Meetings with Dr. Cynthia Maung

11/30/09 4:14 pm

Today I was invited to attend meetings at the Mae Tao refugee clinic in Mae Sot. I was surprised to see that the meetings were being held by the founder of the clinic, Dr. Cynthia Maung. As stated by the ever handy Wikipedia “Dr. Cynthia Maung…is a Karen medical doctor who since 1989 has lived in Mae Sot, on the Thai-Burmese border. She left Burma…and has since run a clinic treating Burmese refugees, migrants and orphans at Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot…together with 100 paramedics and teachers…She received Southeast Asia’s Ramon Magsaysay Award for community leadership and she was listed as one of 2003 Time Magazine’s Asian Heroes. Altogether she has received six international awards for her work. In 1999, she was the first recipient of the Jonathan Mann Award…” Dr. Cynthia was also nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work as well. Needless to say, I felt very fortunate to attend meetings with Dr. Cynthia and hear her wealth of knowledge she provided during the two meetings. Below I have attached some notes of these meetings which give a different view of the issues surrounding this region of the world.

Meeting #1 10:30am-11am

· About 150,000 migrants in the Mae Sot area
· There are 60 migrant schools
· The Mae Tao clinic has been in operation for 20 years, as of 2009.
· Displacement is more and more aggressive-only 50% of those displaced in Thailand think they will go back to Burma soon while the other 50% have lost family/friends and do not think they will go back very soon
· Every year Mae Tao Clinic services around 1000 pregnant women, but this does not include all the women in the surrounding areas that the clinic did not help. Many babies are born outside of the clinic
· 2008 working on getting certificates for babies born in Thailand
· Network training in the IDP areas is part of the vision of the clinic
· Burma Medical Association (BMA) is professional (registered?) organization the clinic partners with to give medical services inside Burma
· Training and child protection are the #1 visions of the clinic
· Always working on upgrading the existing systems
· Trainers from many ethnic areas of Burma-clinic helps many ethnic groups
· ~40 new people a year receive initial trainings at the clinic to become medical assistants and midwives, then those that have been medical assistants and midwives receive additional training to be upgraded
· 10-20 years ago at the beginning of displacement, no educational programs yet to help people learn the basics, like reading and writing, but now migrant schools/education programs are established to help. Challenge now to still educate those that didn’t receive proper education, still at base level from 10-20 years ago, while still giving proper education to the children.
· ~10,000-20,000 children in these schools
· Nearly all of these people are not registered
· Barriers to the existing education system include school bus fees to send children to school (sometimes the parents can’t afford it) and the children needed at home to help with chores/physical assistance like farming exc.
· Only about 50% of the teachers are trained
· Many of the teachers need an additional job for income/hard to retain teachers
· Less than 1% of those that help in/with the clinic are Thais
· Need to know more of the Thai language and the Thai system of government in order to be a bigger part of it/advocate better
· Question: What are the Burmese Military thoughts of the clinic? The military/high ranking officer became very aware of the clinic and the large number of people who attend the clinic in 1995.
· Burmese military made rule that Burmese nurses and doctors can only visit the clinic a total of 3 times. This was to prevent them learning too much about the hardships of people at the clinic.
· Since 1995 there has not been further discussion about this rule
· Inside Burma medical assistance can happen fast because it is community based and very centralized
· The NGOs hold lots of meetings on health issues but the clinic is only invited to these meetings, not a central player
· On the service level there is a lot of collaboration
· Question: Why can’t the clinic register? Because nearly everyone is not registered that works for the clinic and the doctors and nurses are not properly licensed so the Thai government can’t register a place like this
· Question: After Laura Bush visited in August of 2008, did you see an increase in American help? After the visit, people feel more secure emotionally but financially not a lot has changed, still have to negotiate many ways to get funding-example FDA approval (?). The level of funding feels about the same. May be more money but still a lot of people to deal with.
· Up to 2005 had focused a lot on cross-border support but since 2005 refocused on assistance in Thailand mostly
· The clinic is not controlled by any one organization, instead is helped by several different sources so this makes it easy for the clinic to have leniency to grow due to the diversity of support

