January Rain in Yangon

Two things to understand about this post. 

Waterfalls... We ain't got rain gutters in my neighborhood.

Sparrows taking shelter from the storm

First, it doesn’t rain in Yangon in January. Maybe a sprinkle here or there, but nothing like the downpour we had today that lasted all afternoon. It knocked out my power. 

A man protecting his head from the rain. Both of them

Second, I live in a poor neighborhood where most houses don’t have running water. This means that rain represents an opportunity for a free shower!
From my balcony.

Music by Kevin Baiko. 

The A to Z Guide for new teachers in Myanmar

For the new teacher in Myanmar. Here's an A to Z guide answering some FAQs. By Joko MacKenna, with help from Jack Bartram.

A – Arrival. You get off the plane at Yangon International Airport and walk across the tarmac, breath deeply. Take a good whiff of the air around you. Like every other country in the world I’ve been to, Myanmar has its own particular odor. Inhale it and appreciate it while you can in your first minutes or hours in this country because like all other odors, you’ll soon become accustomed to it and it will become imperceptible. 

B – Banking. One of the nice things about working in Myanmar is that the pay is pretty good. What then do you do with all those hundred dollar bills your company pays you in cash? You don’t want them lying around your apartment and susceptible to fire, burglary or unscrupulous cleaning ladies. Gotta put it in a bank. You’ve got two options. Open a Kyat account at any local bank. Bring a copy of your invite letter that you used for your visa and a copy of your passport. You’ll (eventually) get an ATM card with the MPU logo on it that you can use in tens and tens of places throughout the country. Then there’s the USD account. All the big banks offer this. You can stash up to $5000 into a Myanmar bank, and they keep it in USD, immune from Kyat depreciation. You don’t get any interest, but it’s safe and you get a Visa card with it. You can’t use the Visa card inside Myanmar, but it’s useful for booking or buying stuff online.

C – Cats.

Badger

  Your humble author is a big lover of cats and I encourage my fellow expats to not be shy about taking care of our feline friends. Get a cat if you want to. If you leave in a year, you’ll find someone to take care of it.

D- Door to Door.  Whereas their service has been declining lately indicated by longer and longer delivery times, I still recommend Yangon D2D as a go-to food  service for expats. They offer delivery service from about 100 different local restaurants, all of which are yummy.

E – Education. If you’re going to teach in Myanmar, you need to understand what our students’ experience has been in regards to education. If you like to drill students on pronunciation, they’re very much receptive to that. It’s what they expect. I say. You repeat. That’s the essence of the Myanmar educational experience. Ask them to think critically and voice their own opinions on a subject, that’ll be hard. You’ll get silence. Point being, it’s very important that you tell students “there aren’t any right or wrong answers here. I just want to hear what you think”…. They don’t want to be wrong, and they’re not used to settings where there isn’t such judgment.

F – FFFFFFFFFFFFF – You should try to learn a little Myanmar language. It will help you understand the challenges your students face in relation to their L1. For example, the letter “F” doesn’t exist in the Burmese language. Yet, they have no problems accurately producing the phoneme as it’s pretty simple. What does cause problems are consonant clusters at the ends of words. Heck, even any consonant at the end of word, even something as simple as an “S”. In

Burmese, like several other “lazy” Asian languages, they’ve gotten rid of consonants at the ends of words. All words here end in a vowel, or a soft “n” sound. So when asking a student to say the word “FIRST”, understand that every part of that word is different from what they’re used to outside of the letter “I”.

G – Grammar. Myanmar language doesn’t use adjectives.  None.  All adjectives are expressed as verbs. It’s isn’t hot today. It is being hot today. It isn’t an angry dog. It’s a dog being angry. Adverbs are expressed by doubling the root word. Sentence structure is Subject + Object +Verb, as opposed to Subject +Verb + Object like we’re used to. Again, knowing the L1 of your students will help you be a better teacher. 

