RFA Unplugged is a Radio Free Asia blog. Written by RFA staff, this blog includes top stories and previously unpublished material from our language services, what’s coming up in our broadcasts, and what’s going on in the world of the Asian online media. We welcome your comments.
BURMESE: Interview with Venerable Sayadaw (6/8/07)
Reporter: SKH
Length: 6:00
Don’t run away. Do what you have to do. Don’t be afraid of anything. Say what you have to say. Be united. I said, “I attack so that you won’t run away.” We attacked the English so that they would run away. I was part of it. I was 20 years old. I was over 20 at that time. We attacked the English so that they’d run away. When General Aung San and all did that, they all ran away.
An Ethnic Nationalities Council (ENC) delegation led by Dr. Salai Lian Hmung went to the White House at the invitation of First Lady, Mrs. Laura Bush to talk about Burma’s political situation. He told RFA:
[Mrs. Bush] listened very intently, and said she did seriously take into consideration Burma’s 50 year civil war, as well as Burmese refugees problems too, and said she understands and sympathizes with sufferings of Burmese people, She also said she was working together with Representatives from both Senate and House to solve Burma’s problems and to help Burmese people; also together with her husband the President , they have desire to continue to help Burmese people and are praying for them.
The crowded central footpath through Taungbyon was flanked by food stalls, tea shops, and globalist collages of t-shirts and cheap jeans. A labyrinth of smaller paths radiated from this main artery, and beckoned us with clanging gongs, drum beats, and otherworldly folk-pop squealings—the sonic signs that the nats were in the house, or, more accurately, inside the bedecked and spangled bodies of Burma’s incomparable spirit mediums. Following one of these paths, we stumbled upon a group of smiling women who invited us to join them inside a small stall set up next to a particularly boisterous orchestra.
We settled down on the raised platform, joining what turned out to be a small and informal session with a spirit medium, or nat gedaw, who sat cross-legged before a lacy altar wearing a glazed, otherworldly look in his eye. Most of Taungbyon’s mediums are, in some manner or another, transgendered—”ladyboys” in the local parlance. The nat gedaw before us was clearly a man, though he was dressed in an effeminate array of pink and white chintz and wearing a fetching orange bandana topped with a few crisp low-denomination units of Burmese kyat.
Length: 3:08 minutes
Announcer: We contacted the WHO office based in Rangoon and interviewed them on the detection of polio in Maung Daw Township in Rakhine State. First, when we asked if it was happening only in Rakhine State and how it was discovered, Dr. Nihal Sighn, the medical officer from the WHO, answered as follows: Continue reading →
Announcer: An antique dealer, based in Myawaddy, said that lately antiques from Pagan, Nyaung Oo, Pintaya, Myauk Oo, Mandalay, and Amarapura are the majority of those smuggled to the border. That antique dealer said that, even though people say there are many antique smugglers in Burma, the number of dealers specializing in smuggling antiques from the pagodas is really small. An antique dealer based in Myawaddy said there is a gang that specializes in smuggling antiques from ancient pagodas. We’ve learned that the gang leader is a famous antique dealer based in Myawaddy.
Actually the same thing happens in Singapore. I have met many labourers who look for help because after selling all their belongings in Burma to pay an agent to help them get a job in Singapore that pays little more than 3 or 4 dollars an hour, many of them are cheated of their pay. Often, many of them do not get paid for months at a time or some, at all. Continue reading →
Parade Magazine, syndicated to more than 380 Sunday newspapers in the
United States, just published its annual list of the worst dictators. Out of 20 oppressive, non law abiding rulers, four of them govern the affairs of Radio Free Asia target countries.
This rather distressing list includes:
North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il who makes it to number 2 on the list for his nuclear explosion and blatant abuse of human rights documented on RFA Korean.
China’s Hu Jintao who graduates from number 6 last year to number 4! RFA Mandarin, Cantonese, Uyghur and Tibetan all cover violations of the rule of law in China, with particular ferocity when it comes to the Uyghurs and the Tibetan populations. Continue reading →
BANGKOK—A group of unidentified Burmese people staged a brief protest outside the United States embassy in the former capital Rangoon Wednesday, against a U.S.-backed resolution in the United Nations Security Council, a source close to the embassy told RFA’s Burmese service.
“A group of about 30 individuals walked past the Embassy holding banners,” the source said. “They dropped the banners which were criticizing U.S. policy in front of the security barrier in front of the Embassy, and they departed.”
“The demonstration lasted about five minutes. They are very short, generally, these demonstrations, and again, it’s happened over the last couple of days,” the source added.
A second eyewitness said there were video cameras and photographers recording the event, in spite of its limited size and brevity, but that foreign news media in Rangoon had not been notified, and arrived too late to cover the event.
Some of the placards read “Evil, go away!”, and were left on the pavement after the brief protest.
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The Mekong River is the longest river in Southeast Asia and supports the lives of 70 million people from Tibet to Vietnam. Our reporters undertook the journey to tell their stories. From these conversations, the team produced the "Mekong diaries," a series of videos on display on www.rfa.org.
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