Today I Got a Bike, and Some Bad News

My friend Joe (not his Burmese name), runs a successful mountain biking operation in Kalaw. Joe is a kind, mild-mannered guy. He has two little kids, and he is one of the better English-speakers here in town. Joe runs the mountain biking wing of Green Discovery Trekking here in Kalaw, and if you ever visit the area, you should definitely stop by if you are interested in biking. He has the best, most durable bikes of anyone in town, and he is vigilant in his search for new paths in the area. I got to know him well one night in November, in the aftermath of a fight.

Most of my Burmese (or Danu, or Pa-oh, or Palaung) friends here are trekking guides. The region where I live is one of the most popular places in Myanmar for tourists, and many of the people in town make their living (in one way or another), off the dozens of foreigners who come here each day on buses and planes from Mandalay, Bagan, and Yangon.

One night, I was invited to one of the trekking shops to have some drinks to celebrate one of the trekking guides birthday’s. After a few too many drinks, two of the guides got into a classically drunken, ego-driven argument. Some punches were thrown, some drinking glasses were smashed on the pavement, and Joe and I were left to clean up the mess. During this argument, and after it, Joe kept talking to me about patience, and about trying his best not to let pride get in the way of his aspirations. Since then we’ve been pretty close friends.

About a week ago I hurt my foot playing chilone with my kids, and haven’t really been able to hike or run, so the other day I approached Joe about borrowing a bike. Joe charges $25 dollars per day for foreigners to rent his top-end mountain bikes, but because of my lack of employment, I couldn’t really afford that. I wanted to strike a deal for a long term rental, and, after a few drinks at the only bar in town, Joe offered to let me use one of his older bikes for free for as long as I want. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to repay him, but I’ll figure something out.

So, yesterday morning, after buying a hand-pump and a bike-lock, I checked out some satellite imagery in the area to the west of town (mobile data here is high-quality and very cheap), and hopped on my bike, and left Kalaw at around 10 am. A number of trekking guides had told me about a popular place to the south and west of Kalaw called “Viewpoint.” This is an incredibly popular day-hike spot, and a resting place for the 3 day hike to Inle Lake. I was determined to find it, although I wasn’t quite prepared for the challenge of getting there.

A number of times I stopped to chat with day-laborers and farmers along the way, using my broken Burmese to ask them “Viewpoint Beh-mah le?” (“Where is Viewpoint?”) or “Viewpoint way-la?” (“Is Viewpoint far away?”). My language mastery is also rich on weather related terms, so we talked about how hot it was, but that it was a pleasant day: “ya tee oo too, tai ya deh” (“The weather is pleasant, no?”).

After 4 miles of grueling uphill, bumpy, dirt-road terrain, I eventually found myself on top of a ridge, faced with a small shop selling beer and snacks. I decided to stop for a beer and some sunflower seeds, but was met by a small cadre of armed, drunk, garrulous military personnel. The leader of the group was a Lieutenant Colonel (I knew because he wore a nametag with his rank) who, when I ordered a beer in Burmese shouted loudly (in English) “Where did you learn Burmese?” I said a learned from the Burmese people. He responded, “We are soldiers for the Burma people.” After a bit of small talk about the beautiful landscape around us, he asked “What do you think of politics in our country?” Of course, faced with a Tatmadaw officer, I have to feign ignorance. “I don’t know anything about politics,” I say, “I am just here to enjoy your beautiful country.” What was I going to say? That work for an organization owned and operated by one of the most prominent leaders of the opposition party in Shan State? That I’ve learned all about the systematic and violent oppression that the military has perpetrated on the people of Myanmar over the last 70 years? No, I just smiled and tried to seem interested as they taught me words in Burmese that I already knew.

After I finished my beer I kept biking uphill until I found a small restaurant on the hillside, packed with tourists and their Burmese guides. I ate some avocado salad and chapati, and spoke with a young Australian couple about their travels. Matt is going to school to be a primary school teacher, and Abby studies film. They are the ones who encouraged me to start a blog.

When I was finished with lunch I hopped on my bike and continued on the road to Myin Dike, a small Danu train-station town to the south of Kalaw. I knew that if I could get to Myin Dike I would be able to follow a well-traveled road back to Kalaw and make a big loop.

Along the way I spotted a small hill, sticking up from thevalley, crowned by a pagoda and huge banyan trees. I decided to take a detour there, and after a steep downhill bike ride, and a short hike up to the hill, I met Win Khaing.