H – Humility. Foreigners are treated well here. Perhaps it’s a colonial hangover. Perhaps it’s something else. Whatever the cause, just by being from another country, you’ll get treated with a lot of respect. Don’t let it go to your head! When it comes down to it, you’re not the royalty they treat you like, and their deference has limits. Don’t turn their attitude into your privilege. Be as respectful of the locals as they are of you.

I – Institutions. Understand that there are certain pillars of existence here. Buddhism. Charity. Family. And until recently, subservience to the state. Traditional Myanmar culture doesn’t value people being ‘edgy’. Point being, don’t ever insult Buddhism, understand that family values are all-important, and realize that freedom of speech is a new concept and tenuous. Your visa says you’re here to teach. Expressing political opinions (about Myanmar) online could be interpreted as acting as a journalist and subject to working outside your visa.

J -  Kyat. Another letter foreign to the Burmese alphabet is “J”… They don’t have a “J”… The combination of K” and”Y” is as close as they get. It’s pronounced “jat” or “chat”… actually, it’s somewhere in between.

K –Kilowatt.  The Irrawaddy river has always been the main arterial vein of Myanmar pumping the life blood of the rice crop from the delta to the upper regions of Myanmar. In the modern age, the river has evolved to also become Myanmar’s nervous system with most of Myanmar’s power being produced by Hydroelectricity.  Living in Myanmar, you’ll need electricity for your gizmos. First you should check that you have the correct plugs and adapters. The most commonly used are

·         Type C European CCE 7/16 Europlug

·         Type E/F European CCE 7/4 or 7/5 schuko

·         Type D Indian BS-546 (5A)

Make sure your DC adapters are multi-voltage. Like most of the world outside North America, Myanmar uses 220-240V power.

As for other utilities, Myanmar is fairly cheap. Electricity will run you Kys 15K to 30K per month ($12-25), water is free to a couple bucks a month, 125 channels of satellite TV is $10/month and internet through your phone runs about $3 per gigabyte depending on the package you sign up for.

L – Living space. Of course, when you get here, one of the first things you’ll want to do is find a place to live. Unlike most things, when compared to other SE Asian cities, Yangon’s housing markets tend to be a bit pricy. Expect to pay between Kys 250K to 500K to rent a flat. All accommodations are relatively spacious and all of them have the same basic floor plan. An apartment buildings here is 4 to 7 stories tall (no lifts) and each unit takes up half a floor. They’re long and narrow with living space up front and bathroom and kitchen in the back. At the low end, you will at least get AC, maybe a water heater for the shower. Furnished apartments are rarer, and they cost somewhat more.

M- Medical concerns. Myanmar has socialized medicine, even for foreigners. At the National Hospitals, you can get primary care for free.  As an American, with the current battle over Obamacare, I’m a bit ashamed that one of Asia’s poorest countries can do this, but it would be unthinkable in the USA. That said, I’d only suggest going to one of the state hospitals for the most minor things and only if you have a lot of time on your hands. For more significant issues, there are several decent private hospitals. Asia Royal Hospital in Sanchaung seems to be the one people go to. They’ll charge you an extra $35 just to see the doctor, but their staff seem competent, they speak English fairly well and the rest of the charges are reasonable. They also know what they can and can’t do. For example, I got treatment for a ruptured disc in my spine. The doctor laid out a couple initial stages of treatment which he said, if they turned out to be ineffective, the final stage would be surgery “in your home country” (I had it done in Bangkok).

N- Neighborhoods.  If you’re teaching at Edulink, you’ll probably end up living in Sanchaung Township. Most of the teachers live here and there’s a significant number of other foreigners in the neighborhood as well. Sanchaung has plenty of restaurants and mom & pop shops, although it could use some banks and supermarkets. The area known as Hledan (part of Kamaryut Township) is also a convenient area in relation to school. Some teachers choose to live downtown. You can actually rent a nicer place for less downtown, and it’s a more exciting part of town, but keep in mind that you’ll be spending a lot more time commuting. Things to look out for in a neighborhood include the quantity of street dogs (they’ll howl and fight at night) and the proximity to religious sites (most have loudspeakers which can go off at any hour for as long as they want).