Meeting #2 11:30am-12:30pm

· In 2007 a coalition of several surrounding organizations was established
· Forum of community organizations created standardized policies
· Right now the coalition focuses on health, education and advocacy work mostly
· Examples include working on development projects, women’s issues, and children’s issues
· Clinic main medical service provider, serviced ~80,000 cases a year
· Child protection work is a main issue to focus on
· Main roll: to provide emergency/short term services, to create standardized policies and procedures and to work on the long term training needs
· Question: How do the donor relations work? The clinic has ~20 donors in total and 65-70% of the funding comes through grants, some government grants and some NGO grants. There are also independent contributions given on line that can help a lot since the online money is more flexible to use.
· Even though this is helpful, the clinic increases there services about 20% every year.
· Local community medical structure already exists inside Burma so BMA and those structures work together to provide what is most needed. Some of the BMA service providers need to hide in the jungles for 2-3 weeks due to security issues. 30% are displaced to other villages
· 81 teams with BMA, 3-5 teams work in one area. ~300 service providers/health workers
· People in Burma are constantly dealing with a combination of malaria, forced labor, displacement issues so it is always dangerous but it is their life. Still community itself forms their own medical assistance
· The community based orgs do not use the names of the unregistered helpers that provide services and materials from Thailand so that the Burmese militia cannot connect these services to these orgs
· The main implementing orgs are the community orgs
· The non-cease fire areas can be considered the most dangerous because providing medical assistance is considered illegal work
· When a whole community is displaced everything along with it, such as the food, school and hospital structures, disintegrate
· When the clinic started in 1988 it was first formed to help with the emergency medical needs then there was a need to set up cross-border assistance as well so needed to set up a local center in Thailand and coordinate with the community medical centers in Burma
· Question: How has the world recession affected the clinic? See most of the effects in the dry food rations. There is a need for the clinic to support dry food for approximately 3,000 people so approximately 150 baht is allocated per person for the month but when rates of food increase, often the funding does not, so the food rations need to be less per person in order for everyone to get food
· Every (year?) about 800 clients are referred to the Mae Sot hospital
· Often Thai people can get medical attention when needed right away, but those in Burma often need to travel 3-5 or 3-7 days to get to the clinic and receive medical attention.
· Every year the clinic needs to upgrade some of their facilities but this is a problem due to lack of finances so there can become issues with the water system exc.
· An example of an issue: A large scale, multi-year donor had to cut funding by 40% so the support was cut from 4 years to 3 ½ years and in the process also had to cut major funding to programs such as the HIV program
· Always a need to constantly train new people since resettlement often takes those that were trained
· Question: What are the clinic’s challenges? Funding, security (of health workers and social workers), children’s futures-after they receive education, in 10 years, what jobs will they get? What is the education system working towards?
· Question: How are the community organizations and the clinic creating standardized policies? What policies are important to establish? In 2005 a lot of commitment to child protection-standard of care was created for displaced children, now need to work towards how to monitor this. In the future need to have a similar approach to gender issues and human assistant policy.
· Right now main focus is on child protection and other protection elements
· Dr. Cynthia poses the question, how do we get the Thai government to look at the issues of child protection? Registrations? For the new generations need more support from the policy gov’t level.
· Key is the expansion of the militarization, this threatens the children’s lives
· For the clinic, before 1995 mostly assisted the Karen but since 1995 assist lots of different regions

The Border Run and More Fun

10/27/09 1:53pm

The Border Run

On October 25th I was required to go to Burma, on a “border run”, in order to validate my visa again. Before I left I had gotten a 3x multiple entry visa which is intended to cover the full required 6 months I need to be here for my internship. The problem is that nowhere on my visa does it indicate I had requested 60 day entries and usually they just give out routine 30 day ones, visa or not. This, obviously, is a problem for me since every time I enter Thailand now I need to figure out how I am going to convince the immigration officer that I should get 60 days instead of 30. The first time went well when I flew in and explained nicely I had made a request for 60 days in advance, and I assumed that with my first 60 day stamp it would be easier to get subsequent 60 day ones. Even so, I was still nervous to try since I kept on hearing from foreigners in Mae Sot that had to do runs that the officers were being strict and only giving 15-30 day stamps for walking in, not flying in. No matter, I still had to try my best.

The whole thing took no longer than 30-45 minutes, especially considering I had no intentions of spending any time in Burma, only going there to get my stamp. You have to cross by foot on the “Thai/Burma Friendship Bridge” which goes over a nice big river that divides the two countries. On my walk I was greeted by a Burmese man who spoke English well and was very keen to engage in lots of conversation. He told me all about the nice temples and beautiful places in Burma he wanted to show me and at this point I thought he was accompanying me on my walk because he was looking for some employment as a tour guide on the other side. I told him I wasn’t going to be staying, that I had friends waiting for me to get back (which wasn’t a lie) but this information did not put him off. He was wearing an FBI hat, I told him what it meant and he was humored by this but it also opened a door to talk about politics. He started to tell me how his boss isn’t a good manager and he is required to float materials illegally across the river. This actually wasn’t surprising news at all since if you look on either side of the bridge you can see people openly crossing in broad daylight with no authority attempting to stop them. In fact on my walk back I spent quite a lot of time taking photos of the “taxi” service, which includes a long rope and intertubes with “taxi drivers” that pull their customers in the tube across the river by this rope. More on that in a second but back to the story. This man continued to chat me up until he led me to a sketchy table a bit away from the Burmese immigration office which is where the new adventure began.

When we reached this table, this woman handed me a small make-shift sheet that was titled “Influenza Surveillance Form: Ministry of Health, Union of Myanmar”. What alarmed me the most, besides the fact it was requesting tons of personal and valuable information like my passport number and birth date, was the fact that no Burmese authority figure was requesting this information, instead it was this one man who had walked across the bridge with me and this woman. Once I was handed the form, I told the Burmese man that I would fill it out if requested by the immigration officer when I was receiving my stamp. He paused, had no response and we walked to the office where he opened the door for me.

The meeting was fairly quick, lots of people enjoying their lunch and the immigration officer I spoke with gladly took my 500 baht for a “stamp fee” (whatever, they don’t require that in Thailand, enough said), recorded all my info into a computer and I was soon on my way. Interesting, at no point did he ever ask for my Influenza form. When I left, the Burmese man was nowhere to be found. Hmmm. It made me wonder, was he just a part of some corrupt scheme his company had created to get foreigners’ information or was he working somehow with the Burmese Militia gathering this info for some other purpose? The latter option didn’t make sense to me since they had already recorded my info into their computer (again, this process isn’t done on the Thai side). Regardless, the whole thing was very sketchy.

Like I mentioned before on the walk back I saw several people using the “taxi” service. My favorite was a man leaving Thailand with a very large stuffed animal attached to him. There was also a family of about 6 in one tube with only one man pulling them along. Scary considering the size of the river and how heavy the currents are.

