thought Sarah’s father was President Bush).  Suddenly, in a fit of panic, our three new friends declared that the police were coming and that we needed to return to our car immediately!  Although the reaction was abrupt, we didn’t really think much of it.  We assumed that this was a routine check for the police to search through luggage.  Exiting their car, we realized that no one else on the train seemed alarmed.  People were still hanging out in the hallway with their head hanging out the window, trying to cope with the heat.  The amiable conductor was standing close by, but he was our friend and not the police.  However, life in Myanmar is dramatically different than any life we’ve known.  To us, the conductor is a friend, someone to go to in case of trouble.  To our new friends, however, he represented a potential spy, and even though our conversation was light, speaking with tourists could be construed as subvertive with jail time looming as a potential punishment. 

This August will mark the twentieth anniversary of the junta’s military coup.   Despite a landslide victory of the National Leadership Democracy (NLD) party lead by Aung San Suu Kyi in 1990,  General Saw Maung refused to step down and the country continues to be lead by an oppressive military regime.  Despite the fact that Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest, it is clear that she remains a symbol of a free society.  Perhaps it is because of the popularity of the NLD and/or the international pressures for the current government to step down, the government serves as a reactive force denying basic human rights and instilling fear in its people.  From our short trip to Myanmar we encountered:

• $6 per liter petrol prices:  the government rations the petrol forcing civilians to buy via an super inflated black market.  Considering meals in Myanmar cost less than $.50 the rising petrol price is becoming a serious stress on people’s everyday lifestyles.
• Sporadic electricity:  106 temperatures are unbearable, this heat combined with the fact that most days the government fails to provide electricity is inhumane.  Yangon, the old capitol of Myanmar with a population of over $6 million, rarely has government power.  After the government decided to build a new capitol, it took the infrastructure with it.  The situation in the rest of the country is the same.  As a result, every home and business has its own petrol-powered generator further intensifying the fuel crisis.
• Poor infrastructure:  roads, telephone lines, public transport, banks (ATMs are non-existent, the official government rate is ~6 kyat to the dollar, while the actual rate is closer to 1000 plus), sidewalks, etc. restoration has been completely ignored.
• Demonetized kyat:  in 1987, the government demonetized the 25, 35 and 100 kyat notes without warning rendering 75% of the country’s currency worthless.  Since Myanmar is a cash-based society, millions of people found themselves penniless overnight.

These are but just a few of the problems people struggle with everyday.  Tourism has decreased dramatically since the violent attacks on protesting monks, leading to thousands imprisoned or killed, last September.  On May 10th 2008, the country will be voting on their constitutional referendum, and as one monk explained in the comforts of his own home, where he could be sure no undercover spies lingered, people are afraid that a similar violence could transpire again.  Of course, during this visit we were accompanied by our saengthaw driver’s 13 year old daughter (who we were pretty certain didn’t speak any English), but in Myanmar you can never be so certain so the conversation again ended abruptly.

To learn more about Burma’s current events, check out http://www.irrawaddy.org.