O- Open sewers. This seems to be rather obvious advice, but keep an eye out for the open storm sewers. Walking the streets of Yangon comes with several hazards (blocked sidewalks requiring walking in traffic, dog poop, dangling electrical wires), but the most dangerous are the open access points to the deep and murky drainage channels. Don’t walk and use your smart phone at the same time; you could end up hurting yourself.

P- Pharmacies. There’s lots of them. Myanmar has excellent connections with both the Indian and Thai pharmaceutical industries, and so the most common medicines are readily available and quite cheap. For example, I take an omeprazole every day for my acid reflux. It costs me $.08 per pill. You can get Viagra, liver medicines and lots of other drugs that need a prescription elsewhere over the counter here. Some drugs still require a prescription. Benzos and opioids are strongly regulated.

Q- Quickness. I remember when I got off the plane 4 years ago and on the taxi ride to town, I asked the Myanmar person who was meeting me, “so, what do I need to know about Myanmar culture? As a foreigner, what’s different about this place that I need to keep in mind?”.  She thought about it for a moment  and told me that things were slower here. Things don’t happen as quickly or as efficiently as most westerners are used to. Be patient. She was right. Whether it’s the line at the supermarket or getting a document from a bureaucracy, things simply don’t happen at the speed we’d hope they would. The concept of “time is money” doesn’t exist here.

R- Rent. An addendum to the living spaces above. Rent is paid in advance in Myanmar. As the country has experienced some currency instability (the USD-Kyat exchange rate has fallen by 35% in 3 years), leasing agreements are pre-paid. When you sign your lease, you will have to pay 6 months rent upfront. Some teachers have negotiated a 3-month prepay, others have gotten a lower rate by paying a full year upfront. That’s how rent works here. The good thing is that you don’t have to pay rent each month! You’ve already done it. For new teachers, consult your employee handbook for information about the relocation loan that Edulink offers to help pay for this expense.

S- Sweltering heat. Even though it’s smack dab in the middle of the tropics, Yangon isn’t as hot as some cities, it still can be hot. Bangkok is hotter. New Delhi is a lot hotter. I’ve never been to Dubai or Riyadh, but it rarely hits 40C in Myanmar. There’s only three seasons here. The hot season runs from late February to the end of April. It’s hellish. It’s in the high 30s and there’s lots of humidity. Going outside is like going out on another planet. If you need to get stuff done, do it early in the morning; you don’t want to be out in the middle of the day. Sunset offers only a little relief. From May to October, we have the Monsoon. The daily thunderstorms bring relief from the heat, and provided you have a good umbrella, sensible shoes and the a positive attitude, the 2.5 meters of rain Yangon gets during this season can be quite enjoyable. Outside the monsoon, it doesn’t rain here at all, so enjoy it while it’s here. Lastly, we have “sweet December” and January. For the brief cool season, the weather is wonderful.  

T- Tourism. How to best experience what Myanmar has to offer in the way of tourism? First of all, there’s a lot of good stuff to see right here in Yangon. Shwedagon Pagoda at sunset is a must-see. There’s several museums of interest, and it’s not hard to get to some of the interesting little towns outside the city. If you’ve got a long weekend, the beach resorts of Ngwe Saung and Chaungthar are just a few hours away by bus. Arrange your hotel room here in Yangon beforehand, leave work, and the night bus will drop you off at your hotel’s door at 2 AM.  Spend the day at the beach, enjoying the beauty of the Bay of Bengal, and on the second day, get the bus back to Yangon. Another do-able in a weekend option is the Golden Rock. Kyaiktiyo is also only a few hours away and is spectacular and an inspiring mountain site.

U- Underwear. By this letter, I’ve started to run out of things to write about, so I’ll mention our unmentionables. Personally, I’m a big guy. So as it is with shoes, I can’t find underwear here that fits.  If you’re a big person, bring many pairs of underwear with you!  
     

