Burma and Silver Linings

On Friday, I went to Burma (or Mynamar as it's now known) on a visa run.  (My visa was good for 30 days and it was about to expire.)

Part of me felt guilty giving my crisp $5 bill to the military junta. But then again I don't really believe in economic sanctions as the road to peace for the people, either.   

I compiled these photos from my visa run across the Chan River estuary over into Kaw Thaung (in Burmese), Ko Song (in Thai) or Victoria Point (as the British call it) this weekend and titled it "Burma and Silver Linings". And that's before I talked to Cheryl last night at Weerapat's restaurant along Highway 4 in Khao Lak.

Cheryl, a teacher, just moved here "permanently" from the UK to organize and administer eight schools, four Burmese "learning centers", and two daycares under the umbrella of the Tsunami Volunteer Center. When I asked her if she thought all the attention given to the plight of the Burmese after the tsunami was beneficial, she said: "Yeah, it was a silver lining."

When the tsunami hit, illegal Burmese couldn't go down to find their loved ones. They had to flee to the forest to escape being deported. Rumors say that when illegals washed up donned with hotel uniforms, owners denied that they worked at their resort.

Just this evening, I saw a crammed truckload of fifty upright Burmese construction workers going back to camp from a long day's worth of resort construction. I glanced down to the site advertising they were set to "open in September 2006." Paid betweeen 100-150 baht per day, they form the backbone of the rebuilding labor here.

There seems to be widespread agreement with everyone I talk with in putting the number of tsunami deceased in Khao Lak including "stateless" citizens such as chao ley, or sea gypsies, and the Burmese to twice the number quoted by Thai officials for a total of roughly 10,000.

Sea gypsies, such as the group known as the Moken, after generations living in Thailand are finally becoming eligible for Thai citizenship because of the worldwide attention given to the wise tribes whom saved themselves and others in their area when the waters receded prior to the tsunami.

The Burmese are getting better treatment, but citizenship doesn't seem any more imminent than it is for illegal Mexicans in the US.

Even with basic rights, there are always loopholes because the Burmese are considered a lower class. For instance, if a Burmese family has the right paperwork, they can now go to a hospital and pay the same amount for medical care as a Thai (30 baht). That's 30 baht for a pregnant woman to be admitted to have her child. But it's a whopping 5000 baht fee because the newborn is not registered.

A child born on Thai soil to Burmese parents (or to any hill tribe parents in the north and until recently to sea gypsies) is "stateless." I think about my own parents leaving Cuba shortly after Fidel Castro took power. They came into New York state as political refugees and, gratefully, I was born two years later as a U.S. citizen rather than "stateless." That means I had access to public education and when I grew up the right to pursue a legitimate job, to vote and other rights of citizens. In Thailand, without a national identity card, you are not even supposed to leave your village.

But I've learned too much about the situation in Myanmar today and the woes of the Burmese to possibly dump them all on you. Mostly, I wanted to underscore that the international attention on the rights of "stateless" people affected by the tsunami has actually been a positive twist in what was a tragic event. And I wonder, too, if it does the same for the poor and disenfrancised in the Mississippi Gulf regions post-Katrina as well.

Here's more on the learning centers that folks like Cheryl are working in. (P.S. Bang Niang is the third beach in the string of three that comprise the Khao Lak area.)

Dao, Ming and On and 112 more young people are studying at the learning centre located on a rubber plantation in the Bang Niang area. They come to the centre every day, and obviously are happy to be there.

But when asked if they want to go back to Burma, they answer, practically simultaneously, ''Yes''. All three girls said they want to be doctors when they grow up, because they ''want to help other people''.

They study Thai three times a week for a total of nine hours. They also study English, Burmese and other subjects [like math, Cheryl says]. Most of the teachers are Burmese who formerly worked on construction sites and rubber plantations. [Or volunteers on leave from international schools like Jackie.]

Some of the teachers have degrees from universities in Burma, but took unskilled jobs in Thailand to escape the economic and political turmoil in Burma. They are now happy they have a chance to educate their young people and use their knowledge. - "Light on the Horizon", Bangkok Post, December 26, 2005

Bonus: There was a story this week in Bangkok Post on another school, Children of The Forest.