When I reached the Thai immigration office, I previously had dressed for the occasion by wearing a nice non-touristy shirt, and combined this with much patience, big smiles and a few lies and I got my 60 day visa with a promise of another 60 days if I visit the same immigration officer in 2 months. Very relieving! It’s nice to not have to think about it all for another two months.

More Fun

The reason why I am able to write this post in the middle of a workday is because of all the unexpected commotion today at the office.

So today I got ready to go to work like any other day. Once I got to the office I knew something was up when there was a padlock hooked into the door from the outside, but not locked. It completely looked like no one was in the building. I unhooked the lock, opened the door and it was pitch black inside with no people to be found. I entered anyways and went to my desk in the other room where I found only one other staff on the computer. I asked “where is everybody?” she said “didn’t you hear?” I said no and she told me that today is the day the Thai police will come to raid the office. They haven’t actually raided the office since 2008 but they tend to pick times linked closely to political uprising happening in Burma. In 2008 it was the creation of a new constitution while now it is related to the 2010 elections. The Thai police this time are worried plans are being created by organizations like KWO to do anti-Burmese protests, or other schemes, to counter the much anticipated 2010 Burmese election. The Thai government likes to make a point they are against these protest acts because they don’t like to be considered enemies of Burma since they receive a large percentage of their natural resources, such as gasoline, from them. It’s all very political, but what that means for KWO and myself is that there may be more and more frequent occurrences like this the closer we get to the 2010 election, which is still TBA, and intended to stay that way.

Anyways, I wasn’t sure what to do so the staff member called one of the more senior staff and she told me to wait in the office, do pretend work, until she could come and explain things to me more in detail. So I sat with the one other staff member for about an hour and started to become more and more anxious so she called the other staff member again then we talked on the phone instead. She simply said “today we have security issues, it’s better to come back tomorrow”, ok, so the other staff member and I both left very soon after. As far as I know, no one was caught but they are going to let me know if the security issues are still uneasy tomorrow. I’m sure more on that later.

*Update*

10/29/09

The KWO staff was ok during the day of the raid, but several other locations were raided and some people arrested. At least this time no one was injured.

The "Family" Outing

10/07/09 5:16pm

Last Wednesday one of the staff members came up to me with a few other staff members giggling and hesitating to talk to me. One of the KWO staff then said “we want to ask you something, be we are embarrassed to”. I told her she could feel comfortable asking me anything and eventually she asked me if I would like to join them for a “how do you call it”-eventually we figured out-barbeque. I was a bit confused with where it would be happening but it sounded like it was down the road somewhere. She was worried they wouldn’t have vegetarian dishes for me, very sweet of her, but I told her that if it was a restaurant to not worry I’m sure I could find something.

Friday rolls around and just before 5pm everyone starts quickly gathering their things to leave, so I did as well. I walked out the front door and there was a truck sitting there JAM PACKED with people sitting all over in the back, people I had never seen before but I learned people that all lived within the same living quarters next to the office. I wasn’t quite sure where to put myself so one of the staff said in the back seat. She opened the door and all you could see was about 6-8 people crammed in the front and back, not remotely room for one more person, not to mention a large girl like myself (especially when compared to most of the people here). I instead crawled in the bed of the truck with about 10 others, squatted and about 15-20 of us were on our way.

The drive wasn’t so bad but it felt much longer in a squatting position. We arrived and I noticed it was one of the restaurants I pass daily when I bike back to town. The restaurant was mostly empty even though it seats about 100 or so, but we sat near the back anyways. When we were seated some of the restaurant staff started to come out with plates and plates of “goodies”. I will just say, the BBQs here are just a tad different than back at home! On the plates were fresh squid, pig livers, pork, some unidentifiable meats and, the international meat, chicken. The barbecue’s themselves were things I’ve never seen before. They were large ceramic pot like things with holes on the sides that were placed sporadically along the table. They had hot charcoal in them and on top there was a metal piece that was shaped like a..hmmm..almost reminds me of an angel food cake mold, where it has a protruding top part-to give the cake its hole- but a circular base with a lip to hold liquid. Ok, that didn’t make much sense but if you could picture that upside down and placed on top of the barbeque then the protruding part is the part where the meats were put on to cook and the circular base with a lip is where the water is poured so it can boil and be used as a soup after putting meats and veggies in it. (I forgot my camera, very disappointing).

For HOURS we all sat there, heating up the meat, adding new water, boiling vegetables and rice noodles in the water and chatting with husbands, wives, cousins, friends, staff, neighbors, babies and all. I learned from the staff that they only go to this barbeque about once every 3-6 months because it is too expensive for them to go frequently, and the only reason why they were able to go this time was because a donor was treating them to the outing. The cost of the meal per person is 99 baht or $3 each. From the time we showed up to the time we left the place had completely filled up, there were at least 100 people there if not more. Also the restaurant staff made a buffet of extra vegetables and items to grill as well as dessert jelly pieces that you combine with ice and sugar flavored syrup, very tasty stuff!