V- Veracity. At the time of this writing, I have to say that you won’t find a more honest and indiscriminative culture in regards to foreigners anywhere in Asia. With the exception of the taxi drivers who will ask for a fare that’s 25% more than a local would pay, Myanmar people don’t ask you to pay more because of the color of your skin. In all the other countries in SE Asia I’ve been to, from clothing to just a bottle of water, merchants in this region try to rip you off at every turn. It’s not the case in Myanmar. Now, mind you, some institutions will try to charge you more because you’re a foreigner. There’s no getting around the 8000 Kyat foreigner entrance fee at Shwedagon Pagoda whereas locals get in for free.  That said, on several occasions, I’ve not had to pay the tourist fee just by saying “di hma nei deh” (I live here). :::Aternately::; Vice. If you enjoy your vices, you’ll love Myanmar. A pack of smokes is 70 cents. A 12 oz mug of ice-cold draught beer is 75 cents. Liquor is cheaper here than anywhere else in the world.

W-Water. It’s the stuff of life, but you can’t drink the stuff that comes out of your tap. I suppose one could if you boiled it first, but bottled water and it’s distribution are big businesses here. You’ll need to find a ‘water guy’ and your landlord is the person to ask about this. The water guy will tote your 10 liter bottles up your stairs and it costs $0.60 per big bottle. 

X- Xylophones. Myanmar traditional music is unusual. I can’t really say that I’ve found a non-native person who’s been able to say they enjoy it. Akin to jazz, I’ve heard it called xylophone players on methamphetamines. It’s kinda crazy. And again, going back to the proximity to the public loudspeaker thing, be sure you’re well away from sources of this music unless you’ve got a good pair of sound-cancelling headphones.

Y- Yangon. It’s a city of 5 million people and spread out over a large area. It’s by no means a megacity, nor could one call it cosmopolitan. As Rudyard Kipling famously noted: “This is Burma, and it will be quite unlike any other land you know about.” Yangon is the center of this land unlike any other, and Yangon is unlike any other city. 

Z- Zoology. Somewhere in Myanmar, wild tigers still roam. There are wild elephants too. Then there’s the infamous Burmese python. Deer, pigs, peacocks and bears are out in the jungle. As a country that is the size of France and has only 50 million people, when I’ve gone out into the countryside, I’m struck by how much undeveloped land there is. Poachers, illegal logging and the pressures caused by rural poverty continue to encroach on the wild parts of this country, but it remains, at the moment, a place where there are regions untouched by man. The Yangon zoo is worth visiting too. 

I hope you have enjoyed this A to Z. If you have any questions about living and teaching in Myanmar, I'm here to help. Joko(at)edulinkaustralia(dot)com. 

Yangon Urban Falconry.

I noticed this handsome bird soon after moving in to my new apartment. She hangs out at small security post on the main road. She's quite vocal and hard to miss. 

As it turns out, my friend and building-mate Jack has gotten to know Ceasar (sic), the local guy who has the the interesting hobby of falconry. I'd never met anyone who trained birds before. 

Actually, it's a bit more than a hobby for him. He trains and sells the birds and it's a small business. He's looking to promote the business, and Jack suggested we all get together, me with my camera, and shoot a video of the bird, which is a black kite. Sounded like fun to me.

The bird had a wonderful temperament. I mean, it rode along on the handlebars of the electric motorbike without squawking, literally or figuratively. When we got to a nice open area (adjacent to driving range), Yangon's ubiquitous crows erupted in alarm. One of those black scavengers dove at our raptor on her very first flight.

angry crows

Soon after, dozens of crows were circling, unified in wanting to drive out this intruder. It didn't seem to bother her. She flew around for an hour or so unperturbed by the raucous symphony of caws. 

So I've made the video. I hope it helps him out, and I'll certainly never forget the experience of having a bird-of-prey swoop down and land on my hand.  

 

This is Burma - Travels in the Southeast

I'm back in Yangon, rested, tanned and with a whole lot of video in the can waiting for editing. It was an unforgettable vacation. I saw what I wanted to see. Did what I wanted to do, and met lots of interesting people along the way.


