In response to the humanitarian and civil rights crisis in Burma (Myanmar) sparked by the military coup in February, activists and artists in the San Francisco Bay Area have banded together to organize the Burma Spring Benefit Film Festival, streaming online from June 3rd through 14th, in a curated selection of films and live talks.
Since coming out of a lengthy military rule, the country of Myanmar has transitioned into a democratic government with a Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, as its prime minister. However, despite the political changes, latent ethnic tensions and anti-Muslim sentiments have remained the same, and a recent book suggests that they reach […]
It’s 5:30 am on my last day in Burma. The full moon was last night so I was hoping for a setting moon in the morning over the city. On the shores of Yangon’s Kandawgyi Lake, the black birds were assembled by the hundreds. Shwedagon Pagoda at Sunrise Their familiar ‘kaw kaw’ combined with the […]
I was finally headed to Mrauk U (pronounced “Mraw Oo”) after a failed attempt in February 2014. This ancient royal city had been on my travel map since my first trip to Burma in 2011. Founded in 1430 A.D. it was the seat of the Rakhine kingdom for more than 300 years. It sits about […]
I arrived in Myanmar, otherwise known as Burma, for the third time in four years and things felt different. It seemed calmer, the sense that someone was watching you wasn’t there anymore – that is until I arrived in Rakhine State. Fisherman – Sittwe, Burma Upon arrival in Sittwe, my passport was examined closely, numbers […]
An elephant’s life in Myanmar, otherwise known as Burma, can be a treacherous and hard life. Estimates say that elephants in Burma can be worked moving between 800 and 1000 tons of weight per year. These elephants are often controlled and hence trained using sharp hooks that puncture the thinner skin between the ears and […]
Last month, Ethical Traveler’s News Feed included a report of rumors in Burma that the health of legally elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi had been deteriorating. When the military junta ruling Burma extended Suu Kyi’s house arrest, these rumors strengthened, despite assurances that a high UN official had seen Suu Kyi and her health […]
Recent promising reports of talks between the Burmese military junta and the Aung San Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy (NLD), which convincingly won the country’s 1990 elections but was prevented from taking its role in the government, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1956562.stm , have been overshadowed by questions of Aung San Suu Kyi’s health and status. A letter […]
The ruling military junta of Burma is moving the country’s governing headquarters to a remote compound in the northern jungle. Media reports in mid-November confirmed that civil servants in the capital city, Yangon (Rangoon), are rapidly being transferred to a site called Pyinmanaa that permits limited unsupervised communication with or from the outside world. The […]