Leaving was almost as adventurous as the meal. Since I can’t understand what’s happening half the time, due to the fact everyone speaks Karen, I didn’t realize that a bunch of people were leaving in groups because it had begun to rain and people were trying to prevent being in the back of the truck on the way back (at least I think that’s what was happening). So the first batch decides to take off and I was getting anxious to leave after a while since it had start to rain and also was getting very dark, something I didn’t consider before, yet I still needed to bike back. So the truck had already begun to leave when I asked if I could catch a ride. It was no problem because others decided at the last minute as well, so a big group of us began to run outside to reach the truck, then I realized we needed to run much farther than expected, across the median onto the other side of the road. I think we needed to get in the truck farther away because it needed to turn around before anyone could get into it due to security since there was a police checkpoint at the same location where the truck needed to circle around. Once the truck was ready for us, we all started to run in a group and scramble to get into the truck as quickly as possible to avoid the rain/security and quickly be on our way. We were just fine then upon arrival back to the office, the staff quickly said good bye and ran inside to not get wet. Pretty funny, here I was standing at my bike alone, in the rain, and the dark, in the country 3 kilometers way from town. All I could think was, how did I exactly get to this point? No matter, I biked like a fiend back to town and hoped upon hope I wouldn’t be attacked by the lovely dogs that run in packs in the night. I was just fine, but definitely out of breath when I arrived back home.

The Second Wave

9/30/09 4:22pm

They are calling it the “Second Wave of Saffron Revolution” which is intended to take place starting 7:30am this Saturday, October 3rd, 2009. Last night while out, Ashin Sopaka, the monk that lead the peace walk discussed in the previous post, came out to talk about this second wave. He said that the monks in Burma will be acting in unison to head to the streets and protest, once again, about the way people are being treated in Burma. The Burma Digest states:

The Buddhist monks of Burma have delivered an ultimatum to the Burmese military government: If the government will not apologize for and stop the persecution, assassination and contempt of Buddhist monks and the people of Burma… a second wave of the Saffron-Revolution including demonstrations of the monks will take place, starting on October 3rd in Burma.

In solidarity, demonstrations in Thailand and the USA (that took) place:
- 21st September: Peace march in Mae Sot, northern Thailand led by the exiled Burmese monk Ashin Sopaka
- 23rd September: Protest at the UN Headquarters for 2nd Anniversary of the Saffron Revolution

Currently the All Burma Monk Alliance (ABMA) is organizing members at the monastery schools across Burma to unite. From what I hear the military is most threatened by protests from monks since they are highly respected individuals in their society and therefore hold a lot of strength when it comes to demonstrations/revolutions. In the past other forms of protests by the monks have included denying blessings to military personnel, which I guess is the ultimate slap-in-the-face. It’s interesting to me how some of the staff hasn’t heard about this yet which makes me wonder how large of a revolution it will be. Regardless, the ball is a rollin’ and it’s worth keeping an eye on.

Mae Sot 2009 Peace March for International Day of Peace

09/22/09 10:54 am

Monday, September 21st, was a special day for Mae Sot recognizing International Day of Peace. From what I’ve heard, there haven’t been many peace marches that have happened here even though a large percentage of the surrounding population has been influenced by Burma negatively. I don’t think I could say it better than postings in local papers today, so I am going to just copy and paste one that best describes what happened yesterday before giving my own personal account of it. This writing was published by democracyforburma.worldpress.com :

Monks lead International Peace Day marchSept 21, 2009 (DVB)–Around 100 people led by monks marked International Peace Day today by marching through the Thai town of Mae Sot, close to the border with Burma.

The event coincides with the two-year anniversary of the September 2007 monk-led uprising in Burma, which due to the presence of thousands of robed monks on the streets of Rangoon and elsewhere has come to be known as the Saffron Revolution.

Today’s march began with a symbolic sounding of the bell at a memorial shrine close to Mae Sot, and Buddhist monks and dignitaries from a variety of religions read prayers throughout the day.

The event, intending to symbolize cross-cultural solidarity, ended at the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge, but protesters were met by a significant security presence.

Panithida Phongphaew of the Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma said that the need to support this movement is vital for a “real [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] community”.

“It is time that leaders of the world should stop saying they support peace and actually act to ensure that peace happens,” she said. For Ashin Sopaka, of the International Burmese Monks Organization, the march was also a rejection of ominous nuclear signals that have emanated from the military junta this year. “We don’t want any nuclear weapons,” he said.

A number of monks were among the estimated 138 civilians killed by police and army during the September 2007 uprising.

Monk communities in Burma have been under close surveillance in the lead-up to this year’s anniversary, with the ruling junta fearing a repeat of two years ago.

At least four monks have been arrested in recent weeks, and many more have reported intimidation. Their normally apolitical stance leant extra credence to their role in the 2007 uprising.

More than 200 monks are imprisoned in Burma, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). Four were released last week in the government’s prisoner amnesty.

This covers the majority of it. Since the march didn’t take place in the exact times indicated, it took me about two hours to locate them. I decided to just meet the march where they intended to have lunch and join them there. When they arrived to the Mae Sot Park for lunch there were large vats of food waiting to feed all the hungry protesters. Everyone grabbed some rice and curry and enjoyed chatting among each other before moving on. During lunch I ran into my Burmese ex-soldier friend, from the previous post, and I was very glad to see his fear of the Thai police didn’t stop him from joining the march. Unfortunately I don’t think that was the case for everyone. Although some representatives from the Women’s League of Burma were present (a collaboration of twelve women’s organizations from Burma), I did not see anyone from my office there. One of the staff members called me to tell me she couldn’t make it because she had fallen ill, so I told her I would march on her behalf.