It didn't start off very smoothly. I thought had everything prepared. I wasn't going to forget anything, and although I had some misgivings on the exact itinerary at some points along the journey, I wasn't worried. I went online to review a couple of items I had seen before, and I found an alarming passage regarding train travel in Myanmar. It advised that I should buy my ticket at least a day beforehand as during peak times, trains will fill up.

Uh oh. I was figuring I could show up half an hour before departure, and it wouldn't be an issue. Panic! Fortunately, I was anxious enough that I had woken up with the sun and could still make it to the station well before I thought I needed to.


I shoved the last items into my new, oversized backpack bought just for the journey, zip it up and POP! One of the zippers broke. The closing thingie popped right off. Fortunately, it was one of two and I was still able to close the bag. If that happened to other one, it would make the bag unusable. More panic.


I got to the station and stood in the crowd surrounding the ticket office (they don't queue up very well here). When it was my turn, I bought the last available ticket in the upper-class car. The cost was $3.50 versus $2.00 for ordinary-class, and I didn't want to sit on a wooden bench for eight hours. The next lady in line behind me wanted a seat in the same car; she was out of luck. I got the last seat, but if I hadn't shown up really early, I would have been the one demoted to the cattle car.


As for the trip itself, train travel in Myanmar is slow, bumpy and filled with

unexplained delays and stops. It's also an amazing way to get around as the land is beautiful and fascinating. You also get to appreciate small differences between the regions. For example, once you're east of the Sittaung River, Myanmar looks different. It's dry. Full of hills. As evident by things like the motorcycles baring license plates from Thailand if any at all, it's a little lawless and wild. Even monks are out riding.


Nine hours on a train is a long time, and I was made more disoriented by the fact that my seat faced backwards. I sat facing the back of the car. When the car stopped, I'd look out the window and I felt like was still moving. The scenery seemed to be moving even though we were stationary. A weird felling.

Finally, we rolled into Mawlamyine. When hills, rivers, islands and greenery come together around a city, our planet has the ability to make some pretty spectacular scene. I thought Seattle was a lot like this in combining all these elements into breathtaking vistas. Mawlamyine is even more beautiful. Combine all these things coming together with a beautiful sunset from atop a long, elevated bridge and I can't remember ever seeing a more beautiful site in my life.

Enjoy the video.

Exploring Southeast Myanmar: Joko's Christmas Journey

The journey into the unknown. Exploring the heart of darkness. Taking the road less traveled. Boldly going where few tourists have gone before!

Okay, I may have engaged in a bit of hyperbolic cliche there, but the places I'm going for my holiday break certainly qualify as the unbeaten path at the very least. This trip, which begins in just a couple of days, has me very excited and a bit nervous. None of the places I'm going are currently 'dangerous', but they have been in the not too distant past, and most of my journey is to parts of Myanmar that foreign tourists weren't even permitted to go to just three years ago. Consequently, as I've done my trip planning, scant information exists about them and my itinerary is somewhat loose. The southern road down the Isthmus of Kra is sort of on a slowly developing tourist path, but the online tools I've normally used when traveling around SE Asia have been somewhat useless.


For the 9-day journey, I've only made accommodation reservations for five of eight evenings, and those were made on the phone and aren't even paid for yet. Two of my stops don't have hotels with phone numbers that I could find on the internet, and definitely no way to book them online. I only know I can even stay there because of bare-bones, 100 word entries on Wikitravel.org. My only booked transportation is a flight back home at the end of the journey after I reach my final destination. I know what trains I'm taking and when, but I don't have a seat. There's a stretch in the middle where I've told myself, “Well, there's gotta be a bus between those two towns. I'll just ask around when I get there.” For many intrepid travelers, even this level of planning is more than they'd do. More meticulous planners would be aghast at the uncertainty in my journey. Me, as much as I'd like to say I'm a fearless wanderer who points a direction and just follows his nose 'that way!', in reality, I'm a bit uncomfortable heading out alone with these big gaps of unknown in the middle of my itinerary. I'll make the best of it, I'm sure, and in a way, the uncertainty makes it more exciting.