Win Khaing and a monk (whose name I didn’t catch) live on the top of this remote hill. Win Khaing speaks great English, has worked for the UN, and tells me that he comes out to this pagoda once every few months for a week of meditation. Win Khaing and the elderly monk live in a small brick building, and as he serves me tea he tells me about a plan to create an eco-lodge of sorts in the area. “No one stays out here in the wilderness,” he says. “Everyone hikes through here and stays in the town below.” He wants to set up a simple place where tourists can sleep for $5 a night, cook their own food, and have a permanent guide to take them on day hikes. He tells me about the hydro electric power they will get from the river in the valley below. Then he offers me the job of running the entire operation on the spot. I tell him I’ll think about it and we exchange emails.

The rest of the trip is pretty uneventful, but when I arrive home, exhausted and incredibly dirty, I’m met with some pretty sobering news.

About a week ago, one of our students (an older girl who has passed her matriculation and helps run the Children’s Home) had an emergency appendectomy. In America, appendicitis is painful, but very treatable. Here, any operation, however small, can be life-threatening. She has seemed to be recovering well, but when I arrive back at the Children’s Home I learn she has developed an infection, and that they are going to need to perform another surgery.

I took a quick, frigid bucket shower and headed to the local hospital. The hospital has two large rooms with military style beds, about 10 beds to each room. The rooms are open air, and covered by a tin roof. Tan Win (the young woman with appendicitis) is in good spirits. I tell her that it sucks she has to go back to the hospital. What else is there to say? When I ask if there is anything she needs, she requests some comic books.

I visited her again today, and she said that she’ll have her second operation tomorrow. I can tell she is scared, but that she doesn’t want to show it. I spoke to the doctor and he said that it will be a minor procedure. It doesn’t make me feel much better.

I left the hospital and went to the only place in town with a good cup of coffee, and sat down to work on a grant proposal for dress-making vocational training that I want to get done before I head to Mandalay in a few days. I didn’t get much done.

Tomorrow I’m taking a middle-aged English couple on a trip to Myin Mah Thi, and I’ll try to write something about that hike in the next day or so.

The November 8th , 2015 Myanmar Elections in Context: What You Need To Know

1.   “Freest and Fairest Elections” is an historical misnomer.

While these elections have been touted as the “Freest and Fairest” in the history of Myanmar[1][2], that distinction is a relatively easy one to come by. Born out of British Colonialism, the country of Myanmar has been steeped in political and social unrest since the hastily written 1947 Constitution and the refusal of the central government to honor its initial promise of to allow ethnic minority regions to eventually secede from the centralized government.[3] The most recent elections in Myanmar, an abbreviated by-election 2012 for 44 vacant and contested seats, yielded victories for the opposition party in all but one seat. While these elections were a success for the NLD, and won Aung San Suu Kyi (the leader of the NLD) a seat in the lower house of parliament, they did not bring significant change or political power for the opposition, and exposed many backhanded and fraudulent tactics by the ruling government.[4] In fact, the only relatively free elections (that had the potential to change the power structure of the company) that have taken place in country since the 1962 coup d’état (which lead to the eventual rise to power of Ne Win) occurred in 1990, when the NLD won by a landslide, but whose results were violently voided by the military-backed incumbent government.

2.    If the Elections are Truly “Free and Fair,” the NLD will win in a landslide

While there is not reliable polling data for any of the regions in Myanmar, from anecdotal attendance of events, and discussions with party leaders and citizens across Shan State and Yangon, the consensus is that there would be no feasible way for the USDP (The ruling party of Myanmar) to gain a substantial victory. One female organizer for the NLD in Shan State said, with resigned humor and laughter: “There are only two way for this election to end: either we achieve dominate victory, or we end up in handcuffs.”[5]

3.    If the NLD prevails it will be because of the celebrity of Aung San Suu Kyi and her personal and familial history in the activism for change in Myanmar.