After lunch one of the head activist monks, Ashin Sopaka, had us sit in a circle for a five minute moment of silence to give ourselves peace and love, then to radiate this onwards to Mae Sot, Thailand, Asia then the world. After this meditation we all organized ourselves and were off to march. The march took place on the Asian highway and pretty much was a straight 6k walk to the Thai/Burma Friendship Bridge. It was a hot day, with not much forgiveness from the sun, but the energy of the people still held strong. Ashin Sopaka would chant repeatedly a mantra that translates in English to “May all beings not fight each other. May all beings be happy and peaceful.”, while another monk rang a bell. The march was not intended to stop traffic or cause too much chaos so we stayed to the side of the road attempting only to use one of the three lanes. As we walked on we kept on accumulating more and more people, which was a wonderful sight to see. About 1.5-2 hours later we reached the Friendship Bridge which, as mentioned in the above news posting, we were “greeted” by a heavy amount of Thai military. To the right hand side of the bridge, there was a row of Thai military that were about six long and five deep, not to mention the numerous Thai police that were standing on all sides of us. Pretty impressive amounts of people present to control only about 100 of us.

Even so, there was no need for the military since the march was truly intended to be a peaceful one so when we walked as close as we could to the bridge and when we reached the barricades we simply turned around and walked over to a platform to do the final speeches and prayers. At this time Ashin Sopaka talked about the importance of the march and what is symbolizes which then was followed by a speech done by a woman from Women’s League of Burma (done in Thai, not sure what it was about), followed by a Muslim, Christian, and Buddhist prayer and finalized with the Buddhist monks doing a “universal love” chant. During this whole demonstration, nearly everyone who had taken part in the march was holding a banner or waving a peace flag. Soon after the final Buddhist chant, everyone disbursed. Most of the monks piled in the back of a truck and everyone headed in their own directions.

For my first demonstration, I don’t think it could have gone any better. It was a great model for how to organize and instigate a meaningful and peaceful protest. One thought that frequently crossed my mind when marching though was how small the number of people marching was compared to the total number affected by these same issues in just the Mae Sot area alone. Even though there were about a hundred of us, as we marched numerous trucks drove by loaded with labor workers, known to be a lot of Burmese, not to mention other people all around working in the fields. I couldn’t stop thinking, how many of these people have been negatively impacted by Burma but don’t have the “privilege” of taking a Monday, or any day for that matter, and marching for themselves? How can these people be mobilized to fight for their own rights and not just have a select few march on their behalf?

Not an Uncommon Story

09/15/09 5:04pm

Last night my intentions were pretty simple, I was going to go out to dinner then go back and relax until another day of work but as it goes, sometimes life doesn’t deal you out exactly as you have planned.

On this simple quest I encountered a Burmese man who had quite the incredible story. I don’t want to give too much detail with how exactly we encountered each other, out of respect of his sensitive situation, but I would like to share with you what he has been through as a perfect example of how this seemingly extreme story really is just common place here. It is also a perfect demonstration of the injustices that are happening every day in Burma. Here is his story:

At a young age this Burmese man had a dream to join the SPDC (name the Burmese military gave themselves, stands for State of the Peace and Developing Council, pretty ironic). He was a bright boy so it was only a short matter of time before he was able to pass the appropriate tests and join. He said that very shortly into it, it became clear how corrupt the military was. Killing at will if it benefited their “cause”, taking peoples land, you name it. It hit close to home when his officer told him that they needed to reach a quota of people to arrest and he hadn’t reached his, so he needed to find those who had disobeyed the laws and if he couldn’t, then pick any five people, make up something they did that was illegal and arrest them anyways. He did not like this obligation so he refused to do it. When it became apparent he wasn’t obeying his orders they gave him another chance, but he still wouldn’t obey his orders. He realized that the military wasn’t for him so he wanted out. It’s not that easy in Burma, you just can’t quite the military. With lots of tugging and pulling he was able to leave by his parents paying a fine of $1500 US dollars (which can be a lifetime of money here).

There is a lot more that goes to his story, unfortunately I can’t remember all the details but here are the remainder highlights. After leaving the military he attended university for a science degree. When he was at school he met other students who were political activists who were also against what the military was doing. He joined their cause and helped an organization to advance this cause. During the time he was a student was the same time the Saffron Revolution occurred in 2007. For those who don’t know, the Saffron Revolution was when up to a hundred thousand people, lead by about thousands of Buddhist monks wearing saffron colored robes, protested the fact the military had removed fuel subsidies causing the prices to go up significantly (500%) and therefore caused all products to skyrocket. This protest lasted around two weeks and caused lots of bloodshed where approximately hundreds of people were killed, including 30-40 monks. This was a monumental event because it was the first one of its kind that had happened since the 1988 military take over. *side note: it continues to be a shock that the Burmese militia killed monks since Burma’s foundation is Buddhism which, as a staff member said in my office, by killing the monks you are literally killing your god* So this Burmese man took part in the protest and was beaten by the military and arrested. One of his friend soldiers lied and told the militia they had arrested the wrong man so he was set free before nearly being sentenced to 40 years in jail. Soon after this, the military discovered footage of him protesting and came to him again. This time they told him that he is an “old officer” who they value, and that he needs to consider coming back to work for them and not fighting this trivial political stuff. He postponed as long as he could by making excuses but when push came to shove and he wouldn’t serve, he was arrested again. This time his parents needed to pay $2000 to let him out, not even knowing what he did wrong, and they had to sell their home and all major belongings in the process to do this.

After this he tried leaving to another country but the military found out before his departure so they claimed that because he continues to defy the SPDC he would be punished so they took his passport away and told him that he is not allowed to leave the country and to make sure he doesn’t leave, every day he needed to go in and sign to prove he is still in the country. He did this for a while until he made the decision to leave and enter Thailand as a refugee which is where he is at today. His family continues to be interrogated by the military attempting to find out the location of his whereabouts but they haven’t found out yet. He is trying to be resettled to another country through the UNHCR but he currently does not have registered refugee status, he is working on that now. Until then he lives in fear of the Thai police discovering him and sending him back.