So where am I going? Let me share the plan, such as it is. 

Somewhere near Mawlamyine.  Myanmar's biggest Reclining Buddha.

 1. December 23^rd: Yangon to Mawlawmyine. Formerly known as Moulmein, my first stop is the capital of Mon State and a fairly big town. It's got a lot of history, as it was once the capital of the British Raj early in their takeover of Burma. The Mon are one of several 'nationalities' living in Myanmar. They speak a language completely unrelated to Burmese and have their own culture. There are things to see and do in Mawlamyine, but I can't tell you what they are the moment. I just realized I left my notebook with my itinerary at work, so the details for the rest of this blog will be vague. In any case, Mawlawmyine is a 5 hour train ride. I depart first thing in the morning, and I have a hotel 'booked' for the evening.

2. December 24th-26^th: Hpa-An. An early morning ferry sometimes goes from Mawlawmine up the Thaniyin River to the town of Hpa-An, my next stop. See, it's a sometimes ferry because it's not used by the locals any more. They recently improved the road between the two cities, and a two hour bus trip is far more preferable to the locals than a five hour ferry trip against the current. The ferry service makes it's way north 'if enough tourists sign up to make it practical', and I'd think that on Christmas Eve Day, there will be enough. No worries. I'll take the bus otherwise.


Hpa-An is another old, famous city. It's the capital of Kayin State, home of the Myanmar tribes of the Karen people (who also live in large numbers in neighboring Thailand). I'm spending two to three days there, depending how much I like it. I plan on renting a motorcycle and tootling around the surrounding mountains. I hear the scenery is spectacular. I won't repeat my mistake that I made in Indonesia and do any vigorous hiking, but there are several accessible physical sites to visit.


The Karen people are almost all Christians, and so for 25th, I plan on doing something I haven't done in a couple of decades, attend church for the Christmas service.

4. Dec 27^th: Hpa-An to Kyaikkami/Setse Beach- Here's where the uncertainty begins to kick in. I'm not sure exactly how I'm getting there, but I know there's buses from Hpa-An back to Mawlaymyine and then from there, it's not too far to this pair of seaside resort towns. Kyaikkami is the former end point to the notorious 'Death Railway', the rail path cut through the hills and jungles to Thailand by Allied POWs under the Japanese during WWII. About a year ago, I visited the Bridge Over the River Kwai in Thailand, so this historic, old, colonial town (formerly known as Amherst) seems like a natural destination on my slow slog south. I'm not sure where I'm staying there, but as it is also a popular getaway for the locals, there's got to be a lot more facilities than the one place listed in my three-year- old Lonely Planet guidebook. Setse beach seems to be quiet.


5. Dec 28^th:- Ye- How could I not stop in a place with this name? Ye

(pronounced Yay!) has the shortest name of any place I've ever been to in my life. It's about halfway between Kyaikkami and my ultimate destination, and despite being a fairly big town, it's rarely visited by foreigners. There's a wonderful park and lake in the middle of town where I'll rest on my way south. Instead of looking for attractions to visit, I suspect I'll be an attraction myself in this unheard of town.


6. Dec 29^th to Dec 31^st: Maungmakan Beach- About ten miles northwest of the provincial capital of Dawei (Tavoy) is a beautiful, quiet beach on the shores of the Andaman Sea. Again, I plan on renting a motorbike and exploring the scenic coastline, the city of Dawei itself and maybe go snorkling or fishing. I've got my hotel booked for this part of the stay, and I'll be getting there via rail from Ye to Tavoy, and then a bus. I expect it to be a peaceful place to just chill and relax.

Maungmagan Beach

7. January 1^st, 2015: Back Home  I've got a midday flight from Dawei back to Yangon. At

$108 for a one-way, one-hour flight, I certainly could have saved some money by taking the train all the way back which would have only been $10. Thing is, the train ride all the way back takes 30 hours... Yeah, I'll be trained-out by that point.