While there are no Q-Scores in Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi is by far the most recognizable and beloved figure among the people of Myanmar, regardless of their ethnicity. Much of this is related to her presence and support for the uprisings in 1988 and her campaign and (annulled) victory over the government in 1990. While she has faced some criticism recently for her dealings as a politician, and her refusal to come out in strong support of the Student Union protests that were violently cracked down by the military junta this past spring[6], she is still the greatest hope for widespread change that the country of Myanmar has seen since her own father, Aung San. In fact, the Panglong Agreement of 1947, which Aung San organized as a way to pull together the Kachin, Shan, and Chin minority groups toward a peaceful and united country, has been used by the NLD in the current election as a rallying cry to gain traction in the minority controlled border regions.[7]

4.    The Ethnic Regions will Decide the Fate of this Election.

Because of the presence and many regional parties representing various ethnic groups and independence movements, the NLD will face its greatest opposition for seats in the rural regions.[8] There are 135 (recognized) ethnic minority groups in Myanmar, and the votes of the rural ethnic regions are being courted heavily by both the ruling USDP and the NLD. With good reason, the NLD is worried about vote-splitting in many ethnic areas. In these many of these regions, the USDP has been exploiting their power of judicial enforcement to avoid campaign finance restrictions and gain an edge over the NLD.[9] In theory, each candidate is only allowed to spend 10 million kjay (around $7,500) on their campaign, but there have been widespread reports of vote-buying by the USDP.[10][11][12] In one region in southern Shan State, the USDP has been paying ethnic minorities such as the Pah-Oh, Palaung, and Danu 10,000 kjat per day (around $8.50) to show up to their rallies, dress in their traditional attire, and sing USDP songs.[13] Because of the difficulty of policing electoral fairness in remote villages, these areas could become a breeding ground for imbalanced election practices. For example, in one region in southern Shan state, where 2 MPs will be elected (out of nearly 700) along with 1 state and 1 local governmental representation, there are nearly 300 villages that need to be accounted for and campaigned in. There is simply no way that the EU representatives who will be present in the country could possibly monitor the fairness of elections in each of these villages.

5.    International Stakes, Response, and Involvement

Because of Myanmar’s rich resources and geographical proximity to both India and China, these elections will be watched closely by many of the major world powers. China especially has had a recent history of extracting resources from Myanmar at the expense of its people and ethnic groups. [14][15][16] In fact, an NLD leader and community organizer in Shan State shared with me that he was offered bribes by both the Myanmar government and a Chinese company after he visited a copper mine in the region with poor working conditions.[17] From my conversations with NLD organizers in the region, they believe that the Chinese may be funneling in money and resources to the USDP in order to retain their stronghold on cheap labor and resources in the border regions of Shan State and Kachin State. While the United States has shown an increasing interest in steering the country toward democracy and reform,[18] the United States has increasingly taken a line of cautious criticism and a lack of interventionism.[19]

6.    Even with a resounding win by the opposition, the country faces major hurdles going forward.

As noted before, there is not a whole lot of optimism on the part of many NLD officials. They know they will win the vote, but, as one prominent NLD leader in Shan asked me: “Do you think a government which has been in power here since 1962 will go down so easily? No. No one knows what will happen after this election.”[20] Because of a complicated electoral system, even with a decisive NLD victory, we would not see an NLD president until March, when the upper parliament will take a majority for between 3 candidates, one nominated from each parliament, and one nominated by the military members of parliament.[21] The 2008 constitution (which has been vilified by opposition parties and international research institutions)[22][23][24] guarantees the military at least 25% of the available total seats in both parliaments, and also bars Aung San Suu Kyi from becoming president because her sons both have British citizenship.[25] The constitution is also structured to prevent amendment, stating that in order to change the constitution there must be a greater than 75% super-majority in the upper house to be able to enact change (and that the military gets to decide 25% of the votes). Additionally, for many of the controversial sections mentioned earlier, an additional nation-wide referendum popular vote must be carried out.[26] The greatest issues facing Myanmar today are education and public health, and none of these can be addressed in meaningful ways without widespread governmental reforms. Many people in the country, including leaders inside the NLD, are not optimistic about rapid change, and these elections would only be a first step in a long race towards democracy and freedom.

---

[1] http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/09/asia/myanmar-elections-date-set-qa/

[2] http://www.wsj.com/articles/myanmar-election-commission-sets-date-for-general-elections-1436349340

[3] http://www.zogam.org/rights-secession-burma-1947

[4] http://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/election-03212012170629.html

[5] Personal Interview

[6] http://www.irrawaddy.org/burma/timeline-of-student-protests-against-education-law.html

[7] http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/16344-daw-suu-woos-ethnic-voters-in-pao-zone.html

[8] http://www.networkmyanmar.org/images/stories/PDF19/Lall-MEP.pdf

[9] http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/opinion/16871-time-to-reform-campaign-financing.html

[10] http://www.wsj.com/articles/allegations-of-vote-buying-cloud-myanmar-election-1446237481

[11] http://www.irrawaddy.org/election/news/courting-with-cash-usdp-dogged-by-vote-buying-accusations