I know that each refugee has devastating stories, which is the cause for them to leave, but I have never heard one where a person initially worked for the oppressors until they made the conscious decision to stop oppressing and in the process became the oppressed. This is an incredibly powerful story, and a pretty impactful evening having the honor of hearing it.

Aung San Suu Kyi: A (Very General) Overview

09/10/09 4:24pm

Ok, I am not going to pretend to know everything about Aung San Suu Kyi, but her recognition is important in the larger Burmese struggle for independence. She is a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient for her work with Burma and she has become the symbol of peace, equality and democracy for the Burmese people who continue to resist the military takeover that occurred in September, 1988. I am currently reading a book (I would highly suggest to anyone who is curious about the history and political movement here) called Freedom from Fear. It is a compilation of writings by Aung San Suu Kyi she wrote throughout her life, before and after her house arrest, and where all the information below comes from.

So here is the scoop: The British colonized Burma in the late 19th century and continued to have full control over the region until the Independent Union of Burma was established on January 4th, 1948. The fight for independence was influenced by several factors but strongly pushed by an organization supported by many sectors of Burmese people called the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League (AFPFL). This organization was lead by Aung San Suu Kyi’s father, Aung San. There is lots of history that plays into the progress for Burmese Independence, but an important thing to note was that, only months before independence was actually accomplished, Aung San was assassinated with six other of his Councillors on July 19th, 1947. Regardless of his assassination, he helped to leave a spirit with the people of Burma thriving for an equal and free nation.

Aung San Suu Kyi was only two years old when her father was assassinated. There continued to be lots of political, social and economic unrest with the uncertainty of the country when independence was recognized, especially after Aung San’s assassination. Aung San Suu Kyi spent much of her early adult life receiving education at Rangoon, Delhi and Oxford University as well as working with the United Nations in New York and Bhutan. She married a British man and had two sons in her twenties while she lived in England. In 1988 she received word that her mother was sick and dying in Burma so she decided to move back to the country to take care of her. When she was there a political revolt occurred which was the time when Aung San Suu Kyi made the decision to follow in her father’s footsteps and continue for the fight for human rights and democracy in Burma. She formed the National League for Democracy (NLD) and became the main political leader in the movement. Regardless of the fact the military promised a free and fair election, they were expecting her efforts to not work. Even so, over 80% of the people voted for a democratic nation but the military refused to hand over the government so on September 18th, 1988 they took over and soon after placed Aung San Suu Kyi in house arrest where she still is today. The military then cut her off from contact with her husband and children in the attempts to weaken her and send her back to England. This didn’t work. Her presence is a constant reminder of the struggle for a free Burma. Needless to say, Aung San Suu Kyi’s photos are everywhere on the Thai/Burma border. You see her on t-shirts, posters, books, magazines, pretty much everywhere a couple times a day. In fact, when I was reading her book, I went to pay the bill and the waitress smiled, pet the cover of my book and said “beautiful”. Just an example of how important of a symbol she has become.

Currently the struggles in Burma have been considered to be one of the longest continued civil wars. The military abuses the land of its natural resources by selling them to neighboring countries, such as China, for the personal enrichment of the military. In addition the people are often abused and displaced to use them in the military or take over their lands for the resources. The struggle continues. Elections are intended to take place in 2010 and it will be interesting to see how the military approaches this. There has been lots of struggle internationally trying to get the military to release Aung San Suu Kyi because the argument is that the military cannot pretend to have a fair election when one of the main candidates is not free. The military not only has not agreed to do this, but has just recently charged her with an additional 18 months due to an American journalist attempting to have an illegal visit with her. There is a belief that even if there are elections next year, they will be corrupt and mean nothing. We will see what happens.

First Weekend in Mae Sot

09/05/09 3:54pm

First, before the weekend started, Friday morning on my bike ride to work I came across a handful of policemen that had randomly stopped a group of “Thai” locals requesting their identification cards. This also happened several times on the bus ride from Chiang Mai to Mae Sot, but every time it happens it surprises me and reminds me how I probably should be carrying around a copy of my identification as a just-in-case, although I still haven’t heard of any incidences where western travelers were asked, yet it’s always good to be safe. On that same bike ride I pass the refugee clinic, a clinic where hundreds of refugees can seek free treatment for everything you can imagine. Treatment is given by a very small handful of doctors, run by Dr. Cynthia Maung who was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work, and some western volunteers. I was able to visit this clinic the last time I was here and it was quite the eye-opening experience. Every day as I bike by, it is just another reminder of my privileged position in this world and I am humbled as I see people wandering around the clinic.

In terms of this weekend I think I got a good taste for what an average weekend is like in Mae Sot. Having been here before for only a few days, I had a good idea of what the town offers but it was always good to get back out there and re-experience my surroundings. With only two stop lights, unlike Chiang Mai I am able to travel a good length of the town by foot. Also unlike Chiang Mai are the types of people. Yes Mae Sot is a Thai town, but being on the Burma border there is quite the eclectic mix of people, much different feel than Chiang Mai. When you wander the streets you see this fluid mix of people in Muslim garb with a very South Asian feel yet also see those walking around in there Thai King yellow shirts as you pass a store with Chinese characters and lamps selling Chinese tea pots and tea. The food is as eclectic as the people. Quite a treat for those who enjoy being in a diverse atmosphere.