What's odd about this itinerary is that none of it includes any of the “Big Three” of Myanmar tourism: Mandalay, Bagan and Inle Lake. Those three places is where all of the tourists go when they come here. I've had other foreigners react in utter disbelief when I tell them I've been here 9 months and not been to any of those places. Bagan, in particular.

See, when I thought about where I wanted to go, three criteria came to mind. I wanted to visit mountains, beaches and historical/cultural attractions. There are mountains around Mandalay and Inle, the latter being a big lake which might be thought of as beach-like. For sure Bagan is one the premier cultural attractions anywhere in Asia, and I hear its absolutely mind-blowing. That said, all of those places are very far away from one another, and here on this holiday week, are sure to be packed with tourists. My journey off the beaten path fulfills all my criteria in a relatively small corner of southeast Myanmar. That's why I picked this plan.

The world famous plains of Bagan

 
Besides, I get back on the 1^st. I don't start work again until the 7^th. Depending on how I feel, I can always make a quick trip up to Bagan in the time remaining.


For now, it's back to thinking about what I'm sure is going to be a trip I'll never forget.


Let's throw a video on the end. Two nights ago, it was my company's Christmas party. Santa showed up and appointed me the Chief Elf. 

 

One Take on President Obama's Speech in Yangon

My president visited Yangon today. I knew it was happening. I had no idea what his itinerary was, but since I had plans today that involved riding way out to the outskirts of town, my biggest concern was that the various motorcades (the Chinese and Japanese heads of state are also here today, and traffic on any normal afternoon is horrible enough on it its) might get in the way of the important thing I was planning. Now, I'm wiping small tears from eyes as I've finished watching Barack Obama deliver a speech to and answer questions from a group of young people here in Yangon.


Was Obama's speech particularly

moving? Well, no, not really. His message was more about the challenges facing the region of Southeast Asia as a whole and how the USA was hoping to help with that rather than anything specific to Myanmar.

During the speech, Obama seemed tired. Of course he was. It was 4 AM Washington DC time. He'd woke up this morning in Beijing, and had already had an earlier meeting today and long talk with the Nobel lauraete Aung Sang Suu Kyii. I called him 'my president'; I voted for him twice. Six years is a long time on his job, and I could see the weariness in his eyes. He didn't look like that when I left America in 2013. Travel, the mid-terms and just the grind of the being the 'leader of the free world' takes a toll on a guy.

There was an extensive question and answer session following his speech at this ASEAN Youth Summit, and the crowd really loved having him there. They do love Obama here. Today was his second visit to Myanmar. His first, just two years ago, was the first time any American president had visited this country.


I knew I'd be able to catch the coverage of the visit as I rolled home via taxi from the aforementioned important thing I had to do today. See, even though it was just before 4 in the afternoon, there were already large crowds at the ubiqutous Yangon roadside teashops, all watching the TV screens just as they do when an important soccer match is being shown. I wondered what they were watching and craned my neck to get a view. I saw pictures of Air Force One landing. I stopped at one of my regular Mom & Pop shops on my way home. The shopkeeper asked me if I had joined the crowds on the nearby central road which had been the path the Obama motorcade. I hadn't, but if I had known... All these clues added up to me knowing I could see more on my TV when I got home, and perhaps witness my president during his visit to my current town.


This country faces some extremely difficult and long-lasting issues. Myanmar has had 65 years of non-stop civil war. It's the longest ongoing armed conflict in the world, and the struggle these last few years is to get a lasting cease-fire, much less any actual true peace settlement. In brief, Myanmar is country of dozens of ethnicities; if you're on one side of the dispute, you'd call them 'nationalities'. For decades, armies of the ethnic groups have resisted and fought the central power, mostly comprised of people of the dominant Bamar (from which Burma gets its name) people. Not only has their been civil war, there's also devastating poverty (Myanmar is Asia's second-poorest country), natural disasters, corruption, oppression of civil rights and freedom of speech. Yeah, Myanmar is a real maelstrom of issues.

