I have a connection to Myanmar. Several times during my 7 month stay in Thailand I had to cross the border at Mae Sot, Thailand to Myanmar in order to renew my visa. Although I really wanted to see the country, I probably didn’t stay in Myanmar for any longer than 15 minutes.This is how my visa runs usually went: I would ride a bus from Bangkok to Mae Sot at night. After that 8 hour bus ride, a missionary would come pick me up or I would get transportation with a traveling buddy (if I had one) to the border. At the border there were some diners and merchants. To get to the other side I just walked across a bridge that was over a river. Usually someone from the Myanmar side would accompany me across and try to get me to visit sights inside the country. These guides spoke English and I enjoyed talking with them. Many of the people wore yellow make up on their faces. Some women carried things on their heads. Once I got to the other side I would go to a small office to get my visa stamped to prove that I left Thailand. Then I walked back to Thailand and got a stamp to say that I reentered. I had to return almost immediately to Bangkok after that.While I was in Thailand I was aware that there were “Burmese” refugees living there, and immigration from Myanmar was illegal. At the time foreigners (or people from the U.S.A.–I can’t remember) were only allowed to stay for less than eleven days, or something like that. It was dangerous to have a Christian church there.

What do we want?
Democracy!
What do we want?
Democracy!
What do we need?
Freedom!
What do we need?
Freedom!
China! China!
Stop selling weapons!
China! China!
Stop selling weapons!
Free, free…
Free Burma!
Free, free…
Free Burma!
Free, free…
Aung San Suukyi!
Free, free…
Aung San Suukyi!

October 6th 2007

Today was an international day of protest for Myanmar’s freedom, or Burma’s freedom. The Burmese protesters use the name Burma instead of Myanmar.

I planned to lay off of the social activism but…I was drawn to the “free Burma” protest in Portland today.
When I learn about cases of political disaster that have occurred in the past (the Apartheid in South Africa, the hootsies and tutsies, massacres in Guatemala…) I have thought to myself, ‘if I was an adult when that occurred then I would have made some noise about it.’ I want to be a part of social revolution history.

I’ve been reading news about Myanmar (formerly called “Burma”) lately. I’ll let you know what I’ve heard about Myanmar through news and people. There is a military government in Myanmar. There has been a lot of human rights abuses in the past. It is a very poor country. In 1988 a student revolutionary group protested, and thousands of them were killed for it. Over 10,000 people in Myanmar were killed that year by the government. Aung San Suukyi (her name is in the chant above) helped found the National League for Democracy, won the Nobel Peace Prize, and was elected Prime Minister. The military wouldn’t let her assume the role of Prime Minister and put her under house arrest where she remains to this day. This year people have started protesting again because the price in gas and food has been raised to unaffordable prices. The monks were the ones who were on the front lines of the protests this time. Now the protests aren’t only about gas prices, but government reform. The government has been arresting protesters.

The group that met in front of Nordstrom’s across the street from Pioneer Square in Portland was no more than 40. At least half of the protesters were refugees from Burma. I felt confident participating in the protest because it was led by Burmese people. I wouldn’t be so confident if it wasn’t started by Burmese people. I’m happy to see people fight for their own freedom. I’m happy when immigrants don’t forget about the people in the country that they came from.

When I first joined the group I took pictures. When the people started chanting, I chanted with them. Then, a girl in front handed me her sign, and I took her place in front. The sign I held had photos of poor village children in Burma–some had horrible skin diseases. I asked someone about this later, I was told that the people in the villages are treated like animals by the government because they aren’t provided with any basic needs. They have no option to go to the doctor for horrible rashes.

There was a man next to me who held the red “student flag” with the fighting peacock on it and he was from Burma. He said he had fought on the Thai/Burmese border in a revolutionary group. He had also lived in a refugee camp in Thailand. We had a connection because he used to live somewhere on the border that I have actually been before. He has been in the U.S.A. for six years.

I also talked to the man who did most of the the chant leading (yelling) for a while. He was one of the student protesters in 1988. After protesting in Burma, he protested at the Burmese embassy in Bangkok, Thailand. I think he was there to seek refuge. But it was illegal for Burmese people to be in Thailand, apparently except for refugees. Immigrants from Burma who were caught would be whisked right back to the motherland–even though it was probably their worst nightmare to return. He was able to come to the U.S.A. as a refugee. He told me that although he escaped the hardships in Myanmar he doesn’t want to forget his people who can’t escape. He doesn’t want 1988 to occur again but he doesn’t think it will because this time the world is aware of the situation in Myanmar. He talked about how the people in the government only make decisions that benefit themselves but do not consider benefiting the people. A country is the people, not it’s government, he said.

A young man who was passing by stopped to talk to me. He asked about why we were protesting and I said, “Burma”, and he said he didn’t know about the situation in Burma. I told him about it, and then he asked me what we were trying to accomplish by protesting. I told him that I didn’t know because I wasn’t an organizer of this protest. Personally, I told him, I wanted to raise awareness and make some noise, and support the Burmese protest. I was a little unprepared to answer his question and even said some stuff that sounded stupid. He seemed to be challenging me to think more about why I was protesting and if it’s really effective or not. I’m glad that he cared enough to say something, and I think his question is a really good one. I felt like I was misunderstood though, and that’s not a good feeling.

The Burmese leader I talked to said that they’re going to protest every Saturday until the government changes. What he hoped that the protests would accomplish were direct change of the government, and UN involvement I think.

I would like to keep thinking about the effectiveness of protests and what more could be done in this case than a protest. Got any thoughts?

I’ll tell you about my special connection to Myanmar in my next blog.