One of the major attractions for the locals is the everyday market that is held in the heart of town. Grocery stores are for the movies. This market is where a lot of people go to get their food, everything from their meats, fruits, nuts, candies, bath goods, you-name-it, is at this market. Unlike other Thai markets this one is heavily influenced by Burmese foods as well so it is an interesting combination of Thai and Burma foods. There also is a smell to this market that is much more pungent than other Thai markets. I can’t really describe how, but I will leave it up to your imagination…Even so I can’t help but mention how this market oddly reminds me a lot of Chinese markets with all the half-alive reptiles (some I have no idea what they are, but look like a combination of snakes and eels) in large plastic buckets, fresh squid, every kind of fish from extremely large to sardine small, fresh and dried shrimp, alive turtles, and my favorite live chickens in cages with a sign above them that says 100 baht ($3.12). Luckily the red meats are already cleaned and chopped ready to be weighed, but never mind the flies that are continually waved away by the sellers. I try my best, but with the combination of heat and humidity I can handle about 30 minutes here before I start to have gagging reflexes. Hopefully this will get better with time since there are some pretty incredible fruits I definitely do not want to pass up.

The only other major event of today was a visit to the local stupa (temple) in the middle of town, my first visit to one since my arrival. It was a breath of fresh air to be near one again and I was able to visit it peacefully for a period of time. The stupas in Thailand all seem to be similar where most look like a huge bell and they are covered by a thin layer of gold sheets. They are also surrounded by buddas in prayer position, very beautiful and peaceful. I took a moment before the temple dogs (there can be quite a lot of them because the monks sometimes will feed them or take in strays, so you can imagine) dominated one side of it in a pack of 6, so I didn’t overstay my welcome. I do have to say even after only about 2 weeks I am getting use to these beasts again, remembering how to maneuver myself around them, just took some time to re-adjust.

Overall that was the gist of it. Much less “exciting” than Chiang Mai but I also appreciate the town a lot since it is giving me a taste for a unique version of Thailand without a ton of the western luxuries (hardly any air conditioning anywhere including my room, now THAT’S an adjustment). Most my weekends will probably be as low key as this one, but still quite enjoyable.
*I realize these can get a bit lengthy, it’s mostly because I have a lot of time on my hands, so if you made it this far thanks for being such a dedicated reader!

First Week Details

09/02/09 4:54pm

Today I learned some very interesting facts about refugee camps, refugee resettlement as well as the organization I am working for, Karen Women’s Organization (KWO)- http://www.karenwomen.org/ . In terms of the camps I learned that there are 9 refugee camps in Thailand, 7 that host Karen refugees. There are several minority groups that coexist in Burma but the Karen are one of the larger ones displaced creating a large percentage of the populations in the camps. These nine camps are located along the stretch of the Thai/Burma border and they can be quite massive in scale. The smallest camp hosts around 8,000 refugees while the largest one hosts around 30,000 refugees. How many total refugees there are in the camps depends on who you ask. If you ask United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), they only include those that are formally registered so the numbers will be lower, like 90,000-100,000, but if you ask the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), which is a collaboration of 11 International Non Government Organizations (INGO), they will say the number is much higher, more like 150,000-160,000, in the camps and this is due to the fact that many friends and family will arrive at the camps illegally, sneak in and stay. This can become a political issue since how many people are in the camps determines how many supplies to provide. I guess sneaking in isn’t as hard as it may seem since the border of the camps here are only barbed wire, but the trick is to make it down the long, open road which is where a lot of the illegal refugees are caught. If they are caught many are brought back across the border, where some find a way to quickly return but others can’t afford to sneak back financially, and often it will be days of travelling to reach the camps they were at to begin with.

When I asked today one of the KWO staff members if the office was a secret place, she said kind of but that the Thai police know of their location. In fact last year they came and arrested the whole staff one day but some of the staff were friends with the Thai police so all they had to do was call them to release them. The cost was 15,000 baht ($440 dollars) for 10 of them. Many times it is just about the money. She then said that if it happens again, don’t worry, someone will call me and let me know not to come to the office that day (?!) The staff, along with some of their friends and family, live in a building right behind and adjacent to the office building. Today I saw the housing and it is just simple square rooms which multiple people share, using mats for beds. There is a common, large kitchen space, a room to make their products they sell to generate income and a large meeting room. The office from the outside just looks like two garage doors and boarded windows on top, like an abandoned building. They are not allowed to leave a very small area surrounding the office and their housing location since very few of them have proper registration cards.

Focusing more on the organization itself, I learned that KWO was established in 1949 and they assist in women’s related issues in 7 of the 9 camps. I didn’t realize it was such a large operation but there are around 49,000 women who take part in some shape or another, and the main programs that they manage include ones such as the Special Education program, Safe House program, Dormitory program, Nursery School program and ones I still need to learn about. There also are several other projects running at the same time such as literacy projects and trainings. In each camp for KWO there is a committee to help with the success of the programs which include a chairwoman, secretary, treasurer, accountant, auditor and office manager. There are also program managers and program assistance in all the camps. There are 3 KWO offices outside the camps that focus on mainstreaming the programs throughout the camps as well as all the major administration requirements, such as grant writing, proposal writing, and progress reports. They look at the large picture and see where there can be areas for improvement after collecting information from all the camps. Since it can be dangerous as well as not totally financially feasible, many times communication among the camps is done through phone.