You can't expect the president of the USA to be an expert on everything, and the young people at the Q&A session were asking really tough questions on specific issues would have been difficult for a Myanmar expert to answer. Still, he asked for it, and I guess he is probably used to answering questions internationally on domestic issues that really have nothing to do with USA . So, I suppose I can excuse my president for not answering the crowd's questions as eloquently and completely as I was answering for him in my head.

For example, the first question asked of him was from a young man from Rakhine State who asked how he could foster greater tolerance from his fellow (Buddhist) Myanmar youth. He wanted advice as to how to influence his friends and neighborrs. The subtext here has to do with the almost institutional hatred some Rakhine people (and the state gov't) have for a certain minority there who call themselves the Rohingya people. The gov't here won't even acknowledge the name Rohingya, instead insisting on calling them Bengali, and insisting they are illegal immigrants. This minority has been the object of infamous discrimination and oppression. That they are Muslims makes this easier to accept for the Myanmar, 90% of whom are Buddhist. Obama's answer started well. He mentioned that no country can ever be successful if it is divided against itself. I thought he was going to advise appealing to these folk's own nationalism and self-interest; tell your friends Myanmar will never join the ranks of developed nations if they can't accept and tolerate marginally external ethnicities. Instead, he obfuscated for a while, and then told the guy that anytime one of his friends said something racist, he shouldn't just sit back and listen. He should step up and say that no, racist hate speech is wrong.


Umm, okay, sort of a passive anti-intolerance approach. Wait for it happen, then react. I've heard this same tactic for promoting pluralism advocated by other diversity 'experts' in the USA. It may even be the right approach for the USA. But on Myanmar's west coast, where thousands of Rohingya live on eggshells in fear of pogroms and the majority's hatred, I think a more proactive approach to promoting religious and ethnic tolerance is called for. For example, just today, the governor of Rakhine attacked the SecGen of the United Nations for even using the word 'Rohingya' in comments the SecGen had made earlier week. Oh, c'mon. The situation in Rakhine State is more serious than perhaps Obama is aware (or was made aware of by his aides), and his advice was stupid and inadequate.

My next criticism of Obama is really a matter of basic 'cultural awareness 101'. Perhaps, on a more meta level, even just 'being nice 101'. A young lady in the crowd stood up to ask her question, and reading from her notes held in trembling, nervous hands, started to ask my president, “Good morning, Mister President, my question today is...”

At which point Obama interrupted her with ”WELL, IT'S AFTERNOON...”. The young lady immediately lost face and was made to look stupid for not having perfect command of greetings in the English language. Yes, it was 4:30 PM, and Obama's quip immediately got a little round of guffaws from the crowd, most of whom were probably feeling what I was feeling and certainly anyone from Asia was squirming in discomfort. Why did he humiliate that poor young woman so? Why did he point out her little error when he didn't need to? Um, English isn't the first language of Myanmar. People here on this entire continent have a much greater sense of public humiliation; even as an English teacher, you have to excuse little mistakes in speech and not jump on them like that, particularly when the whole world is watching. I was more embarrassed for my president for acting so uncouth than I felt embarrassed for the young lady.


C'mon, Obama. Asian discourse 101. That said, that young woman will probably remember that moment as both her proudest (being able to ask the POTUS a question), and most humiliating moment of her life.


When the Q&A's were over (you can see the whole thing on YouTube here), Obama, tired and worn out after crossing the Pacific and participating in innumerable summits and talks, and getting ready for this evening's flight to Australia, spent a good 20 minutes wandering around the crowd shaking hands and conversing individually. I only know this because Myanmar TV captured every second of every minute Obama was to be seen. Now, if this were a campaign event and Obama was out to court votes and enthusiasm, I'd understand it, but this wasn't. He was in Burma, fer crissakes. Still, he shook everyone's hands. He let himself be part of dozens of selfies with significant background.

No, my president wasn't perfect on his visit to Myanmar, but he was who he was. I still like the guy. 

Now, what about that important thing I was doing today?  That'll have to wait until the next blog.  

Instead, as usual, I'm gonna conclude with a video of me playing the ukulele.