[12] http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/nay-pyi-taw/16345-vote-buying-reports-pervade-ahead-of-campaigning.html

[13] Personal observations

[14] http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesasia/2015/10/22/booming-chinese-demand-for-jade-fuels-armed-conflict-and-entrenched-corruption-in-myanmar/

[15] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/24/opinion/the-plunder-of-myanmar.html?_r=0

[16] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/20/world/asia/anti-china-resentment-flares-over-myanmar-mine.html

[17] Personal Interview

[18] http://world.time.com/2012/11/19/obama-in-burma-u-s-presidents-landmark-visit-brings-hope-criticism/

[19] http://www.irrawaddy.org/election/news/obama-aide-wraps-burma-visit-airing-election-hopes-conceding-flaws

[20] Personal Interview

[21] Myanmar Constitution, Article 60

[22] https://www.ictj.org/sites/default/files/ICTJ-Myanmar-Impunity-Constitution-2009-English.pdf

[23] http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/node/1439

[24] http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs6/2008_Myanmar_constitution--analysis_and_assessment-Yash_Ghai.pdf

[25] Myanmar Constitution, Article 59f, 109b

[26] Myanmar Constitution, Article 436a, 436b

Introduction

To start, I will say I’m skeptical of writing about my daily life in a public forum. To me, blogging often comes across as self-aggrandizing. Basically I’m worried that I’ll sound like an asshole. That being said, I’ve been encouraged by a number of people in my travels and back in the states to record my daily happenings. I’ve been pretty happy using Snapchat for that (davidbsnyder is my username if we aren’t already friends), but I’m at least going to try to make a post of around 500 words once a week for the next few months that I’m living in Myanmar. This first post will be an introduction to how I ended up living (semi-illegally) as the only foreigner in a small mountain town in Myanmar. I sense that probably my readership will be limited to my friends, and all of you know the basics of the story already, so feel free to skip to the other stuff.

Like most stories, this one starts with rejection. When I turned 20, I vowed to myself that I wouldn’t spend more than 2 years in my twenties doing anything: that I would jump around from school to job to job to school figuring out what I wanted to do with my life. Well, it started out according to plan – I graduated from Hamilton with a double major in Mathematics and Creative Writing, no student debt (thanks mom and dad!), and aspirations of being a celebrated poet or short fiction writer. I figured the first step would be to find a decent paying job that allowed temporal freedom and access to an intellectual community. I found that at an elite private high school outside of Denver, where I taught Algebra II and Statistics for two years (along with being the mountain biking, JV Baseball, and Mock Trial Coach). During year two of teaching, in a bout of supreme overconfidence and ennui, I gave notice that I would be leaving the next year to pursue writing at an MFA program. Problem was, no MFA programs seemed to want me. I applied to 14 schools, was rejected at 13, and waitlisted (and ultimately rejected) at another. Maybe I’m not that great of a poet? So, unemployed, I decided to work again for a travel company that specializes in taking western students to Southeast Asia on Service/Adventure/Learning trips.

On the other side of the world, my pedagogical demographics hadn’t changed much (educated, privileged, curious students), but my scenery had. In my second summer working for this company, I was asked to create an itinerary and curriculum for a (problematically named) trip entitled “Tribal Issues.” Basically, I was tasked with teaching western students about ethnic groups in Myanmar and the Thai border region as part of a two week trip. To shorten this a bit, we ended up partnering with an NGO in the town of Kalaw that works to educate and support children from remote rural areas. After visiting this NGO 3 times, I asked its founder if I could come help his organization during the lead-up to the elections in Myanmar on November 8 (he is one of the leaders of the opposition party in this area, and couldn't devote the time he needed to his organization during the campaign season). So, after returning to Denver to pack up all of my shit, and traipsing around America for a month or so, I returned back to Kalaw in early October, and have been working here since.

At this NGO I call myself “Volunteer Director of Programming.” Basically what that means is that I run the trekking operations (more on that later), I organize activities for the children, and teach them English. For a number of reasons, the organization does not have enough money to pay me, so I stay afloat by receiving temporary work with the travel organization that I mentioned earlier, and cutting into the money that I saved up while living rent-free in Colorado

So that’s the background. To start I’m going to post an article I wrote in the lead-up to the most recent elections to give some historical and political context to the country I’m living in and talking about. 

Also, I'm calling the blog "Thit-Yow," which means "one person." One of the most common questions I get when I meet Burmese people in the local wilderness is a surprised "Are you alone?". More often than not, "thit-yow" is my response.