I am working at one of these 3 offices and my job right now is to help edit a lot of the documents that need to be submitted to the donors to ensure their funding is stable and since nearly all of the donors are in English speaking countries, this can be important. I also will be helping research new locations to market their goods, find new funding sources and any other general research. In addition they would like me to attend some of the monthly meetings where the surrounding INGOs meet to discuss the happenings in and round the camps as well as the best way to collaborate together. Organizations such as the UN and IRC attend and I will be interested to see how such large institutions work together. Today I was also told by one of the staff that since they travel to the camps frequently for meetings that I could accompany them one day to see what the camp is all about, I look forward to that day! I know there is a lot more to learn but this is a good start.

First Day in Mae Sot...

8/31/09 5:55pm

...proved to be an interesting one. It started when I got up bright and early with the expectation I would start working around 8-9am. When I woke up it was raining, like it had been doing the whole night, and it was a sharp realization that I had not remembered nor prepared for the rainy season which we are entering; not a very smart move on my part. So I waited a bit until there was a break in the rain and went on my first excursion to town in hopes to locate a poncho and umbrella. I did end up locating what I needed but in the process kept on being reminded how CRAZY and PSYCHOTIC the street dogs are. I don’t think they can even be considered dogs really, they are more like fluffy gone bad. For those of you who have not had the opportunity to experience such animals, feel lucky. They really are completely psycho and unpredictable, right when you think “oh my god, that one is gonna bite my leg off”, it turns away with complete disinterest in you and right when you think “good, that one doesn’t see me”, it’s like it has eyes in the back of its head, turns around and gives you this extremely eerie glare/growl/lunge/whatever. It’s completely unnerving. I won’t go on forever about this but I SWEAR if one thing would drive me out of this country it might, literally, be those damn dogs.

So after my first excursion to town it was obvious there was miscommunication somewhere down the line and I had not yet received a call to start my first day. The problem is that I can’t just show up to work. The organization is a sensitive one so the location is intentionally discreet. I got a general location from the guesthouse manager but even he, who has been here forever, couldn’t quite say where it was. Finally we got a hold of each other and I biked near its location to then be guided in person by one of the employees. The location was down this dirt side road in a very indiscriminant building. When I entered with one of the employees there were about 10 Karen women sitting around a table having their weekly meeting. We introduced ourselves and I answered any questions the women had and asked some myself then we were soon off to a “welcome” lunch. At lunch one of the women asked me how long I will stay, I told her about 6 or so months and she said that wasn’t enough, that I needed to stay about 2 years instead. Hmmmm…guess we will see. I spent the rest of the afternoon helping the office manager write and edit a progress report for donors in Australia since she will be flying there next week to meet with them personally. I got to learn a lot today about the unique challenges organizations face working in refugee camps, such as high turnover due to consistent resettlement which can impact the strength of the organization, and I also was shown a photo of Barbera Bush’s visit a while back as she was looking at goods for sale by this organization….wonder if she actually bought anything…. All in all it was a good first day and I anticipate most of my days to go about this way, dogs included.

The Entry Prize

08/29/09, 3:12am

So I made it to Thailand pretty smoothly, albeit 25hours after leaving the US, but still made it safe and sound. When I walked off the plane, the smells of Thailand grabbed me. I can’t quite describe them, probably some mix of heat, exhaust, and any other Thai smell that may have lingered, but very distinct. It put me in an emotional moment and a very real reminder of where I was at. This happened again very strongly when I hit the down town Chiang Mai area, with all the grilled charcoal and food smells in the air. It’s amazing how powerful smells can be. Anyways when I arrived I was standing in line to get my passport stamped and I was greeted by a diamond ring sitting so patiently for it to be found right at the “stand here” red line. I picked it up and was in shock with my findings when I was called next. The immigration officer was about to stamp my passport for the standard 30 day tourist entry allowance when I brought to his attention I had applied for a special 60 day x3 tourist allowance, he was confused but his fellow immigration officer confirmed this and said that was in fact what I should get. I was so excited and grateful that I impulsively handed him the diamond ring for the lost n’ found. I figured what goes around comes around and I didn’t want to push my karmic luck so I thought it was worth a fighting chance for someone to get their ring returned, I hope my optimism pays off for its owner.
Since this unexpected exciting moment I’ve just been taking in my surroundings in Chiang Mai, enjoying all the little pleasures such as guava juice, seaweed strips, sweet basil chips, shakes galore not to mention all the Thai food and much more while still adjusting to things I conveniently forgot about such as the heat combined with humidity, rabid dogs everywhere and practically killer traffic. I will be headed south to Mae Sot on Sunday, about a 7 hour bus ride, hopefully to be greeted by those I will be working with and a room at Baan Thai, which I anticipate to be my home for the next 6 months or so.

On My Way!

8/27/09, 6:25am

Hello, Thanks for being interested in my blog. Nothing too exciting quite yet to report on, I’m just currently sitting at the Taipei airport waiting for my flight to Bangkok. I’m going to be flying immediately up to Chiang Mai to spend some time in this wonderful town, population about 300,000 or so, that I lived and worked in from 2005-2007. I will only be able to spend a few days there before heading down by bus to Mae Sot, where I will be working in Thailand this time. I hope to have the few days in Chiang Mai to meet up with friends I taught English with as well as just relax, take in the familiar atmosphere and regroup. I haven’t decided yet how much of this blog will be just updates of what is going on and how much will be specifically work related, it probably will be a mix of the two,yet hopefully more work related. Either way I promise to not bore you too much with the daily details and only stick to the good stuff!