Blind To The Ugliness

"we will prevail because our cause is right, because our cause is just. ...History is on our side. Time is on our side"

November 28, Chiang Mai: Totally into Letters From Burma by Aung San Suu Kyi. She writes exquisitely and with clarity and she is a joy to read. She speaks of the traditions of the Burmese people, describes the beauty she sees in the provinces of her country, and speaks of her own party's struggle to function in the face of daily harassment by the ruling military junta. As I write, the news has broken that the junta have extended her house arrest in Rangoon by yet another year. It is dreadful to think of this woman of such compassion, honour and grace, locked up without having committed any crime, simply for standing for what is right and just for her people.

A few of her words taken from Letters From Burma:

"Some have questioned the appropriateness of talking about such matters as metta (loving-kindness) and thissa (truth) in the political context. But politics is about people... love and truth can move people more strongly than any form of coercion."

"To observe businessmen who come to Burma with the intention of enriching themselves is somewhat like watching passers-by in an orchard roughly stripping off blossoms for their fragile beauty, blind to the ugliness of despoiled branches, oblivious of the fact that by their action they are imperilling future fruitfulness and committing an injustice against the rightful owners of the trees."

"We Burmese believe that those who perform good deeds together will meet again through the cycle of existence, bonded by shared merit. It was good to think that if I am to continue to tread the cycle of existence I shall be doing so in the company of those who have proved to be the truest of friends and companions."

"Good photographers and good journalists are masters of communication, with a talent for presenting as accurately as possible what is happening in one part of the world to the rest of the globe. They are a boon to those of us who live in lands where there is not freedom of expression."

• Aung San Suu Kyi (pronounced Ong San Soo Chee) is a human rights activist, Nobel prize winning laureate, the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and the daughter of Aung San, a national hero who led the country to independence from the British (he was assassinated when Suu Kyi was two years old). The military regime seized power in 1962. She was plunged into politics in Burma during the mass uprising of the people in 1988. The military government responded to these demonstrations with armed force. Aung San Suu Kyi was detained under house arrest in Rangoon in 1989. The following year the junta announced "free and fair elections", where the NLD won with an overwhelming victory and 82% of seats in the National Assembly. The military government refused to hand over power. Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded in absentia both the 1991 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought and the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. She was released from house arrest in 1995, but detained again in 2000 and 2003. She is still under house arrest in Rangoon, where she is allowed no visitors (including even the Red Cross), where her phone line has been cut, where her post is intercepted. She is generally considered to be the symbol of freedom and democracy in a land where basic human rights are denied and freedom of expression is unheard of.

Her basic principles of non-violence and civil disobedience are directly inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

• The military junta in Burma is particularly brutal, detaining and frequently torturing political prisoners, raping and murdering, using widespread forced labour, and recruiting as many as 70,000 child soldiers - more than any other country in the world. Families continue to suffer - one in ten babies die before they reach their fifth birthday. And if the Chinese government were to withdraw the 100% support it gives to this terrible regime, it would collapse, but China is another story.

But please don't take my word for it - just type the word "Burma" into any internet search engine and you can learn for yourself. Talk about it, generate some awareness. The people of Burma deserve a lot better than what they have received.

Silly Questions

In Ban Phe we took part in a three-day Thai language course at the TEFL school. The Thai alphabet consists of 44 consonants and 26 vowels. It was silly to expect to be able to grasp this language, where the same word can mean twelve different things (all depending on the tone) within three days. In our small class there was a guy called Conrad, from New Jersey, whom I took a liking to instantly. Like an overgrown schoolboy who had a complete inability to concentrate, we had a lot in common. Together things got quite childish, asking questions which were totally inappropriate about how to conduct ourselves in public in Thailand. Briony said "Matt. You don't even know how to conduct yourself in public at home..."

Our final day of Thai lessons coincided with the Buddhist festival of Loy Krathong on the night of the November full moon. A Krathong is a handmade lotus flower crafted with styrofoam, banana leaves, a candle and incense. During the evening everybody goes to the ocean shore or to a riverside to float the lighted krathong out onto the water. The point of this is to ask Mother of Water for forgiveness for polluting the water in the past. By offering the water another load of crap... Cynicism aside though, it is quite beautiful and the Thai kids just love it. It is said that during this festival, if a boy and girl float a Krathong together "they will be lovers this life or next life."

In Good Company

Paris-Helsinki-Bangkok

(knackered)

Paris

I'm definately very into Paris. Really I was lucky to get a sunny cloudless sky on a crisp November day. Coralie Lamorlette is one of the characters I met on my last visit to Dharamsala, India. Paris at the time was in the middle of some suburban tensions and there was a bit of rioting going on, much of which was blown all out of proportion by the American news networks. Certainly no civil war. I was knackered from some extreme travelling, my plane was late getting in from Valencia and I'd had a god awful flight. Anyway I had a home in Paris and a warm bed and even Jacques Brel to wake up to in the morning. Great stuff.

November 8: Coralie woke me up and gave me strong coffee and croissants before we dumped my bag at le Gare du Nord and headed to see Notre Dame, of all places. She works at Louis Vuitton ("it is nothing sexy, just the switchboard...") and we meet there to go for lunch. There I was, waiting in the foyer of this grand fashion house, in Paris no less, feeling somewhat out of place in my battered Dutch army surplus jacket and cheap trainers.... later we sat in a park eating and talking of our thoughts and goals... nearly lost myself on the way back to the station, losing hours in bookshops and forgetting the time...

Little Britain

Tangiers-Algeciras: Got fairly lucky with the company on the train from Marrakesh; two Brazilians who dutifully filled the cabin with the sweet smell of hashish while giving me their story... in the middle of the night a Moroccan man joined the train (I think at Casablanca) and took the remaining bunk. He kept me awake for much of the night with his farting and loud snores. He shook me awake at Tangiers after I'd finally managed to get some sleep. I wanted to tell him to piss off...

...the boat ("fast boat, very fast, sir") is modern and European and the Spanish crew are very amusing. It is not later than 9.30am and some crew are propping up the bar. They are tubby and moustached and sip from cans of Heineken and San Miguel while conversing loudly.



















Gibraltar: While wandering today I was asking myself if I could live here, yet after just one day of it, I think probably not. It is far too British - Marks and Spencers, the Union Jack, and especially the small town, surburban attitude to life.

"and what is your dual nationality?" asked the landlord of the hostel while scrutinising my passport. "You may have a British passport but you are not British! Your face is not British and your personality is not British!" What to do?

Then on to Malaga en route to Granada, Andalucia

My favourite city in all of Spain. It never disappoints... (if you go make sure you make it to the crepe shop just off San Jeronimo - "best and cheap eating")