On the Inside

Hi Everyone,

On Saturday I went into Burma’s border town, Myawaddy, to renew my visa. I was eager to see what Myawaddy had to offer, even though I knew that it would not portray an objective representation of Burma. This is because Mywaddy is one of the few towns foreigners can get to from Thailand and the town is in an important location to facilitate Thai-Burma economic relations. In fact, the town is surrounded by check points that forbid any unauthorized people to leave the town, or get in for that matter.

Generally, the only westerners that enter Myawaddy are expats from Mae Sot that are looking to renew their visas, such as myself. The Burmese authorities are aware of this too, and are thus very suspicious of any foreigner that crosses Friendship Bridge (the bridge connecting Burma to Thailand). When one does cross, there are two ways in which he or she can see the town and experience the local culture; one can either hire a “guide” to tour the town, or one can choose to wonder solo, in which case he or she will be constantly followed and approached by other “guides” or border officers. And just so we are clear, by referring to a “guide”, I am in fact referring to an undercover junta officer, who is trying to obtain sensitive information from Mae Sot. I happened to choose the former of the two choices, because I felt that if I was going to be harassed, I might as well try to learn something about the town while I was there. My guide, Zaw, was very educated, spoke great English, and taught me a lot about Burmese Buddhism. However, he was overtly interested in what I was doing in Mae Sot and what my background was in Burma. When I told him that I was only a backpacker taking a holiday before going to China to teach English, he just laughed. Throughout the day Zaw would occasionally make controversial comments about the military regime, in an attempt to bate me into saying something I shouldn’t. At first, I just played dumb and would pretend not to know what he was talking about. Although, this strategy only lasted about a half an hour, as after one comment Zaw made about a recent political protest, he looked at me and said “and I already know you know all about these things.” I was left speechless.

From what I did see of Mywaddy, it was clean, full of beautiful Buddhist monasteries, surrounded by luscious rice fields, and the people were all so happy and friendly. Based on my surroundings I never would have known that I was in the country that is host to the longest lasting current civil war. However, on multiple occasions, when I would suggest wondering through a different area of town, Zaw would refuse, and at one point he claimed I was not allowed to see certain parts of Myawaddy. As you can imagine, I felt uncomfortable throughout the entire day. To me, Mywaddy was just a façade to the rest of the country, of what lays behind the check point only a couple of miles away. The day ended with Zaw and me walking through the lovely day market, checking out some local tea shops and the two of us sitting down to a cold Myanmar beer. After paying for the beers, and giving Zaw a small tip, I was back on Friendship Bridge, where I could again see some of the poverty stricken areas I had not been allowed, along with the young men and women who were desperately floating on their inner tubes back and forth across the muddy river. This final perspective of Myawaddy would only reinforce the obvious charade that the Burmese authorities were desperately trying to convey.

I still have not fully processed my day in Mywaddy, and before I knew it I was back in Mae Sot. Work has continued to be great, and we are ready to submit the 2007 Burma Human Rights Yearbook next week to the United Nations, so we are pretty excited about that. Aside from work, life is getting stranger because I arrived at roughly the same time as group of people whom I became good friends with, and now, every week someone is leaving, making the group that much smaller. It’s weird, I feel like I am playing Survivor or something!

Anyways, I have to get back to work now and I am sorry that I have not had a chance to post in a while. I will definitely write more in the next few weeks. Well, hope all is well and I will hopefully talk to you soon.

Cheers,